October 21, 2009

Compliments for Me-Actual Learning for Them

I could easily give my students an article or something to read as a class to teach them the skill of outlining. But I don't. Finding an article they would all find interesting, something they could all relate to, is practically impossible. So I do the same thing every year. I write this on the board. . .

"Mrs. BBM is SO awesome."

They chuckle and share some private jokes for a couple seconds. Then I ask them to fill in the details in the form of a graphic organizer. Last year, they were very funny details. This year they were super flattering!

The kids told me I was a "snazzy dresser," and that I had "great hair," and perhaps the best compliments of all were the ones they placed under "great personality," and "funny." They added details under each category like "cute shoes," and "bombshell blonde," and "stylish haircut." When we were finished I had an entire chalkboard full of compliments that any girl would love.

Then we turned our graphic organizer of Mrs. BBM awesomeness into an outline. And I could hear the light bulbs clicking on. They get it now. They really get it.

When I was finished getting flattered, we had a rough draft workshop. I was making the rounds and sitting in on groups, and adding my two cents here and there. And then I got to this one particular girl and her paper on the abuse of animals in the entertainment industry. It absolutely blew me away. I've been telling them that in this argumentative essay, they need to find their voices. But still, I see what they've written and it is usually straight-forward and informational. It doesn't jump off the paper. This girl totally got it. I was so excited about her opening paragraph that I asked her to read it out loud. She blushed the whole time, but you could tell she was super proud of herself. The other kids were silent when she was finished. It was powerful. I knew I had gotten through to at least one person in the class during the past two weeks when I've been pounding it into their heads about developing voice in their writing.

In my speech class I also read her paragraph out loud. My speech class delivers persuasive speeches next week and I've been stressing the need for passion in their speeches and appeals to emotions. I read it and they were, for once, speechless. It feels so good to even reach one student; and my hope is that many others will strive for what she accomplished in just her introductory paragraph.

It is unconventional days like this in the classroom that make me love teaching. Despite the fact that I woke up yesterday feeling horrible, I left campus happy with a boatload of cool compliments AND the knowledge that I had really taught them something.

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