Holy COW.... I can't believe that I made it through the weekl! CCHHHAAAWWWW!* Week 5 of this program was by far the most challenging week yet... In a way, "life changing"!!! Only through adversity, can we truly understand our full potential! Having to study for a quiz worth 10% of my grade (scary), first research style project paper, readings, blogs, more blogs all while working was a lot to deal with, especially when shooting for HONORS!!! (hint hint) Then add that EL presentation on top of all the other work, made me at times feel like I couldn't breathe... Not like a panic attack, more like if your standing at the bottom of a ENORMOUS mountain with only your trusty Swiss Army knife in your pocket and thinking that there is no way you are going to be able to make it to the top! But I didn't quit, I took out my trusty knife, killed some bears, made some pelts, then got to the top of that mountain. And from up here... The view is glorious! Being able to successfully complete all the objectives for this week, was great for the old self-esteem... Granted I still haven't received a score on the paper or test yet, but either way I feel that I am able to tackle anything. The best things is that all these long hard days are all for me and my development as a "professional" teacher.
Which brings me to my EL presentation. If you told me 2 months ago that I was going to be able to tell you the difference between a present perfect and past perfect or what a past/present participle was, I would've slapped you and said, "don't say such nonsense, whatcha be smokin"... HAHAHAHA Nah, but I definitely wouldn't of believed you. And now, not only knowing the difference between these, but able to comprehensibly teach and explain them feels great!
For my presentation I really wanted to make it interactional, in a way that students (fellow classmates) and I could construct meaning of the target skill (English Grammar) together. My plan was to first have the students go through the handout marking any tenses that they already knew. I knew for some that this was going to be an extremely difficult task, but that was to be the point. I wanted to then go through the sheet together during the presentation marking the sentences as we learned them. My focus was to ask them WHY, why is it that tense. (a mathematical approach(present be+past participle=?) deconstruct the sentence) Have them explain in their own words, making it personal to them, so it had meaning. A way of looking at grammar from a Logical-Mathematical approach using the multiple intelligence theory because for me, this is what I had to do to come to understand it. But I didn't do this! Basically I just controlled the classroom discourse and if it had not been for Tom, I probably would have had no interaction with the students. Your traditional, teacher talks and student listens. So pissed I did this! GGRRRRRRRR But live and learn.
There are many things that I would change if I could do it again. First, I wouldn't start of with having the students fail at something. I thought it would be cool to at the end of the presentation/lesson for them to look at the handout and think, "wow that wasn't hard at all" when at first it was. Instead I would start off by giving the students the sheet and saying, "What would you say if I told you by the end of this lesson you could tell me which one of these sentences are present perfect, present simple, etc...". Starting off with hope is so much better than failure. The next thing I would change would be the handout itself. Make it two sided, one side being a couple of sentences with examples and rules that went in the sequential order of the slides. This would let us work through the rules and sentences together. If there were questions, I would first see if another student could help them understand before I did. Since this was my initial goal. The other side of the handout being a little quiz sheet, but unlike the one I handed out with 20 sentences, it would have 2 sets of 4. The first set we would do together and the second they would do alone.
Live and learn... Next time!
* "chaw" is my own made up word that basically means; yay, happy, great job, and awesome but said in more of a battle cry way!
I personally enjoyed your EL presentation a ton and found it very informative. I didn’t feel like “I failed” by you giving us the quiz first. Instead it made me realize all the more what I didn’t know and I had assumed that I did…
ReplyDeleteYour slides were brief and to the point with nice charts to help us understand even better. What I really enjoyed was your angle looking at the topic and explaining it to us. You always make me see things in a whole different light. It is such a precious gift you have John. Cherish it!!
You reflecting about your EL presentation even two days after it was delivered and blogging about it is great…
Lastly, I want to say that I am so very privileged to be developing as professional teachers with you as well as the rest of the classmates. :)