Briggs TP#4

P.J. picked out a reading about Bessie Coleman, the first black female to obtain her pilots license. Bessie was a 'barn storming' pilot, which means she performed flips, aerials, and many tricks to paying spectators. I found some footage of this 'barn storming' style of flight and shared it with P.J (about 2 1/2 minutes). Also, I showed him another 2 minute video that discussed Bessie's life. We discussed the airplanes and how special it was for a woman to be a pilot at the time. The passage presented many new vocabulary that we covered in the reading. We also discussed the multiple meanings of raise ('get a raise'), and train. We covered the sayings: 'risk taker', 'dreamer', and to 'blow every one away.' At the end of the lesson, we played hang-man, covering vocabulary from the text. P.J. was hesitate to play at first and he suggested that he should come up with the first word that I, in turn, had to guess. This didn't necessarily teach him anything particularly but it did accomplish something else. I gained his confidence and he felt good having some control of the lesson. This was an ice-breaking moment for us and after the hang-man game I felt he was more apt to listen to my suggestions. I had gained some of his trust by letting him quiz me. He quite enjoyed it too.