…an exciting experiment!
The most amazing thing happened today! My students came up with an idea that is going to shape my curriculum for the next several weeks!
Background
This year I am teaching a class comprised of 7th and 8th grade students called Spanish Seminar. The class is made up of native Spanish speakers and students who participated in dual-language immersion in elementary school.
It’s the first time we’ve had enough kids to run a class like this, and I am making it up as I go; borrowing from the ELA standards and the high school’s curriculum. On top of everything, this group of students is hands-down the shyest class I have ever taught! I find myself begging them to talk and share their thoughts!
But today something magical happened!
Each week students read a non-fiction news article of their choice, and one person presents her article and leads a discussion. Today’s presenter shared an article about poor children in Venezuela receiving music lessons.
She posed this question to the group:
If you could help a group of people, who would you help and why? What kinds of programs would they like to bring to poor people?
The kids got really excited talking about it and one girl shouted out “We should do that! We should hold a bake sale and help a group that needs it!”
“Who would you like to help?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but let’s look!” the student answered, flipping open her Chromebook and energetically typing into Google. The other girls followed suit and vigorously began researching organizations.
The first question they asked me was “Where do we start? What do we search for?” This led to a good conversation about how to conduct searches and also about finding an organization that would safely distribute whatever we decided to donate. The girls were beyond excited, reading aloud to each other (all in Spanish, by the way!) and sharing videos.
Suddenly my shy, silent group was chatting up a storm, shouting out ideas left and right! “How should we decide which organization to help?” another student asked. Thankfully, my teacher-brain kicked into high-gear.
Harnessing their energy and enthusiasm
“I have an idea!” I beamed. “What if each group researches a charity of its choice and creates a persuasive pitch to present to the rest of the class? We can brainstorm things that should be included in each pitch and then vote after all the presentations on which organization we should help. And as part of your pitch, you can give suggestions of how we can help.”
“Really?!?!” the girls squealed.
“Sure!” I smiled back.
All year long I have been racking my brain for ways to engage this group and bring them out of their shells. I tried dialogue journals, writing and presenting personal biographies, daily conversation about topics of their choice and even improv games. Nothing worked until now. I never thought a non-fiction reading assignment would have led to this level of excitement and energy! When the bell finally rang, they begged me for passes to come to my room during study-hall so they could keep working.
“We will have more class time on Friday,” I said.
“We know, but can we come during study hall anyway?!?” They pleaded.
So they came and worked all period! I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow! Wish us luck!
