Page 164 - Šolsko polje, XXX, 2019, št. 5-6: Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education in a rapidly changing world, eds. Janja Žmavc and Plamen Mirazchiyski
P. 164
šolsko polje, letnik xxx, številka 5–6
the seminars on rhetoric and public speaking were used in my teaching of
the Slovenian language and in developing my ability to speak and public
speaking. In rhetoric, I learned along with pupils each year, tried different
didactic approaches, trained in teaching argumentation and speech struc-
ture and studied with the help of a textbook for rhetoric as an elective
ninth-grade course: Retorika: uvod v govorniško veščino (‘Rhetoric: Intro-
duction to the Art of speaking’, Zidar et al., 2006). At first, I studied the
course content myself and looked for methods and forms of how to trans-
fer this knowledge to the pupils, while also making sure that I system-
atically developed their abilities and imparted knowledge in a way that
kept the pupils as active as possible (i.e. transactionally). This is because
the teachers were left on their own after completing the seminar and thus
passed the knowledge into practice according to the syllabus and the pu-
pils to the best of their own abilities.
Establishing new grounds
The first obstacle I had to overcome was tackling the syllabus. I had too lit-
tle knowledge to understand all the professional terms. Even when I man-
aged to explain them with the help of a textbook for the elective course, I
did not know how to present them to the pupils and in a way that would
make sense. At the introduction of the nine-year primary school educa-
tion, we emphasized that knowledge should be useful in everyday life and
that teachers should connect it with the experiential perspective of chil-
dren’s lives. When teaching electives, we should also start from their goals
and aspirations. The questions that came to mind at the time were:
– How can we link the desire of children to perform with very com-
plex educational goals and professional terms such as syllogism or
enthymeme?
– How do I align syllabus goals that require more complex mental pro-
cesses with the different abilities of children who come to the course
of rhetoric in 6th and 7th period (or 7th and 8th period) and are already
tired mentally and crave easier content and activities that do not re-
quire complex mental processes?
– How should I teach rhetoric to pupils who experience reading and
writing difficulties in Slovenian or about who I have already found
have difficulty understanding the text and speaking? How will these
pupils deal with the ranking and the wording?
– How can I translate the syllabus into the annual plan so that I still
follow the objectives stated in the syllabus, but approach the pupils
at the same time?
162
the seminars on rhetoric and public speaking were used in my teaching of
the Slovenian language and in developing my ability to speak and public
speaking. In rhetoric, I learned along with pupils each year, tried different
didactic approaches, trained in teaching argumentation and speech struc-
ture and studied with the help of a textbook for rhetoric as an elective
ninth-grade course: Retorika: uvod v govorniško veščino (‘Rhetoric: Intro-
duction to the Art of speaking’, Zidar et al., 2006). At first, I studied the
course content myself and looked for methods and forms of how to trans-
fer this knowledge to the pupils, while also making sure that I system-
atically developed their abilities and imparted knowledge in a way that
kept the pupils as active as possible (i.e. transactionally). This is because
the teachers were left on their own after completing the seminar and thus
passed the knowledge into practice according to the syllabus and the pu-
pils to the best of their own abilities.
Establishing new grounds
The first obstacle I had to overcome was tackling the syllabus. I had too lit-
tle knowledge to understand all the professional terms. Even when I man-
aged to explain them with the help of a textbook for the elective course, I
did not know how to present them to the pupils and in a way that would
make sense. At the introduction of the nine-year primary school educa-
tion, we emphasized that knowledge should be useful in everyday life and
that teachers should connect it with the experiential perspective of chil-
dren’s lives. When teaching electives, we should also start from their goals
and aspirations. The questions that came to mind at the time were:
– How can we link the desire of children to perform with very com-
plex educational goals and professional terms such as syllogism or
enthymeme?
– How do I align syllabus goals that require more complex mental pro-
cesses with the different abilities of children who come to the course
of rhetoric in 6th and 7th period (or 7th and 8th period) and are already
tired mentally and crave easier content and activities that do not re-
quire complex mental processes?
– How should I teach rhetoric to pupils who experience reading and
writing difficulties in Slovenian or about who I have already found
have difficulty understanding the text and speaking? How will these
pupils deal with the ranking and the wording?
– How can I translate the syllabus into the annual plan so that I still
follow the objectives stated in the syllabus, but approach the pupils
at the same time?
162
