My previous post “Discussing Darkness” comments on specific discussion techniques I used in this lesson with my Grade 10 English class. This post reflects more on the lesson as a whole.
My lesson in Grade 10 English focused on a chapter from Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The lesson covered the growing savagery imagery, increased violence, brutal pig hunt, and Simon’s final face-off with the Lord of the Flies. (The lesson plan for this Learning Experience is attached here.)
Focused
Chat stations are a discussion technique I learned about from the Cult of Pedagogy. Starting with chat stations was an effective way to focus students’ attention on the topics to be explored. I was able to “float” between stations at this time and ask guiding questions to help students come up with ideas to jot down. The posters around the room included questions which formed the backbone for the whole class discussion.
Dynamic
I led class discussion by alternating between reading answers from chat station posters, expanding on these thoughts, reading aloud from the chapter, and asking further questions. The students engaged well.
With this discussion, my goal was put into action the inquiry-based learning technique that I was introduced to in my own course learning. It is valuable to give students the opportunity to explore topics in order to learn, with the teacher guiding their inquiry through poignant questions. My hope was that this practice would extend students’ general ability to approach literature comprehensively and critically.
Compared to the lesson I did with a middle school class last semester, the students in Grade 10 participated with highly insightful and thought-provoking comments. While both classes were eager to participate and answer questions, I found the high school class displayed more critical thinking and well thought-out ideas.
When reflecting on the lesson with Mr. D afterwards, he mentioned that a large part of holding successful class discussions is meaningful relationship with students. While I did have some students talk over me occasionally, I knew it would be challenging to command their attention as a new person who doesn’t have much relationship with them.
For future lessons, Mr. D suggested that I give more specific, positive responses to students’ shared insights. i.e. Instead of saying “yeah” when a student says something thoughtful, I could say things like “good” or “excellent.”
Reflective
The Quick Write after a rather heavy discussion was helpful, and the students engaged well with it. Based on what I’ve learned in my courses, this exercise was an effective “assessment for” and “assessment as” learning part. I asked them questions such as:
- What stood out to you in this reading? What phrases or scenes made you feel this way?
- If you were stranded on an island, do you think you would become more like Jack or Simon? Why?
- Based on what has happened in this chapter, what do you think will happen next in the book?
Given students an avenue to “process” the discussion helped make the learning more relevant to them and also gave me a helpful means of seeing whether they had grasped the main concepts and ideas well.
Walking to the back of the room at this point was helpful (I learned this from last practicum), because it helped students to focus on the task.
Differentiated
I aimed to differentiate the learning by giving students discussion, note-taking, and written reflection methods of learning. According to my course learning, differentiated learning is an effective strategy that helps students retain information better and remain engaged in the lesson.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time after the Quick Write to discuss in pairs. In a future lessons, pair-discussion would be a valuable way to extend the learning before doing the Mentimeter to close.
I also forgot to hand out the graphic organizer for during the class discussion. I believe students would be more focused with the option of writing notes during the discussion.
For introducing the context to Beelzebub, it would also be helpful to have a powerpoint at hand in the future, since it would be helpful to some students to have a visual on the screen to assist learning.
I was grateful for the opportunity to teach a lesson again! With each one, I sense I am learning new, valuable techniques and insights about facilitating and planning for learning.
What are some of your favourite teaching or lesson planning methods? How do you try to differentiate learning?
Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash