One challenge I am constantly having is the 15 minute focus that is turning into a half hour lesson. During the 15 minutes focus the students are to research a local, national, and international news story. They are to follow up this lesson by rewriting the news story in their own words. This is a very simple assignment but I find my self extending this assignment for the majority of the class.
One thing that I am noticing is the same kids are requiring my assistance. I understand that I have a high number of PEC students (Program for Exceptional Children) but it is also several other students who are not in this program. I have to look for several solutions to this problem. I have given students ideas on homework assignments that will help them with their research and writing for this assignment.
I have come to the conclusion that some students do not like to write. I thought this would be a great assignment to challenge their reading and writing skills but I have to find a way to keep them interested. I have tried implementing some of the classroom management skills I learned this summer at NTI but it is obvious I need more instruction.
Well maybe what you can do is to put them into groups for the assignment, and mix the esp students with regular. Then once they write their story the can brainstorm together. To keep their attention maybe let the shoot stand ups to the story or to shoot a one min package on the topic once a week, you want to use the equipment as a type of reward and this my motivate them to do better. Because they have to understand they must be able to write and breakdown print to make it into what they need it to be.
ReplyDeleteIs it possibly too much to do for the average student in 15 minutes? OR do you think possibly that they know you will give them extra time and therefore are wasting some of the time goofing off before they do the assignment?Maybe if you set a timer and told them that they would have to stop when the timer went off and turn in the assignment they would use their time more wisely. As for the special needs students, could their assignment be modified to better suit them? I have a class with a large number of special needs children and I have to modify every lesson for them. It is time consuming but I find that if my expectations are more realistic and more suited to their abilities, that my classroom time runs more smoothly for all. I hope this helps some. I may be totaly off base for your program, but it works for mine! :)
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