I found this activity for utilizing Oreo cookies to teach students about close reading on Pinterest and decided to try it out on my Saturday School classes. (Here's the link
http://www.stuckeyinsecond.com/2014/11/close-reading-with-oreos.html.
You may wonder why I even would try a second-grade activity out on a group of eighth-grade students, and if you are wondering, then I would ask you to consider the idea of Saturday School, and then, perhaps you will understand. Sooooo, the first group of kids, were pretty bewildered, like Stukey's second graders, as to why I was offering them Oreos and telling them to eat them up. A couple cool ones refused altogether. Possibly, taking cookies from a teacher in the morning on a Saturday seemed suspicious and weird to them, or maybe they just don't like Oreos. The second group was more amenable to the activity, and maybe I was a little better at "teaching" the activity and explaining the metaphor. Even the GATE kids seemed to appreciate the idea when it led to a close reading and response writing of Rakim's "Paid in Full." I was more prepared and relaxed the second session (yes, teaching is a stage art), and as a result, the kids seemed more connected. One student, who is the bane of his regular English teacher, walked to the gate with
me and filled me in on his favorite rapper lil King g, who he said lived a similar life to Rakim and learned some hard lessons.
All of this led me to a lot of reflection on this lesson. First, I am going to use the Oreo Close Reading activity with my seventh graders on Monday. I have tried everything, and they refuse to reread, maybe this will help. Secondly, teaching isn't any different on Saturday, than any other day, you have to be prepared...actually overprepared, which is difficult in someone else's classroom, which is just how it is with Saturday School. But dang, last week was a tough one with grades due and so much every night and Saturday School was at the bottom of the list at the bottom of the other list.
I'd read the lesson plans, I had the materials, but you never know about the technology, and of course, I left a cable in my classroom that I had to send kids to fetch. I also didn't feel the first group was connecting, so I decided to play the youtube video because the lyrics seemed positive, and I thought the video must be good and suffice it to say, it wasn't such a great idea. Some editor decided belly dancing and moaning should be added to the beginning of the video. Of course, I turned it off. Still, with the second group, I knew where to stop and start the video so the somewhat inappropriate stuff was cut out.
Good teaching sometimes means taking some risks at the moment. I'm glad I played the video with the second group. I wish I had prepared more and watched it ahead of time. I know better, but I'm not perfect. I also still think Oreo cookies are good with any age group, even kids who think they're too cool for them. They won't forget the Close Reading Oreo Metaphor anytime soon. They also learned about an awesome hip hop artist who changed his life for the better. A good lesson for any kids, whether they live in the inner city like my students, or in suburbia like someone else's. And, the teacher learned something too.
Today I was honored to spend some time talking about teaching and learning with two "novice teachers" from UCLA who will be working with my sixth-period students. I am not used to having other teachers in the classroom, so I admit I am nervous and today when they visited me during my conference period, I think I talked way too much. I am reflective about my teaching, so I talk about it to anyone who will listen. Hopefully, I didn't chase them away. All of my students are wonderful with their unique characteristics, but I think my sixth-period will be especially receptive to young teachers from UCLA. One of them already asked the young lady a slew of questions on Tuesday, their first day with us.
Tomorrow the sixth-period students will continue typing their information writing books. These are little expert texts that they have been working on for several weeks. Since I don't see my sixth-period every day, they are the one group I share with another teacher, they are behind with their writing. I am a little anxious about this and I hope I can keep them interested in this project. Tomorrow they will be using the internet to research. I've decided to conduct this differently with this class. Instead of letting them print the information, I'm going to give them five index cards and have them record one quote/note per card, one for each chapter of their book. We'll see how this works out. I decided to try this after I noticed a couple students' books seem a bit too Wikipedia and not enough expert student. More on this tomorrow!
