Once we had the desks moved, I separated the class into their two different groups. On opposite sides of the classroom I had 2 posters waiting where I instructed the children (before we separated) that we were going to write/draw the story from the following week on the poster.
I had the kids raise their hand and say what came next, and if it was right, they got to come write it on the poster (but they only had 10 seconds to do it). The rest of the group and I would count down from 10 so the kids had something to do while waiting.
Here's what they came up with:
Mrs Larsen's group had to have 2 different posters because they drew so big.
After we got the whole story on the poster, we started acting out the story and I wrote down the people who were in charge of narrating the different parts of the story. We almost got through the whole story before our shortened time today was up.
I was very lucky to have Becky there with me today to observe and she helped me recognize that I need to be more authoritative when I'm working with the kids. Some of the kids in my group seemed to be testing me to see how much they could get away with and I needed to be more strict with them.
I learned today that I'm a bit too nice sometimes and I need to make sure that the students know that I'm in charge and they are expected to behave.
Becky also brought up the point that part of the problem is that the room is so noisy in trying to work with two different groups. I'm going to talk to Mrs. Larsen and see if we can find a different space for the kids to work in during this time. It's hard for the kids to concentrate when the other group is making noise too. Sometimes it's even hard for me to think! So I'll see what we can do for next time.
We didn't get to the "Talking Sticks" this week. Stay tuned for next week when I'll bring those out!
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