Writing Assignment 3

            The classroom was set up with 5 stations for “culture day”.  Each station displayed a different aspect of Indian culture and students were to visit each station for 5 minutes.  Each student was given a handout so they could take notes at each station; this handout had the weekend writing assignment posted on the bottom.  Students were to take their notes and experiences from each station and compare what they experienced to similar parts of their own lives.  For example, the food station held food from India Garden; students were allowed to try the food and then asked to write about it.  Once at home, students could reflect on the type of food they eat daily and write about how the Indian food compared.  Students were asked to complete a paragraph reflection for each station (games, brief history, art and clothing, music, and food) for a total of 5 comparison paragraphs.
            Second period flew through the stations and had time to spare.  Sixth period did not get through all the stations.  I did not anticipate the students not being able to make it to each station.  Fortunately, the music played in the background loud enough for everyone to hear, I had handouts for the “notes/overview” portion of the stations, and everyone was able to at least view the food and dip.  I did anticipate that sixth period would have a more difficult time with the notes section than second period which is why I had handouts of the presentation printed out for them to take home.  I should have provided them with the notes and asked them to read the notes on their own time before doing the write up so more class time could have been spent on the stations that could not be taken home.
            Another aspect that I was not truly prepared for was the fact that some students would be absent.  I had packets made up of historical information, recipes, game descriptions, and photos but the music was lost as was the actual experience of participating in the groups.  I felt that the students who were absent were done a disservice by only having the packet and in turn, their work was not as thorough or meaningful as those were able to participate.  If I had the time and money, I should have arranged for the absent students to stay after school for another mini session of the culture stations.
            The final writing assignment in this sequence is very similar to the last only this time, I wanted them to feel the culture.  As I mentioned earlier, one student felt as if I was only concentrating on the religious part of the text and was becoming frustrated by being “forced” to learn Buddhism so I broadened my scope a bit.  This time students were to respond to each station in a reflection to the connection of Siddhartha’s culture to their own.  This assignment involved more writing and hopefully more emotion and connection.  Students needed little to no prompting, unlike the last assignment, on how to get started on their writing.  The directions and intentions seemed much clearer this time around either because they had done a similar assignment before, the instructions were more explicit, or because the assignment was more fun; perhaps the enthusiasm to get started came from a combination of all tactics mentioned above.  Whatever the reason, the students were much more willing to complete this assignment and the responses showed more insight rather than a disconnected chart.