Rethinking Compliance, Focusing on Community.

I was teaching a group of 4^th graders fractions with candy this past week. All children are going to be excited when there’s candy involved as a manipulative. I noticed not only was my teaching not where I wanted to be taking it (for example, I wasn't asking specific enough questions), but the students eventually began to start talking over one another and over me. I heard myself say, "I will wait 'til you're quiet." I hated myself instantly. I used this "tool" because it was honestly what I reverted back to when I didn't know what else to do. It was a “quick fix” calling for temporary compliance (Kohn 30). I didn’t try and do it out of power, but I can see how it can be viewed as a power- hungry phrase. I knew it wasn’t the best choice or what I wanted to be doing, but I also tried explained to the students how we have to create a learning environment for all types of learners. For most all of us, that means listening when others are talking (something we had agreed upon in our “Ways to have a Conversation” anchor chart). In retrospect, I should have referenced this agreement the children had constructed themselves and asked students what we could have done differently: “lots of thought and skill are required to work with students and figure out together how to solve a problem” (Kohn 30). In no way did repeating 3-4 different times “I’ll wait ‘til you’re quiet” offer the students any form of agentive problem-solving skills for us to work as a community. When I talked with my teacher afterwards (he was not able to observe this lesson) he asked, "how did it go?" and I immediately told him how I was not happy with how I handled things. He asked, “how did [saying ‘I’ll wait til you’re quiet’] work for you?” My immediate response was, “It didn’t.” I knew it didn’t. I knew even when I was saying it. I think it is crucial to recognize the “false dichotomy” that is created when we entertain ideas such as punishments, rewards, and discipline. There is an “unnecessarily either/or…on the one hand, we can punish; on the other hand, we can do nothing” (Kohn 31). It doesn’t have to be this way. As teachers, we need to “create a caring alliance, a connection based on warmth and respect” (Kohn 36). We need to shift the focus from “doing things to students” to “working with them” (Kohn 36). We need to remind ourselves, when confronting issues alongside our students, how can “student[s] come away with an understanding of, or concern about, how his or her actions may affect other people” or themselves (Kohn 24).

Intentional.

Intentional teaching moves witnessed today...

·      “Thank you for raising your hand and waiting patiently”—communicating expectations and providing feedback on appropriate classroom behavior.

·      “Make sure to stay on the same page as us, please.”—communicating expectations and redirecting.

·      Repeating student responses—elevating their language

·      Redirects misconceptions—might ask a question to guide thinking rather than pointing out that it’s a misconception and simply giving away the answer

·      If a student is not paying attention or not on task, Mr. D will calmly (without aggression) tap their paper to remind them of the problem/task they are completing.

·      Repetition, again—repetition

·      Slow down—don’t assume things are common knowledge

·      If there’s a word read aloud incorrectly by a student, Mr. D will ask “what does that say?” if he knows the student truly does know the word.

·      Always go back to the task at hand—remember what you’re teaching. Sounds simple but staying grounded is key.

·      If a student tries to interject and disrupt the class—it’s easy for him to ignore the action and the student—eventually they’ll stop and he hasn't wasted any teaching time. Also for his students, he says what they don’t need is micromanaging discipline.

·      Sometimes, since it is a small setting and there’s an implicit community of trust, Mr. D will call on student’s who do not have their hands raised. They do not feel called out yet glad to participate. Reminding students to participate is a real thing. If a student answers incorrectly, it’s no big deal to the other students and there’s no shame. It’s essential to have a community—and a community of trust and respect. It is a good way to also check for overall comprehension of the whole group. If someone has their hand raised, they obviously get it. We have to remember those who don’t, too.

·      If students are getting fidgety—give them the opportunity to move around; a change of environment can easily enhance engagement.

·      Having an anchor chart of “How to Have a Conversation” is key. The students need to come up and agree upon these elements as well. It is effective to have modeled and practiced productive talk/pair-and-share/whole class discussions prior. But at any needed time (and for any one student that might need it), the class can review the anchor chart. It doesn't call anyone out—but it reminds everyone. It gives the students a chance to self-monitor.

·      Even if there is a question being asked to the entire group, it is good to still provide wait time. Wait and see if you can get about ½ of the class’ hands raised—see if most all students take a stab at comprehending it.

·      Have students prove their thinking. Ask questions that have them explain their thinking and think using metacognition.

“Get over the micromanaging”

“Get over the micromanaging” 

Mr. D was leading a lesson with fractions today. He had different squares drawn on the board. He had the students come and draw what they saw as ½. Then, he had them defend and prove their thinking. (If we can get children to think about their thinking—metacognition—it is such a powerful and agentive tool to foster within students and will carry them as far as they can go.) He probed student responses with “why” questions (making sure they understood a half is two equal parts of one whole). I noticed lots of the students seemed to be fixated on sharing their particular method of halving the square over listening to other’s student’s thinking. They were fidgety and did not seem to be fully engaged. (It also was Monday and the last activity in the afternoon!) I noticed Mr. D did not seem to acknowledge the behaviors that were somewhat “not on task” or “slightly disruptive” (something I know other teachers would have addressed and then provided discipline). It seemed to me he was using a method of behavioral “extinction”—he was not exerting his energy unnecessarily to give students who were craving attention exactly what they were looking for. One student particularly wanted to answer the question and called out and begged every time there was an opportunity saying, “Mr. D, I know the answer!” but Mr. D never allowed the student to answer. I knew it was an incredibly intentional move. I kept saying to myself “surely he’ll call on him this time just so he’ll BE QUIET.” He never did. I also noticed the student did not seem to complain or worry with not having been called on after the situation was over. They were allowed to come to the board and move about—something students in school aren’t always doing (or sometimes ever doing with the exception of P.E.). We HAVE to create moments for student to move and mull about during the day or we will LOOSE them—even more severely than if we let a bit of chaos and movement ensue.

I asked Mr. D about how he was feeling during the lesson when it seemed like the students were a little “disorderly”. After all, it wasn’t so much the students weren’t engaged—they were excitedly answering and participating in the lesson. They were thinking abstracting and defending their thinking—that’s incredible. I somehow seemed to miss that initially when I was focused on how it was nosier than usual and seemed more chaotic. Mr. D told me in his first year of teaching 5^th grade he was all about re-directing behaviors and would have felt like that would have been a lesson in which he would have done such, but he said “you just have to get over the micromanaging.” There is a difference in letting things go and loosing control. Mr. D in no way had lost the children’s attention and engagement—but he had just given up a little bit of the “control” or strict structure we see in a typical classroom. In reflecting, I think the children were more excited and participating by choice—isn't that what we want? I hope to strive to find a healthy balance between the two and to always create classroom structures and environments that put the children first.  

Learning in Community 

Today I had the opportunity to go to a Math Professional Development Seminar with Greater Birmingham Math—a partnership ICS has with UAB. There are a lot of parallels between what ICS, UAB, and BSC all see as great math instruction. It reinforced a lot of what we (Merrill and I) knew to be good practice as teachers. We talked about a 5 step approach to instruction in math:

1.     Anticipating—setting the goal and identifying the task.

2.     Monitoring—student responses to tasks.

3.     Selecting—particular students to present their thinking and being intentional with our selection.

4.     Sequencing—student responses are displayed in order and building upon another for the greater good of the holistic student comprehension.

5.     Connecting—concepts and ideas and elevating student thinking. Noticing an idea a student has and naming it.

Reflections from the First Week

Current Event Connections 

Some of the most powerful moments this week occurred when children would read current news articles and then discuss them with one another. Mr. D has a website he uses called newsela.com. The website makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content, but at a level that’s just right for each student. The website and articles are also aligned to common core standards through quizzes and critical thinking questions upon completing an article. All of the articles are current event non-fiction articles taken from news sources. It is also great for data collection—teachers can create a class within the website to see who reached comprehension and who needs more time to build certain strategies. Teachers also lead students toward a deeper examination of content through interactive annotations such as highlighting and note-taking when reading the articles. It is also giving students practice with technology (using computers and iPads) and testing—since the state tests are online now. The students read an article about a girl named Luisa who lives in California. Luisa was bullied in school and now travels by train daily to go to a more supportive school and play soccer. The students read the article silently then Mr. D read the article aloud as the students followed along. After he made sure all of the students understood the article and it’s concepts, the students turned and talked with a partner about anything they found interesting in the story. You could tell the students have explicit expectations and really work hard in Mr. D’s class. After they talked, we came together as a whole group to discuss more. Overall, we decided the main idea and theme of the story was “don’t take no for an answer”—something Luisa’s mom told her often. Through poverty, bullying, and hardship—Luisa never gave up, but always persevered and kept trying. I was blown away by the connections, conversations, and content of the discussion. The next day, we read an article that discussed a girl named Lina who lived in Saudi Arabia. Although there are many restrictions to what women can and cannot do in her country, she had the courage to start her own basketball team. One of the students who struggles most in the classroom said something completely brilliant in the discussion with the whole group. He said there is a connection between the two articles because “it was kind of like the government was bullying them”—referring to the women in Saudi Arabia and how Luisa was bullied by other students. It was so amazing, I immediately said “oh my gosh” under my breath and sat there in amazement. It’s within these small moments I have confirmation that I truly love seeing the learning process and want to be a teacher.

Education is Life 

Mr. D and I facilitated a discussion with the students the day after they had had their first discussion about Luisa being bullied. He asked the students what worked well when they had their discussions and for ideas for future discussions to hold one another accountable to those guidelines. The students effortlessly came up with these ideas as Mr. D wrote them on the board:

1.     Look at each other and make eye-contact

2.     Listen and do not interrupt

3.     Have good body language

4.     Think before you speak

5.     Talk clearly

6.     Put your listening ears on

7.     Everyone can participate

I was so impressed for the children to come up with these ideas for what makes a good conversation. Not only is the purpose of these guidelines for conversation to be used in the classroom, but the idea is that it will transfer beyond and into their daily life. If we can provide structures for children to communicate and listen effectively, that might be the most important part of our job as teachers.

Teaching is Magical 

Some things that impressed me this week that were teaching techniques I observed was limited behavior/classroom management Mr. D had to use or enforce. It seemed he had already set clear expectations that the children abided by. He said it took doing it on the “front end” for the students to come in and work as hard as they do in this classroom. I was also impressed by how well the students know numerous phonics rules and apply them. When it came to phonics, the students have magnetic boards with blends and digraphs on them to be easily manipulated and to work on different sounds within spelling. It is a phonics program called Wilson. In math, the students are learning fractions in 5^th grade and irregular and regular polygons in 4^th. For fractions, the students have created their own sentence strips in differing colors corresponding to different fractions. It is such an amazing tool to help visualize what fractions really mean and look like and how to compare them. The children also played a math game with the fraction strips called “cover up” where they roll a dice with fractions on it and cover the whole (1) strip up to see who covers their whole strip first. When the students get close to covering up the entire whole, they have to go around and see what fraction more they need to win the game and completely cover their strip. I was so impressed by the mental thought processes that went on when students would come up with many different combinations and ideas of fractions for how to cover their strip and their partners. If they got it wrong, their partner could choose a fraction strip for them to take off. The children loved it. They were hooked on this game, yet learning all at the same time. We have to make learning engaging, exciting, and stimulating for students. School doesn’t need or have to look like the teacher standing at the “front” of the room, at a white board, lecturing to students, and students sitting silently. As teachers, we can do better; I am happy to be in a community that goes above this.

It's all about community. We first, have to know our students. 

One story that attests to community felt in ICS is the one morning the students had a delayed start to school due to below freezing weather. ICS is a school with 82% of its students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Therefore, many of the students rely on the breakfast and lunch the school provides. The teachers realized that the students, coming in at 10:00am that day, wouldn’t be served breakfast and therefore would not have eaten until lunch that day. A few teachers went around and asked the teachers which students they had that might not have had breakfast that morning. This goes back to the most important thing—knowing our students. Once they had a guestimate of how many students would come to school hungry and without having had breakfast, they called Chik-Fil-A, McDonalds, Jack’s, and Arby’s. The teachers were proactive and got breakfast donated by all of these local fast-food restaurants (for over 200 students). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs tells us that if anyone’s physiological needs are not being met (food, water, shelter) everything else is of little importance—yes, even comparing fractions. When the teachers were attending to the student’s physiological needs first, it spoke volumes to me (and I’m sure for the students as well). Overall, it was a wonderful first week with the 2 professional development days (where I learned my educational philosophy is extremely parallel with those being implemented at ICS) and 3 days with Mr. D and his wonderful students. The entire environment of the school is overwhelmingly positive and focused on relationships. I walked away every day with a smile on my face and in awe of Mr. D’s teaching and especially the students.