This week has been exhausting for me personally! I'm in the middle of writing substitute teacher lesson plans, lesson plans for the week after next, wedding party plans, and moving all at once!
My crazy personal life aside though, the class is doing great. Hilights this week included...
Monday: Mars Aerial Mission
I found an interesting lesson online from a teacher's website which had an entire section devoted to job skills. The lesson that stood out the most to me was a lesson covering communication. The lesson required 2 students to work together as a team to build a complex paper airplane which was supposed to be an imaginary rocket to Mars. In the lesson the students were given one of two jobs, communication/directions and construction. Now, if you know anything about my current passion with Legos then you are probably thinking this lesson sounds very familiar, but there are some slight differences between this lesson and how I used Lego puzzles in the class. First: this particular lesson came with a specific script which the students had to read and follow; second: students traded roles half-way through the exercise. The objective was that students would learn to give slow and clear directions by using a very concise script, and likewise students would practice their listening skills by following along with their instructor.
To begin the lesson the class and I first outline two things: what it means to communicate and what are the best ways to explain something to another person. The class did a very good job of coming up with good ways to give directions including considerations like using good manners, physically showing a person what you want them to do, using a friendly tone, and going step by step. I was most impressed by the suggestion to use good and friendly manners, this is something I think a lot of people can forget to do if they become frustrated when attempting to explain something.
After we outlined why communication was important it was time to move on to the paper plane construction part of it all which bombed. The paper plan turned out to be too difficult to construct for this class and only one group completed the plane completely on their own. This was not a failed mission though because none of the 4 groups ever gave up, and all groups asked for help when they felt stuck. To me, perseverance and asking for help are two extremely important qualities to have in the employment world and I try very hard as a teacher to encourage those behaviors in the classroom.
Tuesday: Making Predictions Using Context
Tuesday, after our outing to the Tecumseh Branch Library, the class devoted the afternoon to an exercise which asked the students to make predictions about what would happen next in each situation based on the context. Making predictions is a valuable skill because it helps students look ahead to the consequences and rewards of their actions. Being able to predict what will happen next also helps students to understand the world around them.
To teach this unit I found worksheets online which included pictures of someone or something performing a certain act, next to the picture was a space to draw what the students thought would happen next as well as blank lines to write out their answers. The pictures varied, one picture included a man holding a coffee cup tripping over an unseen object, another was of a small boy walking and carrying a fishing pole, and my last example I'll share was of an elephant wearing a dress and fishing. The pictures were a hit with the class and I did my best to encourage them to consider all possibilities by pointing out each detain in the picture; for example the man tripping was holding a coffee cup, several papers, and he was wearing glasses. Using the picture of the man tripping and the details students were able to guess that he would fall forward, the man's glasses might break, the coffee cup would break, the coffee would spill on the ground, papers would fall on the group, the coffee would get on the papers, the man might break a bone, and the man's boss will be angry that he ruined the papers. All of that from one little picture.
After students finished making predictions based off of pictures I gave them a harder challenge by presenting them with short stories that asked the reader to predict what would happen next. One short story I used had 2 characters, the characters were 2 young boys who were boy scouts. According to the story the boy scouts were walking home one day when they found a wallet, they realized they should turn the wallet in to the police but they each also couldn't help but think of something specific they would like to buy with the money they found. The story cut off after mentioning the boys' selfish desires and asked the readers to guess what would happen next. Some students were able to form a prediction on their own, while others needed help breaking the text down. To break the text down I pointed out the reputation of the boy scouts as a well known organization which works to promote personal, professional, and survival skills in young boys and young adults. I then pointed out that small children sometimes have trouble making altruistic decisions. In the end there was not right or wrong answer as long as the students were able to explain why they chose the answer they did.
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