There are a lot of events in the "practice" of a classroom and some of them are as goofy as the above events described by Dwight.
CUT TO Annex Room 2A
The teacher is sitting on her front desk with a clipboard on her lap. She’s got a list of names on it with + and -’s next to each name. There is one student talking while all the others listen and as she speaks, hands pop up in the air and wave emphatically.
Marcus: The thing is… if he was really a hero, he would’ve stood up like Clarisse.
The teacher nods in the direction of one of the raised hands. She does this silently as each student wraps their point.
KJ: He’s the anti-hero. It’s dystopia. By even being different, he’s a hero. Everyone else is the same! Everyone! He might learn to stand up, but he’s scared and why wouldn’t he be? He’s seen that dang dog robot thing. He knows what that thing will do.
Tanzi: Exactly, plus, he stole that book! What if he’d gotten caught? That’s a hero right there.
Ken: I’m sorry, are you forgetting the part where right after that, he let that woman die?
Ennis: He didn’t let her die, idiot--
The teacher: Ennis!
Ennis: [blurted out] Sorry, Ms. Schwartz. He didn’t let her die, Ken. She killed herself. He tried to save her in front of all of them. It’s not his fault she dropped that match.
The teacher is sitting on her front desk with a clipboard on her lap. She’s got a list of names on it with + and -’s next to each name. There is one student talking while all the others listen and as she speaks, hands pop up in the air and wave emphatically.
Marcus: The thing is… if he was really a hero, he would’ve stood up like Clarisse.
The teacher nods in the direction of one of the raised hands. She does this silently as each student wraps their point.
KJ: He’s the anti-hero. It’s dystopia. By even being different, he’s a hero. Everyone else is the same! Everyone! He might learn to stand up, but he’s scared and why wouldn’t he be? He’s seen that dang dog robot thing. He knows what that thing will do.
Tanzi: Exactly, plus, he stole that book! What if he’d gotten caught? That’s a hero right there.
Ken: I’m sorry, are you forgetting the part where right after that, he let that woman die?
Ennis: He didn’t let her die, idiot--
The teacher: Ennis!
Ennis: [blurted out] Sorry, Ms. Schwartz. He didn’t let her die, Ken. She killed herself. He tried to save her in front of all of them. It’s not his fault she dropped that match.
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Some samples of class discussions about Fahrenheit 451.
This episode is about the kids. The teacher doesn’t speak much here. She is merely an extra in these scenes. This is how it should always be, but the teacher is much like Michael Scott sometimes, unaware that managing is about the staff and not yourself. But by now, she knows better. She’s learned that that kids come first and that means stepping back and letting them run the scene.
In the fall of this year, I asked the students to complete an interest survey in which they told me what they wanted to read about. If we were forced to prepare for this big, scary state test, I would try to make it as interesting as possible. The surveys found that the kids wanted to read about sports, technology, romance, mystery, and music. I wasn’t able to do this all of the time, but I tried to make curriculum that reflected these interests.
Since one of the topics they chose was technology and its role in our lives, I decided to work through Fahrenheit 451 with them. I knew it’d be tough, but it wasn’t long before they were hooked to the characters, waiting for Guy Montag to finally begin to fight back in the dystopian society. The kids got really involved with the storylines of the characters, heartbroken when Clarisse died and angry when Guy continued to stay with Mildred. One of the best parts of reading Fahrenheit was the discussions that came out of the passion the kids had for each character.
My first year teaching, I wasn’t sure how to include every student in the room until about halfway through the year. I remembered that my high school teachers would use class discussions to get everyone in the room involved. These were days we all looked forward to because we wouldn’t have to just listen to teachers talk all period. We ran the class and the teacher listened to us, listened to what we had to say. I wasn’t sure how to lead these discussions until I saw one modeled in my methods class with Liz Towle. These discussions became our favorite days of the week, both mine and the kids. It took practice, but eventually, we got the hang of it and this year, these discussions have been on par with discussions I had in some of my college classrooms. They need much less prompting from me now. These discussions are about their opinions and their opinions only. I do not tell them what I think. I am only there to keep them from saying ugly things to each other and to keep things on topic. I sit at the front with a clipboard, placing a minus by kids who distract from discussion and a plus by anyone who contributes. Students know to get full credit, they have to participate, so it is rare to have a discussion where the whole class doesn’t contribute.
This is an amazing practice I’ve put in place in my room because it gives the kids confidence. Some students aren’t the best writers, but when they can get their words out loud first, things start to make more sense to them. It has allowed for my honors students to take texts deeper than I could imagine they could. It’s brought the most unlikely kids together as they fall on the same side of an argument and walk out of class still discussing how others were wrong. I’ve even stumbled on a lunch table where the kids were still arguing about the debate topic hours after their class ended.
Class discussions are about just that. The class. I sit back and enjoy the brilliance of every student for 50 minutes. I laugh, nod in agreement, and scold about waiting turns, but more than anything, I smile at how bright they are.
In the fall of this year, I asked the students to complete an interest survey in which they told me what they wanted to read about. If we were forced to prepare for this big, scary state test, I would try to make it as interesting as possible. The surveys found that the kids wanted to read about sports, technology, romance, mystery, and music. I wasn’t able to do this all of the time, but I tried to make curriculum that reflected these interests.
Since one of the topics they chose was technology and its role in our lives, I decided to work through Fahrenheit 451 with them. I knew it’d be tough, but it wasn’t long before they were hooked to the characters, waiting for Guy Montag to finally begin to fight back in the dystopian society. The kids got really involved with the storylines of the characters, heartbroken when Clarisse died and angry when Guy continued to stay with Mildred. One of the best parts of reading Fahrenheit was the discussions that came out of the passion the kids had for each character.
My first year teaching, I wasn’t sure how to include every student in the room until about halfway through the year. I remembered that my high school teachers would use class discussions to get everyone in the room involved. These were days we all looked forward to because we wouldn’t have to just listen to teachers talk all period. We ran the class and the teacher listened to us, listened to what we had to say. I wasn’t sure how to lead these discussions until I saw one modeled in my methods class with Liz Towle. These discussions became our favorite days of the week, both mine and the kids. It took practice, but eventually, we got the hang of it and this year, these discussions have been on par with discussions I had in some of my college classrooms. They need much less prompting from me now. These discussions are about their opinions and their opinions only. I do not tell them what I think. I am only there to keep them from saying ugly things to each other and to keep things on topic. I sit at the front with a clipboard, placing a minus by kids who distract from discussion and a plus by anyone who contributes. Students know to get full credit, they have to participate, so it is rare to have a discussion where the whole class doesn’t contribute.
This is an amazing practice I’ve put in place in my room because it gives the kids confidence. Some students aren’t the best writers, but when they can get their words out loud first, things start to make more sense to them. It has allowed for my honors students to take texts deeper than I could imagine they could. It’s brought the most unlikely kids together as they fall on the same side of an argument and walk out of class still discussing how others were wrong. I’ve even stumbled on a lunch table where the kids were still arguing about the debate topic hours after their class ended.
Class discussions are about just that. The class. I sit back and enjoy the brilliance of every student for 50 minutes. I laugh, nod in agreement, and scold about waiting turns, but more than anything, I smile at how bright they are.