I liked the ideas that "successful teachers are the best teachers--of teachers." I agree with this completely because you can't expect someone who hasn't been in the classroom to teach pre-service teachers how to be effective teachers. I believe that successful teachers can help mold those learning to be teachers by showing them methods, techniques and examples that are effective. I also found that on page 127 that putting students in groups of six helps when time is an issue, I found this to be interesting because it at first seemed like a large number and that some students would get by with doing little or no work at all, but it made sense when it comes to time constraints and keeping on track.
I really liked the idea of expert groups, like we will be demonstrating in class. This seems effective because students will be able to focus on one idea and do their best to teach it to the class. I think it will make them think about and understand their idea better than if it had just been written on a worksheet they had to complete. I also really liked all the great tips and examples this chapter gave about teaching the Odyssey, it was very focused, organized, precise and something I would like to try as a teacher. I think it would be great if, and they probably do, make a whole book like this chapter for specific and individual novels, in order to help teachers teach them. I think this would be a useful tool, especially for beginner teachers.
I agree with you--I love how this chapter is structured and essentially teaches readers how to teach The Odyssey. I love organization, and the summation of her activities in the lesson is very effective and organized; I would definitely use them. That's a really good idea about a book that teaches a bunch of different texts like this one--one of the things I am nervous about is how much time to plan for each lesson and how to adjust the lesson if students aren't getting it. That would definitely be a useful tool for first time teachers.
ReplyDeleteYour post brought up two points that I had not thought of before. First, how when a teacher splits up studnets into groups of six then realistically only about three of the students will be needed to do the work, this shortchanes half of the students, as I read this I thought back to times in school when I witnessed student groups that were too big for the amount of work tthat was assigned. Secondly, I didn't eve nrealize our expert presentations are the same idea of the Japanesse lesson plan system, where teahers create, test, and demonstrate different lessons to find more effective strategies.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that either, Sam! I guess our expert group presentations do have the qualities of that system. I really like the idea of implementing that into American schools! One downside may be that teachers with completely different ideologies could come up with a lesson you hate, but you'd have to teach it (otherwise what would be the point of group collaboration, if not to come up with ideas and have the whole school on the same page?) What do you think?
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