At St. John’s the students stay in one classroom and the teachers move from class to class. The teachers have a large shared office space with cubicles. Approximately 94% of the teachers are Muslim and 98% are women. 6% of the staff is Chinese Malay and Indian Malay. St. John’s is a missionary school that came to be in 1907.
My first lesson was a writing lesson for 16 year olds, Form 3 students. I use Franz Kafka’s “Fellowship” as the reading to spark the writing assignment. A 40-minute class is not long and I learned that the hard way. I completely ran out of time during this lesson. We didn’t even get to the writing instruction. It ended up being more of a reading, listening, speaking, and thinking lesson. (See complete lesson at the end of this post.)
Elly had my lessons divided by writing, listening, speaking and reading. This is not the way I teach. I try to incorporate all of those aspects in each lesson I teach as an English Language Arts teacher. I created the eight lessons I taught at St. John’s from the five E’s: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.
The second lesson I taught was a writing lesson to 14 year olds, Form 2. I had them write from an autobiographical perspective about their name, “What’s in a Name?” I used a vignette from Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street and a student example I had from a previous year of teaching this writing assignment. Overall, it was a more effective writing lesson than the one with the 16 year olds. I especially enjoyed reading what they wrote----excellent feedback on the effectiveness of the lesson. Furthermore, I use the “exit ticket” approach…before the students left class they critiqued the lesson and what they learned.
The third lesson was a listening lesson in the auditorium with about 60 students 10 of which were sight impaired. At first I was overwhelmed…but the students were all 18 years old, a very mature group. I decided to use storytelling. I read, four times, the start to a story and I asked them to complete the story. The stories they created were great and entertaining. Their feedback was very positive as well.
The fourth lesson was a listening lesson for 13 year olds. I chose a piece by Langston Hughes, "Thank You, M’am." I used the Great Books Shared Inquiry methodology. It worked quite well other than running out of time. The feedback from students was positive. They enjoyed the open ended questions and the discussion the most.
The fifth and sixth lessons I taught were on a Friday, so classes are shorter by 10 minutes, so that the Muslim students are able to go to the Mosque and pray. It was to be a speaking lesson for 18 year olds and 14 year olds. Given 30 minutes on Friday I decided to play some games that rely on communication skills. It got a little loud and chaotic, but in my opinion a fun learning environment.
The seventh and eighth lessons were reading lessons for 14 and 15 year olds. I chose pieces out of a Junior Great Books anthology. I used a combination of Shared Inquiry discussion and Institute for Learning’s Pattered Way of Learning. Again I found 40 minutes to be too short for a one-time lesson that isn’t connected to the standard curriculum.
LESSON PLAN
Topic “Fellowship” by Franz Kafka
Subject: English Language Arts
Teaching objectives: Students will engage in critical reading, writing, and talking to gain a deeper understanding of Kafka’s short story, “Fellowship.” Student will use evidence from the text to support their interpretations.
Key points
-engaging students in a challenging piece of literature
-expression and tracking of thinking
-explanation of ideas
-developing an interpretation of ideas
-metacognition
Teaching methods & facilities 5 E Model- Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate
Disciplinary Literacy Patterned Way of Reading, Writing, and Talking/Share Inquiry Discussion
Teaching procedure
Engage:
Text Opener
Have students write on one of the following questions and follow with a brief large group discussion.
What is friendship?
How do you react to strangers?
What is compassion? (Merriam-Webster Online: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.)
Explore:
First Reading--reading to get the gist:
1. Read the piece out loud to the students as they follow along. Do check ins, stop during the reading, and ask the following questions:
What is happening here?
Who are the characters?
What do we know about them? How do we know?
Explain:
Second Reading--reread for significance:
1. Have students read the text again to themselves.
2. Ask students to identify two moments/sentences/phrases that strike them as most significant to the text.
3. Have students create a two column chart to record the moments/sentences /phrases that they selected. Direct them to write the significant moments on the left column; then across from each moment in the other column do a quick write to explain the significance to Kafka's story.
4. Pair Share--have students share their significant moments with one other person by explaining why these are most significant.
Step Back/Evaluate:
1. Ask students how identifying and explaining the significant moments further their understanding of the story?
2. Ask students what they learned from sharing and explaining their significant moments with a peer?
Elaborate:
Third Reading--Read again, Write about, and Engage in a Shared Inquiry Discussion.
Interpretive question: Why does the narrator say that he and the other four are "friends"?
Students will:
1. reread the story
2. individually write a response to the chosen interpretive question.
3. participate in a Whole Group Inquiry-based Discussion
4. cite their written responses during the discussion
5. listen for different interpretations of the question
Wrap up Inquiry-based Discussion:
1. Have students take a minute to add any new information to their response.
2. Have students answer the following questions: As a result of our discussion, did your response change? If so, how? What are your lingering questions about Franz Kafka's story and why are they unresolved?
Evaluation:
Step Back--Reflect on Inquiry -based Discussion:
Ask students:
1. What did you learn about the text's meaning?
2. Task, Text, and Talk--what do you see as the relationship among the task (quick write on the interpretive question; the text ("Fellowship" by Franz Kafka); and the talk (shared inquiry discussion)?
3. What did you learn about participating in an inquiry-based discussion?
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