It's the first Friday of December after a whirlwind week. TYWLS Humanities classes have been visiting every morning. A Lyons eleventh grade research class was in for a talk on Proquest vs Google. While each session had its high and low points, today ended on a high note when ESL teacher Joshua Lewis brought his class in to hold a public reading of the vignettes the students have been working on for the last few weeks.
Joshua had orchestrated a similar reading in a classroom last year and the kids seemed to get a real charge out of having an audience that listened to their writing and responded to it not only chuckling at some of the intentionally humorous stories, but by participating in a question and answer session at the end. This time Joshua booked the library and made sure to run out to buy snacks and drinks, which was a very nice touch. As he did last year, Joshua was thoughtful enough to make printed packet of the text of the vignettes so that the audience members could follow along as the students read.
The vignettes themselves were adorable and well thought out and it was amusing to see these usually boisterous students shy and quiet with what appeared to be collective stage fright as they sat a table before their audience. They had to be encouraged to raise their voices as they read for the group of teachers who had turned out for the reading. I had to laugh to myself at how a subtle shift in situation caused such a marked change from the ordinary.
Kudos to the kids who read their work aloud and to Joshua who led them through the writing process. I know how hard they all worked as their class is held in the library twice a week, affording me the the opportunity to see it all take shape. Well done!
No comments:
Post a Comment