By: Valerie Strauss
Level of difficulty: **
BEFORE YOU READ
·
How
comfortably were you able to communicate with your teachers?
·
Did
you ever feel that they just did not understand you?
·
If
you had the opportunity, what would you like to tell your teachers about the
life of a student?
QUESTIONS
1.
Alexis
Wiggins implies that her findings have altered / have altered radically / have not
affected her views on teaching
2.
What
gave Wiggins the opportunity to shadow students for two days was…………………….
3.
Why
was she given this opportunity?
KEY TAKEAWAY 1
4.
What
surprising discovery did Wiggins make on the first day?
·
She
sat at her desk the whole day
·
The
students were focused
·
Sitting
is tiring for students
·
Teachers
are more active than students
5.
After
sitting without moving the whole day, Wiggins found it easy to concentrate/
found it hard to concentrate. This proves that too much passivity is
productive/ counterproductive.
6.
The
three suggestions would be worth the time because students would be able
to……………..
KEY TAKEAWAY 2
7.
How
active were students in a typical
class?........................................Why? Because they hardly ever had
the opportunity to………………………………………………………………………………….
8.
Why
do you think Cindy laughed at Wiggins’ question? Use your own words.
9.
What
conclusion did Wiggins draw from her o9bservations up to this point?
10.
Read
the solutions Wiggins decides on. What would such solutions achieve?
KEY TAKEAWAY3
11.
Read
the first paragraph of this section. It is implied in this section that more
…………………is needed. Select from the list; there is more than one correct answer.
·
Sympathy
·
Empathy
·
Leniency
·
Authority
·
Reaction
·
Flexibility
12.
What
conclusion does Wiggins reach concerning sarcasm and snark directed at
students?
13.
Read
the three changes A. Wiggins comes up with. Which sentence best expresses her
goal?
14.
In
what way did Wiggins’ views change after the two days she spent shadowing?
15.
She
feels more teachers should try shadowing because it could lead to …………………………….
THE FOLLOW UP PIECE BY GRANT WIGGINS
1.
The
subtitle “Not News” implies that the problems described by Alexis Wiggins are
well known/ not well known.
2.
Does
Dale Doucette agree with Alexis or not? How do you know?
3.
What
does the phrase “That really hit me refer to? In other words, what hit him?
4.
Read
the story of the best teacher in Jefferson County and Grant Wiggins’ taping of
himself. Which of the sentences below best expresses the conclusion we can
draw:
·
Classroom
activities are not as interesting as people think
·
Teachers
are more sarcastic than they imagine
·
A
lot of teachers have bad peripheral vision
·
Even
the best teachers can benefit from a blameless critique
5. Note taking exercise: read this last
short section of the text and take notes for the writing task
WRITING TASK
Write an essay in which
you describe the everyday problems students face in class during lessons and
then suggest solutions. Remember to justify each solution you propose and state
clearly what will be gained. Draw on the text and your personal experience.
TEACHER SPENDS TWO DAYS AS A STUDENT AND IS SHOCKED KEY AND TEACHER’S
NOTES
This is a very straight forward text indeed but its structure and style
make some serious comprehension questions that test all the reading skills in
the students’ arsenal possible. It could, therefore, be used to showcase such
questions. It is not often that one can find a text which is simple enough to
do this with.
1.
Have
altered radically
2.
Her
principal’s suggestion
3.
Because
she was the high school learning coach
4.
Number
3 : it is the only one which is surprising
5.
Hard
to concentrate; counterproductive
6.
Absorb
most of the content
7.
Not
very; speak
8.
Because
the idea that she made valuable contributions to the lesson seemed funny.
9.
Students
have little autonomy; they direct or choose little of their learning.
10.
Engagement,
enthusiasm, collaboration skills, autonomy
11.
Sympathy,
empathy, leniency and flexibility
12.
Sarcasm,
impatience and annoyance are a way of creating a barrier between students and
teachers
13.
In
this way, I have both helped create a closer bond with them and shared a very
real and personal example of goal setting for them to use as a model in their
own thinking about goals.
14.
She
has a lot more respect and empathy for them..
15.
Better
backwards design (…)
KEY CONTINUED
1.
Well
known
2.
Yes;
he cried to his wife that he had no idea how boring his beloved school was.
3.
The
fact the best teachers are remarkably good at describing in fine detail what
happens in their classroom even as they teach and move an agenda forward.
4.
Number
4
