Stream of Consciousness

I used an idea taken from an "ancient" book called Poetry in the Classroom (Mallick and Jenkins, 1983) that a colleague had left behind when she moved back to Australia.  The chapter was called 'What Happens When We Read a Poem' and it modelled a response to a poem by Sylvia Plath by showing the stream of conscious thought prompted by the poem and associations (and random thoughts that pop into your head for no reason!).  I thought it was a great way to show how analysis is really a series of engagements with the poem, that we all can do it, and that it takes a few readings of the poem to start to think deeper about what the poet is saying.
I photocopied the example in the book (although realised we did not need all 4 pages!!) and asked the class to individually pick one of four poems from the IGCSE anthology we are using.  Then (using the phonic phones again!) they read through the poem and noted thoughts and ideas as they thought of them repeatedly.  I was modelling for them - I use the computer and projector to do this so they can ask as I write and I can point out things I may have forgotten to mention until I do them - and when I could sense (after about an hour) they were reaching their limit I said they could wrap it up but I was so engrossed in what I was doing I had to tear myself away!!
As we had a bit of time left - double block today - I suggested they get into groups based on the poem they did and discuss some of the ideas they had and questions they still had.  This was interesting, and once again, we were all reminded how our responses are often personal and so varied.

Pipe Phones

I wanted my students to listen to the poem we were looking at today so I borrowed the pipe phones from Elementary and asked them to read the poems into them.  They absolutely loved this "low-tech" device and it met the purpose beautifully or reading the poem to themselves without being unbearably noisy or conscious of each other reading.  Some asked to keep it!
We then randomly formed groups of 4 and talked through the poem before coming back together as a large group and sharing different thoughts and ideas while one of the student recorded what we said on a document projected on the screen.
A good lesson.

Mrs. Pratchett

If you have ever read Boy by Roald Dahl, I'm sure you will remember Mrs. Pratchett the sweet-shop owner.  I love the visual Dahl creates of her.  I think it is a great piece of writing because he doesn't really describe her physical features in detail - just uses one or two details and that is enough - and describes her more by her actions.  Yet the reader can create a picture of this nasty woman quite clearly.
I read this extract to my class and asked them to describe someone in a similar way.  Choosing details that build a picture without necessarily disclosing many physical attributes.
One or two described teachers or classmates, a couple wrote about their dogs and one did a clever piece on facebook.  These were the ones people were willing to share!

Board Meeting

We assembled all the desks into a conference table and sat around to discuss our learning this quarter.  I had prepared an agenda which I gave to the class the day before so they could look over it - if they were inclined.
At first, I thought it was going to backfire on me as I was the only one talking, but as we began to brainstorm ideas of how the individuals and class felt they learned best and things we had done last semester, the discussion became alive.  I asked them to do a quick critique of the brainstormed list with the person opposite them and then we went round the table to solicit the most liked ideas.
Most of the class wanted to transfer the book club to the poems we would be studying this first few weeks. However, they also wanted time for class reading of the poem at the beginning of each session.  Finally, they seemed to like the idea of the layered curriculum activities we did for The Crucible for getting deeper into the text, so we will be doing all three!
It was great to hear them reflecting on what works best and how a mix of strategies helps the learning process deepen.

We're Back

School began today and I started off on the wrong foot - arriving slightly late.  But I received a warm welcome and told the class i could definitely get used to that!!
We talked through the Wiki we had completed and I asked them to re-edit, keeping in mind some features of non-fiction, using a few magazines to make my point about how font size and colour is often used to draw the eye to the beginning of each paragraph.
We also talked about copyright of images - something that I also forget.  Images seem so widely available and accessible it's hard to remember they are not always free.  I have been trying to brush up on my knowledge of creative common licenses and it was a good reminder to us as a class that this is necessary.

Inquiry Circles

I wanted to encourage the students to put into practice some of the things I have been endeavouring to teach them this quarter - reading strategies, literature analysis by facilitating their research and insight into The Great Gatsby rather than simply feeding them the information - which would probably be both boring and less memorable.  It is important they understand the novel as well as they can as they will be examined on it in their IGCSE exam in May.  So, if I am honest, I felt some ambivalence about releasing control to the class, as I want them to do well in the exam and sometimes I think, as teachers, we feel that can only be achieved by drip feeding them "what we know best".  However, I know at gut level that they will remember more and be more engaged in the process by doing it themselves.
So, I started the process by giving them a 4 page list of questions and essay titles on The Great Gatsby that I gleaned from the internet.  I chose a group of students to work with as a guided group and the others were free to choose their own group to work in.  Then we spent a few minutes reading through the sheets and picking out common themes or ideas that recurred. As a whole class we then shared these and ended up with a list of themes for the novel.
I asked the students to choose one of the themes to work with and from groups around that theme.  At first almost everyone wanted to be in the symbolism group and I wasn't sure how to encourage students to consider other choices without taking control back and assigning groups.  However, thankfully I paused and students began to take initiative and gravitate to other groups.  One group even created a new theme that we had missed.
Our librarian had collected a pile of resources from the library: DVDs, books, encyclopedias and I added a lot of critiques of the novel that the previous teacher had amassed.  I also pointed them to EBSCOHost to look for articles.  I gave them free reign to find sources on the internet.
And so it begins.

Wiki

This is something completely new to me.  In fact, I hadn't really heard of wikis or their potential in the classroom until this quarter!  But I love the philosophical framework of the Wiki.  This is how I view it: It encourages collaboration, it ensures the students do the work (rather than me), they have a real purpose (use the site for revision next semester before the exam and make it available to the wider web audience when complete) and it uses some of the skills that the students use outside of the typical classroom.
I had a Middle School colleague observing me this morning and he was fascinated by the setup of the Wiki. Then once I felt confident the students knew what they were doing with the wiki, I moved into book study evaluations.  I took each book group aside and asked questions about how they had managed the group (one group used skype, one group facebook, the others face to face discussion) and then took part with the group in a discussion of the novel as a whole.  It was fascinating - and thrilling - to see how deeply the students had engaged with the novel and each other in the process.  Some of them had greater insight and engagement with the novel or characters than I did.  Only one group did not really gain from the group discussions.  That made me sad, having seen how the others had, and I encouraged them to be willing to try again in the future with different people.  My colleague also sat in on the discussion/evaluation and enjoyed that too.  he had only planned to stay for part of the lesson but ended up being there almost the whole time!