Lesson 22

If you think your lessons are not working, do something else.

Today I was venting to Shannon and Kristen about how I feel that I'm doing a bad job teaching. Sometimes I feel as though my students aren't retaining information. They also have a tough time concentrating and I feel as though I spend too much time disciplining rather than having fun learning with them.

My biggest concern is that most of my kids can't sound out words if their life depended on it. Jeremy told me that I should wait for them to sound words out and not give them the answer when they're reading to me. A few kids are great at it, some are O.K., and the rest are horrible. It recently occurred to me that Jeremy probably never did phonics with them, so naturally they wouldn't understand what "what sound does this letter make?" means. After I voiced this concern, Tara informed me that Jeremy never did phonics with them, so most of them wouldn't understand what "what sounds does this letter make?" means. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

She continues, "Yeah, well you know, the kids that are good at it went to different schools where they practiced phonics so they're going to be more advanced than the students who have only gone here. It's not in the curriculum here so that means we don't do it. Honestly, it's hopeless to try teaching phonics to these kids since they're already seven years old. Phonics is something you learn when you're really young, maybe four or five years old. You're better off just continuing what Jeremy did."

All I said to her was: "Yeah. What Jeremy did works so well that they can't figure out simple words on their own."

Them being seven has nothing to do with whether or not I should teach them phonics. The students who don't understand phonics have more trouble recognizing and remembering new words. The only things they can "read" are things that have been repeated again and again since the first day of school (i.e. morning/afternoon message). Julie, John, and Tobey are the only kids that will sounds things out without prompting. Jasmine and Yi-Young can't sound out a single thing. They're behind in their reading and writing - I noticed this the first week I was here. I have to change this.

I can't follow the curriculum. Our topic is Bears and Canada and we've only been instructed to talk about bears and a bunch of nonsense that has nothing to do with them. John and Sally asked me the other day: "Miss Cally, why we learn only bears, no Canada?" Fair point. I've decided to talk about Canada next week, though we're not expected to. I want to do more hands-on projects with them as well. The parents, unfortunately, complain a lot if they find that their kid is doing more arts and crafts than writing. But I can't get them to focus or learn if all they do is copy what's on the board. The parents will just have to deal if they want their kid to learn anything.