I finished the course plan for the next 12 weeks for my upper school students. The fact that I can do something with actual content makes me incredibly excited.
I’ll see these students three times a week for 60 minute sessions. I have decided to have a certain rhythm to the classes. So, in the first session we will mostly work at basic skills like vocabulary and grammar.
In the second session of the week, the students will have to apply what they learned in the first lesson in a variety of writing tasks. I am planning to use a lot of peer-feedback during those classes. I’ll make a rubric that is not too complicated and easy to use.
The third session of the week is going to be the literature lesson. These will be held on Fridays, because I expect these lessons to be the most interactive and lively. We’re going to read some short stories I selected and do some assignments.
I’m also planning on doing three projects: a smaller one on the U.S. presidential elections, one on the difference between book and film and one on the U.S.-Mexican border. The first project matches a topic that’s being discussed in their social studies class as well and the last project is going to be discussed in their geography class. They’re going to watch documentaries, write their own blog posts and comment on the blog posts of other students.
I just hope they will be able to handle the level and the work load and that they will enjoy the topics and activities I picked. Most of all I hope that they’re English is going to improve and that they will find themselves becoming more comfortable in using the language. These are my personal/professional goals. I’m planning on asking them for feedback on exactly those points when this first trimester is over.
* “The best laid schemes” is a quote from a Scots poem (1785) by Robert Burns. The English translation goes like this:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Hopefully my ‘schemes’ won’t go awry.
