Chapter 9 and 10 response

CHAPTER 9 “Concentration, listening, and writing go together” Benjamin says. I think that depends on the purpose of the lecture. Is the lecture just the teacher speaking to the students and in the next class they’ll readdress what was discussed or is the lecture supposed to ignite some type of conversation right at the end? If the conversation is saved for the next class, then I can agree with Benjamin’s idea of unity between concentration, listening and writing. If it’s supposed to lead to a conversation right at the end of a lecture, I don’t necessarily think that those three components go hand in hand. An issue I often encounter while note taking is that while listening and writing if a thought is sparked I have to either give into completing my thought (meaning I won’t be concentrating on the next thing the lecturer says) or I would concentrate on what the speaker says but completely lose out on my thought. To juggle listening, writing, concentration and thinking is truly a skill. Yes I can review my notes at the end and try to remember what I thought about but sometimes the first time you hear something it’s really the eureka moment.   I’m not exactly sure which grade is responsible for introducing note taking but my class has severe problems with it and they’re fifth graders. The other day I read them a book and they were supposed to take notes. When I walked around to review what they wrote some of them just had the 5 w’s in a column and then one word answering each (ex: who-Jack, what- climbed beanstalk, when- morning). THAT was their understanding of note taking -- I was mortified. I obviously tried to explain to them that they didn’t have to copy each and every single word I said but that they did have to write down the main events that happened in the story. Jack didn’t just climb up the beanstalk, he met someone there and something happened.   CHAPTER 10: As I was reviewing my final unit plan for this class I decided that I needed to reword my objectives. Benjamin makes a good point about teachers needing to communicate their expectations for assignments clearly. I most definitely think that applies to lesson plan objectives because each lesson plan should clearly illustrate what you want students to be able to do. For example, one of the objectives I used said “Notice the qualities of the poem” which is very ambiguous. I didn’t elaborate on whether they would be able to notice the qualities of one single poem or the qualities of each type of poem. I could have definitely sharpened it a bit more to “Notice the qualities of a haiku versus a sonnet.”