Reflect after reading Chapters 5-7:
How do we answer questions in a thinking classroom? When and how do we give tasks?
Consider the following questions:
- What is resonating with you from the reading?
- What caused you to pause and think during this section?
Respond and Interact
After reading these chapters, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
These chapters really made an impact on my thinking and how I'm determined to teach. First, it made me observe myself in how I was literally giving all the answers. I wasn't letting them struggle with explaining their thinking. In chapter 5 it had so many good ideas and methods for changing how you present information. The day I read it I started the change. By not giving the answers and having them be in the teacher role there was so much more engagement and authentic work. It was a struggle for some. And I can see where I need to work on allowing them the time to talk it through. I catch myself wanting to teacher it and rescue them but what I saw when they worked through the process was amazing. Also, asking more questions and doing a lot of smiling an acknowledging but not answering.
ReplyDeleteI will continue to work on my when, where and how to give tasks. I love giving the challenge right away when the energy is high and have seen some positive results in doing this right away. My students had a better sense of what the goal of the lesson was from the start. Instead of waiting until the end to give the tasks. The where is a work in progress. I have tried carpet to desk and will be trying the standing in front of desks next. I strongly believe in the research that show that students can only listen one minute for each year old they are. So our little lessons are short unless I get carried away.
So my pause and think is homework. It's a struggle giving homework to 6 year olds after a full day of school. And the return on the homework I work so hard to have students is very low. So this one is a work in progress too.
It was interesting to think that there were three types of questions and only one of which is helping students with thinking. When thinking to hat students ask me, I find that I am typically just getting the proximity questions, and stop thinking questions. I realized I do answer some of those questions at times, but when they gave us a list of questions to ask instead, I saw that I do ask some of those instead. I love how they gave me a list of replacement questions I can ask too.
ReplyDeleteIt made sense when they said to give the task at the beginning of the lesson because their energy level changes is harder to raise if it is already going down and then you give a task. I actually caught myself pre teaching the materials one day instead of giving a thinking task.. Whoops! I was able to stop myself and then have the students continue the task, but I find that it is easy to slip into the role of pre teaching.
One thing I am excited to try is having students be standing while solving. I don’t typically choose where or how they sit or stand when they solve their problems. I typically let the student choose. I am interested to see how this will shift their thinking in math. I do wonder if it can still apply in other content areas.
It really pushed me when he talked about "defronting" my classroom - sounded completely crazy to someone who finds peace in routine and organization. But I don't think it's intended to be all day every day. It made me think about how I could do better to teach around the room instead of being locked into the same spot everyday. I was at a training recently and I was noticing when the presenter utilized some of these strategies with us adult learners (random groupings, defronting the room, standing vs. sitting, etc). I felt myself thinking (and learning) when he was allowing us to struggle and make sense of the content in our small groups instead of listening to him tell us everything he knows about material. Certainly there are places to step in and provide clarity and ask questions that help move learning forward. But I know that I am often guilty of "over teaching" when my learners could probably be set free to give it a try a whole lot sooner than I allowed them to.
ReplyDeleteThe content in this book is changing my thinking about how I teach by leaps and bounds! I know I'm late to responding but I am devouring these chapters and sharing the ideas and strategies with my colleagues. I have a student teacher this fall, and he gets to hear all about what I am learning and trying the strategies with me, but what is really cool is that he is sharing the excitement with his supervising teacher.
ReplyDeleteHere are my musings/ramblings: I definitely am paying more attention to the questions students are asking and how I answer them (or don't answer them LOL!). I am planning on trying the strategies from chapter 6 as soon as my student teacher is done (the end of this week). I've thrown a lot at him and don't want to overwhelm. I am wrestling with HOW to introduce a task verbally using our new math curriculum, but this is something else I plan to try in the next week. I am wondering if every lesson's tasks can be incorporated into an opportunity to use the vertical surfaces. And I have been trying all types of things with homework over the years and this bunch of students this year is especially terrible about completing homework, even if it is only a handful of problems due at the end of the week. I just started assigning two problems nightly that are attached to the Cool Down, and I am going to revise the wording to say "Check for Understanding" and see if that changes the number of students who turn it in.
THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD! I've already started trying to defront my classroom more and more, which is a great way to increase student engagement.
ReplyDeleteI think what I appreciated the most was the different types of questions. As I read, I thought "Yes!" and "Yes!" and "This!" Unfortunately, it means that I have been answering those proximity and stop-thinking questions, but the first step is awareness, right? I appreciate the tangible strategies that I can (and have) implement in my classroom right away around the questioning - both in sharing the types with students as well as the moves I can make when asked those questions.