Not that it would be a revelation to most of use but respond to the comment on page 53, “the most powerful tool in tween classroom management is to avoid having bored middle schoolers”.
What is your reaction when a student suggest the value of what you are teaching isn’t very high, the “why do we have to learn this” question”?
What are your feelings about Ms. Wolpert-Gawron’s list of 13 skills students really need to learn? Notice how they are not subject based.
How could you use or support the use of the strategies listed on page 60 to make lessons more applicable to our tweens?
Students often ask, "Why do we have to learn this?" I really liked her suggestions on how to respond and will probably use some of them this year. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with her statement. Having a bored middle schooler equals trouble. As she states, "An engaged class is easier to teach." This statement is so true. Often times discipline problems arise because students are simply bored and not engaged in the lesson.
I think her list of 13 skills students need to learn are great. Coming from elementary school, we get middle school students who often don't know how to problem solve, collaborate with others, learn independently, etc. If we can teach our kids these skills, they will benefit so much, and their transition into high school will hopefully be a little easier. We have so much to teach the kids about our subject area, but there's soooo much more that I hope my students are taking away from my class, such as these skills Wolpert-Gawron discusses.
I like her idea of asking questions at the start of a unit. For example, when we read The Outsiders, I have several questions that I ask before we start the book, such as, what does it mean to be an outsider? Have you ever felt like an outsider? Is murder ever justifiable? etc. I usually have the students do a quick write or journal entry, and then I let them share their responses and we have a discussion. This gets the students involved and curious about the book and ready to get started.
I also like her PBL idea. I'd like to try this collaborative approach to essay writing this year.
When students ask "why do we have to do this," I always try to respond with something that makes it seem relevant. However, I am stumped by them more often than I would like to admit! My go to response has always been something along the lines of it teaching them to explore concepts, generate solutions to problems, higher level thinking skills, etc. The author's responses are MUCH better. This may get placed on my desk for future use ;)
ReplyDeleteThe 13 skills students need to learn are fabulous. The only one I would add to the list is "Organization." That skill is probably never mastered by anyone (I am speaking to myself here), but it is certainly one that needs attention. Even these skills could be answers to the infamous "Why are we doing this?" question. Generally, many of our lessons have one or more of these at the heart of them.
The students love guest speakers...they think it means time away from working. When we were discussing career options for our career research paper last year, I brought my sister in to speak to the class. She is a medical student, and many of my students had talked about the possibility of pursuing a career in the medical field (nurse, vet, doctor, dental hygienist, etc.). To my surprise, once she started sharing with them her real-life experience of getting into med school without the assistance (financial or otherwise) of parents or anyone else, their ears perked up, and they asked question after question. They really seemed to enjoy this. It sparked their curiosity at least.
I, too, would like to look further into the use of PBL.
Bored students are discipline problems! It is so important to make learning meaningful and I try for fun as well. This makes the day go faster for both the students and for me!
ReplyDeleteThe "why do we have to learn this" question is easy for me. History is the study of our past and we must learn about it to avoid repeating past mistakes and to continue making progress where we made good decisions. I say this several times a year so I don't get the question very often. Perhaps if we start our lessons with explaining why we are learning something (as we are going over our objectives for the day) we wouldn't get the question and students will be more actively engaged from the very beginning.
The 13 skills are so very important. That is the real world! These are the most important things we can teach our students.
I actually use the four items to make lessons applicable, but it is very easy to do with history. Many of the history trunks from the social studies grant program allow us to do this with our lessons every day.
I think this has by far been my favorite chapter of this book! I think the list of 13 skills (plus organization) is an absolute must that we should be helping our students with! I agree with Candace that we more often than not get students that aren't prepared for middle school, not just academically, but also socially and psychologically and we are the models that will help guide them and prepare them for the next step (high school).
ReplyDeleteThe argument traps are good terms to teach our students so that they can understand better how to express themselves. This again is very similar to the Seven Habits (communication, prioritizing) that we looked at last year and works toward the same results.
For strategies to make lessons applicable, I already use 2, 3 & 4; I often play recordings of music for the students as an example for them of pieces we are working on. I have other music teachers come in throughout the year and work with my students, both modeling and teaching, to help them be better musicians. I use PBL is setting goals for performances in the spring. I will try harder to incorporate 1 this year as a teaching tool when learning new pieces.
First, I really like Jennifer's suggestion that a lesson might begin with an explanation as to why this needs to be learned. Satisfy that question you know many students have on your own terms, explaining why what you are about to do is relevant and meaningful. That may help to instill greater student engagement from the start rather than trying to re-capture the attention of students you have already lost.
ReplyDeleteThe thirteen skills are certainly worth an investment of time in the classroom. Really, those are skills we can personally all benefit from developing as administrators, teachers, and counselors in order to increase our professional effectiveness. Think of how often we already use the words cooperation and collaboariotn when we talk of our own professional development. Much of the content in this chapter is beneficial to develop at any age...we just happen to have the pleasure of getting these ideas across to one of the most resistant populations