Stereotypical Ramblings of an Early 20-Something

In other news, my classes started a unit on monologues. So far, I feel that it’s going very well. Even if they talk a lot and get off task, the one thing I can say is that they are engaged when I am teaching. They mostly seem to get over-excited about things that I say to them, can’t contain themselves, and bust out in excessive comments to one another. But no one ever puts their head down. There’s maybe ONE student who says: I don’t want to be here. And honestly, I can’t make him want to be there. That was difficult for me to succumb to. I spent the first couple of weeks determined to make every child want to be in my class…A very exhausted version of myself realized that was unrealistic. I never liked math class, no matter what teacher I had or how well I was doing. I never wanted to be there and that was no reflection on my teacher’s effectiveness. 

Anyway, the lessons are going well. I’ve shown them some pretty cool video examples, made up my own monologue (improvised on the spot- thanks college education? lol), and directly taught them what a monologue is and how it works. But even after all of that, I still have kids telling me they don’t understand what a monologue is. I have no idea what to tell them. I’ve explicitly stated that a monologue is one character speaking, one person’s speech for a prolonged amount of time, and I’ve SHOWN them FOUR different monologues. But, still, “I don’t get it.” Now, misunderstand me not. Most of my students totally comprehend the idea. The ones that don’t get it have a tendency to say, “Oh miss, I forgot what a monologue is,” two minutes after I have reexplained it. What do I do?? I’ve even told them that when I am giving a lesson, it’s a monologue. “Put it on paper, guys, you’ll see it LOOKS like a monologue.” Goodness, gracious.