Before class I met with Jason to discuss topics for my 4
lesson plans. We have tentatively set
the topics as Grammar, identifying arguments and supports, writing development
(developing a paragraph, looking at organizational structure, compare and
contrast), and the fourth to be determined.
Jason stated that the lesson plan should include a project, lesson,
worksheet and a summative assessment.
While we were talking he was looking at the website
corestandards.org. I will take a look at
this site as I go about developing a lesson plan on grammar. My thoughts were that I would tie in my
lesson plan with his class, but things are not working that way. The syllabus does not indicate any due dates
and I am not sure what Jason is using as a class plan. It seemed fine for me to take a topic and
just go for it. Also, while watching
Jason in class and the methods he uses to get through a topic, I realized that
Jason is breaking down the topic to a level of simplicity that I am going to
have to work to get to.
For the grammar lesson plan I think that I am going to work
in “Grammar in a Nutshell,” as a part of the lesson. Maybe it will be an offering at the end of
the class.
Wynne came in while Jason and I were talking and handed me a
packet about the Bridge Program. The
packet that she handed to me will make me an expert on the Bridge program.
The class started at 6PM.
Before we entered Jason got a note that one of the students could not
attend. The Bridge team has asked
students to communicate their situations.
Jason starts the class by handing out a worksheet on
percentages. He invited the class to
fill out the sheet and for volunteers to go up to the board and write up one
part of the sheet. It appears that the
students had a homework packet. The
class plan was to hand in something for the “Rising Costs of College.” There was a warm up (which was the homework
on the board), a lesson on summarizing which included a 6 word memoir, notes
and a project. The class was going to
end with writing a summary and explaining how it was done.
When people wrote up their answers on the board, I realized
that this class was as basic as it could get.
Jason was teaching percentages in a way that I thought was
different. For instance in order to
figure out 75% of something, you could add 50% + 25% and get the answer. I tried to think of how I do percentages. I definitely go straight to ¾ of? But perhaps this method does not work well
for these students or there is a new way of teaching percentages. Anyhow, Jason went through each problem on
the board. He taught how to come up with
the answer to a problem by using the process of elimination and doing the
percentage more or less. He showed the
class how some answers can be distracters.
A distracter is when a multiple choice answer has been provided to half
of the word problem leading you to answer the wrong way. He showed the class how to estimate your way
to an answer if the numbers being used looked complex. The class seemed to understand the work.
The next thing Jason went on to is summarizing. He hands out a sheet of examples of 6 word
memoirs. On the flip side of the sheet
there was a box for the student’s to write their 6 word memoir followed by 2
questions: What did you have to do to
write the 6 word memoir and what is difficult about writing a 6 word
memoir? Writing the 6 word memoir was difficult
for a lot of the students. Jason walked around
the class encouraging people, coaxing them to keep going. With one student he encouraged him to just
start writing to get through writers block.
Frankly, I would have difficulty writing in the class as well. I write best all by myself with no
distractions. So I was marveling at the focus
that the students had. At 6:43 he asked
people to share their results. Jason
took time and let everybody share their writing and Jason coaxed them to talk
about the difficulty they had in writing it.
Jason posted a definition of summarizing on the board and started the
process of writing a diagram of the process of summarizing. The diagram included Summarizing in the
center with bubble off shoots that said (what to leave out, what to leave in),
(important points), (re-read or look back), (use words economically), and (structure
and organize). He broke down the parts
of a summary: topic sentence, most important info, concluding sentence. He
posted on the board how to write a summary which came off his work sheet.
Finally Jason passes out the worksheet “Introduction to the
Rising Costs of College,” and asks the class to get into groups of 3-4, write
up their summary to the article, talk about their findings and then as a group get
together and post their result on a huge sheet, which was hung on the walls of
the class. Then the room went around
explaining how they came up with their final result. This was a really difficult lesson to teach
and to learn. The group that I was
closest to looked to me for advice. I
felt a little shy to offer assistance because I felt that my methods were more
old-school. One of the students was
having difficulty discerning the difference between a summary and persuasive
piece. I felt this young man’s pain,
because this was high level performing.
There was a lot to be confused about and not a lot of time to figure it
out. The groups helped each other with this. The group I was observing had one young man
woosh through the summary and the other 2 struggling to write their piece. So the finished piece got posted while the
other 2 struggled to finalize their work.
The young man who easily completed his summary was shy to post his work
because there was a case of where a verb did not agree. He asked me about this
and I tried to help, but I did not know how to teach that lesson. The word was rised versus risen. The right word was risen, but I didn’t know
how to explain to him why this was the right answer. Anyhow, I was amazed that he really only had
one example of verb non agreement, and his speech included a heavy Spanish
accent. This young man was
impressive. The other young man struggled
all the way through the writing and took the whole class to do it. He was impressive as well.
Jason went over 9PM to let every group have a chance to read
their summary. Jason commented thoughtfully
on each presentation. He used an
approach that heavily complemented what was done well and also had some
interesting critiques. I was trying to
imagine myself in Jason’s position right then, and I am not sure that I could
have done what he was doing. He was
keeping things so clear and simple.
