Monday, February 6, 2012

Success

Currently I am in the process of grading students’ memoirs (like a personal narrative type of writing) and as I am reading through them I am pleasantly surprised! Not only are the fun to read, but I can’t believe how well-written some of them are! I think back to last year and I cringe thinking about those papers! But this year I can definitely see improvement in our curriculum and in the outcome of the students’ writing. I’m not saying every student got an A, but I could see them at least attempting the techniques we went over and being successful because of it.

I know for me, I expect a lot out of my students and myself, which sometimes causes me to focus more on the struggles or problems that occur, rather than the positives. But I think it truly is uplifting when students produce work that is something to be proud of, and I am very proud of the students that put a lot of effort into their writing…it definitely showed!

Any other successes that you have had this year with your students that made you really proud?

6 comments:

  1. Recently I had a student who was struggling getting along with her peers. I set up a meeting for her and her friends to talk and share their feelings. It was such a powerful experience, as the girls were very honest and open with each other. They all left a lot happier and it made me feel like we had made some positive changes.

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  2. The other day I was having students find examples of symbols in a story. At the beginning of the year, it was difficult for them to pick out anything but the most obvious symbols. However, now they were picking out small details like the mother's make up and the sugar prices in the novel. Not only were they able to find these symbols, they were able to elaborate on what the symbol represented and then write a haiku that expressed that. Wow! What a good day that was.

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  3. I was extremely impressed with our Greek Columns project this year. Many students that normally don't turn things in came in before school and during study hall. They actually wanted to do well and do the project. And the product was amazing! While some could have used some proof-reading, they really put a ton of time and effort into something that was a pretty difficult task.

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  4. My first hour Newcomer EL students read a Japanese folk tale and thought of making it into a play. I first taught them some drama terms (dialogue, set, costumes, lines, etc.) I guided them through what is dialogue in the story and suggested they use that as dialogue. They knew right away who should play the parts of the story. They wrote in a narrator part. We created scenes first, then added the dialogue and characters. They had their performance on Tuesday morning. I thought they did really well--and the audience thought so too. I think it was worth the extra effort for what they got out of speaking in front of a group, memorizing lines, visualizing scenes and making them come to life. They really did a great job with it. And it created a good sense of teamwork. It was a step beyond reader's theater, and they were motivated enough to stick with it. So that was a fun Valentine's day treat!

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  5. There was a point in time with Reading this year when we expected alot out of students and I felt like they were really losing their love of reading and so I wanted to make it a little more exciting.
    When they were done with their literature circle books, I had the groups think of a way they wanted to present their book. It didnt matter how they presented them, so long as they had all of the necessary information.

    It was really exciting for me to let go and give them choice and with that it was even more exciting to see the final projects and the effort that they put into their presentations.

    It has shown me to allow a little more freedom and student choice in class because I feel like it really lets the kids shine :)

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  6. It is very rewarding when a student working on speech sounds in speech therapy is able to produce the sound correctly for the first time. Sometimes the sound is elicited with a few prompts and sometimes it takes lots of practice and different elicitation techniques to achieve success. Either way, it is great to see the excitement of the student when they achieve initial success.

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