Week 5: Inquiry

           Last week I began thinking about behavior management techniques that could be used for whole class time and to help with talking and on task behavior. I then began to think more about something that could be done for one student in specific. I wonder if a star chart or some kind of behavior management technique could improve one student’s on task behavior.

            I have noticed this one student is constantly moving around and not paying attention. She is defiant when asked to stop doing something or to pay attention. I thought she was just an off-task student who pushed buttons, but then I noticed something strange. Ten minutes after I witnessed her moving around, talking during a lesson, being off-task, and not wanting to listen or do her work, she was working hard at a literacy station. This confused me. I began to wonder if she was only off-task in whole group lessons and could work better on her own? Or maybe it was just reading aloud in class that she did not like and this is what caused her to be so off task. I was really intrigued by this and plan to look more into it to try and see what can be done to help improve her behavior since I know she is capable of completing her work and following directions.

            I also wonder if some form of positive reinforcement will help improve her on task behavior and build her confidence in subjects she may loose attentiveness in because she is scared of participating or of failing. I had thought about some little star chart on her desk or a more specified behavior system than the clips used in the class. I just really want to get her to work to her full potential.

            While a lot of the reading suggested taking field notes while inquiring, I worry about time. I know I plan to jot down when I see her off task of why I think she may be off task, but I know I will not have time for everything. A bonus to working in the classroom is that “classrooms naturally generate a tremendous paper trial that captures much of the daily classroom activity.” (p. 81) I plan to start looking at her work as she completes it in different group settings, different times of the day, and in different subjects. I had never thought about that until reading, but I believe it could give me more insight onto what causes her behavior outbursts and how I can help.

Week 4: Lessons

The schedule in our class is really becoming more of a routine. This makes it easier on us as pre-interns and on the students as well. The students can start expecting that we will be teaching lessons to them. We are now teaching a lesson each day we are there. I really like this because I feel like I am doing more than observing and supporting, I am actually teaching. Our mentor teacher is also allowing us to teach a variety of subjects. In the past, majority of what we have taught was reading lessons, but we hardly ever got experience teaching other subjects. I want to become more confident in other subjects and know I can only do so by practicing.

            We have also been doing a lot of little extra things on our class for some of our own assignments. We have given a class survey, taught our first pathwise lesson plan, and began planning for our lesson study and for our unit study.

To prepare for our unit study, we needed to think of a way to collect our students’ background knowledge on what we were going to teach. Our unit will fall into black history month and is focusing on black history through the arts. We decided to use a survey to find out what our students’ already know on this topic. “Surveys can give students a space to share their thoughts and opinions about a teaching technique or strategy, a unit, or their knowledge about a particular subject matter.” (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey. p. 92).  We were sure to emphasize that it was okay if they did not know but that they should try their best and guess if they thought they had any idea what the answer could be. I noticed that it was hard for a lot of the students to leave an answer blank, especially if they noticed a classmate was writing and had an answer. When I started to see wandering eyes, I told them that I wanted to know what they knew, not what their neighbor knew and that it was not a grade. We ended up with a variety of answers and know now what we need to focus on as we tech our unit.

As we teach more lessons. The students are beginning to get more comfortable with us being their teachers. I have noticed that the students are often whispering to their neighbors while we teach though. If it is brought up to stop talking the students will stop, but there are one or two who will continue to push it and keep talking. This is one of my pet peeves because I know that they are not only distracting me from my teaching, but are also distracting their peers from learning. I wonder if a no talking chart, or some kind of reward system for not talking while the teaching is talking would encourage students to stay quiet throughout a lesson?

Week 3: Lessons

As we begin teaching more and more lessons in the classroom, I am beginning to get a little more comfortable. At first, the class could seem a little overwhelming. From day one we learned that there was a child with hearing loss, a child with vision loss, a child that will not speak, and a child with Down syndrome in our class. I have learned that it does not have to be so overwhelming when you can easily accommodate for all of these children. There are simple things like placement in the room or assignment changes that can help students to feel more comfortable or be successful in the class.

I learned this from not only the actions of my mentor teacher, but also the students in the class. They do not see any of the kids in the class as having disabilities, they are just other kids. No one questions the microphone, or if we need to pause to fix a hearing aide. No one asks why one student is allowed to sit on the ground if he cannot see the board. The students have come to accept the fact that one student may not always participate or use her words. And having a paraprofessional in the room with their best buddy is a fun thing for them. I love the innocence in children, and wonder where it went in adults. They all love each other and do not judge each other in any way, shape, or form. This was one of the key things I found in effective differentiation. Yes, there can be accommodations for learning styles and needs, but when “students learn to respect and support one another as learners” (Tomlinson & Imbea) that is when true differentiation is successful to me.

When it comes to lesson planning, it can be kind of hard as a pre-intern in a classroom. It is not our class so we do not know the plans ahead of time. We have been learning how to appropriately plan for situations like this and how to plan lessons our teacher asks us to teach. It can be tricky to do a “review” lesson when you did not ever see the introduction lesson and do not truly know what to go off of. After something like that happened, or we forgot a few things we were supposed to do in a lesson, we learned we needed to take more notes and have better communication with our mentor teacher about the lesson we were to teach to help it run smoothly. Things are starting to slowly fall in place and I know it is all part of the learning experience.

Controversy in the Classroom?

Something that caught my attention while reading this week was under passion 7 in The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research. It’s something that I know can be touchy but that I have also wondered about. Are elementary aged students capable and mature enough to handle controversial issues or topics? And are they able to handle these kinds of discussions maturely?

            I know in my practicum placement last semester, we had a lot of children living in poverty. It is something that I have sadly become used to when placed in a number of Title I schools. I have always noticed that this is often hushed and never spoken about around the kids. Or even last semester with the election going on, there were plenty of lessons about the election but a lot of it was hushed as well. I know deep-rooted opinions in politics should be kept out of the classroom, but I feel the race of the kids made my previous teachers nervous in discussions about the elections and the history that goes along with race in politics.

            If things are appropriately handled and introduced by a teacher, I often think some controversial lessons may go over well with kids and they can handle these subjects. But then again, you never really know what to expect out of a child’s mouth. I still wonder, how can we teach these topics or issues to students without it being too much or causing a fight? A lot of the world’s issues are quite controversial. Yet we never touch on them in schools due to fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what will happen if our innocent kids hear. I don’t necessarily have a solution for this, but would love to find a way to be able to cover some “controversial” topics in schools to not over shelter students and keep them informed or allow them to voice some opinions without causing a fight or disruption. 

            Another topic brought up in the same section of the book was about the achievement gap and often how many attempts to close the achievement gap are failed attempts. One part read, “our school storage areas are littered with the debris of unsuccessful attempts to address and remedy the problem…” (Dana & Yendel-Hoppey, p. 50.) I am kind of torn when it comes to this idea too. I feel we do so much to try and close the gap but we often shelter students from knowing where they fall in the achievement in the classroom. Then, no matter how much we try to no let them know, they often figure it out anyway. For example, I was working with a reading small group this week and one student said, “this is weird, we are all of the gifted kids in the same group. All the smartest in the class.” I tried to play it off like it was not so, but then questioned why I was doing so. Is it bad for students to know where they fall? Would knowing they were a little behind maybe give a student motivation to work a little harder? Students are labeled gifted and pulled out and this does not seem to affect them. I would hate to hurt a child’s feelings, but still wonder if a little motivation to try a little harder, read a little more, or just put a little extra in would help to motivate and close the achievement gap in classes.

Week 1: Teacher Inquiry

While reading this week, I was struck by one particular sentence. It read, “Given today’s political context, where much of the decision making and discussion regarding teachers occur outside the walls of the classroom, the time seems ripe to create a movement where teachers are armed with the tools of inquiry and committed to educational change.” (Dana, p. 5) I see teachers losing control of their own classrooms more and more each year. By this I don’t mean control in a behavior management way, but control as to what and how they will teach. Everyone is constantly saying something is not working in our schools, our schools need change, and that we are not matching to other countries standards. When I am in a classroom though, it is hard to imagine anything being able to change. Teachers can hardly alter things when they are handed rigid guidelines on how to do things and given so much to fit in, that it is hard to do anything extra. The coolest part about teacher inquiry to me is that it is something that a teacher can do and fit into their classroom schedule and can be something to begin moving towards that change.

            When I completed my inquiry last semester, I saw something not working in the class, and thought of a way to change it. It did not take me too much extra time to collect my research with the students, so I know it is doable. But I collected the research and data on the students to ultimately come up with a conclusion to my wonderings by implementing something and seeing if it helped to fix the problem or was a different solution necessary.

            Inquiry can make the teacher the “expert” in the classroom and allow the person who knows their best teaching styles and how their students learn best, to be the one to research and change, instead of and outside “expert” creating the professional development.  “Those dissatisfied with the traditional model of professional development suggest a need for new approaches that enhance professional growth and lead to real change.” (Dana. P. 7) The teacher themselves being that expert and creating their own professional development could be a major factor in the change in classrooms really becoming effective.

            In the readings it spoke about data-driven decision making and progress monitoring and I believe things like the FAIR tests are one way that teachers can include this in the teacher research they complete and could help to improve and change their classroom learning. This past week I got to view our classes FAIR test data and see where they all fall. The test is given 3 separate times throughout the year, kind of like a built in progress monitoring. The test also breaks the results down into specific areas of need for students. That kind of data could help teachers to plan different lessons to allow extra practice on certain areas for students to build their skills where they need to. But I wonder if teachers actually do this?

            I find inquiry so interesting. Last semester I constantly heard the word inquiry from our teachers or in our readings, but I never really knew what it was and how it was done, until I completed one myself. I believe that teacher inquiry can be one the best ways to really get the change that so many are pushing for in classrooms.

Using FAIR data to change lessons and activities to focus on the areas of need, could students’ scores improve more?