Journal Entry 4

LHS Visit 4 (10/25)

Rather than go into the atomistic detail of my first few school visits, I'll just hit on two of the most intriguing moments of today. First, I'd like to shine a light on one of the nicest things I saw and that I would like to formally encourage in my classroom: students teaching students. On this particular Thursday, I saw a student ask for a peer's help in completing a grammar worksheet assignment. So much is right about this. Both the helping student and the one being helped benefit from the encounter. The former, acting as a teacher, must not only provide an answer, but be sure to deliver it in a way in which it will make sense. Her mastery of the subject matter is given a quick, real-world test by having to explain it to another. At the same time, she is rewarded with the good feelings that come from any act of altruism. As far as the student getting helped goes, he doesn't need to worry about going to the teacher and risking a lecture of the "why don't you know this yet, I taught it to you" variety. In addition, the knowledge being imparted has the peer-to-peer advantage of being coded in terms that make sense to those trying to learn.  Gone is the "expert blind spot" teachers face when trying to translate their knowledge into terms a novice can understand. This was great to see, and I believe encouraging it could be a highly effective teaching strategy. The trick is to make it routine and expected rather than random and unique. Second and not so nice, I saw some protracted teacher-student bickering. To set the stage, it seems the students had asked my cooperating teacher if they would be quizzed on a play they were reading the next time they met. According to them, the teacher had said they would only be discussing the play, not being tested. So when the quizzes appeared, the move was greeted as treasonous and unfair. Things devolved from there, with one student calling the teacher "a liar" and saying he would no longer be talking to the teacher because he doesn't interact with liars. The teacher, obviously feeling disrespected and challenged by these comments, threatened to boot this student out of the room. He also scolded the class for not always being prepared as was their duty as honors English students. All in all, this "pop quiz" drama not only wasted class time but engendered ill will that might erupt in the future. A teacher's expectations must be clear and consistent. If a whole class was caught off guard by a quiz and pop quizzes aren't part of your teaching routine, then maybe you should swallow your pride and scrap the idea. A quiz can be made up, but students' trust in your word, once lost, may never be recouped.