We started the lesson with students creating question dice from a template. They really enjoyed this part!!
The students then listened while I read a section of When The Kehua Calls. They then rolled their dice in pairs and asked a question of the piece of text. They wrote this separately to the following activities.
Students were given a task each – in groups of four. These were doled out according to their birthdates. They seemed to enjoy this although lots of questions were asked. I told them to be brave. The instructions that came with the original activity said that students will need to be explicitly taught the skills required. In the next lesson I will take them through what is expected for each part. Perhaps come up with four 5 minute activities that we could do at the start of the lesson.
Generally they seemed to enjoy it…but when I asked for a show of hands I got mainly 2/3 out of 5 for enjoyment and a 4/5 out of 5 for understanding. Will go into more detail next time as to why they didnt enjoy it. I think splitting them up into different groups had an impact but it is good to get them working with students they might not otherwise work with.
Had a really great activity that I did with both my junior English classes today.
Using a list of words from the books that we are studying they had to look at it for 2 minutes and then try to correctly write them in their books. They then swapped their books with a partner to mark. the top student only got one wrong out of 22!
They then took those words and organised them into categories of their own choosing. Wrote them in their books.
Went well!
again with the so tired! this has been a week! i need to get my long term planning sorted. i feel a little on the back foot at the moment – always running to catch up with things. my media girls seem to be enjoying the group magazine assignment. The big problem seems to be getting into the computer lab!
Working through some creative writing exercises with Year 10 English.
So far this term I have been feeling quite sickly. Classes are going well though. I seem to have a good relationship with most of my students and there are no classes that I dread turning up to.
I am really enjoying working on The Truman Show with 11EAD.
Poster
We are looking at some gnarly philosophical questions – existentialism, free will, the role of television. I am enjoying planning and the students seem to be enjoying learning and constructing!
Year 9 English are reading When the Kehua Calls and while there is some reluctance and cultural cringe going on, they generally seem interested. Some students say that they are unable to read it just before they sleep as it ‘freaks them out’. Interesting to see a book affect them so deeply. We are beginning to look at the themes in another text – The Makutu on Mrs Jones.
Year 12 are trundling along doing their assessment. It is sad to see how some of them barely manage to string a coherent sentence together.
