Working with Mrs. Rakoski’s Eighth and Ninth grade students again was fun and insightful. I was able to make it to her SPED class near the end of the period and was able to talk to the SPED teacher that co-taught the class with her. It also gave me the opportunity to observe her work with the students. After that class would end I spent time with her seventh period creative writing students of whom I spent the majority of my service learning hours. Since I had experience with Mrs. Rakoski’s lessons I was able to assist students more with their writing than in prior terms. She informed me that it was nice to have a second hand knowledgeable in these ways so more of the students received one-on-one advice.

 She also asked me to create a lesson plan explaining cliche characters. When teaching the lesson I attempted to make eye contact and prompt responses from students other than the ones raising their hands or that spoke out the most often. I felt as if my lesson had a few too many slides and could have been shortened to help keep the students attention. I do think the use of Disney characters helped students relate and keep their attention for as long as it did. I hope thinking about such commonly practiced and well-known characters gets them thinking about how to make interesting ones of their own that are not so overused and predictable.

            I noted that some of the students in the SPED class often stood up to let the teacher know they were done or were constantly asked when they could leave or what to do next. Most of these students sat at the back of the room. I’m not sure if this was intentional but I believe it helped other students who would be reading or working on assignments from getting distracted. The same went for some of the students that would finish quickly and were allowed to play ‘math’ games.

            Since I was able to observe the creative writing class from the start of the semester, I did notice when students began to form ‘clicks’ which would often be a hindrance to work progress and attention times. Mrs. Rakoski often had to ask them if they were working. To combat this she often tried to make lessons that involved rotating seats/rows in order for students to work with new partners for a change.

Being that the creative writing class was an elective and I was joining the class from the start of the term but only on Fridays, many of the students changed in the weeks I was in attendance. This was one thing I didn’t think about, being how much fluctuation in the class role there can be and how that can affect lessons. I also learned first hand that students may be in the same class and around the same age group but they have large variations in writing abilities, backgrounds, and interests. As a teacher it is important to be flexible and do the best to see these diversities and rather than trying to make them all conform but to create an environment where each can be enhanced and incorporated in their own way.