Weeks 12 and 13

With last week being a two day week for the students, I decided to revert back to my old ways and use PowerPoint along with lecture. I wanted to see how the students would react to this. On Monday, they were not that enthused about having to sit and take notes, but for the most part the day went off without any issues. A few students did make comments that class was boring and it wasn't the highlight it normally is. Our topic for these two days was focused on the causes of the Civil War. Tuesday was much more difficult. It was the last day of the week for them, they were excited about that and the fact that it was almost Thanksgiving. After I did my usual routine of starting class by quizzing them on past events that occurred on this day in history, I told them to take out their notebooks. While I turned off the lights and turned on the Smartboard, they balked mightily at what we were going to do. This happened in all my classes. The day did not go smoothly. There were many interruptions in each period. Students were not focused and uninterested in the information. The results of the day were pretty much what I thought they would be. The students commented on how much they missed being busy in class. They learn better working with the information instead of being told it. This approach just doesn't work for them. The response validated my action research.
This week, I wanted them to be active. In order to assess their understanding of the causes, I let them work in groups to write a song or rap that demonstrated the relationship between the different events we discussed, thus assessing their knowledge of the content. The students were excited to work together, but apprehensive about getting up in front of class and performing their song. To help with this, I decided to play a game with the class to help the fear subside. We played a game called radio. The students said it was kind of like telephone. It was loud, but they had a blast. They were laughing, having fun, and two days later, I realized it had worked. For a class period and a half, they worked to come up with a song/rap. The lyrics they were creating were ingenious. Some groups created songs from scratch, while others took familiar tunes like We will rock you and Row, Row, Row your boat, and inserted their own lyrics. They really got into the activity. Those two days of work flew by and all students were engaged. Students were challenged, yet they said they enjoyed the work. They expressed that by having to work with the content, they better understood it and were seeing the relationship between the events. Performance day did not disappoint. What I had seen during the work days was good, but the final products were amazing. First off, all students went up in front of class and sang their songs. I think my ice breaker worked. The songs were well written, tunes/beats were present, and the rhymes they came up with were really good. The activity was a huge success, and they said they want to do it again later in the year.
What I learned the past two weeks is that I need to create as many opportunities to get the students busy and active. Sitting and taking notes does not engage the students of today. Also, the more hands on they are with the material, the more they understand and retain the content. Until net time, Happy Teaching!!