This week's guest teaching adventure took me to 7th grade Language Arts. Ms. Nourski was going to be absent, so this was a perfect opportunity to jump in and teach. Students had begun a unit on persuasive writing. Ms. Nourski had gone over key vocabulary terms such as thesis, reason, evidence. Today we were to read an essay and find the different parts.
We began the lesson with a DOL (Daily Oral Language). We had to proofread two sentences. Students did a wonderful job and even found one thing I didn't! Students complete these every day. It is a great way to practice writing skills, especially ones that are often found on standardized tests. Next we reviewed the persuasive vocabulary Ms. Nourski had previously gone over. It was a good refresher and most students seemed to understand.
Then we read a persuasive essay titled "I'll Take a Cat." We read together as a class. Then we talked about whether cats or dogs make better pets. This became a slightly heated argument and students shared some funny stories about their pets. It was interesting to learn that several students had both cats and dogs. And just as many didn't have any pets.
Finally, students highlighted and labeled the different parts of the essay. We reviewed some just as the bell was ringing. A few students were confused by the thesis and the reasons. I worked with a couple of individuals to make sure they got it. Others highlighted a whole body paragraph claiming that the whole thing was evidence that cats are better. I tried to convince the student that perhaps not every sentence was evidence. But they did not back down.
I think the biggest challenge during this guest teaching experience was the variety of levels. Some students completed the highlighting activity while we read as a class and were done with lots of time left. Other students quickly finished and were reading other books or working on other homework. Still others sharpened pencils three times, asked to go to the bathroom, and accomplished little to no work. The differences of need and ability was very apparent in this class. Luckily Ms. Nourski's sub stayed in the room and was able to work one on one with a few students while I tried to do the same. In a perfect world, class sizes would be smaller. Teachers today have to juggle so many different things. The quick learners and workers were quietly talking or doing other work because they were done early. Could they have been doing some other extension activity? How does a teacher plan for all of this? Could students partner up? I don't have any of these answers. I am impressed every day with how our fabulous teachers manage with the resources they have. I will support them with what they need and advocate on their behalf.
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