While reading chapter 7, I was having flashbacks because every morning during the announcements my principal would end with "We're a community of learners and we're all in this together." But as I was reading the chapter I realized that this is the type of classroom that I want to have. I want my future students to feel comfortable in my classroom to state their opinions or answer a question wrong. I want them to see that I love doing what I am doing, and that they have a place in the classroom. Another thing I want in my classroom is for my students to feel competent. History may not be their greatest subject, and they may not be the best readers or writers, but I want them to feel like they can do it, and that if their skills are poor now, then they can improve; they have not reached the end of their rope. A lot of the strategies in chapter 5, I think, will help with this. I don’t know that I would use all of them, but I did dog-ear some pages that are things that I would use or that seem different or particularly interesting. Front-loading with images is something that I would use because it’s fund and it gets students thinking. On the other hand, dramatic role-play would be something I would think about, because it’s different, and fun, but it’s unlike anything I’ve done before. Finally, annotating the text is something I think is very important, I was never taught to do it in school, but I do it all the time now, and it really helps. It is so helpful not only in reading historical documents, both primary and secondary, but in reading in general, and I think it helps students point out the important pieces of a text. My only question would be that some of these things, while really helpful, seem like they take a lot of time, and we only have so much of it. So how do we choose?
"So how do we choose?" I find myself asking this a lot as we learn about the multitude of strategies we have discussed over the duration of this course. I think that we're really lucky to be entering the profession when we are, as the internet and other technology that is available provides us with so many options and ideas, but it can also be very harrowing to narrow it all down. I feel like knowing what to choose will come with experience- not that it's impossible to figure out what strategies will work in certain situations now, but it will be easier to know what will work at what times when we have been doing it for awhile. I also feel that it will vary a lot depending on the strengths and weaknesses of our students, in the sense that what works for one class might not work for another. In the meantime, I feel like having as many options in our arsenal as possible for introducing new material or reinforcing old material can only benefit us in the long term- eventually, we'll know our preferences and our students' needs, and I'm confident we'll make the right decision.
I'm with you on the idea of using role playing in the classroom. I feel like it's an opportunity to add some humor to the classroom, and I feel like humor is something that helps people learn. If a student can remember something funny that happened in the class during the role play, it is likely that they will remember the topic that caused their laughter. I saw this in my first observation of Mr. Scappini's class. The lesson was on the Industrial Revolution, not a topic that most of us we see as very interesting. He made the students laugh when he compared the foam on the Blackstone River to a "stinky coca-cola foam". It got a giggle from some, and an "ewww" from others, but every student understood that the that period of history had some negative effects on the environment in the area. Learning should be fun when possible right?
I really enjoyed reading about all the ways that teachers can help students before, during, and after assigned reading, because I feel that I was so constrained by the reading I did in school. It never felt beneficial, or important, and the work was never fun or interactive; you read, you occasionally discussed it with a partner, and then you regurgitated what you read for (hopefully) an A. I remember loving AP English because, although I didn't always like the reading material, the very act of interacting with the text and with fellow students made the task enjoyable. It made me realize that just because something's in a text doesn't mean its unassailable- you can break it down, analyze it, and then purposefully challenge it through activities. However, even in AP English, introducing and discussing the material always followed the same format, and I wish there had been more variety in the work that we did. I want my students to have the options that I lacked as a student, and some of the options laid out in the book struck me as particularly appealing in that regard. Role playing?! I can't even imagine doing something like that when I was in school, and it's for that reason I would love to incorporate it into my classroom. As far as Chapter 7 is concerned, I think that its argument was a lot more obvious, although the 11% increase in test scores associated with better morale and pride in one's school definitely raised my eyebrows. A positive mindset is often the difference between success and failure, and the fact that that is largely ignored in today's test prep is saddening. With all the pressure going on in today's world for school to be taken so seriously, perhaps the best remedy for falling grades is to remind kids that learning is supposed to be fun.
Learning is supposed to be fun, and I feel like some classrooms are stuck in a rut, doing the same things over and over like your English class, and testing just adds stress on both the teachers and the students. I think you're right, we need to keep these things in mind for our students so we don't get stuck in a rut and we change it up. We also have to help give them that positive outlook so that they can be more successful, if we believe in them, then they'll be more likely to believe in themselves.
I couldn't agree more with you Chris. To me, reading was something that I had to do, not something that I understood why I was doing it, or that I really ever enjoyed as a whole. I remember thinking to myself, "Why am I going to bother reading this if it's just going to be covered in the lecture tomorrow?" I'm one of those, what I'm starting to believe are pretty rare, auditory learners. The owner of the bar I manage said to me a couple of weeks ago "That's what I love about you... if I tell you to do something, you do it." I'm not sure if that's a product of my education, or if I just remember so much more of what I hear than what I see or read. Now, just to touch on the morale part of your blog, MORALE is the single biggest factor in learning anything! If a student, or even employee, isn't feeling good about what they're doing or have done, there can be no genuine acquisition of skills or knowledge. I still feel that way following a disastrous year of Algebra II where the teacher berated us for our test scores on a seemingly weekly basis.
I think you touched on something we can all agree on Chris, learning should be fun! I know that when I was having fun in a classroom, I remembered that day much more clearly than the day we sat there and stared at the teacher as he droned on for an hour. I think when we open our classrooms to new possibilities, activities, and learning styles in incorporates more students. They will feel more comfortable and get more out of the lesson that day because it is memorable. I think by students enjoying that class time, it builds a community in the process. They have something to look back on and have in common. Something they all experienced together and probably enjoyed. That could be the foundation of a better class environment for everyone.
There were a couple of things I noticed while I was reading chapters 5 and 7 that I wanted to touch on in this blog. The first was the idea of PBIS schools. I had never heard of this concept until we had a guest speaker in 315. I'm a firm believer that punishment doesn't ever have the desired effect on a student that the teacher had hoped for. That is what my own experience taught me. If you need proof, consider that I was summoned to detention in August between my Junior and Senior year. True story, when my Junior year finished I still owed 14 hours of detention. I never served them all, actually only about 3 hours were served because the only employee in the school (Mrs. Sherman) was the only employee in the school, and she found it as absurd as I did. I have always believed that an inch of positive reinforcement goes well beyond a mile of admonishment. Second, was the example given where the class has "lawyers" to debate topics. I thought this was not only a terrific way to get kids to think critically, but also may inspire some students to join the debate club and/or pursue a career as an attorney later in their schooling. Being able to argue, most students don't understand, means being able to cite FACTS, not opinions. Lastly, the idea of role playing in class is something that I never encountered in my grade school education. Outside of reading plays aloud in my humanities class, I can't remember a single other example of this happening in any classroom that I was part of. I love the idea of one student playing King George and another playing George Washington. Too often I think that educators believe that by simply breaking students up into groups peer education will take place. Quite often it will for students who don't quite understand the material, but for the student who does, there isn't anyone to "push" their own education or critical thought process, to the next level.
My band teacher in high school always told us that if we wanted to get better, then we had to sit next to someone who was better than us, and that if we ever became the best, then we needed to find a new group, because, like you said, students who get it need to be pushed too. I also agree with you about both the debate club and role-playing because if we expose students to these new things, then they not only learn, and follow the Common Core, but they can also find things that they like and get challenged in new ways. As a plus, they might begin to see that learning can be fun and doesn't have to be one tedious task after another.
Ah, yes. Detention. The 14 hours owed of detention definitely hits a little too close to home for me as well, Matt, and I agree with you wholeheartedly- what did I learn from all that time after school? That I hated detention? Punishment is often counterproductive at best and harmful at worst, and we should focus on rewarding kids for their strengths rather than consistently force feeding them negative reinforcement. However, I don't agree with your assertion that high-performing students don't benefit from peer-based activities. I've read that, not only does working with high-performing students improve the academic performance of struggling students, but that the performance of these high-performing students generally doesn't suffer. Think about it- in order to help someone grasp material, we as teachers are well aware of the numerous ways you have to think about the content and the ways you can present it. Helping struggling students fosters this higher level kind of thinking among high performing students.
Matt, I completely agree that more often than not group work does not push the student who gets the material. Don't get me wrong, I think group work is very effective and has its place in every classroom. But I like what Emma said about her band teacher. Often times, teachers place students who get the material with those that don't, so peers are helping and teaching peers. But where is the challenge? How do we make students reach that next level, or make those deeper connections? Maybe we need to think about that and how we design groups in the future. I also agree that punishment rarely has the desired effect on a student that the teacher had hoped for. But I think that also goes along with the fact that many teachers and people in general tend to look at things negatively. We often see rules in a class (Don't do this, Don't do that, etc.), and many focus on the struggles a student faces. But instead, I think we need to focus on their strengths. Like you said, an inch of positive reinforcement goes well beyond a mile of admonishment. (Great quote!).
While reading these chapters and thinking about the kind of classroom I want to have in the future, the idea of a community really hit home for me. We discuss the idea of a community classroom a lot in the middle school level classes, but I think having a strong bond in classes is beneficial for any age. I want to promote a comfortable and safe environment where students feel they can say anything without judgment. I think by having a classroom like this, it will help with discussions, activities, and overall learning of the material. I think by emphasizing the community ideal in the classroom, many students will feel valued. Students will feel like they belong in that room and what they say and do matter. I want to encourage students to not be afraid to try stepping outside of their normal learning style and comfort zone, because they may learn something new about themselves in the process. I do not want my classroom to be strictly for content; I think as educators we need to help students learn life skills and learning to interact with peers and belonging to a community is one of the most important life-long skills we learn. Another thing I can do to provide my students with a sense of belonging is to provide them with materials and opportunities that fit their learning styles. I really like the idea of Frontloading with images while reading. I think having a visual really helps with comprehension and it makes the text come to life, rather than just being black and white text on a page. Images and pictures give the text meaning and something students can connect to. And for students who struggle with reading and comprehension, this may be a way to help them along. Another tool that is useful is to have a strong background with the vocabulary. When students understand the text and vocabulary, they won’t have such hard time reading and comprehending it, and they will feel like a stronger reader. Another technique I liked from the text is the practice of debating. By debating, it is teaching students to differentiate between fact and opinion, which is a useful skill when reading. It also allows students to practice public speaking, group interaction, and practice forming a claim and making an argument. These chapters honestly had a lot of different activities and ideas for the classroom that I am going to go back and look at in the future. It seems difficult to try and decide where they will all fit in best, but I think with practice and help from the students, they will let us know what kind of support and activities they need to reinforce the material. During my high school years, every class was pretty much the same. Most of my teachers did not stray from their day to day routine and we were hardly ever given opportunities to learn in different ways. Maybe they thought that was the best way for us to learn, or maybe that is how they felt comfortable teaching, I can’t say for sure. However, I know now that I do not want to do that. I am willing to step outside of my teaching comfort zone and provide different activities for students to explore learning styles. I think it’s important to provide a variety of opportunities for learning and for students to explore what works best for them and what does not. Like I said above, content is important, but we are striving to create life-long learners through our classes. Students need to play with and explore their potential, learn what they need from their teachers, and what their strengths are. We need to support that in every way we can.
While reading chapter 7, I was having flashbacks because every morning during the announcements my principal would end with "We're a community of learners and we're all in this together." But as I was reading the chapter I realized that this is the type of classroom that I want to have. I want my future students to feel comfortable in my classroom to state their opinions or answer a question wrong. I want them to see that I love doing what I am doing, and that they have a place in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I want in my classroom is for my students to feel competent. History may not be their greatest subject, and they may not be the best readers or writers, but I want them to feel like they can do it, and that if their skills are poor now, then they can improve; they have not reached the end of their rope. A lot of the strategies in chapter 5, I think, will help with this. I don’t know that I would use all of them, but I did dog-ear some pages that are things that I would use or that seem different or particularly interesting. Front-loading with images is something that I would use because it’s fund and it gets students thinking. On the other hand, dramatic role-play would be something I would think about, because it’s different, and fun, but it’s unlike anything I’ve done before. Finally, annotating the text is something I think is very important, I was never taught to do it in school, but I do it all the time now, and it really helps. It is so helpful not only in reading historical documents, both primary and secondary, but in reading in general, and I think it helps students point out the important pieces of a text.
My only question would be that some of these things, while really helpful, seem like they take a lot of time, and we only have so much of it. So how do we choose?
"So how do we choose?" I find myself asking this a lot as we learn about the multitude of strategies we have discussed over the duration of this course. I think that we're really lucky to be entering the profession when we are, as the internet and other technology that is available provides us with so many options and ideas, but it can also be very harrowing to narrow it all down. I feel like knowing what to choose will come with experience- not that it's impossible to figure out what strategies will work in certain situations now, but it will be easier to know what will work at what times when we have been doing it for awhile. I also feel that it will vary a lot depending on the strengths and weaknesses of our students, in the sense that what works for one class might not work for another. In the meantime, I feel like having as many options in our arsenal as possible for introducing new material or reinforcing old material can only benefit us in the long term- eventually, we'll know our preferences and our students' needs, and I'm confident we'll make the right decision.
DeleteI'm with you on the idea of using role playing in the classroom. I feel like it's an opportunity to add some humor to the classroom, and I feel like humor is something that helps people learn. If a student can remember something funny that happened in the class during the role play, it is likely that they will remember the topic that caused their laughter. I saw this in my first observation of Mr. Scappini's class. The lesson was on the Industrial Revolution, not a topic that most of us we see as very interesting. He made the students laugh when he compared the foam on the Blackstone River to a "stinky coca-cola foam". It got a giggle from some, and an "ewww" from others, but every student understood that the that period of history had some negative effects on the environment in the area. Learning should be fun when possible right?
DeleteI really enjoyed reading about all the ways that teachers can help students before, during, and after assigned reading, because I feel that I was so constrained by the reading I did in school. It never felt beneficial, or important, and the work was never fun or interactive; you read, you occasionally discussed it with a partner, and then you regurgitated what you read for (hopefully) an A. I remember loving AP English because, although I didn't always like the reading material, the very act of interacting with the text and with fellow students made the task enjoyable. It made me realize that just because something's in a text doesn't mean its unassailable- you can break it down, analyze it, and then purposefully challenge it through activities. However, even in AP English, introducing and discussing the material always followed the same format, and I wish there had been more variety in the work that we did. I want my students to have the options that I lacked as a student, and some of the options laid out in the book struck me as particularly appealing in that regard. Role playing?! I can't even imagine doing something like that when I was in school, and it's for that reason I would love to incorporate it into my classroom. As far as Chapter 7 is concerned, I think that its argument was a lot more obvious, although the 11% increase in test scores associated with better morale and pride in one's school definitely raised my eyebrows. A positive mindset is often the difference between success and failure, and the fact that that is largely ignored in today's test prep is saddening. With all the pressure going on in today's world for school to be taken so seriously, perhaps the best remedy for falling grades is to remind kids that learning is supposed to be fun.
ReplyDeleteLearning is supposed to be fun, and I feel like some classrooms are stuck in a rut, doing the same things over and over like your English class, and testing just adds stress on both the teachers and the students. I think you're right, we need to keep these things in mind for our students so we don't get stuck in a rut and we change it up. We also have to help give them that positive outlook so that they can be more successful, if we believe in them, then they'll be more likely to believe in themselves.
DeleteI couldn't agree more with you Chris. To me, reading was something that I had to do, not something that I understood why I was doing it, or that I really ever enjoyed as a whole. I remember thinking to myself, "Why am I going to bother reading this if it's just going to be covered in the lecture tomorrow?" I'm one of those, what I'm starting to believe are pretty rare, auditory learners. The owner of the bar I manage said to me a couple of weeks ago "That's what I love about you... if I tell you to do something, you do it." I'm not sure if that's a product of my education, or if I just remember so much more of what I hear than what I see or read. Now, just to touch on the morale part of your blog, MORALE is the single biggest factor in learning anything! If a student, or even employee, isn't feeling good about what they're doing or have done, there can be no genuine acquisition of skills or knowledge. I still feel that way following a disastrous year of Algebra II where the teacher berated us for our test scores on a seemingly weekly basis.
DeleteI think you touched on something we can all agree on Chris, learning should be fun! I know that when I was having fun in a classroom, I remembered that day much more clearly than the day we sat there and stared at the teacher as he droned on for an hour. I think when we open our classrooms to new possibilities, activities, and learning styles in incorporates more students. They will feel more comfortable and get more out of the lesson that day because it is memorable. I think by students enjoying that class time, it builds a community in the process. They have something to look back on and have in common. Something they all experienced together and probably enjoyed. That could be the foundation of a better class environment for everyone.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of things I noticed while I was reading chapters 5 and 7 that I wanted to touch on in this blog. The first was the idea of PBIS schools. I had never heard of this concept until we had a guest speaker in 315. I'm a firm believer that punishment doesn't ever have the desired effect on a student that the teacher had hoped for. That is what my own experience taught me. If you need proof, consider that I was summoned to detention in August between my Junior and Senior year. True story, when my Junior year finished I still owed 14 hours of detention. I never served them all, actually only about 3 hours were served because the only employee in the school (Mrs. Sherman) was the only employee in the school, and she found it as absurd as I did. I have always believed that an inch of positive reinforcement goes well beyond a mile of admonishment. Second, was the example given where the class has "lawyers" to debate topics. I thought this was not only a terrific way to get kids to think critically, but also may inspire some students to join the debate club and/or pursue a career as an attorney later in their schooling. Being able to argue, most students don't understand, means being able to cite FACTS, not opinions. Lastly, the idea of role playing in class is something that I never encountered in my grade school education. Outside of reading plays aloud in my humanities class, I can't remember a single other example of this happening in any classroom that I was part of. I love the idea of one student playing King George and another playing George Washington. Too often I think that educators believe that by simply breaking students up into groups peer education will take place. Quite often it will for students who don't quite understand the material, but for the student who does, there isn't anyone to "push" their own education or critical thought process, to the next level.
ReplyDeleteMy band teacher in high school always told us that if we wanted to get better, then we had to sit next to someone who was better than us, and that if we ever became the best, then we needed to find a new group, because, like you said, students who get it need to be pushed too. I also agree with you about both the debate club and role-playing because if we expose students to these new things, then they not only learn, and follow the Common Core, but they can also find things that they like and get challenged in new ways. As a plus, they might begin to see that learning can be fun and doesn't have to be one tedious task after another.
DeleteAh, yes. Detention. The 14 hours owed of detention definitely hits a little too close to home for me as well, Matt, and I agree with you wholeheartedly- what did I learn from all that time after school? That I hated detention? Punishment is often counterproductive at best and harmful at worst, and we should focus on rewarding kids for their strengths rather than consistently force feeding them negative reinforcement. However, I don't agree with your assertion that high-performing students don't benefit from peer-based activities. I've read that, not only does working with high-performing students improve the academic performance of struggling students, but that the performance of these high-performing students generally doesn't suffer. Think about it- in order to help someone grasp material, we as teachers are well aware of the numerous ways you have to think about the content and the ways you can present it. Helping struggling students fosters this higher level kind of thinking among high performing students.
DeleteMatt, I completely agree that more often than not group work does not push the student who gets the material. Don't get me wrong, I think group work is very effective and has its place in every classroom. But I like what Emma said about her band teacher. Often times, teachers place students who get the material with those that don't, so peers are helping and teaching peers. But where is the challenge? How do we make students reach that next level, or make those deeper connections? Maybe we need to think about that and how we design groups in the future.
DeleteI also agree that punishment rarely has the desired effect on a student that the teacher had hoped for. But I think that also goes along with the fact that many teachers and people in general tend to look at things negatively. We often see rules in a class (Don't do this, Don't do that, etc.), and many focus on the struggles a student faces. But instead, I think we need to focus on their strengths. Like you said, an inch of positive reinforcement goes well beyond a mile of admonishment. (Great quote!).
While reading these chapters and thinking about the kind of classroom I want to have in the future, the idea of a community really hit home for me. We discuss the idea of a community classroom a lot in the middle school level classes, but I think having a strong bond in classes is beneficial for any age. I want to promote a comfortable and safe environment where students feel they can say anything without judgment. I think by having a classroom like this, it will help with discussions, activities, and overall learning of the material. I think by emphasizing the community ideal in the classroom, many students will feel valued. Students will feel like they belong in that room and what they say and do matter. I want to encourage students to not be afraid to try stepping outside of their normal learning style and comfort zone, because they may learn something new about themselves in the process. I do not want my classroom to be strictly for content; I think as educators we need to help students learn life skills and learning to interact with peers and belonging to a community is one of the most important life-long skills we learn.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I can do to provide my students with a sense of belonging is to provide them with materials and opportunities that fit their learning styles. I really like the idea of Frontloading with images while reading. I think having a visual really helps with comprehension and it makes the text come to life, rather than just being black and white text on a page. Images and pictures give the text meaning and something students can connect to. And for students who struggle with reading and comprehension, this may be a way to help them along. Another tool that is useful is to have a strong background with the vocabulary. When students understand the text and vocabulary, they won’t have such hard time reading and comprehending it, and they will feel like a stronger reader. Another technique I liked from the text is the practice of debating. By debating, it is teaching students to differentiate between fact and opinion, which is a useful skill when reading. It also allows students to practice public speaking, group interaction, and practice forming a claim and making an argument. These chapters honestly had a lot of different activities and ideas for the classroom that I am going to go back and look at in the future. It seems difficult to try and decide where they will all fit in best, but I think with practice and help from the students, they will let us know what kind of support and activities they need to reinforce the material.
During my high school years, every class was pretty much the same. Most of my teachers did not stray from their day to day routine and we were hardly ever given opportunities to learn in different ways. Maybe they thought that was the best way for us to learn, or maybe that is how they felt comfortable teaching, I can’t say for sure. However, I know now that I do not want to do that. I am willing to step outside of my teaching comfort zone and provide different activities for students to explore learning styles. I think it’s important to provide a variety of opportunities for learning and for students to explore what works best for them and what does not. Like I said above, content is important, but we are striving to create life-long learners through our classes. Students need to play with and explore their potential, learn what they need from their teachers, and what their strengths are. We need to support that in every way we can.