Chapter 6:
Practice Makes Perfect
One of my best lessons is one I didn’t even develop: context clues by Liz Towle. I believed the lesson to be more engaging than assigning 15+ vocabulary words, blearily reading off the definitions, and sending my students on their ways. Imagine how accomplished my students would feel when they decoded the meaning of the word themselves! If they could use context clues accurately, they could become better readers!
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Students were unpredictable. I could spend hours on a lesson that ended up flopping, but only 30 minutes on a lesson they unexpectedly love. When it came to my Liz Towle-inspired vocabulary lessons, many of my students didn’t enjoy them my first or my second year of teaching. Reading a passage was too much work. Finding and then labeling the context clues was too much work. Defining an unfamiliar word in their own words and based on their personal understanding was just too much work, Ms. Lindsay, c'mon now! They preferred to be given the definitions outright after all. And then never think about the definitions or the vocabulary words again.
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Although students rarely appreciate what you do for them in the moment, you do get the occasional gesture that reminds you not all your work is in vain:
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I had just dismissed my fourth period class, when Frank stopped to talk to me on his way out the door. (This was my first year of teaching, so my fourth period was my second section of English III.) Frank was a bright, sarcastic student that frequently frustrated me with his persistence to sleep through my class. He had a job that required him to work late at night regularly, which I learned about through another teacher. And he did well enough in my class on intelligence alone, but come progress reports, he was always disappointed when he had a C. (“Ms. Lindsay!” he had whined when he saw his first term report card, stomping about the room. “They’re all As and Bs except your class!”)
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On this particular day, he came to speak to me about his STAR Reading score. I had passed out the STAR Reading reports at the end of the period under my principal’s orders.
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“My reading score went up!” he said proudly.
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“That’s awesome,” I said, my enthusiasm falling flat. I was happy for him, but my emotionally-exhausting fifth period was on its way in the door.
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“It’s all the context clues lessons,” he said. “They really helped out on the test.”
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“I’m so glad to hear that!” I said, smiling. I had experienced so little student enthusiasm during my first three months as a teacher, so I was pleasantly surprised to be credited by a student for helping them. “That is why I teach them. Hopefully you’re scores will keep on improving!”
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“Yeah,” he said. Then he waved goodbye and headed off to his next class.
