tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2816379396941577754.post1801841378264457638..comments2023-10-27T05:42:20.467-05:00Comments on NCTE High School Matters: If a Teacher Lectures and No One Listens...NCTEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13158338704096862694noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2816379396941577754.post-38025742970172386992010-03-31T16:26:07.247-05:002010-03-31T16:26:07.247-05:00Maybe it's a generational thing. At Southern ...Maybe it's a generational thing. At Southern Conn. State Univ., I was informed that I was taught by the "New Critical Theory" method, which is now passe(I'm a 54 year old lawyer, getting certified to teach English). Now I need to learn the "Reader Response" theory. This puts me somewhat at a disadvantage because now I have to disregard twenty years of education and all of the great teachers I had, who had the unmitigated gall to "lecture" students. Excuse me for daring to say so, but some lectures are interesting. Moreover, such professors, especially at law school, weren't interested in entertaining students. I know I'm sounding like a middle-aged crank, but it wasn't so bad. I recently went to a lecture at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, and the lecture hall was filled with people, admittedly many of them were my age or older, who were riveted by a visiting professor who was lecturing about art. Most people in the audience were people from the general public. <br /> In the past 25 years, I have often attended a "talk" given by a Jain meditation master, in New York City, where he would start with a topic idea, e.g., "forgiveness" and he would talk for 90 minutes, without notes. Much of what he had to say was ex temporaneous, and he would vary his lecture depending on whom was in the audience. No one was bored; they paid to be there. Many of us were sitting on the floor, so our knees and backs got tired before our brains did. <br /> Recently, a friend of mine told me her daughter, who is a sophomore at an ivy league college, prefers to take lecture-hall courses because she is tired of hearing her "A-type" classmates "blather on" showing how brilliant they are. She'd rather hear a professor, an expert in his or her field, deliver, Heaven forfend, a LECTURE.<br /> Not everyone agrees with Kurt Cobain, when he said, "Here we are now: entertain us!"<br /> -- W.HartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2816379396941577754.post-31747191189472340322007-12-20T20:26:00.000-06:002007-12-20T20:26:00.000-06:00I know my middle school students must prepare for ...I know my middle school students must prepare for high school and college, so I teach them to follow lectures by using storytelling as my standard lecture format. I give them instruction in cornell notetaking and use powerpoint and storytelling to shape my lectures and direct instruction. It is a great tool. It hooks and maintain the interest of students of all learning styles. It also allow me to reinforce character education topics that assist with classroom management. And the greatest by product of the storylecture format is the stories serve as a powerful mnemonic that help students to remember the key lesson. For more information: <BR/>www.jpmyrick.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com