Here is another comparison between sitting/quiet activities and movement activities. For the sitting activity, I have students make a mini-story book to express what they like to do after school. In the movement-based learning activity, I let them work in pairs or groups (they decide by themselves) to prepare a role play. In the sitting activity, one student complained to me that he could not draw. Some students did the mini-story book very quick and did not pay much attention to the task. Of course, a couple of students were doing excellent job.
For the second activity, students were so excited to hear that they would work in group to create a role play. I have to say that they were very creative and motivated. They came up with some crazy ideas which were fine with me as long as they were speaking in Chinese. They came to ask me a lot new vocabulary and sentences. I was so glad to see they were taking notes and practicing. They also incorporated Chinese culture, like dancing, into the show.
I guess in this round the “movement” activities won again.
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How was management during the movement activity? I often find that teachers shy away from this because they can get a bit loud and out of control. I guess it is a question of how the students are engaged. How have you found this?
ReplyDeleteI know for me personally I would perfer to do the movement activities, simply because I do not like to sit very long. I believe that most kids perfer the movement activities, since it seems more like play and less like learning. As teachers it can be difficult to come up with effective movement activities.
ReplyDeleteJust this last Friday, I too included role play in a lesson. We have "Current Events Friday" in which I ask my students to individually read the articles in the Current Events magazine (by Weekly Reader). Then about half way through the class I call upon students that want to share their favorite article and/or add their insights. After calling upon a female student, it was time to call on a male. When I called on Josh he chose to share a "girlie" interview- article about ICarly. I asked Josh to call upon another student to role play the interview in the article. He called upon one of the male autistic students. I was a little concerned at first...but both boys role played the interview beautifully. Then all of a sudden my autistic student broke into an uncontrollable laughing fit after reading a part about what ICarly loves. Next thing I knew we were all laughing. At that very moment... another teacher (older, in a shirt and tie, very serious) was at my door to collect our Veteran's Day items. I was a little embarrassed to think that he was probably thinking that I had horrible classroom management skills. Then to top it off...my assistant principal walks in for an informal observation. Sometimes days just go that way!
ReplyDeleteHowever, at the end of the day, after school was dismissed, the assistant principal walked back into my room and wanted to tell me how impressed she was to see the students active and really happy to be at school.
She spoke about the look upon my students faces…WOW!
Cheng, I hope that you are experiencing similar reactions; because the students really do enjoy learning in this way.
It's interesting to hear how eager your students are to role play. I would think they would like the sit down activity, just because sometimes it is hard to think creatively. It sounds like you have awesome students who really are excited to learn when in your room.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like both you and Tonya are having some awesome teachable moments through this inquiry plan. It's really exciting to see how all in our group work with such a wide array of students and how similar our "teachable" experiences can be!
Keep up the good work!