Good Lesson, Bad lesson

I taught two periods today. Ever since that easy test I've been wanting to challenge the students. I spent a good amount of time creating a three page guided reading that provides questions from the chapter. I don't like the easy questions the textbook provides. I spent the morning reviewing the spread of Islam and then I went back into the Crusades. We had a lively discussion while watching the BBC special. One student could not figure out why people listened to the Pope and believed that they would go to heaven. I explained the differences between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in terms of the mentality of the people. It was awesome. They loved it. I felt like a teacher, a good teacher. For the second lesson I had the students answer the guided reading questions. If they remembered anything we learned in the first class they should have had the answers to the first five questions. They were upset. They were so unhappy and rebellious. "Why we gotta do this?" I guess they loved watching the video and discussing the material. It's easy on them, and they are less accountable for their work. The problem is that they are so resistant to reading. They hate it. Tomorrow I think I will have them read the textbook aloud and do the questions along with them. They need the support, even if they don't want to admit it. I may show a short funny video about the Crusades to break up the reading and give them something to discuss other than the book. The major challenge is getting the material to stick in their brains. They forget it the minute they learn it. The only reason they knew the last test content is because we went over it so many times. I can't move at the pace that I want. I also can't get as in depth into the content. I'm learning that teaching self contained sped kids is more about methods than content. I have to decide whether I want to be a counselor/mentor type teacher or a mini-professor. That's one basic difference between general and special Ed.