"Miss Nelson is Missing!" by Harry Allard fits in with this week's theme, being that it is National Teacher Appreciation Week. In Pk-C, I, Mr. Del Toro, I chose to read this book at the beginning of the school year, coming back from the long breaks, and now that we get close to the end of the school year because it is when discipline issues mainly occur. This is a great way to make students conscious about their behaviors and how they would imagine to be affected, even though Viola Swamp obviously won't show up. This book is about a class that misbehaves during reading and other lessons, they disrespect the teacher and act up all the time. The teacher decides to dress up as a mean substitute teacher by the name of Viola Swamp, and is very hard on them leaving them tons of homework and classwork. She is very strict and omits recess and fun activities. By the time Miss Nelson comes back they are well behaved because they missed her while she was "missing".
The students may write about what experiences they have been through to maybe make a teacher upset or identify discipline problems that they have caused in the past. They later can predict how it would be different if they had a more strict teacher or a substitute that does not tolerate bad behavior. Furthermore the students can act out this story in a play as an extension activity. I would foster discussion among the students by asking what Miss Nelson could have done differently to control her class in lieu of dressing up as Viola Swamp and also ask how this would have changed the ending to the story?
Finally, as an extension, at a PTA night the students can do a play for the parents with both versions, their own version and the original version.
---Thank you, Mr. Del Toro, Pk-C Teacher, Lida Hooe Elem.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing such a great book! As educators, we can easily relate to Miss Nelson’s predicament at the beginning of the story. Can we blame her for being frustrated with such a crazy class? The surprising thing is that Miss Nelson decides to solve her problem in a creative, unconventional way. Just as we teach our students how to read and write, we also have to model different habits of the mind that will equip them to be efficient problem solvers.
After reading this book, I would ask the students to think of different ways that Miss Nelson could have solved the discipline problems in her classroom. This would be a great segue to introduce the “Six Thinking Hats” strategy (de Bono) which was developed to bring new perspectives on a given problem or situation. Each “thinking hat” represents a different perspective. For example, the black hat acts as the Devil’s Advocate and helps to spot weaknesses in a particular argument or negative consequences of an action. After brainstorming different ways that Miss Nelson could have disciplined her students, I would then ask students to put on their “black thinking hats” and think of the negative effects of each discipline strategy. For example, if Miss Nelson decided to punish her students by not giving them recess, what negative effect (on the students, Miss Nelson) would result?
Once students get familiar with the thinking strategy of each hat, they can apply these strategies in many different content areas.
For more information on each “thinking hat,”
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Techniques/sixhats.htm
And a taste about how “thinking hats” can be used in the classroom (across the pond),
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/put-your-thinking-hat-on-how-edward-de-bonos-ideas-are-transforming-schools-1518507.html
-KM (LIB)
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