Week One Reflection I had a very positive experience this past week at Birchwood Middle School. I feel that the teacher does an excellent balancing act between having an ongoing palate of various activities and making sure students have sufficient time to do each thing thoughtfully. She has high expectations for them and they want to meet them due to the respect they have for her! The activities centered around the Greensboro Sit-In have been plentiful and have enabled students to reach those deeper level questions required for the standards. They have the usual classroom issues like the same students participating and the same (yet different!) ones coming to class unprepared, but I am impressed by how many seemingly shy kids (I can tell this by how she reacts when these kids speak!) DO talk and how firly yet calmly Ms. Riccardi lectures about preparation. Most importantly, is the quality of the reflections and questions. This topic ignites deep feelings in young people and has the potential for overarching themes. One student told me that gay people now face the obstacles that African Americans faced then! (list of activities includes: viewing video, group question writing, talk to text assignment, socratic seminar) The students are beginning a research paper on a famous American. They get to choose one from a long list, proving student choice is possible and effective, since they got right to work and exhibited enthusiasm for the task. They began with index cards and will then move on to outlining. The atmosphere in this class is energetic, tolerant and thought-provoking. Recently they wrote senses poems which are posted for all to see, and they are very good. They talk of poetry regularly which impresses me greatly, and they showed awareness of a deadline approaching for a competition. I am thrilled by what I see, and I look forward to each day I go.
I'm glad you're having fun in your classroom. Using history to pull out all these ways of questioning and comparing is an awesome way to interest students. I also enjoy hearing that many students, even shy ones, add their input. I look forward to hearing more!
Week One Reflection
ReplyDeleteI had a very positive experience this past week at Birchwood Middle School. I feel that the teacher does an excellent balancing act between having an ongoing palate of various activities and making sure students have sufficient time to do each thing thoughtfully. She has high expectations for them and they want to meet them due to the respect they have for her!
The activities centered around the Greensboro Sit-In have been plentiful and have enabled students to reach those deeper level questions required for the standards. They have the usual classroom issues like the same students participating and the same (yet different!) ones coming to class unprepared, but I am impressed by how many seemingly shy kids (I can tell this by how she reacts when these kids speak!) DO talk and how firly yet calmly Ms. Riccardi lectures about preparation. Most importantly, is the quality of the reflections and questions. This topic ignites deep feelings in young people and has the potential for overarching themes. One student told me that gay people now face the obstacles that African Americans faced then! (list of activities includes: viewing video, group question writing, talk to text assignment, socratic seminar)
The students are beginning a research paper on a famous American. They get to choose one from a long list, proving student choice is possible and effective, since they got right to work and exhibited enthusiasm for the task. They began with index cards and will then move on to outlining.
The atmosphere in this class is energetic, tolerant and thought-provoking. Recently they wrote senses poems which are posted for all to see, and they are very good. They talk of poetry regularly which impresses me greatly, and they showed awareness of a deadline approaching for a competition. I am thrilled by what I see, and I look forward to each day I go.
I'm glad you're having fun in your classroom. Using history to pull out all these ways of questioning and comparing is an awesome way to interest students. I also enjoy hearing that many students, even shy ones, add their input. I look forward to hearing more!
ReplyDelete