Strategies for Eliciting Student Thinking
This response will take thinking and reflection. For the three of you completing the TPA, it should sound familiar. Choose a lesson and describe your strategies for eliciting student thinking and how your ongoing responses further their learning. Give examples of how students expressed their understanding of the learning target (s). Short overview of this week. Respond to each other.
posted by Chris @ 10:45 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
The constant challenge in music is to break the barriers of mere fundamentals--crossing the line from making notes to making art. I have been working with the rhythm section (piano, bass, drums, guitar, auxiliary percussion). I will focus my discussin on the drumset and the congas.
The first step is to set up a "groove" where the drums and congas are playing a repeating pattern that matches the style of music we are playing--in this case, a salsa/jazz hybrid. This first step is a lot easier said than done! It is very difficult to do and not let the tempo (speed) fluctuate.
The next step is to listen to the brass and saxophones. They have to play figures that mesh and "set-up" the figures that the brass and saxes play (hard to explain in text). This is the first step in their higher thinking because they have to decide what fills and set-up figures are appropriate and they are improvisatory in nature.
The next step is to do similar tasks while accompanying a soloist. They have to maintain the groove and not "bury" the soloist. However, they can't just go on autopilot, either--they must interact.
Finally, the two percussionists themselves have to accompany each other while soloing themselves and maintaining the groove. The solos are improvised.
This is taught over a considerable amount of time and several rehearsals. I give immediate assessment letting them know if the time slipped or if they played something that really didn't work. I also ask for self assessment. We also record ourselves in rehearsal and performance and then evaluate. These two students have made much progress over the last few weeks.
I hope this post wasn't too lengthy or technical and that it answered the question!!
As for the overview, we have really been buckling down because our festivals are imminent. Our jazz festival is tomorrow and our concert band festival is in two weeks. The rehearsals have been very intense. My supervising teacher had to do auditions for next year, so I had a lot of face time with the students!!
Also, I learned that our guitar students (beginners and just passed beginners) as well
as ur percussionists needed to work on note reading. It has been like trying to discuss Hawthorne or Dumas while the students are still learning the alphabet. I bought flash cards and have been having the students drill. There are two different responses--and it's fascinating. The guitar students turned it into a game and loved it!! I told them they had to do 16 cards in 30 seconds and it was pass/fail. They all competed for the best time--all were under 30, the best time was 15 seconds. the percussionists are great at rhythm but have been remiss in learing notes over the past several years! They cowered and complained and resisted--and have had far more training. Very interesting. The guitar students of course wanted to time me, which I let them do.
Eric
Thanks,
Eric
Today, I introduced the concept of time to the first graders. The standard stated that students could identify the time to the hour and half hour. I decided that before I began the lesson I would lay the framework by introducing the key vocabulary terms. This lesson was difficult to teach because I don’t ever think about understanding time; I have been telling time since I was six. It was hard for me to really break it down into beginning steps. I felt that in order to help the students completely understand how time works they needed to understand some key terms. I had to explain seconds, minutes, hours, o’clock, clock hands, and half an hour before I could even begin the lesson and activity. I used a variety of modes to explain time, we talked about the words, I asked students to explain the definitions in their own words. I think when students talk through their own understanding; the other 1st graders understand them better because it is at their level. I also had students moving around; they had to hop up and down for one minute to see how long a minute was. I also asked students to write things down so that students, who focus more with a task at hand, could also be successful.
After building a foundation with key vocabulary and explaining how a clock works, I was finally ready to introduce the concept of telling time. I was able to download a Smartboard interactive “PowerPoint” and I used that to show students how to tell time. Then, I gave them each their own clock to work with. I would write the time on the board and the students would have to show that time on their clocks and hold it up, so I could assess. I focused on repetition, I introduced the concept and I reinforced with explanations after each round, but I really wanted students to use trial and error and practice over and over again. Repetition sounds so boring, but the students were very engaged, they had a mission, how many they could get right and that is what drove them to be successful. Also, as each round passed and I reinforced and repeated how to represent the top of the hour and half past the hour more and more kids caught on. By the end I only had 2 students that I noted who would need additional help.
Following the clocks, I also had students take whiteboards, and I would show them a time on my clock and they would have to write the time down and show me. In my opinion, this just reinforced another opportunity that students were given to help them understand how to tell time, but from a different perspective. I would show the time on the clock and they had to write the time in analog. Again, this became a personal competition, how many could they get right?
Overall, they had a great time, they were engaged the entire time, they didn’t even want to go to P.E. I used class discussion, the interactive board, student explanations, and manipulatives to help students become more successful with reaching their standard of telling time to the hour and half past. They also, showed me their understanding of the standard by showing me what time it was with their own individual clock and writing the times that I showed them.
For my overview this week, I have been thinking about how far the students have come. When I arrived there were some power struggles and 4-5 students who cried and had tantrums regularly. Now, most of the tears are gone, these kids have really grown up and matured. In mid-January Sandy had a sub, and the room was chaotic, loud and hard for me to manage. Today, 3 months later she had another sub, and I was amazed at how well they were today. They were engaged, on task, quiet, they were very impressive. I think this shows me that I have grown as a teacher, and they have grown as students. It’s so hard to see the progress day-to-day but when you look back it’s obvious.
Today I did a lesson on the cause and effect relationships of pollution on the Earth. I read a book about pollution to the class and as I read the book I asked questions that “elicited” what the students were thinking. “What caused the water to become dirty? What effect did this have on the Earth? What happened when the chemicals were put onto crops?
and other questions along those lines. Beforehand we discussed cause and effect as terms and a few examples of cause and effect in a context that helped them make connections towards understanding what they meant. In addition to this, I had them write in their school journal about what they had learned, making sure they wrote down examples of cause and effect relationships of pollution on the Earth. To make them think even more, I asked them to think of a positive cause and effect relationship to prevent the Earth from becoming more polluted. The other reflection question we discussed and I had them write was about their progress towards a goal they had set at the beginning of the lesson, which was based on the content.
The rest of the week went over fairly well and went by quickly too! I feel a strong sense of growth even in the last couple of weeks. I’ve finally found a niche with my teaching style and approach teaching with much more confidence. I allow myself to be creative and I gain a lot of good ideas as I teach a lesson, and it makes me realize that I’m becoming in tune with how the students are responding to my teaching and how I can foster their learning needs. I’ve learned how to use my voice properly to maintain control of the class without yelling or constantly telling kids what to do. I’d like put more effort into assessing students and finding where the gaps are. After covering the topic of time this week and seeing some of them still struggle I sense there needs to be an intervention. Beginning to figure out where I’m lacking in getting across the material and how I can differentiate my method of teaching is an on-going process that I haven’t felt caught up on yet.
It’s hard to believe that we’ll be finishing up in 2 and a half weeks. Spring break is much needed but it’ll be hard coming back to the realization that we only have a limited amount of time left in the classroom. The kids are picking up on the feeling that I’ll be leaving soon and it makes me sad.
For a recent lesson I did for my discrete class I had them a webquest. The point of the lesson was to have them examine loans in the context of using recursive relations. The lesson was a little bit rushed, but it had them calculating the amount of money they would end up paying on loans for college or on houses. The objective of the lesson was to have the students use the recursive relation of a mixed recursion problem to calculate loans and annuities using excel.
To elicit their thinking I gave them the guidelines for the assignment. In the guidelines they had to examine the general form of the recursive relation and determine what the ratio and the difference were in this particular situation. They struggled with this in part because they were a little rushed and in part because they struggle with applying math vocabulary.
I also elicited their thinking by having them evaluate the differences in loan repayment strategies and different interest rates. They had to give a presentation where they showed their various calculations and then defended their repayment choice. They needed to demonstrate their understanding of the learning targets in the presentation it was impossible to draw conclusions without finishing the preliminary calculations.
As they worked on the assignment, they often had questions concerning how this fit into the recursive relation, but I tried to have them answer it themselves by referring them to the annuity examples from the previous day and highlighting the differences in repaying a loan.
They made some value judgments on what they thought was best, but I feel like it lost a little power because the amount they paid was remote from having to worry about living expenses so they thought very little using an unreasonable portion of their yearly salary to pay off the debts quickly. An extreme example of this was a pair of students had an income of 72000 and paid 70000 off of their debt each year. For the most part though they selected reasonable jobs and reasonable repayment schemes.
The last week before break seems like it was so long ago. It was a really tough week. I didn’t get much sleep because there was a lot to get done before I could go on break. In particular there was a lot of grading because the end of the quarter is coming up and grades had to be in on the Friday before break. Fortunately my lessons were planned out ahead of time and creating the materials I needed for my lessons that week didn’t take too much time. Algebra was a little bit more direct instruction oriented and my discrete class had a review day where they also worked on their portfolio and then on the last day of my class before break they had a test (they loved that). It was not intentionally planned that way. That just happened to be the way the lessons worked out. The hardest part was just keeping track of the assignments that just kept coming in. We have a 0 credit for late assignments policy, but it’s in place so that we can reserve the right to accept late assignments rather than being obligated too. So many students came in and turned in late work or had me check it off-hand requiring me to write down to remind myself that I needed to adjust their grades. In the end though I got through it and only one student seemed to have an issue with my grades, but her complaints weren’t consistent and after looking through the work that I hadn’t turned back yet and the work she brought in, I didn’t feel that she had shown me anything that hadn’t been recorded.
That’s a lot to write about just grading, but it has me thinking about different strategies to handle incoming late work so that I can keep track of it better and make sure that not only are students getting the credit they deserve, but also that students are not sneaking in work under the pretense of absences.
Brandon-
The grading system that you have is a good one. I can see your concern for students who abuse the policy because of their absences, and also for giving students the grade they’ve earned. It is not as structured in elementary with giving “grades.” Assessing and feedback are the key components to why teachers grade, and that is the same across the different grade levels. However, it is still a struggle to get kids to do their homework whether they’re 8 or 16. I’d be interested in hearing how you involve parents in the matter. Especially for those students that need the extra support to get their work completed and turned in. I can see how children in the primary grades need the push for a sense of responsibility to get their homework done, and the effect it has on them as they continue in school. A huge influence is from parents. Teachers can’t control what happens at home, which makes it hard to help students do their homework. Finding a way to motivate students to want to learn is the biggest struggle I’ve faced with students. When the parent support isn’t there, it’s even harder.
Post a Comment
<< Home