P2 Practice differentiated instruction/ Teacher Observation #3

P2 Practice differentiated instruction. This principle of HOPE indicates to me the need for awareness of and differences in how we approach teaching. Although the educational system has been set up like a conveyer belt through an assembly line, that doesn’t mean that it is an effective way to help students learn. Any student can benefit from having a teacher that recognize areas of concern and provide support for that student.

I observed a teacher going over a mid unit lesson which tied together a science unit (pendulums) with a writing lesson (how to create an outline).  The students had already read the first page of an article and began their outlines. Here are some highlights from that observation:

The teacher writes on the whiteboard ‘How pendulums work’ (title) then asks the students how/where to find the title and why it’s important for an article.  I thought he did a great class management technique when a student was off task and so he called on that student ‘Johnny, you have your math journal on your desk right now even though it’s reading and writing time, I noticed that your math journal is labeled ‘MATH’ – why did you label it like that? When Johnny responded (to help him find it in his desk drawer) the teacher tied it back into the lesson by saying ‘Exactly! That’s the same reason why we label our work; to help us identify it and look for it later. To know what you’re looking for, or help others find something you’ve worked on’. Many teachers tend to allow a distraction to turn into a time to pause the lesson, talk to the distracting student, then return to the lesson. This teacher after years of practice has formed an impressive style of instruction and classroom management that blends and seem effortless.

The teacher worked on creating differentiated instruction by working directly with the IEP students and having them pair up with a partner to help them get their outline finished. He also provided them with a copy of his finished outline to look at so they wouldn’t’ have problems with copying from the white board (far point gaze shifting).

 

The picture above is a sample of the pendulums made by the students earlier in the day. It is very basic and uses materials found in any classroom (pencil, tape, string, paperclip, and a penny). For the creation of the pendulums each of the IEP students were given the pendulum project in a slightly personalized way, one of our students has some fine motor skills so his pendulum already had the string tied on. One of our students gets frustrated really easily, so he was partnered with someone who follows directions and maintains an easy-going personality.

Classroom management was really effective, he managed to call on the person who was off task without embarrassing them, get them back on track, and refocus everybody back to the current issue. At one point though, he did put a stop to the lesson when there were several students who were off topic and he helped the whole group feel both responsible and like a team to help solve the problem.

(Teacher: “If you were the teacher what would you want to see students doing right now? (‘Talking at their table groups’), if you’re not talking with you’re group then you’re not helping the class. You’re working on something else and I don’t want to get to the end of this and have you not know how to write an outline. You need to work together at your table, help your table {each other}. If someone is off topic, help them focus and ask them a question”).

He also included a lot of information about the importance of helping your brain organize material by stressing the value of lining up an outline with spacing to help your brain.

This was basically a teacher presentation of material and no technology was used. I really like time I get to spend in this classroom and I think this teacher has really impressive classroom management. If I were doing this lesson I would begin by having the students read the learning target out loud, then do a turn-and-talk to discuss what they thought the lesson would be about. As well as make predictions on what they think will happen with their pendulums. Once the lesson was done, I’d ask a student to read the learning target once again and we would have a short discussion about if we met our learning target for the lesson.

 

 

 

O2, Teacher Observation #2

O2 – Offer appropriate challenge in the content area.

To me, O2 is really about teachers providing the curriculum material in a variety of ways to keep students engaged, and providing questions that help them test their thinking. Last Thursday I observed a teacher in a mainstream intermediate level classroom teach a math lesson. The students worked at their desks to discuss homework. After 5 minutes there was a whole class discussion. If a question was brought up, rather than giving a direct answer, the teacher first asked the student to work through their reasoning about their answer. Next the teacher put the question out to the group by asking who agreed, and then who disagreed. Students raised their hands to participate and/or discuss their reasoning. The students displayed an informed, mature, respectful way to discuss their differing opinions.

After the homework discussion, the new material was presented. It was presented very clearly and student questions were answered immediately either by the teacher or a student who could explain the problem to everyone. The teacher included information on ‘Why’ this was important to know. He also asked the students, and voiced his opinion as to when you might see it applied in the real world. He did not specifically discuss the learning target for the lesson. He did activate student’s prior knowledge by writing down examples that students would have seen in previous lessons, and then he added new information to it.

The classroom was calm and almost all students were engaged. The teacher kept the pace going and often asked students to work together then share out answers.  Things were kept lively by the ‘fear factor’ – the unknown of when a student might be called on to respond.  This strategy kept the students engaged with the topic, and constantly checking in with their own learning (based on their ability to respond). Students were also randomly challenged to go up to the whiteboard to work through their thinking on a particular problem.

The picture above is a sample from the math journal the students from the ISES classroom use during their mainstream math lesson.  It compliments the current math curriculum used in our school district and helps our students to better follow along with the teacher.

Technology used in the lesson was the whiteboard and document camera, and the teacher’s computer. He used his computer to access the math curriculum so the students could see the same page from their book, on the whiteboard. He magnified the page quite large and often selected students to come up to the whiteboard to write their answers down. It was a great use of document camera + whiteboard. Many teachers use the pull down screen, making it a teacher lecture style of presentation. By incorporating the whiteboard he shifted the focus from lecture to hands-on learning.

Other than incorporating the learning targets there wasn’t much I would change about the lesson. I thought his coverage of the content material was very good.  I also thought the students being so involved and engaged was great, as was his calm, no-nonsense demeanor, and I really liked the technology usage as well.

H1 HOPE Standard, Teacher Observation #1

H1 – Honor student diversity and development.

H1 really addresses the ability of the teacher to work with any student that walks through the door of their classroom and blend them right into the work currently being done.  In the first week of school I observed an intermediate level teacher who exemplifies the H1 principle with a grace and ease that I hope to emulate. On this particular day he was working on a group activity to help students get to know one another better. The teacher presented an icebreaker activity that was not part of an academic lesson. So although it wasn’t attached to a specific learning target, I think the students walked away with something very valuable.

The goal was to have students to line up by age in order from youngest to oldest. The trick was they were not allowed to talk at all once the game started. The students were given two minutes to ‘table talk’ with classmates to brainstorm about what might work to help them line up. Most students came up with the idea of using hand signals (number of fingers held up for month/day). After the table talk, the teacher gathered the group ideas, answered questions, and presented a few additional questions and ‘things to think about’ for the class.

For both the pre and post activity, the teacher used a wide variety of open-ended questions and often would not answer a student directly but let the class think about and come up with an answer to the question presented. He seemed to have a pattern of anywhere from 2 to 4 open-ended questions, to one closed question. He called on numerous students and I think the anticipation of not knowing who was going to be called on next kept them all focused and engaged. He called upon boys and girls in equal amounts and didn’t necessarily look for hands raised; in fact, he often called on students who might have gotten side tracked (playing with a pencil sharpener, talking to a neighbor etc.).

Once the questions had been answered, he set a timer for 10 minutes and told the students to begin.  The students remained silent as they scrambled around the room trying to figure out their spot in line.  One student wrote his birthday down on paper and soon most students also had paper and pencils out as well.

At the end of the ten minutes each student told the group their birthday and an overall consensus was reached that for the most part the group was in order. The students seemed to have a really good time in the beginning of this activity, however there was a point toward the end where the overall mood in the room shifted and frustration set in. The teacher let the students (silently) work through the frustration (of not being understood, of not being allowed to talk, of wanting to be done with the activity). I think that this is another demonstration of his mastery of the H1 standard.  He acknowledged where the students were at (as far as their emotions), he calmed down a few upset students, but in general he showed them that he trusted them, was there for them and believed that they could work through this process.

The teacher spent the remaining time discussing the ‘Why’ of the activity; using a variety of questions to get students to think about the process they just went through.   The students were able to reach the conclusion that overall the activity was pointless (Teacher: “Is there ever a time when I’m going to ask you to line up by age? No. So why did we do this?”) The closing questions helped the students talk about what was discovered; working together can be both fun and frustrating, they are able to work through something that was difficult, and importance of clear communication.

It was clear by the end of the exercise that everybody (teacher and students) had a good time and they headed off to the lunchroom (and yes, they were still in their age-order line).

I was really glad that I got to see this activity. It was really helpful for me to watch it play out, and a big lesson in letting students feel some frustration and being able to keep going anyway. I’m unable to provide a picture of evidence for this particular activity for the following reasons. First this classroom is not one where I regularly spend time, therefore I do not have any consent forms to use video or photograph these students. Also, since it was an activity rather than a curriculum lesson there are no books or materials that were used.

When the teacher (who is my student’s mainstream teacher) told me of this activity I mentioned that I wanted to come and observe and make sure that the three students from my ISES classroom were able to participate as well (sometimes their schedule has them elsewhere at that time of the day). He is an incredible teacher and is very thoughtful and considerate about respecting and including all of the students in his classroom regardless of their stage of development or their background.

When I asked about classroom management of ‘my’ students as well as the other students, he discussed his plan to wander the room, which he did throughout the 25-minute activity. This was effective because the students had to keep track of him and be aware of him in the room. I don’t think anything could or should have been done any differently for his classroom management. I really liked his easy-going style and clear directions to students. I hope that I’m able to observe more of his teaching in the near future.