Post #4

So, Ive been teaching two different mods of 10th grade English for the past few weeks. It is so amazing to me how the classroom dynamics of the two are so different! Its like night and day...so I really struggle with my first class. I feel like they don't want to talk to me, they don't want to talk to each other. I'm not really sure they can talk. They can write very well. So I thought about Marzano and how could I bring this class out of its shell. I began to think about the chapter on "Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition" and I thought that maybe I could help. The problem with this class is not that they don't know the material. When they write their ideas on paper, they are mostly all great. They know what we are discussing. Ive determined they lack self-esteem. I thought that maybe by providing them recognition and reinforcing the effort they put into their writing, maybe I could boost their self-esteem a little. I started taking up their papers and finding the key ideas (very similar to what we do in class) and reading it aloud the next day in class and providing recognition to that person. The people that I did that for started volunteering their ideas. Its been great, and I'm getting more discussion in class without feeling like I'm mandating their involvement.