With the first week under our collective belt, things have calmed down a bit. We had several other classroom changes in the school. Lots of lost kids and anquished cries of "unfair!" Hopefully, we've seen the last of them. In the meantime, I'm playing Whack-A-Mole with my new class... they are not happy to have a teacher who believes nap time stopped being a school activity in Kindergarten. Every time I get one student on task, two more start. It's started to lessen as they realize that I won't just ignore them. Maybe in a couple of weeks, it will be up to par.
This first week, I had the students write a story of their reading history. Hardest part? Getting the students to write a story - not another essay. Everyone has been so focused on writing essays, that students don't really understand how to alter their writing. We talked a lot of the differences and surpise endings... I'm really hoping that some of the stories will have surprise endings. Luckily, the new Pirates of the Carribean movie has a surprise ending and most of the kids have seen it, so it's a good example. Plus, having never seen it, it's information they have that I don't. Nothing is more intoxicating that having more information than the teacher.
The reading history story was basically a story of their own reading, starting with early childhood. In a student survey I passed out on the first day, several students wrote that they wanted to learn how to like reading again. Years of AR points, grading, forced novels and "underlying meanings" makes reading un-fun. Of course, I will be forcing novels on them and asking about underlying meanings... somewhere I need to figure out the way to make it more meaningful to them. Thus, the reading histories. At least one student wrote a story about starting out as seeing books as chew-toys and progressing to being a reader. It really does seem like magic to the child when they realize that those lines of the page form actual words and the words can be strung together to make a story. I got another student to admit (and write down) that reason "reading is stupid" is due to his inability to comprehend what he reads. He knows the words, can read them, but can't put them into an organized pattern of information. My hope is that not only will I learn about their reading habits, but the students will as well and use that information to gain a "like" of reading
This first week, I had the students write a story of their reading history. Hardest part? Getting the students to write a story - not another essay. Everyone has been so focused on writing essays, that students don't really understand how to alter their writing. We talked a lot of the differences and surpise endings... I'm really hoping that some of the stories will have surprise endings. Luckily, the new Pirates of the Carribean movie has a surprise ending and most of the kids have seen it, so it's a good example. Plus, having never seen it, it's information they have that I don't. Nothing is more intoxicating that having more information than the teacher.
The reading history story was basically a story of their own reading, starting with early childhood. In a student survey I passed out on the first day, several students wrote that they wanted to learn how to like reading again. Years of AR points, grading, forced novels and "underlying meanings" makes reading un-fun. Of course, I will be forcing novels on them and asking about underlying meanings... somewhere I need to figure out the way to make it more meaningful to them. Thus, the reading histories. At least one student wrote a story about starting out as seeing books as chew-toys and progressing to being a reader. It really does seem like magic to the child when they realize that those lines of the page form actual words and the words can be strung together to make a story. I got another student to admit (and write down) that reason "reading is stupid" is due to his inability to comprehend what he reads. He knows the words, can read them, but can't put them into an organized pattern of information. My hope is that not only will I learn about their reading habits, but the students will as well and use that information to gain a "like" of reading
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