I had one of my most successful lessons this year this week. Students learned about the different kinds of poetry this week and on this day students had to perform a poem in front of the class using choral reading techniques. I was weary of letting students work in partners of their choosing, but I wanted to allow the students to pick their own partners so that they felt comfortable in front of that class during their presentations. Students worked on their performances for 15 minutes after we talked about choral reading and watched an example on YouTube. Students came to the front of the class and gave great performances! I was impressed with how well the students worked together and I was pleasantly surprised how engaged the students were with their performances. I highly recommend using choral reading as a relationship/fluency building exercise.
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Hi Mr. Kay!
My name is Mandy Fisher and I am a student in Cheryl Rosaen’s TE 402 (Language Arts) class this semester. The blog post I am replying to (for March 12th) and the blog post for March 7th really intrigued me. This is because it seems that you had two very different interactions with group work within a short amount of time. On March 7th you said that you were very disappointed with how your students participated in groups but on March 12th you said that student’s worked great in partners. I was wondering what contributed to the different outcomes in each group? Do you think the number of group members contributed to the differences? Do you think the assignment influenced their behaviors? Also, I think that your rapid turnover from unsuccessful group work to successful group work was incredible. Do you have any suggestions for me as I proceed into my internship this fall?
Mandy,
Thanks for the questions! I think what changed from the first activity to the second was that I gave the students the option of choosing their own partners. Often times I would assign groups trying to pick the right people to work together, but turns out I was wrong a lot! I gave the students the chance to pick their own groups during the Choral Read so that they were comfortable with the activity and comfortable in front of the class. My advice is to let your students be responsible for their actions and give them a chance to surprise you. Hope that helps!
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