Due to a bad Internet connection, this will be my second update today.
Today, I observed a really interesting thematic work in our class. The class was working about characters from different fairy tales and about what is typical for a character. During the lesson another teacher came in with a special delivered envelope from Sweden. The letter inside told the pupils that they had to go on a mission to help Swedish students to learn more about fairy tale characters. The pupils were divided into pairs and assigned a fairy tale character placed into small envelopes followed with the big envelope from Sweden. They were not allowed to speak to the other groups about which character they were assigned, it was supposed to be a secret. Working in pairs they were trying to describe the characters personality and appearance and then write it down on papers. Tomorrow the groups are going to read their description of the character in front of the other groups who are going to guess which character being described.
The pupils thought that this lesson was really exciting. I mean, a special delivered envelope from Sweden, can it be more exciting? During this topic work the students practised their skill to work in pairs and descriptive writing. It was a really rewarding lesson that caught every student's attention.
The teacher in our class is very talented, though I don't agree with everything she does. She has a very behaviouristic and strict way of teaching. She prefer complete silence in her classroom and rewards pupils who follows that. Those who don't, get an oral correction in front of the whole class. That goes against how we have been taught to act in the classroom. Although I still have learnt a lot from here. For example the thematic work I mention above but also how to proceed a lesson without using textbooks, which they are really good at here.
I don't agree with the Swedish way at all and believe that order has to be maintained at certain times at certain times. It is the same as in real life. You cannot just shout out when someone else is talking or not respect someone else when they are talking. There should be times to talk, like when it is group work, but other times should be quiet. When you have a class between 20-30 there really is no other way to do. Or am I wrong about this, and there is a method in Sweden that I am unaware of? From my experience in Sweden, I have seen very little motivation to do well in school or to behave properly.
SvaraRaderaI do agree that it should be quiet in the classroom during a lesson when the pupils are working on their own. In this class there were 30 pupils and with everybody chatting to eachother it had been really noisy and hard to get trough the lessons. It had not been a good situation.
SvaraRaderaBut what is important is how the teacher handle the situation. I don't like when a student gets an oral reprimand from the teacher, with an ironic voice, in front of the whole class. I don't think that is fair or a good way to solve the problem, if you know that I mean.
It was interesting to follow your discussion.
SvaraRadera