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Over the last couple of months I have been progressing
further and further into my role as a teacher. At first I was developing at a
steady pace, but more recently I have begun to grow at exponential rates. I am
starting to find it easier to gain the attention I require from my students
without all of the hassle I used to get, and I find that my students have
finally bonded with me and see me as someone they can look up to.
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One of my biggest challenges of the year was getting
students to participate in higher level conversations with each other rather
than rote response towards the teacher. I tried several different approaches
that I have been taught from my mentor teacher, my university supervisor, and
Peter Smagorinsky’s Teaching English by
Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units in the hopes that I
would find something that worked. I remember reading in the story how awkward the
silences were when trying these approaches towards generative conversations and
I can speak first hand that they are
as awkward as one would think. Imagine a scenario like this: I have just posed
the essential question that I would like for them to discuss. I gave them clear
expectations of how I want them to participate and what is and is not
considered a “good participation” during the conversation. I laid out all of
the ground work from my end as their teacher to give them all of the tools necessary
to have the entire discussion with each other without relying on the teacher to
guide them along. And they just sit there silently. No one says a word. Not
even a cough. This is a horrifying spot for me to be in, but eventually, after
2 minutes of awkward unbearable silence, someone says something. Then it sparks
a chain reaction into someone else’s idea. And the ball has been dropped down
the ramp of creation. This is how the scenario should have played out. What
actually happens: students talk to their neighbor about what they saw at
recess, the next group over falls asleep, and the students who are participating do not talk to each other,
but say things to me to gauge whether or not their answers are correct. Now I
am not saying that this type of conversation is bad, or that it wouldn’t work
for anyone ever. I am saying that this
type of discussion is very difficult to structure properly and it takes a lot
of hard work for them to pull this off since most students are not used to this
type of classroom activity. I am also to blame for my inexperience at how to
properly engage the students with student-lead discussions.
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On the bright side I found a setup for student-lead discussion
that does work for me: FishBowls.
These things are absolutely amazing. Paired with my raffle ticket system for
amazing contributions and the wacky setup of the classroom equals almost 100%
student engagement. I even have those students that never turn in any of their work in any of their classes jumping into the FishBowl
to have a conversation with their classmates. Simply amazing. Another thing
that both me and the students really enjoy is that I am an equal participant in
the discussion. I pick open ended essential questions that are not easy to
answer (and sometimes even I don’t fully know the answer) so that I can become
organically involved in the conversation in order for them to teach me
something.
Another great thing that has blossomed out of the students
teaching me things in the classroom is that I get the unique perspective of the
student teacher in the classroom and I use that to my advantage. If I can’t
figure something out with the students or if I can’t get them to behave the way
they need to I will hand out feedback forms for them to fill out for me. I come
into the feedback with the attitude that we are both learning together and that
if I should be giving them feedback on their work then it is only fair for them
to give me feedback on mine.
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Overall I think I have finally found my voice as a teacher and I know that I can always
overcome any difficulties I face because at the end of the day I go home with a
smile on my face knowing that tomorrow is going to be an improvement over
today.
Good morning Nate,
ReplyDeleteYour creativity and ability to really attack problems is one of your greatest strengths. I wish we were at the same school because I would love to come and watch one of these fish-bowl raffle classroom discussions. It sounds really innovative and successful! Though we do a lot of classroom discussions, my biggest issue is getting the quieter students to participate and getting my more talkative and outgoing students to let them have a chance! This idea sounds like it could resolve those issues. Thank you so much for sharing.
Nate,
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you have finally found your teacher voice and I am glad that you were able to create a great system for your own classroom community! Great work! I love how you speak about student feedback and how it is reciprocal and fair that it goes both ways rather than just one way. I'm glad that I have had the opportunity to see you grow as a teacher and individual. I look forward to hearing more of your successes. Thanks for your share!