Observation and Accountable Talks

What?

During my observations in the purple room, I had the chance to observe the students doing an activity called Accountable Talks. The students were given a rubric and a chapter summary. Then each student would have a few minutes to create thought provoking questions that could last a ten minute, small group discussion. After the ten minutes, each student would score themselves through the rubric criteria. The criteria included On Task, Movement/Progress, and Proof/Analysis and is scored on a range of 1-4. 

As I walked around the classroom to listen in on the discussions that the groups were having, I was really impressed to hear that the groups were staying on task. Even though roles were not specifically assigned for this activity, a student would speak up and keep the group focused on the question they were discussing. When the ten minutes ended, each group discussed what their scores should be based on how they thought their talk went. I saw some students giving themselves 2 points for On Task because they had drifted in the conversation to off-topic things. The students owned up for how they actually participated in their groups Accountable Talk.

So what?

Mrs. G didn’t have to prep the students on how to do the assignment because they probably had done it before. I think it has something to do with routines and teaching the students how to act and perform the activities. If Mrs. G didn’t take the time to make sure the students understood the activity the first time, then it would not have run as smoothly. I also think that the students wouldn’t have been so honest about their own scores. 

I can remember times in high school where we had to score ourselves on activities and we would always put 4s because we thought the teacher wouldn’t know or that we actually were that great in the activity when we were not. These students in the purple room were actually honest about their scores and what the contributed in the conversation. The students pushed themselves and each other to put the honest score they thought they deserved, and I’m not sure that you would see that consistently through high school classes.

Now what?

I know that I need to take the time in the first place to teach the activities to the students. This was only one of the activities that I saw Mrs. G use where she just told the students what type of activity and they already knew what they needed to do. I think that is a new goal of mine for my first year of teaching; take the time in the beginning of the year so that the end of the year can run smoothly. This could also be used with how to take notes during lectures or just daily routines in the classroom, like when students can go to the bathroom or when it is silent reading time. I also see how this could be a form of modeling. If the student is new to a certain topic or activity, it doesn’t hurt to show them how to do the activity before having the students do it. By taking the time to teach the students how to do things in the classroom, then the chances of having a smoothly running class go up, and that is where I want to be with my class.

Cooperative Learning and What I Learned!

               As I reflect on what I learned from class today all I keep going back to is the difference between cooperative learning and group work. I feel that it was a central message behind Dr. H’s lecture about what cooperative learning is all about. Teachers have these good intentions about creating lessons where the students get to work together, they will learn so much, and it will be great! But, somewhere in the process the teachers lose sight of what the cooperative learning part of the lesson is and things become group work.

               When thinking about the overall concept of Cooperative Learning, I find that it could become a highly beneficial strategy to use in my future classroom. I like the social skill building aspect of the strategy and how it gives the opportunity for the students to grow in that aspect. In my SPED class, one big concept that we talk about is creating an environment where student’s social skills can blossom and grow. By doing activities that require a team working together, then the students has that opportunity to build up those social skills and build more friendships.

               As the lecture was occurring, I was getting nervous about how do I know, for sure, that the lesson I spend so much time on is cooperative learning and not group work? Luckily, Dr. H introduced how it can be as easy as PIES. The concept of PIES stands for Positive Interdependence, Individual accountability, Simultaneous Interaction, and Equal Participation. Basically, they are the four key principals that you should check you lesson for to make sure that it is addressing the entirety cooperative learning concepts. By having these guiding questions, you can become a critical reflector on your work. Does this activity create team goals? Is a gain for one, a gain for all in this activity? It makes you take a deeper look into what you have planned and reevaluate the lesson. Easy as PIES is definitely a concept I will keep handy for future cooperative learning planning.

Cookies and Rubrics and Creativity!

As I think about this past week’s class, all I remember is cookies. Cookies actually taught me a lot more than I thought they would ever teach me! They taught me to be straightforward, clear, be relevant, and to include creativity.

When teachers create rubrics I think they sometimes forgot who they are initially writing for. Yes, the rubric is meant to help the teacher know what they are looking for when grading. But, when the teacher passes out the rubrics to the students so that they can see what the teacher is looking for, the writing is still teacher orientated. From the cookie exercise, I realize that the writing needs to be directed so the student, who didn’t create the rubric, can understand what the teacher is expecting. I can write in a rubric that judges the best chocolate chip cookie that cookie size must be equal to the size of an adult palm, but another person who reads the rubric might have a smaller or even larger hand. Thus, the rubric becomes ambiguous and the other person might think they fulfilled the rubric requirements when the teacher doesn’t think that they did. The rubric should tell the students, in a clear and straightforward way, what the teacher is actually looking for. Even if some students don’t look at the rubric and think it is useless, there might be one student who does. I was that student that would like to know what the teacher looked for in the essay. If the rubric is created and passed out to students, then it should be stated in a language that the student can understand and figure out what the teacher will be grading.

One thing that Dr. Horwitz said during the rubric lesson that stuck with me was the possibility to include a section about creativity in the rubric. I was surprised to see that our group had already included something that could be included under that section about including milk or not. Should teachers give their students the option to be creative in how they deliver their assignment? I think so. If we talk so much about multiple intelligences (like we do in my SPED 433 class) and differentiating the lessons (also again in SPED 433), then students should have the occasional option to be creative! By occasional I mean that sometimes essays are required per CCSS or school standards. But if a teacher assigns a project that can be made into a video, play, presentation, or some other creative option then the students should be allowed to! And the rubric should be aligned accordingly to that option. I think that when it is appropriate, there should be a section allowing students to be creative if they want to.

Classroom Management Response - What do I have to say about last class?

                This past week in class we talked a lot about classroom management. We also had a classroom management panel of teachers talk to us about their philosophies on the topic. Anyone watching or participating in our class discussion would quickly learn that we are not a quiet bunch about our views. The questionable language that the teacher panel was using struck a heated, yet very interesting, discussion in the class. What do the teachers really mean by “these” students? Throughout the week I have been trying to figure out what I want to write about, but I think I want to comment on these stereotypes that the teachers were expressing and where new teacher’s opinions could be established.

               Like I had previously mentioned in class, I went into CF with only the biased opinions that my friends had told me about the school and the community, and all of their views had been negative. Is this what it is like for teachers coming into CF? They only have the biased opinions from coworkers they meet in the summer, research they have done which would include learning about what happened in 2010, or only general statistics about the community and comparing it to other cities. The teachers build these stereotypes in their heads before actually meeting the students in the school. I also think that the teachers extend their views that they establish one year onto the next year when the students are completely different. As the year changes and a teacher gets new students in their classes, the new students deserve a different view from the teacher than their previously established views of their previous students. 

               If the veteran teachers are telling the pre-service teachers (like my class!) that “these students” do this or do that, then they are already contributing to the construction of negative stereotypes. Luckily, my class recognized this and had the chance to discuss what the teachers were actually trying to tell us. One thing that I picked out of our classroom discussion after the teacher panel was “racism [exists] under the disguise of words”. I think that is highly accurate. The veteran teachers were contributing to this stereotyping by classifying the students as “these students” or by classifying the students in CF as all Hispanic or all sub-par students. I may be talking in a circle now, but from the teachers classifying the students they are adding to a negative stereotype about students. Teachers shouldn't be stereotyping students like this, and they should not be adding to the stereotype!

               Even though the language of the panel was a bit questionable, I thought that they had some good advice about classroom management for future teachers. Establishing a relationship with your students, establishing the non-negotiables early and being consistent with the rules were all pieces of good advice that I picked up from the talk, outside of the language confusion.

Blogging about a Lecture about Lectures

Lectures bore me. I am one of those students who checks out when the teacher starts drowning on and on and on. I can’t sit through it now and I defiantly could not sit through it in high school! So why are teachers still lecturing for ENTIRE class periods and thinking that the students are learning everything that is being presented?? 

This week in 407 we learned about how to lecture, and for the past couple of days I have been thinking more and more about the concept of lectures and how we can re-purpose them to actually be useful. Dr. Horwitz said that teachers must be purposeful with the lecture by communicating, summarizing, tailoring, enhancing, motivating, and modeling. Lectures should also be kept between 10 and 18 minutes. I can think of classes that I had or am currently taking where these guidelines were or are not being followed. I’m sure we have all had experiences similar to mine where your mind is somewhere else has the teacher goes onto their 30^th slide of the two hour class. By knowing how to use lectures truly does have an impact on what the students takes in and ultimately their ability to retain the information. One of the points that was brought up during our lecture on lectures is that people generally remember 20% of what they hear in a lecture. Students learn 50% of what they hear and see. This blog post doesn’t hate on the use of lectures. I can also remember when lectures were used and they were so informative and to the point about the topic. There is a time and place for lectures, and teachers need to know how to use them correctly with their students.  

I enjoyed having a lecture on lectures so that I can have the guidelines to follow when I go to create a lecture on an important English topic. Teachers need to know how to properly use lectures so that the students don’t coast through the class, and actually have a chance to retain that 20-50% of knowledge they are most likely to remember.

Last Class and Lesson Plans

               There is so much to be said about the lessons that we learned in 407 this past week. By beginning with a talk by Dr. Gallo, going to the topic of questions, and finishing with a fishbowl activity of watching how teachers today are creating their lesson plans, I know that I took away a lot of useful information.  Just a few days later, I found that I was thinking about the fishbowl more than anything.

               Kim, Bob, and Buddy had agreed to hold their planning time in our classroom so that we could benefit and learn from watching them plan a lesson. I thought that, as veteran teachers, Kim and Bob would go into the planning session already knowing what they wanted to do and were going to check with Buddy, the Dean of Pedagogy. I was quickly mistaken as each, Bob and Kim, came into the room with two very different view points and had to work together to find common ground in the lesson that would benefit all of the students. By the end of the session, they had incorporated aspects from both teachers’ ideas to create a lesson plan that would benefit all of the students including extra support for the students in special education.

               As Dean of Pedagogy, Buddy became the person that would keep Kim and Bob in check and making sure that the plans that they created for the class would align back to the learning targets that they had established for that lesson. This sounds like a great asset to have in a high school! Having that outside party to the classroom would bring the teachers back into check when they create these elaborate plans to make sure that the students are actually learning what they need to learn! Why is it then that this position is so rare? Why is it that CFHS sees the need for this position and budgets for it, and other schools don’t? By using Buddy, a team effort is created to make sure that the students are the focus and that learning will be happening.

               I enjoyed watching the group create a lesson plan. It cleared up some doubts I was having in myself that because I was asking so many questions of my plans and always changing things around, I wasn’t planning in the most efficient way. I learned that even teachers, who have been in schools for years and years, are having the same questions and mind flips that I have! It’s a great reinforcement to see that I am doing something right by questioning and changing. As pre-service teachers, the class and I should be exposed to activities, panels, and observations that squash our fears or our misconceptions about teaching. Actually watching teachers create their lesson plan squashed some fears in me.