Teaching Rhetorical Devices

My third and final video teach went pretty darn splendidly, if I do say so myself.  The students had copies of three movie speeches.  We then viewed two of the three speeches, and I modeled answering questions about what the speaker was saying and how they were saying it.  I wanted students to discern between the literal message of a speech and the rhetorical and persuasive devices that helped transform their message into something acceptable.  I was defining and giving examples of persuasion, but I was also trying to break down the elements of persuasion in the hopes that students would be able to incorporate some of the rhetorical devices that I presented into their own writing.

The first example I used was the “You can’t handle the truth!” speech by Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men.  That speech is an amazing one to analyze.  He is essentially justifying the cover-up of the murder of an American Marine with rhetoric.  The students really seemed to perk up when I showed this clip, so on my cooperating teacher’s suggestion, I played the clip twice.  This speech helped me to easily model for students how to discern the What and How in a particular speech.  Many of them seemed to know plenty of persuasive devices, so when I proceeded to ask students to pick these out of the piece, they were ready to answer my questions.  The last part of the worksheet asked to combine their thinking in the first two questions: they were to analyze how the content of the speech and the rhetorical devices worked together to create something new, complex, and eerily persuasive.

I am teaching the same lesson in a few minutes during fourth period.  This time I want to allow students to work together in cooperative groups during the guided practice.  It wasn’t until I taught the lesson that I realized that I needed to allow the students to talk more about what I am teaching them.  This little change in plans will hopefully allow for better answers during the independent practice portion of their lesson.

And a few words about “edutainment”.  I liked my lesson because I knew it would get their attention, it was controversial, and it allowed me to analyze short pieces, which is a must with this class of reluctant readers and writers.  I am pretty positive that I will use media as a teacher quite extensively, though not the exclusion of novels, articles, poems, graphic novels, novems, poems, short stories, biography, propaganda, (I could go on).  It’s not an either/or situation.  I would argue that by showing them a clip of Jack Nicholson’s rage-filled oratory COUPLED with a transcribed copy of what the words actually said made the words on the page more powerful.  Students saw how the words affected the message, and that is what I want them to take away from a Language Arts class.

This lesson was also great because I can think of soo many extension activities.  Maybe I’ll write more about that later, but for now I have some teaching to do….

Teaching Writing

As a component of the students’ research project, the kids are to write a personal narrative essay.  It was my job today to present the narrative essay.  Because form is not strictly prescribed, I turned my focus on helping students flesh out their writing with sensory vocabulary words.  I also provided two examples of personal narrative essays, so the students could understand what they sounded/looked like.  Lastly, I showed a rough draft of my own writing to help students appreciate how first draft writing is the “bare bones” and sensory vocabulary and revision will help them “flesh out” their writing.

I wish that I had gone into a discussion about pre-writing.  The students clearly could have used an introduction to graphic organizers to help them get started.  Some of their reluctance is sort of ingrained in them from years of “just getting by” in school, but most of their reluctance came from their need for explicit instruction.  I liked the way I got the students to work during this lesson.  My first presentation was full of good information, but I’m not sure I engaged the students enough.  Granted my topic for my first teach was possibly the most uninspiring topic in the ELA repertoire: MLA documentation; however, I do think my use of cooperative learning groups in this instance was effective, if only in terms of getting them to do their work, participate, and listen.  My favorite activity was showing the students a piece of my own writing.  I simplified the piece I originally prepared because I wanted them to see the importance of getting their ideas on paper first, and using revision to flesh out their narrative and help their stories come to life.  I also like the fact that the class collectively moaned when I had them start the lesson with a freewriting exercise as a way to warm up.  Once they moaned about it, I explained why I was having them do the writing exercise and the benefits they would reap from starting the class thinking about their essays (which will be a blend of research information and information based on interviews).  Their moans let me know that what I was asking them to do was work, and that was exactly what I wanted from them.

This teach was good.  I had fun, partly because I like the information I was presenting and partly because I can relate to how the writing process can be both painful and enormously rewarding.  Students need explicit writing instruction, and when they are given specific, accomplishable tasks, they do the work.  I notice when things are presented in a vague manner, students are apathetic and unproductive.  I also have a new love and respect for graphic organizers.  They really work, and they are the easiest way, I think, to present information that is complex.  Because writing is such a complex and difficult activity, students need to write all of the time and the definitely need explicit instruction!

Ms., What’s a Bibliography?

Today my cooperating teacher introduced a research project to her senior English class.  Although the students initially bemoaned the idea of writing a research paper, they were nevertheless intrigued by the topic: themselves.  They are to interview family members about the day and year of their birth as well as conduct internet research pertaining to the year they were born.  I will not teach until next week, and at that time I will help them learn how to make bibliography cards; nevertheless I am really anxious to help the students embark on the process. 

 I saw several opportunities for Ms. L to model exactly what she wanted from her students.  I also thought that a short warm-up writing exercise would have been beneficial to the students.  They seemed to need help conceptualizing what the finished product would or could look like.  They needed explicit instruction.  I could tell that this was the case by their questions, and by the time spent doing preliminary research in the computer lab later.  Students were uninterested in my help for the most part once they were on the computers, but I attributed that to the fact that they were allowed to “surf the web” virtually at will.  They were content to explore on their own without interference from me.  (If only we could reign-in that natural curiosity to explore and apply it to pertinent research for their assignment.)

I feel like I have an advantage over my cooperating teacher in the sense that I am a student still and can empathize with their anxieties and uncertainties regarding writing and research.  Last semester I was enrolled in a course that required a research project based primarily on interviews.  I wanted to share with the students that the interview process should happen over time, I wanted them to appreciate that as they begin writing and thinking about their topic, they may find that they will want or need to conduct another interview.  I wanted to get them motivated through thinking and writing, but instead I will illustrate an out-dated and distracting convention that I have never used as a writer of research papers in the college setting.  But that’s okay, ’cause I’m flexible, and I am at least finding a motivation and a really strong desire to do things differently for my students. 

“Focus on the writer not the writing.”

Reflections of Senior English

I have decided to trim the fat and work with one of my cooperating teachers exclusively.  I haven’t talked to Bond or Nicholson about this decision or my other coop teacher for that matter, but Ms L, who I really want to work with exclusively, has given me her consent, and really that’s all that matters:)! 

I was able to help a student today in writing a poem modeled after the Langston Hughes poem “I Have Known Rivers”.  I was amazed at her creativity and the astuteness of her observations about her life and the world around her.  It made me think about the need as teachers to raise the expectations we have of all students, of the need to introduce our students to increasingly challenging literature and writing exercises that allow them to write and think about their experiences and their world from multiple perspectives. 

In my methods class last night, we were shown a video in which veteran teachers discussed emergence strategies, getting students to ask questions to reveal the deeper meanings in the literature they read.  The teachers in the video were really defending the value of literature studies as a way for us to see the world from multiple perspectives; literature can be a lens through which we see the world and ourselves, granting us the benefit of a deeper, richer, and fuller understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.  This rationale for the teaching of literature is one that I agree with wholeheartedly.  I want my students to understand that the skills and understanding that they can develop in themselves have worth beyond passing a class or graduating high school–they can lead to a broadening of thought and perspective that can take them anywhere they want to go in life.

My Courageous Cooperating Teacher

I am feeling really grateful for this experience.  A heady mixture of theory, idealism, and reality, this block experience and the opportunity to observe and talk with a cooperating teacher is, I am realizing, invaluable.  Like Mr. T, “I pity the fool” who opts for alternative certification.

Ms. L takes time to talk to me about the challenges and realities of teaching teenagers in our community who are living in poverty.  These kids are intimately acquainted with the harsh realities of the struggle to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.  Though their families may value education in theory, in reality these adolescents do not have the luxury of college or even finishing high school– they must help their families survive in the immediate future.

 So the question becomes:  How do we make education relevant for these students?  Ms L’s suggestion is to give them hope.  Let them know that the money is there to pursue an education later if not immediately after high school.  Give them the skills today that will help them navigate the world they live in.  Rather than bending the students to my will, interests, or agenda, I want to figure out what makes these kids tick and then get them reading and motivated in spite of it all.  I really believe that this is possible.  I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.

A Strange Start

Our first day with our cooperating teacher was unusual to say the least.  Ms L was helpful, full of suggestions, and clearly a wonderful teacher, but a black cloud hung over her and her students today.  They have lost one of their own.  The mood was somber and low-key.  Ms L made sure to let her kids know that she was mourning right along with them and not particularly in the mood to push them too hard, though she did get them to complete some of the necessary daily business.  Most striking for me was her compassion and her enthusiasm for her kids, whom she repeatedly referred to as ’smart’ and ‘awesome.’   I feel really lucky to be working with Ms L this semester.

Week Three

The observation this week was really great.  I was able to observe an excellent teacher in my content area, and I was totally inspired by her approach and her innovative style.  It is a great feeling to know I am on the right track career-wise.

I am really looking forward to planning lessons and actually conducting my own mini-teach in both the block and in my methods class.  Looking at textbooks was not the torturous experience maybe I was afraid it could or would be; rather, I was relieved to learn what a supportive resource they will prove to be.

Week Two…

I am really excited about observing a real life classroom, with an honest-to-goodness teacher, and authentic adolescent specimens!  We were graced with a presentation by an ESL teacher who seemed so refreshingly original and individual.  I don’t know that I will adopt all of his philosophies/tactics, but it was nice to see that a professional teacher felt comfortable enough to speak his mind truthfully and passionately.  I’m feeling a lot of mixed emotions…will write more soon.