Assignments That Work and Don’t Work

This is my last entry for my portfolio. After this all I need to do is send in my application and money and I will receive my Level 2 teaching certificate. I'm so excited.

Piano
What works: In Piano class each Monday they work on learning a new concept in piano theory. When I do examples on the board together with the students before they start their book work; they have fewer questions and their understanding seems more complete. This is then reinforced with their quiz on Friday which has the same principles done just slightly different so the students fully grasp the concept.
What doesn’t work: They have a difficult time understanding their own ability level. They want to be able to play the songs they have heard others play before they have reached that skill level. When I have let them pick their own recital piece they tend to pick a piece that is far above their level. Thus I have to then talk them into a different piece with out hurting their ego. I did this once and will never do it again. I now pick the piece they will play and try to make it challenging so they feel a sense of accomplishment and not defeat.

Horticulture
What works: When we talk about nutrition we cover a unit called portion distortion. I give them a test where they are to guess the differences in portion from 20 years ago to today’s portions. When this is complete I then put them into teams. On the board I have the quiz with the answers hidden. They then get to conference with their team to come up with the correct answer. I have found that when the students are actively involved with learning they tend to pay attention more and learn more in the process.
What doesn’t work: We do a unit on companion gardening. I pass out information and they are to sort through it and make a plan for planting a garden using this concept. I usually divide them into groups for this activity. They tend to not really go through the information to make a good plan. They want me to give them all the answers. I have since changed they way this is taught. We do it while we are planting. This is a more hands on approach and they relate to and learn it better.

Careers
What works: I have found that alternative assessments work very well with this population of students. So in careers I do their mid-tern test as a Bingo game. We play it several times to reinforce the concepts learn so far. I usually use the definition and they have to find the term. This also lends itself to additional teaching on my part. I get a kind of assessment on my teaching skills also. This way I make sure all that I wanted the students to learn is covered.
What doesn’t work: I have found that having the student read independently and then discussing what they have read is not as effective as reading together and discussing as we go.

Personal Finance
What works: When we study the budget unit I usually divide the students into teams of two. Then they are given a page with items on it that together they need to decide haw they will spend their money. They are given tokens to place on the sheet to show how they would spend their money. We than talk about how important it is to have communication when working with money. I stress that everyone has different ideas as to what is important to spend money on and what isn’t. This usually leads to a great discussion.
What doesn’t work: In this class I have found that working together on assignments works the best. This is a concept that a lot of people don’t know a lot about or don’t want to know a lot about. So in this class we work together quite a bit.

Choir
What works: I have found that before we start to sing it is very helpful to learn some basic theory. One of the things we do is a rhythm circle game. Each student makes up a rhythm on a sheet of paper in 4/4 time. We then place the paper on the floor in front of us and move around in a circle clapping each others rhythms. We start out slow and gradually build up speed.
What doesn’t work: With singing songs they are not familiar with I have found that I need to teach rhythms within the song by breaking down the songs into smaller chunks. When I first started teaching I was used to working with student with a lot more experience then the ones I work with now.

Music Appreciation
What works: A fun assignment that I did with the music appreciation class was to have them put a song they were familiar with in order. This was fun for them to do. When they had finished I played each of their songs and had them listen to see if it sounded right. We had a lot of fun laughing together.
What doesn’t work: At times because of my training I tend to get a bit too technical. I loose the student’s attention really fast when this happens. Being aware of my students and knowing their “I’m Bored” signs help me with this issue.

I have learned to be receptive to my student’s needs, learning styles, and interests. This is very important when working with this population. They have had mostly negative experiences in education. I want to be a positive influence to encourage them to continue learning.