tiny teaching wins!
I want to talk about my students and what a good job they did today. We just had our fourth session together, and finished reading "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant – a story that is usually given to 8th to 11th graders – across two days. I simplified it a lot, and still had a ton of vocabulary words to go over with them. But we did it!
I designed it such that we took turns reading, and each reader picked the next one. There were questions in between to check for reading comprehension and to help them suss out the meanings of words I didn't pre-teach.
I'd never run a read-along session in a virtual class (or ever), so I was very nervous. Would we go so slowly that we'd need a third session? Would some of my students refuse to read aloud or even stop attending because they didn't want to read this story? I didn't want to lose them only two weeks into our program.
But my kids put those worries to rest. They did SO WELL. And when we got to the twist ending, they had such strong reactions! It's so, so satisfying to see a lesson hit the way you want it to with your students.
Some more specific things I was happy about:
- They had a LOT of different takes on the story (whether Madame Loisel's fate was deserved or not, their opinions on the Loisels, what she should have done instead). I loved that they weren't afraid to share, especially when sometimes it's easier to just go with what everyone else is saying because it seems like the "correct" answer.
- We went over vocabulary and pronunciation in the beginning of the second session, and that really made a difference with their reading confidence. They also did their best to sound out unfamiliar words I didn't go over instead of just giving up.
- They also now know how to pronounce Champs-Élysées.
- My two shyer students, who like to respond via chat and keep their cams turned off, were both down to read out loud when called on. I think they're getting more comfortable!
- The chat is generally more lively too – as the lesson is ongoing, they'll react to what's happening in the story or respond to each other's takes.
- We did context clues last week and some of them retained a lot from that lesson. They used the strategies I taught them to guess the meanings of the words we used!
I think The Necklace is excellent, but I can also see how it would be difficult for a fourth grader to find interesting. When I was designing this program, I was worried that I was picking stories they would find dull, but good stories just really are good stories.
It'll be a while before we read our next one (The Gift of the Magi!), but I'm so happy with how these two sessions played out, and I'm looking forward to putting together their upcoming lessons. Maybe I still like teaching after all, lol.