Today I came to Classic City High about an hour before lunch break. I went to the same classroom and worked with two students, who I will call Jen and Lori. Jen was working on the Miss Brill story. Their assignment was to re-write the ending in whatever way they wanted, as long as it was 25 lines. I reviewed Jen's 15 lines she had written and noticed many grammar mistakes. All 15 lines only contained one period and the way she wrote was very colloquial. Instead of "then" she wrote "den". I informed her that since this was formal writing, she needed to write less with the way she make converse with her friends. I also informed her that she had a large run-on and adding periods, capitalizing first words in sentences were all important aspects to formal writing. Lori was another student I worked with who was working on the Miss Brill story. She also had grammar mistakes but less of them however I noticed the same trends in their writing. I wish that their middle schools or early high school careers had been grammar filled and that they had been taught more sentence structures.
Another thing that frustrated me today was the disrespect from the students towards their teachers. Mrs. J is extremely kind and was talking to one student to help her. The student had her earphones in the entire time and did not look up once when Mrs. J was talking to her. Of course this is not my place or my classroom and I would never say something to the girl, but it made me sad and frustrated for the teacher who puts in so much effort. This makes me worry about the disrespect I may see in my future students but I need to find ways to show equal respect within my classroom. One of the books we read- "Immigrants in America" talked about forming a bond between teacher and students- and this includes respect.
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