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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Teaching English at Las Montanas: A “Good” Lesson? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teaching English at Las Montanas: A “Good” Lesson? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:


Teaching English at Las Montanas: A “Good” Lesson?

Ms. Sandy Demeter sat at her desk in the front of the room as the 27 ninth grade students filed in English 1 before the tardy buzzer sounds. Desks were arranged in clusters of three facing the teacher and whiteboards.
Demeter’s laptop sat next to the LCD projector. According to Learning Materials Center records (a.k.a.the library), she often brought her class there to work on projects with their laptops or 25-plus iMacs already in the Center.
After the buzzer sounded, Demeter settled students down. She asked the class to begin 15 minutes of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) and to write a reflection on what they have read. Students took out their reading materials. After about ten minutes, some students began typing on their laptops. Chimes on Demeter’s desk sounded ending SSR; students closed their laptops.
The teacher reviewed the week’s assignments listed on the whiteboard. She then turned to the structure of the haiku that they began yesterday. She went over the 17-syllable haiku by pointing to the one on the whiteboard