We begin our work with establishing the foundation for book clubs next week. I'm both excited and overwhelmed. Overwhelmed because I have too much to do and not enough hours in the day! Thankfully my students are all taking exams tomorrow, so this should allow me some time to sit down and think through some of the specifics for the process I'd like students to follow next week. (Downside of this is that by 3 o'clock I will have roughly 120 essay exams to grade and 30 exams on Islam to grade.)
Now the exciting part is that we are going to attempt to use 2 short stories and a narrative poem to have the students "warm-up" to the process of book club discussions. Dragon Boy inspired this choice! :) I like all three of the pieces and believe they should generate fantastic discussions from the students...key word there is "should." As Dragon Boy so clearly demonstrated, group dynamics are key to the success of a book club.
One of my plans for tomorrow as students are typing up their exams is to create their groups for our first round of book clubs without books. I'll use my notes on participation from our discussions of Gathering to guide my choices. Of course, I suspect this will be more of a challenge than it sounds like. My observations so far have led me to the conclusion that in these classes I either have conversation dominators or silent wall flowers. Obviously, this is a sweeping generalization, but I don't have a lot of students that fall into the middle category. Therefore the question becomes what is the appropriate mix of talkative to shy students in a group. Too many shy students and they sit and stare...too many talkative students and the group talks over each other and becomes contentious... The trick for me will be to put the right talkative students with the right shy students and then there is the issue of where to put the social pariah...Wish me luck!
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2 comments:
One of my favorite things about you is the thoughtful way that you approach any topic - and this is a great example. Often I have a tendancy to favor the full frontal attack. Plowing forward into a problem and trying to bulldoze my way through it. I LOVE the contemplative approach that you take to every aspect of teaching. You're like a cat. Sitting quietly, observing, calculating, tucking your haunches up under you ready for the stealthy pounce. I've no doubt that once you think it through you'll set your groups for optimum success. After all you've got the Dragon Boy experience to guide you!
Excellent start. What you're describing makes me think of a fresh canvas. That pristine white surface that is is ripe with possibilities but expansively overwhleming at the same time. I can't wait to hear how the composition comes together.
I'll be curious to see how this approach works, too. One thing I wondered is if you plan to move any students around between stories/the poem to try to find the optimum group?
Also, I'll write/call tomorrow so we can make sure we know where we're headed before Monday! Should be interesting!
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