I am now 4 days down in the teaching year and 10 days down at my new school. Things are going very well so far (I think) and I am feeling quite settled already, despite leaving so many teacher-friends behind at my last school.
I began teaching my Year 13s the novel today (<3 The Great Gatsby <3). I'm trying really hard to scaffold the reading and teach it better than I did last year (which didn't go badly, I don't think). I do think that the activities a teacher uses during the reading of a text is really fundamental to students having a really thorough understanding of it. Today we did some pre-reading activities, read the first section of chapter one (which is only about a page and a half long) and then did a bit of work on it, mostly deciphering the complexities of what Nick is saying about his non-judgmental nature (haha, he cracks me up) via a cloze and paraphrasing task. Hopefully this will improve my students' understanding of the narrator and his attitudes and values, thus improving their analysis of the text, as well as their ability to write perceptive essays...which I will no doubt find out soon enough...
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sounds amazing...want to share those resources with a someone who's teaching Gatsby for the first time?
ReplyDeleteOf course! Actually, it's just half a page long - will send through to you now. Have you started teaching it yet?
ReplyDeleteNot yet, we're having a small issue with books...long story! Thank you soooo much!
ReplyDelete