02/04/10 - 1st Apache Visit
I was anxious to meet the students and see their reactions to what we will be doing together the next seven weeks. The children seemed a bit shy at first, but once their slideshow of working with UNM students from last semester was presented, they all giggled as they viewed pictures of themselves and their classmates. The Chautauqua of Beatrice the Cat was fun and interesting for myself and for the students. The Chautauqua was longer than I expected, but very much in depth of who Beatrice is. We all became very aware of this cat and his characteristics. I am now thinking of who I will use as my character in my Chautauqua. My first thought is to become the character of my Nana. She is a loving grandmother and housewife who always puts her family first, and this is why I admire her.
02/11/10
I was anxious to learn which students I would be working with for the Chautauqua. At first, I was nervous to meet my two students and it was hard to get the conversation going. I could tell they were nervous and shy as well because they had little to say at first. Once I found a topic interesting to them, which happened to be video games, they were more open with me and less timid. I am glad that I was able to make them feel comfortable around me, it will make our time together much easier when they know they can be open and trust me. Both of my students seemed to be closer to their cousins then the rest of their family. They both said they were thinking of becoming one of their cousins in their Chautauqua. I'm glad we will be brainstorming with them next week; this will help give a more solid foundation on who they want to become and for what reasons.
02/18/10
Today we had the children illustrate family members they were thinking about portraying in their Chautauqua. This was a difficult process for one of my students. They both seemed to be embarrased of their art work, though I repeatedly told them it did not need to be perfect that these drawings were only for themselves. My boy student was really giving me a hard time; he was rather resistant to drawing any family member. I had to continuously push him to draw something. I'm hoping he was more embarrased of his art work, then he will be in choosing a family member for his Chautauqua. Maybe once they notice their other classmates participating in the assignment, they will become more involved. Next week, we will begin brainstorming ideas on who to portray in their Chautauqua. I'm hoping my students won't be as resistent in the future.
02/25/10
Today my group was productive and made progress in deciding which character they want to portray in their Chautauqua. I started the session by reading "My Uncle Emily", by Jane Yolen, to give the students an example of a story describing a close relative. We then started brainstorming which family member we would like to role-play, and their characteristics. Both of my students did very well webbing out their ideas. I facilitated the process so they could come up with many different characteristics of various family members; this way, we can be sure of which character they will portray before we begin the writing process of the story. Next week we will begin focusing on one family member. I will have the students start with an outline of how they want to tell their Chautauqua. I will also model an outline of my own to give them an example of how to format their ideas.
03/04/10
Today was quite productive for my students. We started on a rough draft of our Chautauqua. First, I showed them an outline of my rough draft to give them an idea of how to write theirs in the character of the family member they are portraying. My girl student suggested they compete to see who can get the most written down. This competition encouraged them to work, and it was productive. My two students did rather well writting a rough draft of ideas for their character. This weekend, I will type their rough drafts to give them a solid format of their ideas, to display to them that this is a serious project that will be performed. Next week, we will continue with the rough draft process of building and editing their Chautauqua. I will bring my labtop to help quickly edit their ideas. I will type for them so they are able to orally tell me the story they want to create without having to deal with their battles of writing, because how we talk is different from how we write, especially at such a young age. We are focusing more on the oral story they will tell rather then the written.
03/11/10
Today we worked on our rough drafts to improve our Chautauqua stories. We will continue editing our work so that the best draft will be the final result. My girl student made a great beginning start. I facilitated her ideas to help her move forward with her story from her new baby brother's perspective. We have a start with her story, and will continue working on it next week. My boy student is having a hard time figuring out what story he wants to tell about his older brother. He doesn't have much to say about him, nor anything positive to say about him either. Next week, I am going to have to decide with the student if this is the story he wants to tell because there isn't a whole lot to it. I was thinking, that perhaps, we could come up with a better story maybe from his dog or dads perspective. I remember in the first week when we were brainstorming, the boy student had more positive things to say about his dad. So, maybe I can find a good story about his dad for him to tell. I will discuss it more with him next week to figure out what story it is that he would like to tell.
03/18/10
I started today's session by discussing with my boy student the story it is that he wants to share. He claimed that he didn't really know, so I drew from what I have learned about him to try and pull out some ideas. I gave him the option of possibly choosing a different character, such as his dad or his dog. He agreed to tell a story about his dog. I explained to him that it could be easier to do his dog, because there is no right or wrong answer. The story can be more of what he thinks his dog thinks throughout the day. I got some information from him, and typed it on my computer. We did not erase the part about his older brother because I would like to keep his options open in creating his story since he is having a harder time thinking of a story to tell. We did make some progress with the dog story, so I am hoping the next time we meet an interesting story will evolve. Since we spent most of the time figuring out what story the boy would tell, we only had a small amount of time to work on the girl's story. She found a few details to add to her story. As we were ending the session, I gave both students some ideas to think about adding to their story for the next time we meet. We won't be able to meet for about two weeks, so I am hoping that will give them plenty of time to think about their stories.
04/15/10
It seems like it has been forever since we've worked with the Apache students. Man, we have got to buckle down and get these stories ready to present. Unfortunately, my students are still not very optimistic about presenting their stories. Today we worked on remembering a few specific points in our stories, so we can remember the entire thing without going blank in the middle of the Chautauqua. We made a list of the important points to remember. Toward the end of the class, my students awared me that they were not going to show up to the scheduled performance on May 13th. I told them not to do that to me and that I would be hurt if they didn't show up. Of course, they didn't seem to care. After talking with another classmate about the same issues with her students, and what she did in class to change their attitudes, I think I will use her strategy next time. My classmate gave me the idea to be much more firm with my students. I will tell them that our group is a team and if they would not like to work and be apart of our team then they will have to go and work with my teachers' team. My classmates' students didn't like the idea of working with Francis' group, so I am going to try that with mine. I am hoping I will be able to gear them toward some progress!
04/22/10
Today I started the session by having my students tell me their stories. Of course, they were surprised by this and weren't very excited to get started. I had them play paper, rock, scissors to see who would tell their story first. My girl student went first, but seemed to struggle with what to do. I pulled out her beginning, middle, end paper as well as her typed story to help remind her of what we had come up with. She acted like she didn't want to do her story because she kept nudging her shoulders saying "I don't know". We went over her beginning, middle, end points but she still was unable to share her story. So I had the boy student try his, bringing attention to my girl student to listen to his story to help her figure out how to tell her story. The boy student surprised me and was able to tell his story with minor mistakes. I was pleased; though, his story is rather short. I tried working with my girl student some more. I had her re-read the typed story we originally thought of, hoping it would remind her of the ideas we thought of. Next class I want to get a UNM labtop so we are able to record my students, and play it for them to give them an idea of what their story sounds like. I think we will do that in the hallway so they aren't embarrassed or distracted. Hopefully they will get over their stage-fright so they will be able to perform their Chautauqua on the 'big' night.
04/29/10
I started our session by having my students both record their stories by audio so they could hear what their story sounds like. This strategy didn't help much because both students were more concerned with the sounds of their voices, rather than the sound of their story. They both acted rather shy when I had them stand against a wall and share their story. They do not act like they want to perform at all, but I tried my hardest to encourage and motivate them to do a good job. My girl student claimed that her story was boring. I reminded her of how I tried to help them come up with several different ideas and how they weren't very productive in helping create an interesting story. Now they are finally starting to realize the seriousness of this project, but unfortunately it is too late to create a more enjoyable story. Next week we are sharing our stories with the class, and both of my students are aware of this. I continually ask them to practice and work on their story throughout the week, and previous weeks they have been reluctant to do so. I hope they practice this week and try to add some enthusiasm and emotion to their stories. I'm crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best next week. I feel sharing their stories in front of their class will open their eyes to the enthusiasm and emotion that some of their peers will have for their stories. I hope next week will motivate them to work harder.
05/06/10
Today was our dress rehearsal for the Chautauqua presentations. Unfortunately, my girl student was absent. I'm worried about this because she needs practice, especially since she has stage fright. Miss Francis told us that she will go to Apache on Wednesday to help students who need more practice. My boy student performed. Unfortunately, he forgot the beginning of his story and that completely threw him off; his story was not complete. I told him to go over the beginning, middle, end paper that we wrote up. I told him he needed to practice. He didn't seem to be too concerned with what I was asking him to do. I am afraid that he won't practice because all semester long neither of my students would continue to work on their Chautauqua throughout the week, even though I continually asked them to. Francis will also be working with my boy student on Wednesday. I am crossing my fingers and leaving the performance up to my students to be prepared, since we will not be meeting with them next week. Hopefully their time with Francis will be beneficial to them.