Coffee Day, But a Struggle

Thursdays are Coffee Day. YES! It's hard to explain how important things like Coffee Day are. That is not what this post is about.

Yesterday (Biscuit Day) was a struggle in one of our classes. Students were very disengaged and very resistant to reading The Canterbury Tales. Granted, I have never read The Canterbury Tales, but I don't see why they were so resistant. They said it was boring, it was hard to understand, they weren't interested. Yeah, well you can't love every single thing you do in school all the time.

I don't think their attitudes are due solely to them being bad students or unmotivated students. I think it has to do with the style in which they are being taught. Yesterday so many kids had their heads down or were asleep or were doing other work. I think it was because they were bored and had no part in what was happening.

The teacher read to them. For a long time. Sometimes she would stop reading and summarize what she had just read for them. That is it.

The students were expected to listen and pay attention. Well they have no reason to. They have no reason to listen because they are not responsible for any of the information. She didn't ask them questions or give them the opportunity to share or get involved. I think this is more (or equally) to blame for them hating the reading.

I had to opportunity to talk to a former student of my teacher's. He told me when she did that he fell asleep every time. It didn't matter what they were reading. If she read to them, he went to sleep.

My goal for Hamlet with them: Make it more involved. Not in an annoyting "here is a worksheet! Do it." sort of way, but in a "let's make meaning of this together and try to figure stuff out as a group" sort of way.

Maybe it is because today was Coffee Day and maybe it was because I had someone else to talk to all day who affirmed the fact that sometimes that class just sucks, but either way I got very impatient about these students today. I want them to learn. I want them to want to learn. I want to help them work toward being self directed and thoughtful individuals. I want to do things really differently and give them the chance to actually enjoy what we do and read.