Today we talked about times when we feel like we actually learned something in an English class. The results of the discussion were quite illuminating.
We found that most students remembered learning something when in a 1 on 1 situation with a teacher. We also found that putting things to songs was helpful for memorization (Who wants to compose the logos, ethos, pathos song for us?), that practice was often helpful, and that using symbols, such as the ones in Framing Your Thoughts can help solidify concepts.
For the rest of the class we talked about an essay written by some students that critiqued my teaching methods.
We could tell that the authors were angry with me, but that they had done a good job keeping their ethos level-headed, which was much to their credit. We also noted that they did some research (for example, talking with Juniors and Seniors about what they had encountered in Sophomore English).
We gathered from reading their concerns that, in order to accommodate the authors better we should implement a little more discipline into the classroom, review basic concepts from time to time and make sure our work would prepare us well to enter Junior English next year.
I'm grateful that these students took the time to make their concerns known to me and hope the class becomes a more inclusive place for them.
