Emily's Greatest Hits

Over the course of the last 5 months or so that I've spent with my class, I pick up pointers from the students themselves on the best way to teach them. A teacher can plan every minute of every lesson and still come up empty when it comes to actually teaching, if they don't know the audience. Of course, I've been on a epic trial-and-error journey with this whole teaching bit, but like I said, the best material comes from the students themselves.

Every two weeks I teach what we call a "Reader," which is usually an 8-page book with a specific phonics point, (i.e. lots of "l" words, "Lucy likes lettuce.") and a repeating grammar pattern. "Lucy likes [lettuce, lasagna, ladybugs, etc.]" I have two weeks to get them to be able to read the whole thing, comprehend the meaning of each word, and also be able to apply the grammar pattern to everyday speech.

The first, and arguably most important, day of this 2 week window is the presentation; introduce the VOC (vocabulary) through an interesting story that uses the grammar pattern and also is stimulating enough for them to remember. Here's where the students come in:

In order to tell a successful story, a teacher needs to be inside the mind of the students. Find out what makes them tick. In my class' case, it's any kind of babies, animals or people, families, and places they know very well, like 7-Eleven. Peppering these ingredients throughout any story is going to increase the retention rate 10-fold. After realizing this, I have a sort of series of stories that I like to tell. We'll call them "Emily's Greatest Hits."

I think we are all aware of the phenomena of teachers having a life outside of school. I can remember trying to wrap my own head around the fact that some of my elementary school teachers have parents, and I'll never forget the moment I told the Squirrels that I have little sister. It pretty much rocked their world and they had a million questions. Now, whenever I tell Emily Stories, I have full and undivided attention.

Amusement Park (rides):

When I was in New York, I went to an amusement park with my little sister, Emily. There were so many rides! We walked around for a little while because we didn't know which ones to go on first. "Let's go on the roller coaster," I suggested. "I don't want too! It's too fast!" Emily said. So we kept walking. "Let's go on the Ferris Wheel!" But no, "It's too high!" Emily said this time. (The cable cars were also too high, bumper cars were too scary) so we eventually just went on the Merry-go-round because it wasn't too fast, wasn't too high, and we got to ride unicorns.

Emily's Day Off (illnesses):

Emily really didn't like to go to school. One day she decided to pretend to be sick. When my mom came in to wake her up for school, Emily said "oooohhhh (holding her stomach)." My mom asked "What's the matter?" to which Emily replied, "I have a stomachache." But my mom is very smart and said, "No you don't! Got to school!" Emily's reaction was scrunched up lips, lowered eyebrows, and hands to the hips with a healthy "Hmph!!" This conversation happened every morning for a week, but substituting headache, cold, fever, sore throat.

Stop By a Pond (pond animals):

When Emily was a baby, I took her to a pond to see all the animals. We saw some ducks and I whispered "Emily, look at the ducks!" and she screamed "WOW! COOL!" and scared them all away. I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and pinched the bridge of my nose and said "Emmmmaaaaleeeeeee..." The same thing happened with a beaver, an otter, and some turtles. When we saw some polliwogs, she finally whispered, but she touched the water and they all swam away. Then she saw a frog and pointed it out to me and I said, "WOW!! COOL!" and I scared the frog away.

So, Emily, even though you sound like a problem-child in my stories, my students think you are hysterical and they love you (so do I!).