Week three was very chaotic in that senior binders were due. Students were scrambling and extremely flustered. Our CT did a great job at helping students to realize that they would be okay, and that the work they did was awesome! It was nice to see a teacher raise her students up and shower them with compliments. Later in the week the students signed up for the senior project class presentations. Miss C spent two days going over the oral presentation rubric and appropriate dress requirements. During this time she continued to build her students up with praise and compliments. The best part of seeing this interaction was the looks on the student's faces, they felt love and confidence.
The students also finished their unit on the novel Speak by L. Halse Anderson. The class was unable to finish reading the novel due to time constraints with the senior projects. Although they did not complete the novel, Miss C still held a classroom discussion in which the students discussed themes and motifs within the novel. It was refreshing to hear several students ask if they could borrow a book so they could complete the reading at home. I feel it was a good experience to see a unit not pan out, and to see that sometimes things have to be cut out to make room for far more important tasks.
Right. We plan units to have a beginning, middle and end, and then boom! Something happens. Is it okay to give up on a book that's not working, or there are other circumstances? The answer is always "It depends."
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea that a unit can be done, in that the lessons we're trying to teach can be taught, without the text necessarily being finished, is interesting.
ReplyDeleteUnits, at least in my experience, seem to be "book-driven." The book is the center of the unit, and is the thing that is maintained, at the expense of everything else. But, situations like this challenge that idea. And with good results, I see.
It's a great perspective, and something to think about.