When I was a new teacher, some days I'd be driving to work thinking, "What am I going to do today?!" in a semi-panic. Now, sometimes I think to myself, "Hmm, I wonder what I'm going to do today," deep in contemplation. That's what experience does for you.
Today, I needed a quick writing lesson. And since it's Friday, it needed to be something they could accomplish in one class hour, then clean up over the weekend. So I came in early this morning to think something up.
So what rabbit did I pull out of my hat? I took them out to the quad with pencil & paper, and told them to find something to describe in detail. It could be anything: a tree, a trash can, the vending machine. The ants crawling along the crack in the concrete. Whatever. Just get down to minute descriptions, and stay with one subject. Beat it to death with adjectives, similies, & sensory detail.
Kids really got into it. I had to separate a few kids who were tempted to talk instead of observe and write, but after I played the bowling ball to their pins, everything went swimmingly (I've always wanted to use that adverb do describe something. It probaby has a broader range of usefulness in British English; here, it's better saved for sarcasm, I think).
Well, one must experiment. This time, it worked.
No comments:
Post a Comment