American Studies - February 17, 2017

Mr. Schroeder was absent today so we planned that I would take over his Sheltered American Studies class for the day.  Sheltered is for ELL students only.  It is a slower paced American history class that focus on big ideas, concepts, and vocabulary.  The hope is that students build their capacity to be successful in regular classes in high school.  I have never taught a sheltered class, but I have taught basic government, which was for lower level special ed students and ELL students.  I hoped that experience would help me be successful teaching this class.

Luckily for me, the students were working on creating a presentation about the three branches of government.  I taught governemnt for 10 years, so this was totally my thing!  I told the students and they thought it was cool to have an "expert" in class.  Mr. Schroeder wanted me to focus on presentation skills rather than content, however.  So we begain by making a list of things a good presenter would do.  Here is what the students came up with:

Eye contact/look at the audience
do not just read the slides
loud, clear voice
don't be shy
give examples
be prepared for questions

I thought it was a great list.  Then I took a practice presentation and presented to them poorly.  They had to note what I did wrong and how I should improve.  It was fun to really do it wrong!  The students even giggled at some of my mistsakes.  Then I did it the right way and they attentively listened.  I gave them some work and practice time.  Then we had one volunteer to practice his presentation in front of the whole class.  He was pretty proud of himself and did a great job remembering our presentation skills.

The take-away from this guest teaching lesson is that these students are really no different than any other students we have.  They want to learn, they are excited to share what they know, and they can learn.  I think that sometimes we think that they are lazy or don't care because it takes ELL students longer or they need different types of instruction.  I had fun working with these students and loved seeing their creative juices flowing as they worked on their projects.  And a big shout out to Gamal for being brave enough to practice his presentation in front of all of us!