Ms. Rice's Classroom Lessons and Discoveries

Ms. Rice’s Classroom News

Blog Post 2 (09-07-2011)

 I am discovering that I know more than I think I do about teaching but I am still nervous and scared when asked to teach.  I arrived this morning with about 15 minutes before class was to start and I was told that I would be teaching on plagiarism, tone and mood.  I begin to think about plagiarism and how much information to share with my sophomores.  Would they know what I was talking about when I told them that collaboration on an assignment without giving credit to all members of the group is considered plagiarism?  I also wondered if I should get into the fact that it is possible to plagiarize one self.  My CT advised against that idea.  I moved on to the next concepts of tone and mood.  Tone is what tells the feeling of the story perceived by the audience and mood is provided by the author and sets the atmosphere for the reader.

Clear concise directions are extremely important when asking students to be creative in expressing their understanding of the concepts.  Trying to explain how to fold an 8 ½” X 11” piece of paper into a square and then cut it so that there are four triangles that will open up once glued to the flat square proved extremely challenging.  I had to explain this task to each group separately in order for my students to comprehend what was expected.  Once they understood the idea of the lesson, students were then asked to write down two words that described the tone from the song “Witchy Woman” and then draw four pictures depicting the mood.  These students were very creative and artistic in their depictions. 

I am also developing relationships with some of my students.  I have a few that are willing to share personal information with me.  I have to be careful not to get sucked to deep into these conversations as this disrupts class.  Thoughts/Ideas? 

The Crucible is our next plan of study.  I find it interesting that this coincides with my study of African American Literature.  It is interesting to me to be able to study literature with my students because while I was in high school, I took creative writing.  Therefore, I have heard of these books but have not had the opportunity to read them myself.  Having taken other literature classes and having the Sparks notes and the graphic organizers that my CT is using helps me to feel more at ease and confident about teaching.  I am thankful that my CT is so willing to allow me to teach and is still right there to fill in and clarify when she thinks it is necessary. 

Another item that we are teaching sophomores about is the Annotated Bibliography.  For some reason, students seem to struggle with the ideas and requirements behind an Annotated Bibliography.  We have used a graphic organizer that explains step by step what to do and where to find the information and students still do not comply with the directions.

Finally, we have presented the historical context for the literature that we will be reading.  One student asked, “I thought we were in English class not Social Studies, why are we studying history?”  To this the teacher responded, “That is a very good question, I am glad you asked.  I think that students need to know some background information and history in order to understand the allusion that is present in the reading.”