Stephens Minilesson Reflection 2

All of the students participated in the lesson, but some more actively than others. There were certain students who always answered all of the questions and some that never raised their hands. All students seemed to be paying attention, but I overheard some comments that some of the students were bored. Some of the questions I asked seemed a little bit too easy for them, like the last question in Activity 2. When I assigned the poems in Activity 3, some of the students were really grumbling about it. A couple of them could not seem to get started on their poems. I tried to help them by asking them what their favorite thing was and trying to get them to write about that, but it seemed like they had just shut down. One of them in particular was so turned off towards poetry that he just sat there with his hands on his hear for a long time. He was really stressed out by it, even though I let him write a Haiku rather than a Tanka (since it was shorter). As I watched him, he also struggled to find the right number of syllables for each line. His first line had six syllables the first time I looked at it. I had to stand by him for the rest of the time while he wrote it, giving him help as he wrote each line. I am still unsure whether he really understands syllables.

It was kind of frustrating teaching most of the lesson at the front of the class, because I could tell which students understood what I was doing perfectly and which ones could definitely use more work on it. It was very difficult with all of the varying ability levels to keep the students who already knew how to syllabify words interested while still finding time to help those who were struggling. I definitely feel like my lesson was aimed at the mid-level students. I could not figure out during the discussion portion how to provide scaffolding for the struggling students while engaging the ones who knew what they were doing. It was a lot better when the students got to write their own poems, because then I could walk around and help those who were struggling and those who needed a challenge wrote Tanka instead of a Haiku.

I noticed that while I am teaching, if I notice some students getting bored with the lesson, I tend to freak out and start going through it really fast. This is a really bad habit because those who are struggling cannot get anything out of the lesson when I go faster and it becomes more boring to those who were already bored with it. When I go faster, it seems like I am not very interested in the lesson myself and causes the students not to listen. What are some strategies that I could use while I’m up at the front of the class to engage students who are getting bored? I suppose I could use humor to make the lesson more interesting. I also could have used more visual aids in my preparation for the lesson, to make the students more interested in it. I think the most important thing is not to freak out when students seem to be bored, but to calmly switch tactics. Rushing through a lesson does not help anybody.