Tibbetts Lesson Plans and Teaching Reflections

This was a bit of a frustrating day...but it wasn't bad necessarily....ok maybe it was. One person in our group kind of insisted on giving the kids a history lesson...which they were not at all responsive to. It was really interesting information, but they were pretty lost the whole time. Another person in the group and I were trying to get into the conversation to include the kids more, but it was almost like trying to swim upstream. We're definitely going to have to talk on strategies. I hate the idea that the kids are already bored to death with this book. :(

Today was much better. We decided to bring snacks for the group which was much appreciated by them. They seemed a little more relaxed with us. We still had the one person pushing for a history lesson, but after talking to them afterwards, realized that thats what they thought they were supposed to be doing...giving them a huge amount of background knowledge on the subject so that they would appreciate the story. The other three of us were under the impression that this was the students time. We help start up conversations and they lead it from there. We also believe that they will get the most out of the book if they can appreciate the characters and the emotion in the book and then let that be the reason they learn more about WWII.

Today we had a tiny group! We only had four boys. It was funny though because there was more interaction and the boys were more vocal than they had been up to this point. They said that they preferred the group to be all boys because they felt intimidated and didnt like to talk with the girls around. How cute! We didnt even read the text with the group as much because we had enough conversation to fill the time. We also started journaling today. We took the last 10 minutes or so and journaled what we felt about the text that we discussed. We then read our entries. This week we asked the kids to draw a sketch of a particular part of the book that impacted them.

Well heck. I feel horrible saying this but I feel like our group took a step back today. We had a nearly full group and they really didnt want to discuss the book at all. Any time that we would ask a question to get some type of dialogue going, they would look at us like we were out of our minds. Even after they wrote in our journals, the boys wouldnt share what they had written. We discussed this after the group and decided that it might be best if we separate boys and girls in future groups. *crosses fingers*

Today we decided to do things a little bit differently. The kids arent really responding to the idea of being open and reflective about the readings. We decided that it would be best if we read the chapter with them (since they have a really hard time reading and comprehending the text) and then we took time to journal at the end. We are also assigning drawings. They need to illustrate one part of the book or chapter that really impacts them. They then share the pictures. They're really liking that a lot.

Weeeeelllllllll......heck. Yes I've said it before, but for different reasons. Before I was just stumped as to how to make this lit. circle work. Today its because I feel like our leadership team is imploding at the expense of the group. One person in our group insists that we only need to read to the kids and then tell them facts that we think are interesting. The rest of us think that it needs to be a discussion group. It felt a little akward since there was obviously tension.

We did end with a really great activity (THANKS VAL). Each of them took a phrase from the chapter that we read together (Round robin :( ) and we made a poem out of those quotes. It ended up so neat! And I really think they enjoyed it as well. I would definitely like to try that again. We're also going to try and give them the roles for lit circles to do for next week. They will read the assigned reading, and then do research for their part. We're hoping that this will show them that it really does take each of their individual voices to make a really great conversation. After this, if we have time we're going to have each of them think of a question or statement, and have each of the others respond to it. I think at this age, if they haven't learned it already, it is critical for them to know that each person's voice is important and valid and worth paying attention to!

We began with the literacy "jobs" to kind of open them up about the reading, not only that week, but so far. They came up with insights using life to book connections that I honestly wouldn't have even though up. It was incredibly in depth even though many of the times it had a funny connotation. Afterwards we brought out the keyring of questions and they really enjoyed that as well. It was the first time that we had to end our conversation because we ran out of time. It was amazing! I can't wait to get into this more!

Today was a little hectic at the beginning. It is right before Thanksgiving break and the kids were a little more wild than usual and Leah had definitely had it. When we got our group, most of them really had no interest in talking about the book and so Valerie gave them the 'ol "Well I guess we can sit here and stare at each other" speech. It killed me! hahaha Eventually someone brought up Hitler and the kids instantly became engaged in talking about his life and how he related to the book. It ended really well at least!

I cannot believe it is the last day of working at Tibbetts. It was kind of a goofy and fun day. Our kids were wired for sound and so absolutely halarious to converse with (it may have also been the sugar and popcorn we all brought :)). We began by talking about the last of the book. We had asked the kids if they wanted to read the last chapter together and they said no. This spurred Valerie to ask them what they thought of our chance in lit circle style - wondering if they liked it better when we were reading everyday or now when we're talking, and they said that even though it got ackward when we didnt talk sometimes, they much preferred the lit circle after we stopped the reading every week! It was amazing to hear that. We then each got a piece of paper and wrote something about the book or the lit circle as a whole and after a few minutes, passed it to the next person so they could comment on what the person before them said. After a few passes I noticed that they were just saying things like "It was ok" and "yeah I agree with what he/she said" and so I put a stop to that really fast! haha It ended up being a really great time together and I really don't think that it could have ended better!

	Children's Literature