Reflection on Presentation

I am very happy to have done this teaching presentation.  I plan to teach literature, so this project helped me visualize what a literature classroom would be.  I used to think teaching literature can’t be that difficult.  I would think that as long as you knew the text pretty well, you could teach it.  Of course our lesson on novice and expert readers did remind me that teaching a subject is different than knowing it.  But in practice, it was much more difficult than I thought.  I learned that I need to be better prepared and have back up plans and activities for when lessons don’t go as I had planned. 

In teaching Hills like White Elephants I realized that I should have reviewed the story before the group presentations.  Initially I had planned to have the groups give their presentations, and then move on to a class discussion about the story.  But after my lesson I realized that many students needed clarification about the story itself.  It would have been good to review the story before the presentations.  Perhaps have students volunteer to act out the characters.  The story was in dialogue format, so we could have had one student be the girl, another would be the man, and a third the narrator.  After the story was read, I would ask if students had any questions about the text itself.  And once that had been settled, students could begin their group work and presentations.

With the quiz, I hope I didn’t make it seem as if I was a tough teacher.  The intention was to warm up students to the day’s activities.  Taking quizzes in a literature classroom was not my favorite.  In fact I have had my share of poor quizzes in English.  However, I found those short quizzes to be very effective and motivating when combined with ways to make up for poor quizzes.  Students do not feel as stressed when they know their pop quiz will not determine their final grade, but it motivates them to read the reading assignment.  I am interested to know other opinions on that matter.     

In general, this session is an introduction to the story, and its purpose is to help students learn the story.  The follow-up sessions would focus more closely on point of view and the relation of setting to the plot. 

Thanks everyone for participating.

5 thoughts on “Reflection on Presentation

  1. Edith

    Nafiseh,
    I think you are right that an activity to make sure everyone understood the story would be a good beginning. Because so much depends on the dialogue and there is so little clarification, this story can be difficult to just "read" for its literal meaning. You could incorporate this type of activity in your opening quiz, giving two purposes for one activity: was the reading done, and was it understood.

    Edith

  2. tlarson

    Nafiseh,

    I’m not a fan of quizes… or exams for that matter. For the most part, I don’t think they truly reflect learning; they show memorization. This is especially problematic when students are not aware that were supposed to be memorizing details.

    For me, having read the assignment and still done poorly on the quiz, reminded me of the sense of unfairness I felt for pop quizes in high school and undergrad. I (almost) always had done the reading, but reading just isn’t the same as preparing for a quiz. I think students feel cheated when they have done what was asked, only to do poorly on something they weren’t prepared for. It also makes me feel woefully inadequate when I have done the reading and still can’t answer the questions. It makes me feel that I’m a bad reader, that I miss important details that should be easy. And feeling inadequate is not a good way to head into activities or discussion.

    I would suggest (if you want to use quizes to motivate your students to read) instead of asking questions about small details that students may or may not have picked up on or remember (especially in a first read), that you use open-ended questions that get the students thinking about the text and something that you want to discuss. This will show you whether they have read the text and will better achieve your goal of warming them up.

  3. Professor Sample

    I too have a problem with quizzes, probably going back to a quiz in undergrad on Raskolnikov’s second dream in Crime and Punishment — which I think I confused with his first dream on the quiz.

    I don’t like the memorization aspect of quizzes. I have enough trouble remembering what I ate for dinner last night, or what I wore yesterday. So, I see quizzes as typically reinforcing schoolish behavior. Students read to get minor details about a story rather than to get larger thematic elements.

    I think a more productive way to engage students with a story at the beginning of a class session is to use an open-ended question, as Tania suggests.

  4. laurelchinn

    Hey there, I liked the quiz because you were doing it to give us a hard time.  I liked the story as well.  I hope to see you in other classes. 

  5. naomip

    At first I was shocked by the quiz, but I can see myself using that or a similar to technique for the sake of accountability.  I have had too many class discussions fall flat because most of the class didn’t bother to read the story and plan B is to have them read it in class.  Nothing like a little carrot dangling to entice them to actually read.  The group discussions and the reporting of their conclusions seemed to be just the thing the story needed.  I am not a Hemingway fan, and hearing what others got from the story is very helpful to confirm that I understood it.  For some students who do not get it because there is so much that has to be read between the lines, the group discussions can fill in the missing pieces.  I think Blau would be proud!  Naomi

Comments are closed.