Second Week of Student Teaching

This past week I was busy teaching my students how to write persuasive essays. The UBSCT is next week so I am trying to get them prepared. Luckily my cooperating teacher has done an excellent job teaching them and so my job is to review and refine. My main focuses has been on thesis statements and organization. We did a idea generating exercise where I gave them a prompt and they wrote two reasons why they supported it or were against it. Then I had them get into groups of like minded students to discuss their reasons and get more. Finally I had them pair up with a member of the opposing group to argue their side, and gather arguments against their own. It seemed to go really well. Several of the students got really into the debates and when they were all done they had plenty of material to form their thesis and paper from. One thing I had a hard time with, and think I will continue to struggle with, is pacing and making sure that I am using all of my time effectively. A few classes ended up having some time let over and I hadn't planned anything to fill that time. Awkward.

This exercise is primarily to prepare them for the UBSCT which they have to pass to get a full diploma. But the thinking and arguing they did will be applicable in almost any class they are taking. It will also help them as they are currently developing many of their world views, and they will need these analytical and debative skills to create their own paradigms.

I learned that in the future most students react well to the chance to move around the room and talk about the subject instead of just sitting and reading or doing worksheets. I will use this in the future when ever I need to generate ideas in my students. I think it is something I will encourage my colleagues to do as well. I know there is another girl in my school who is doing student teaching and her cooperating teachers are older and set in their ways. She says they aren't willing to participate in activities like this because they have been doing things their own way for so long. As for the pacing, in the future I need to prepare smaller assignments and lessons and activities that can be tacked on to the end of a lesson should there be a need.