Variances in Perception

Today is the end of the quarter and I had the students fill out a "Grade you, Grade me" sort of end-of-term survey in my 3/4/5 class. This class I chose specifically because I have been using a number of different things in class for learning (authentic texts, news, writing, etc.).
I am finding the results of this survey very interesting.

Questions 2 and 3:
2- Grade the Deutschklasse (not fellow classmates). What activities have you liked that we have done in class? What things have you not liked? What things would you like to see more of? What things could you do without for the rest of the year?
3- Grade Frau Tol as a teacher. What things do you like about Frau Tol? What things do you dislike? How can Frau be a better teacher (no homework is not an option)? Add any other appropriate comments you wish.

If I were filling out the survey, my answers would include some of the following things:
2- Good: Children's book, news, often answering and speaking in German, dialogue journals, specific grammar work and time to improve it, a general theme of stronger focus on the authentic use of the language instead of just memorizing vocabulary
"Bad": I would like more vocabulary interspersed throughout and perhaps more "flow" to the class... a better flowing plan
3- Nice job increasing authentic materials and use. Improve on the flow of the curriculum and more things to get done. Still have fun and keep it (mostly) relaxed... in fact, go back a bit to what it used to be. Perhaps reintegrate more community building things.

In general, these kids have been working harder than any kids in these levels have before. There has been more work and more higher-level thinking and more authentic use than I think I've ever done in the past.

So it was surprising for me to see some kids saying we need to work harder and do more. (And it even came from surprising sources sometimes) "...we could maybe do a little more learning..." (nestled in between two cheesy compliments).

A couple students couldn't have stated my opinion better:
"Frau, your teaching is more hard core this year. Maybe that's why its harder for me to learn...""
or
"I personally like the way the class is run right now. It's not all busy work, like German 1 and 2."
or
"I can confidently say though that I have learned a lot, and it has been challenging."
or
"I like how it is structured to actually learn how to speak in sentences and interpret real German instead of just memorizing vocab out of a book."

So when I am reading comments like the one previously stated about learning or some of the following, I think it's interesting to see the different perceptions... and I'm enjoying considering where some of these perceptions stem from:
"I was disappointed we didn't get to do, or use more German."
"We need more things to keep us busy."

Okay, so maybe it was just three that mentioned that they didn't think we were learning much (my skew of their answer)... but I find it interesting that the perceptions can be so vastly different.

Just a few other things:

• A number of kids said they missed the games.
• A few said that although they liked and appreciated the story, it took too long (great feedback!). So that needs to happen in a shorter amount of time instead of a little every day.
• Many others agreed with my perception that we should not forget to learn vocabulary (I have a plan for that).
• Some others commented on the general attitude of the class (some saying I should be more mean to get things done, others saying that they are frustrated with their classmates not being industrious or not participating enough, one other saying that he doesn't like his classmates at all.) I think that this is going to be easily changed with two things: a purposefully happy attitude from me (with fidelity) and more community building... once kids get along with each other, I feel like they are able to enjoy some of the antics that happen in the classroom... and that is often what makes the class. Also, next semester we are going to spend more time in purposeful partnerships/seats. I let that slide this entire term (in many of my classes) and I definitely see the downfall in all of my classes.

I look forward to having a fantastic plan for the entirety of next quarter. I would really like to get it all planned out so that it's finished and I can finetune from there instead of planning unit by unit. That's what UbD would tell me to do (plan with the end in mind) and I might as well do it grand scale!!

So definitely some rest over spring break, but some fantastic work as well!