After reading Domain three, the aspect I feel most comfortable with is......Component 3B: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques. I question my students all of the time. Some questioning I use is quick and fast responses and other times I want them to think about their feelings and emotions. Other times I want them to be analytical. There are many factors that lead in to the style of questioning I am using. Who makes up the class?What can they handle? What is the pace of the class? How will discipline and the focus of the class be affected? Will they stay on task? How long will they stay on task? You get the drift. I feel strongly that I can really do a lot with the class through questions/discussions and answers.
The component from this domain that I believe most strongly ties to instruction is......Component 3C: Engaging Students in Learning. Surprise. This is key for students to learning. When they are engaged the more they will learn. I know ....bold statement. This is not an easy task. You can not make everyone happy all the time or engaged for that matter. Students are very different and what engages them is very different. Some learn visually, auditory, hands on etc. I think one of the keys is changing it up to engage all learners. Sometimes we will use our vision/auditory/hands on styles for learning. We must use a myriad of methods in order to make sure that all students will have their learning style incorporated to keep them engaged. A bored mind is a dangerous mind!
The component from this domain that I would like to zero in on in my instruction is.......3B: Student Engagement
This domain can be all over the place in my classroom. Many variables contribute: age of students,what ime of day I see them, how many in the class, who is in the class, what the class is, interest level to start with, academic ability and so on. Sometimes I need to use questions and answers for one class. This gives them an opportunity to talk (with one another), keeps them engaged and out of trouble ( because they would talk to each other anyway). They can discuss relative material and cut up when appropriate. This works very well for this class in particular. My first bell of the day I have to get them out of their seats and move around to get them awake so they will be an active participant. I also must play devils advocaate in order to illicit a response out of them. Upperclassmen first bell.... uugghh. The younger the better the earlier! Another class we had a project that they had to draw what the "World's Fair" would look like in 1900. We had a planner, artist, a writer and a spokesperson to create and discuss their fair.
Question to the group: How do you engage an uruly/unmotivated class?
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Dan- I also agree that questioning and discussion is a fairly easy component of this domain. I find it's something that usually happens naturally with the right prompting and cueing. You asked: How do you engage a unruly/unmotivated class? As you mentioned earlier, I also agree that all students learn differently. Some hands on, some auditory, some visually and so forth. I think that if you truly want to engage a unmotivated student or class you have to find what learning style fits them best and then amplify it by connecting your teachings to things that are important and interesting to them. This may take a lot more planning and effort in preparation, but once you have conquered that aspect hopefully you have created an environment that has captured their attention!!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned in your post that it is not a surprise that engagements leads to learning- that does sound like common sense right?? But you are also correct that this is so much harder to do than it should be. You mentioned that there are many factors that impede engagement--such as make up of the class, time of day, topic, etc.. It is hard for you high school teachers who have limited time with each class to really spend time building rapport and figuring out learning styles for each class. I think a great inquiry for you this semester might be to pick your hardest/most unmotivated class and experiment with different ways to engage them. This would be helpful for us all as I know all of us have those unmotivated learners.
ReplyDeleteThat is such the truth! It is very difficult to engage all learners all at once. Our school's PE teacher gets on the TV every morning for announcements and leads the whole school in an exercise program she calls Wakin' & Shakin' to help get them all awake and ready to go for the day. My first graders participate in this, then we take a restroom break, and then they are pretty much ready to focus on the first task of the day, the biggest: Language Arts. It really seems to help to get that all out of the way.
ReplyDelete"I think one of the keys is changing it up to engage all learners."
ReplyDeleteI really like this quote because it is important to make sure our lessons reach every student. I am not saying that we will be successful every time but it should be our goal as teachers.
-Jessica, I love the idea of the students exercising in the morning. I am going to bring the idea up to our principle. I think it will definitely impact our students.
Dan- to try to answer your question. I have experience working with students with emotional behavioral disorders and i have found that if i hold my students more accountable for school work they are more engaged. I will give a topic a day before and they have to come up with ways to teach it to the class. I reverse the roles. They feel like the teacher and the majority of the time they really get into it. I also include them in on assessments. Before we begin a unit I describe the goals and objectives of that unit. Together we come up with a neat project they have to do. For example: We were working on a math unit involving decimals. The students came up with two projects. One group held a field day and they gathered "athletes" to run and they recorded the times, to the nearest hundredths of a second and then they had to figure out who came in first.... There were some more elaborations but that is the main idea. The next group did a project that dealt with money (to work on decimals). They opened a "store" during lunch and raised money and so on. Getting them involved in the process of a project or activity, i have noticed, will engage the students more.
Wow that is a tough question. Keeping a class engaged is always tough but and unruly class is more challenging. There are times you can loose a class totally and you have to re-group. I think if a class is not engaged then you do have to stop and pull them back in and make changes. I think reflecting on each lesson can help you do this. I love that you feel so comfortable with questioning. Since that is an area I want to zero in on I look forward to hearing more about your techniques in that area.
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