Case Story 1: How Do I Encourage Organized, Effective Whole Class Discussions? October 8, 2013
Story:
Today I taught a lesson about mood as expressed in short stories as a follow up to yesterday’s lesson about romantic literature. Recognizing that many students probably had a basic idea of what mood was I attempted to make the lesson Socratic in nature by asking questions of them to guide them to a better understanding of the concept as it occurs specifically in romantic literature. The problem was that many of the students in this class are accustomed to just saying their answers as they occur to them; minus a few exceptions, they do not raise hands. They also aren’t shouting their answers out. It is as if they are on the edge of participating but not yet willing to make the leap, so they sort of mutter answers to themselves when I ask questions.
This makes it difficult to have a smooth discussion because several students will be talking at once and I can’t hear any of them clearly. I personally find it useful to be able to read someone’s lips when they’re talking, and I can’t do this if I can’t tell who’s talking. So I asked the students to raise their hands if they had something to say so that they could talk one at a time and be better understood. This seemed to shut participation down entirely. They stopped talking out, but they did not start raising hands. After some awkward silences punctuated by my voice alone, they started to speak their answers aloud again as before, flashing me looks of uncertainty as they did so. In a couple instances I thought I heard a student mutter something insightful, I asked them to speak up and repeat what they said, and they shook their heads no. This leaves only a few students raising their hands and participating in such a way where both the other students and I can actually hear them. These few students’ repeated participation is great for their own learning, but the discussion as a whole starts to feel stale very quickly.
Reflection:
I wanted to investigate the possible reasons why class discussions have proven somewhat ineffective and very teacher-centered thus far. Then I wanted to brainstorm ways to break through and engage with more students, because the class described above is currently performing the poorest when comparing grades and efforts put forth with those from other classes.
After discussing my story in a small group of peers, I have some ideas for how to handle the above situation as well as additional questions to consider.
There are a lot of possible reasons for this class atmosphere: fear of failure, a dominant cultural preference for more intimate conversation rather than having the attention of the whole class, simple dislike of hand-raising, not being adjusted to me as a teacher yet, lack of interest in the material, and not being adjusted to the style of discussion-based learning. And the reasons might vary across the population. So the best thing I can do is try to address each of these issues.
One of the simplest solutions to several of the issues described above is to do more cold-calling, which my CM thus far has not utilized much. If the same three students keep participating and the other students don't like to raise their hands, cold-calling is a way to get more opinions out on the floor. There is of course the chance that the student I cold-call will still not participate, but it's been my experience thus far that this group of students will try if you push and guide them correctly. Even so, to increase my chances of a positive contribution to the discussion, I could start by cold-calling a quieter student that consistently produces insightful written work or perhaps a louder, more sociable student who enjoys conversing but maybe hasn't yet realized the value that this preference can bring to a discussion-based lesson.
Explicitly stating some expectations and guidelines for how I want a discussion to go may also be helpful, perhaps bringing some students out of theirs shells by challenging assumptions they might have about school. Such assumptions in this case would include that the teacher should talk and the students should be quiet. If I frame a discussion as an opportunity for students to be loud, to find their voice, to guide the class toward the issues they find important, this might get them participating more.
It may also just take time and persistence. This was really the first class where I handled the bulk of the teaching. My CM has a much more structured idea of where he wants a conversation to go, so his discussions are often a back-and-forth between student and teacher, whereas I am hoping to create more of a group conversation where the teacher serves as a guide. It may take some time for both my students and I to get comfortable enough with this format to really make good use of it. This format will probably also work better once we get into reading novels (we are currently jumping around amongst short works) because the topics will build more consistently upon each other from day to day.
Case Story 2: Finding Classroom Leaders and Creating Community November 12, 2013
Story:
There are two boys, Shawn and Marcus, who I've taken particular notice of lately for both good and bad reasons. The good things are that both boys make insightful contributions to class discussions, speak passionately, and demonstrate charisma... when they participate. The problem is that they don't always participate. Both boys have missed several school days (sometimes due to disciplinary issues) and both of them are often late to class. Shawn in particular seems to miss at least one day every week. Marcus, while often in class, is frequently off task texting on his phone during independent work and talking to the wrong group during group work.
As noted in Case Story 1, this is a class of mostly quiet students who do not participate often in class discussions. While I have made adjustments to the class structure (e.g. rearranging seating, scaffolding classwork to move from independent and small group work toward whole class discussion) to work past this obstacle, things are not yet ideal. Whereas other classes seem to have a pleasant overall atmosphere of stimulation, fun, and respect, this class seems to be divided into cliques that rarely interact with one another by choice. It is for this reason that I hope to find some student leaders among them who can help me build more of a community. Shawn and Marcus could help me, but first I have to find a way to get them more motivated and involved.
Reflection:
Upon hearing this story, my peers helped guide me toward some possible courses of action. One of them asked me, "Have you told these two boys about the positive things you see in them?" And the answer is no. So step one is letting them know that I notice them. It is, however, difficult to approach people who are often not present. Someone suggested that I track them down during Advisory and talk to them then, which is a solid idea. I find that I often limit my influence to my own classroom; it would benefit my own growth as well as theirs if I take more action within the context of the larger school. Thus far, I have not had many meaningful one-on-one conversations with students, so this would be a good time to start. It would also be a step further in researching my working theory regarding the effectiveness of different types of feedback.
If I can't get Marcus and Shawn on board, it was suggested that I look for other student role models. The problem is that there are not many students in this class with the charisma to reach beyond the boundaries of the cliques and unite everyone. Also, the few students who do participate regularly do not seem to be particularly popular. There is one student, Lisa, who will usually chime in about once per class, in whom I see some leadership potential. While she doesn't say much out loud, the things she does say are fairly accurate and her written work demonstrates some serious personality and willingness to critique/evaluate. Again, taking a moment to speak with her one-on-one, or to perhaps write her a note on a promising assignment, could help me improve my relationships with students which is what classroom community is based upon. How she reacts will also contribute to the pool of data I will use in my working theory on feedback.
With regard to the classroom culture of lax participation, a peer asked me what incentives the students have to participate, and I struggled to answer this question with anything other than the incentive of learning for learning's sake. A couple suggestions for additional incentives were to generate some sort of positively competitive atmosphere or to schedule some time for non-academic student-relevant conversations. I worry about how to incorporate these sorts of things without them becoming distractions, though.
For future attempts at community building, I plan on trying some think-pair-share activities and some literature circle activities in which students discuss texts in small groups and each student has a specific role within that group with specific requirements. My hope is that the students might learn to be accountable not only to me but to each other.
Story:
Today I taught a lesson about mood as expressed in short stories as a follow up to yesterday’s lesson about romantic literature. Recognizing that many students probably had a basic idea of what mood was I attempted to make the lesson Socratic in nature by asking questions of them to guide them to a better understanding of the concept as it occurs specifically in romantic literature. The problem was that many of the students in this class are accustomed to just saying their answers as they occur to them; minus a few exceptions, they do not raise hands. They also aren’t shouting their answers out. It is as if they are on the edge of participating but not yet willing to make the leap, so they sort of mutter answers to themselves when I ask questions.
This makes it difficult to have a smooth discussion because several students will be talking at once and I can’t hear any of them clearly. I personally find it useful to be able to read someone’s lips when they’re talking, and I can’t do this if I can’t tell who’s talking. So I asked the students to raise their hands if they had something to say so that they could talk one at a time and be better understood. This seemed to shut participation down entirely. They stopped talking out, but they did not start raising hands. After some awkward silences punctuated by my voice alone, they started to speak their answers aloud again as before, flashing me looks of uncertainty as they did so. In a couple instances I thought I heard a student mutter something insightful, I asked them to speak up and repeat what they said, and they shook their heads no. This leaves only a few students raising their hands and participating in such a way where both the other students and I can actually hear them. These few students’ repeated participation is great for their own learning, but the discussion as a whole starts to feel stale very quickly.
Reflection:
I wanted to investigate the possible reasons why class discussions have proven somewhat ineffective and very teacher-centered thus far. Then I wanted to brainstorm ways to break through and engage with more students, because the class described above is currently performing the poorest when comparing grades and efforts put forth with those from other classes.
After discussing my story in a small group of peers, I have some ideas for how to handle the above situation as well as additional questions to consider.
There are a lot of possible reasons for this class atmosphere: fear of failure, a dominant cultural preference for more intimate conversation rather than having the attention of the whole class, simple dislike of hand-raising, not being adjusted to me as a teacher yet, lack of interest in the material, and not being adjusted to the style of discussion-based learning. And the reasons might vary across the population. So the best thing I can do is try to address each of these issues.
One of the simplest solutions to several of the issues described above is to do more cold-calling, which my CM thus far has not utilized much. If the same three students keep participating and the other students don't like to raise their hands, cold-calling is a way to get more opinions out on the floor. There is of course the chance that the student I cold-call will still not participate, but it's been my experience thus far that this group of students will try if you push and guide them correctly. Even so, to increase my chances of a positive contribution to the discussion, I could start by cold-calling a quieter student that consistently produces insightful written work or perhaps a louder, more sociable student who enjoys conversing but maybe hasn't yet realized the value that this preference can bring to a discussion-based lesson.
Explicitly stating some expectations and guidelines for how I want a discussion to go may also be helpful, perhaps bringing some students out of theirs shells by challenging assumptions they might have about school. Such assumptions in this case would include that the teacher should talk and the students should be quiet. If I frame a discussion as an opportunity for students to be loud, to find their voice, to guide the class toward the issues they find important, this might get them participating more.
It may also just take time and persistence. This was really the first class where I handled the bulk of the teaching. My CM has a much more structured idea of where he wants a conversation to go, so his discussions are often a back-and-forth between student and teacher, whereas I am hoping to create more of a group conversation where the teacher serves as a guide. It may take some time for both my students and I to get comfortable enough with this format to really make good use of it. This format will probably also work better once we get into reading novels (we are currently jumping around amongst short works) because the topics will build more consistently upon each other from day to day.
Case Story 2: Finding Classroom Leaders and Creating Community November 12, 2013
Story:
There are two boys, Shawn and Marcus, who I've taken particular notice of lately for both good and bad reasons. The good things are that both boys make insightful contributions to class discussions, speak passionately, and demonstrate charisma... when they participate. The problem is that they don't always participate. Both boys have missed several school days (sometimes due to disciplinary issues) and both of them are often late to class. Shawn in particular seems to miss at least one day every week. Marcus, while often in class, is frequently off task texting on his phone during independent work and talking to the wrong group during group work.
As noted in Case Story 1, this is a class of mostly quiet students who do not participate often in class discussions. While I have made adjustments to the class structure (e.g. rearranging seating, scaffolding classwork to move from independent and small group work toward whole class discussion) to work past this obstacle, things are not yet ideal. Whereas other classes seem to have a pleasant overall atmosphere of stimulation, fun, and respect, this class seems to be divided into cliques that rarely interact with one another by choice. It is for this reason that I hope to find some student leaders among them who can help me build more of a community. Shawn and Marcus could help me, but first I have to find a way to get them more motivated and involved.
Reflection:
Upon hearing this story, my peers helped guide me toward some possible courses of action. One of them asked me, "Have you told these two boys about the positive things you see in them?" And the answer is no. So step one is letting them know that I notice them. It is, however, difficult to approach people who are often not present. Someone suggested that I track them down during Advisory and talk to them then, which is a solid idea. I find that I often limit my influence to my own classroom; it would benefit my own growth as well as theirs if I take more action within the context of the larger school. Thus far, I have not had many meaningful one-on-one conversations with students, so this would be a good time to start. It would also be a step further in researching my working theory regarding the effectiveness of different types of feedback.
If I can't get Marcus and Shawn on board, it was suggested that I look for other student role models. The problem is that there are not many students in this class with the charisma to reach beyond the boundaries of the cliques and unite everyone. Also, the few students who do participate regularly do not seem to be particularly popular. There is one student, Lisa, who will usually chime in about once per class, in whom I see some leadership potential. While she doesn't say much out loud, the things she does say are fairly accurate and her written work demonstrates some serious personality and willingness to critique/evaluate. Again, taking a moment to speak with her one-on-one, or to perhaps write her a note on a promising assignment, could help me improve my relationships with students which is what classroom community is based upon. How she reacts will also contribute to the pool of data I will use in my working theory on feedback.
With regard to the classroom culture of lax participation, a peer asked me what incentives the students have to participate, and I struggled to answer this question with anything other than the incentive of learning for learning's sake. A couple suggestions for additional incentives were to generate some sort of positively competitive atmosphere or to schedule some time for non-academic student-relevant conversations. I worry about how to incorporate these sorts of things without them becoming distractions, though.
For future attempts at community building, I plan on trying some think-pair-share activities and some literature circle activities in which students discuss texts in small groups and each student has a specific role within that group with specific requirements. My hope is that the students might learn to be accountable not only to me but to each other.