In this week reading, it talked about how African American males felt about academics texts their teachers handed out. One of the readings pointed out most of them refused to read a text, not because they are not able to comprehend it. Most of these students refused to read what their teachers assigned, because it was not relevant to their life. Besides from not being relevant to their lives, they also felt that the teachers were trying to change them through the readings. From my fieldwork, I do noticed some of my students being very disengaged in school. I have this one particular student, who would ask me, "Is it time to go home yet?" when school just started. When I asked her what she thought about school, she told me that it was boring. This was not a shocker for me because I have been there and felt the same way. Things that are being taught in school can be so disengaging since most of it aren't even relevant in the students' lives. This is especially the case for those schools that are mainly focused on teaching for the test.
So my questions for you are:
Have any of you see this in your field work? Do you see some of your students being disengaged in a lesson because they don't see the relevance of that lesson? Does your teacher do anything to engage the students or do they ignore those kids? What are their view about those students?
If you are the teacher, how would you address this problem? How will you engage ALL of your students in the lesson?
Thanks for reading!
Van
Hi Van,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I do see many students disengaged in lessons in field work. I think this happens in every classroom. It is hard to engage every student when they might have things going on in their lives that distract them from the lesson. As far as my mentor teacher, she tries to engage the students, but at times the students do not cooperate. So, she has them work on their own. If I was the teacher, I would have a plan to modify the lesson and somehow think of a way that the students can connect to the concept that I am teaching. Engagement is the idea that I think a lot of teachers struggle with.
Tina Skukan
Hi Tina!
DeleteThanks for responding! I really like how you brought up one of the reasons students are distracted in school is because they have things going in their lives that are bothering them. I can personally relate to this because there are times in my life where I have a hard time focusing in class because there are things i was bothered with. Even when I try to force myself to refocus, my mind would slowly drift back to that unresolved issue. Therefore, I can really understand how hard this would be for young kids. One thing I have seen in my fieldwork is class morning check-in, where students would stand in a circle and share something about themselves. Some kids would share their weekend plan, their excitement. While others might share things that might happened at home and it was bothering them. I really like morning check-in because it serves as an outlet for the students, build a sense of community among the students, and keep the teacher posted on what is happening in our students' lives. Again, thanks for sharing.
Van
Hi Van!
ReplyDeleteI have seen some of my students being very disengaged. My teacher constantly asks them to do their work and pay attention, but sometimes they kind of slip through the cracks. I think that these students might be disengaged because they are so far behind in everything, so they get discouraged and the second that they don't understand something they kind of shut down and become disruptive. I would try to present things in different ways and try to relate it to my students' lives as often as possible.
Hi Desirae!
DeleteI totally agree with you about kids, who are really behind in school, tend to be easily distracted or shut themselves down when they perceived a task is way too hard. I have seen this in my current field work. It is really hard as a teacher to engage ALL the students, because each of them a unique in their own way, and as a teacher we should find a way to incorporate all their interest and tie it into the lesson. This might be why I really like multi- modality because it offers that varieties I want. Although it is challenging and a lot of work to incorporate different modalities into every lesson, I feel that it will pay off in the long run because you will be able to see the engagement from each child.
Thanks for sharing!
Van
Hi Van,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts on the reading! As far as what I've experienced in my field placement, I think my teacher does a great job integrating culturally relevant texts to the students. I work in an all Black community and many of the texts we engage our students with can identify or relate with the characters and experiences from those given texts. I think this make learning so much more meaningful and students are able to make personal connections which is critical for comprehension. Students not only deepen their understanding, but they also are more engaged and motivated to participate, share, and learn.
Hey Van!
ReplyDeleteGreat way of addressing this issue I'm pretty sure most of us have struggled with and are concerned with. I personally think it's very hard to make every lesson engaging specially when you have so many personalities in the classroom and so much to get through. I know my students struggle to stay engaged when we are just lecturing so I like to make it as interactive as possible. For example I taught them lesson on the voting process and the importance on it and my assessment was having them make a thirty second commercial on why people should vote. It was really nice to see how hard they worked and how invested they were. I got a lot of positive feedback and I personally was encouraged to have more activities like this for them to do instead of just having them answer a few questions!
Hi Jess!
DeleteThat is such a great idea! I really like how you assign that project for your students. I bet they had a fantastic time working on their commercial. I like how you turn a political topic into something fun and creative! FYI I'm stealing your idea for future lesson 😜.
Thanks for the tip!
Van
Hi Van!
ReplyDeleteI really like your post. I can definitely relate to your post. I see this a lot in my field work. Many students are assigned readings, but most students don't participate in reading the books, since they aren't ones of interest. But, I have also seen teachers use texts that were engaging to students, and related to student interests. This was prevalent immediately, since students were actively participating in questions the teacher was asking. As a teacher, I would want my students to actively engage with reading and learning about through reading books, but I also want to make sure they do relate to the books. So, depending on the grade level, I may have students choose their books, or I may offer students to bring in the books they think would be ideal for the lesson, and if I want to concentrate on one book, then have the class vote on which book they prefer.
Hi Eman!
DeleteYes, I really agree with your perspective on giving students the choice to pick their own book since they will be more likely to read the book. The classroom I am in right now has a classroom library where students can pick out books of their choice. The only problem we are having right now is that they are just picking and not really read. The lesson we learn is holding the students accountable to the book that are reading. It's funny because on Thursday, we had a sub, and one kid was about to pull the same trick on her. She was like "tell me what the book is about? What place in the story do you like and what part you hate?" The student just went back to his seat and all the students just literally started to read. I was like damn she's GOOD! I know it's probably common sense to do that, but that just slipped passed me and I didn't even think of it. BUT! Now I do...hehe
Thank you so much for sharing Eman!
Van! Love the post!
ReplyDeleteI actually can relate to my fieldwork. My mentor teacher does a great job at allowing the students to read any book they want at certain points in the day and has specific points in the day where the kids will read a just right book. Overall, she supports all reading because our kids are so motivated to read books that they choose. That's why i really like the idea of book shopping that allows kids to have on level books, higher levels books and books to read for fun!
Thanks!
Van love the post! In my field placement the students can choose any book they would like to read during free time.
ReplyDeleteGetting kids to be eager with reading starts with having books that kids theyre age like wether that is a series or even one book. I know that certain books like mystery are a favorite among middle schools and books about plants and animals are favorites among the younger grades.
ReplyDelete