In my co-taught ELA class, we had the students do speeches on genetic diseases. We wanted to incorporate research, vocabulary, and presenting it all into a speech. Students showed empathy and had so many questions during the process. They reacted in ways that I have never seen before. They were interested in the diseases they had been assigned to and wanted to know more.
Some specific students have been struggling this school year by keeping up with assignments and finishing them successfully. These two specific students that I want to discuss have been falling behind a bit. They are both real quiet and polite. They don't ask too many questions but seem to "look" like they get it when they are working in class.
So, to help them, my team of teachers and I have been signing an assignment notebook at the end of class to keep them on track. It has helped them make sure they know what to do and questions have been arising since then. They have more smiles on their face and talking to teachers more often.
Then the day of presentations came and these two boys gave wonderful and informative speeches. I was so happy! I went up to them at the end of class and gave a great amount of praise to them. I also said, "It seems that you enjoyed learning about your topic and really put in a lot of effort." They smiled back and agreed. They also added that they found themselves looking other topics up at night that their peers had shared in class. They both have shown such great progress. I love this feeling so much and know that teachers can make a difference.
I just loved how rewarded I felt and glad to see they were confident and happy about their performance.
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