As usual, we had the read aloud. It was a pretty solid chapter. We got to get more into the plot and learn more about the characters, especially Melody, the narrator with cerebral palsy. In this chapter, she is trying out for her school's quiz team, but basically, everyone is underestimating her, even her teacher. Anyway, she tried out, regardless of everyone's unwilling attitude.
Once again, as usual, everyone raised their hands, ready to make their predictions, inferences, connections, etc. One student, (let's say his name was Tom) raises his hand and speaks. I can expect him to give good insights, but I wasn't expecting what came out of his mouth. He gave a 60 second movie summary of a movie called Drumline (a very GOOD summary I might add) and connected it to Out of My Mind, our read aloud book. It was genius. It made me want to see the movie. Anyway, he made the connection of how the girl in the movie was underestimated in the drumline even though she was the best out of all of the guys. In the movie, people tried to sabotage her so that she wouldn't succeed. He predicted that the same would happen to Melody. His connection astounded the three of us.
Speaking of connections, after the read aloud, my teacher taught a mini lesson on the difference between predictions and inferences and even gave them a sheet to practice making inferences. Both involve information in the text, prior knowledge, and either the prediction (what will or could happen next) or the inference (figuring out something about the text the author didn't tell you). The students then discovered that they were already making these kinds of connections.
When I got to 2nd period, I was surprised to find a substitute teacher. She was a very nice lady, and she was also a Christian! It was nice getting to talk to her and work with her for 50 minutes. Unfortunately, she didn't know the class or how it worked. All she had to go off of was a sheet that the teacher had typed out. Luckily, I was there, so I got to actually lead the class for most of that time. I got to initiate and lead the writing BINGO. The students actually listened to me, although I fear that they respected me more than the substitute teacher. I certainly did not want to take over the class, but I just wanted to make it easier for her so that she knows what to do for the other four periods. She actually appreciated my help. After that activity was over, they were given individual work, and I got to talk with her about her experiences. It was a great class.
On Wednesday, the 1st and 3rd period classes had to fill out a self-evaluation form on how they think they were doing in reading class for this semester. I just walked around the classroom as usual, and it was interesting to see how they were evaluating themselves. As a future teacher, I definitely am going to incorporate this into my classroom. It's a better way to assess them and connect with the students, in my opinion.
English class is all about connections, but it's great when you're making connections outside of the book as well.
My goals for this next week are pretty much the same as before: TAKE MORE RISKS!
Excited for what next week holds!
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