Thursday, October 11, 2012
Reaction to Three Classmates' Microlessons
In our class of October 9, Ryan (Phys. Ed./Health), Fred (Math), and Juliana (English) gave three, twenty-minute microlessons on subjects that appealed to them from our summer reading or teaching observations. I feel fortunate to have previewed their lessons before I teach mine, enabling me--I hope--to emulate their many strengths. It was a pleasure to witness these colleagues at work, teaching imaginary pupils who, in short order, will be replaced with real and very fortunate students.
- Ryan on KWL: In Ryan's school, this "warm-up" is a required pedagogical strategy, which is what influenced him to present it in a lesson. Ryan would use Know, Wonder, Learn in teaching health, but not on the gym or playing fields of phys. ed. As he noted, having students to fill in a sheet asking what they know about a topic, what they wonder about this area, and what--postinstruction--they have learned about it offers teachers many advantages: It is a sly way to take attendance; it gets students busy right away; it opens a window onto their current knowledge and future learning desires; and allows us to evaluate our success in delivering the material in entertaining, enlightening ways students will retain. I liked how Ryan required us to come up with a KWL example in our disciplines. His realism about the use of KWL was also appreciated: "It's not the be-all and end-all of teaching ideas; it's just one tool." Teaching about teaching can be tricky, as I mentioned to him. But he pulled it off nicely.
- Fred on sociolinguistic aspects of the word "gay": Fred's inspiration for his topic came from reading Herbert Kohl's I Won't Learn from You. This lesson was a departure from Fred's comfort zone of expertise as a math teacher. He talked briefly about the Kohl book, then handed out an article by Christian Banks arguing that the expressivist power of the word "gay" trumps the overly PC types who would censure its use. With perhaps an overserving of sarcasm, the article criticized those--like Anderson Cooper--who would have everyone be extraordinarily careful how we use the term. While I understood and was sympathetic to a vein in Banks's argument, I thought its reasoning was sloppy in places. ("Calling certain things gay just seems right" might seem right to Banks but not to everyone. And what would the "feeling right so let's do it" logic not permit?) As you can see, the piece was very effective at generating emotion and discussion. Fred did an admirable job of leading a roundtable on a contentious topic and modeling how to do so in future classes of our own.
- Juliana on diagnosing students with behavioral issues: This well planned and executed lesson started by presenting us with brief narrative case studies of three students with behavioral, social, emotional, and academic problems. Juliana asked us to attempt a diagnosis for why the students were acting as they were. We had a handout in which to jot down our guesses and this work was a springboard to a discussion. After we went around and voiced our opinions, we got a hand out of Juliana's "answers"--with the caveat that in the complex lives of children nothing is ever completely certain. Overall, I thought the materials and presentation were strong and very effective.
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