Friday, October 7, 2011

3 truths and a lie

Identify the lie out of the following 4 statements about Mr. Cheng:

a. Won $1500 on a cable television game show
b. Worked as an intern at Jodie Foster's production company
c. Was an extra in Batman Begins.
d. Performed weekly at a Los Angeles improv comedy club.

What I expect to learn

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be handing back papers, and students will be working on independent reading of their choice books. I expect to have a better sense of the range of ability the students have for literary analysis and writing - which, to be clear - are two different things. I also anticipate learning how motivated, directed and independent the students are. More on that next month.

What I've learned

Believe it or not, we teachers learn as much or more from our students as they learn from us. This past September, I learned a lot about the curiosity and intelligence of 10th graders. As I've described, this is my first time teaching the enriched class, and I've been so pleased by how enthusiastic many of my students are about learning. To wit: when I mentioned that I'd be chaperoning a field trip to see Hamlet, several students audibly groaned in envy. Previous classes might have groaned in agony for my anticipated 3 hours of boredom. That's just one thing I've learned. My students have provided new insights into Things Fall Apart, offered all kinds of creative approaches to class material, and generally made my sophomore English teaching experience even richer than I'd anticipated.