Week Three Reflection

This week in the middle school students created their foldables for their research project on a famous American. I had never seen foldables done for a paper, as opposed to a traditional outline. It was truly amazing to see this. It kept students focused on an individual component of the paper (hook/thesis, early life, education etc.) without being overwhelmed by the other components of the paper. I have to be completely honest—I will be utilizing this technique to complete my senior seminar paper. Students seemed to really enjoy them too! Students spent four days developing and tweaking their hooks and thesis’ as a class. Alongside our cooperating teacher we were able to work one on one with the students to revise and rework their hook and thesis statements. I really enjoyed working with the students on their writing. It’s a wonderful feeling to witness students excited about writing, especially a research paper!


My partner and I also began teaching our debate lesson this week. Our first lesson was to read the short story All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. We took turns reading the story aloud, while the students read on in their books. The students were given a handout that allowed them to take notes, as well as define the vocabulary from the story. After completion of the short story students were asked questions that probed the class in to a great discussion! It was amazing to be the facilitator of this class, and it was fulfilling to see the kids excited and enjoying the lesson. This class period of sixty minutes definitely stoked my teaching fire!! I look forward to finishing the lesson over the next few days.