First of all, very exciting news....I was announced this week as the Francis Howell School District's Teacher of the Year. I was totally caught off-guard on this one. It is an unbelievable honor. I work in a wonderful school district and to be chosen as the teacher of the year in such great place is quite meaningful.
On to the happenings in room 236. Last week, I tried a great little lesson that proved to be quite fun. Since I am a firm believer in letting the students work through problem-solving to come to conclusions, I decided to try something new when teaching the French superlative. We had just learned the comparative and they seemed pretty sure of the ways of the comparative, so I transitioned them into the superlative. I created a video with several series of images. FouFou is a cute dog. Milo is a cuter dog than FouFou. Pierre is the cutest of the dogs...You get the picture. I posted the video on Edmodo and I put them into groups. The groups had to watch the videos and come up with some statements about what they noticed in the superlative sentences. Each student wrote things down. I had them use their cell phones to watch the video. In most groups, at least two people had a phone, so they could crowd around their phones and watch. Then, the group agreed on one thing that they noticed and posted it on Edmodo, being careful to read what others had posted so that the same post wasn't repeated. It was such an amazing thing to watch. Some kids got it right away, some of them struggled and couldn't figure out what it was that they were looking for. I asked them to be able to answer my question "What is different about the superlative than the comparative?" I walked around to each group to make sure that everyone was grasping the concept. One thing that surprised me was that the kids who caught on right away, were the ones who usually struggle when notes are directly presented to them, and the ones who usually grasp direct instruction immediately took a little longer. That switch created confidence in the lower students, but frustrated the higher students. It was an interesting turn.
To help practice the information, I had students bring in several types of food. We had cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, chips, juice, candy, and much more. Students were instructed to write sentences comparing these things. I was able to walk around and look at their answers and work one on one with them to help clear up confusion and double check that they were writing the correct answers. Every student was engaged and because I was checking in with them, I could make sure they were appropriately engaged. I feel as if I have room to grow with this one, but we had a lot of fun with the assignment. Our class period was cut short due to a shorted school day. Had we had a normal class period, I would have had the time to do an end of the hour summary. That was something that was missed. But...I am ready for next year!
