Friday, March 30, 2007
Scenario #3
I'm starting a lesson. But before we get going, I need some brainstorming from the kids. And nobody says anything. I try to pry them, offer some ideas, etc, and still nothing. Then, a student peels out from the parking lot, revving his engine for minutes beforehand. One student goes to the window, standing in the middle of my sentence, citing how "gay" this lesson is and how much more interesting the car is. What's more, the other kids begin to rally behind him, laughing with every comment, and still ignoring my lesson. I know this activity will get results if the students will engage, but they refuse to try, anchoring themselves to a student who proudly counts down classes until he's old enough to drop out. What now?
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4 comments:
You must get students interested in the material. If students think that cars are cool, plan an activity that involves cars. You must make material meaningful to their lives.
I agree with Robbie to make it meaningful. I had a similar situation while in the classroom at Mt. Blue when the I prompted the students and they wouldn't respond, didn't seem to have any ideas or care to share. My mentor teacher spoke right up and said, "everyone take out a piece of paper and write 3 (of what we were asking) down on your paper, you have 1 minute." This MADE them do it, and they all did. Then, some of them felt like sharing all or some of what they had written. It was effective and that dead silence was gone.
I think the shock factor would work well in this case, If you could think of something that would surprise them to start off with i think you might have better results
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