Dear Past Me,
I want to start off this letter by letting you know that your future self is less than 24 hours away from completing her Student Teaching semester. I know you had yourself convinced that you wouldn't, but YOU SURVIVED!!! You did it. And you had to have a lot (A LOT) of help and encouragement along the way - but you did it.
You have never said this out loud to anyone except Shea, but the only reason you decided to major in education was because you didn't think you were capable of doing anything else. Education seemed like an easy way to get through college and earn a job shortly after graduation. Little did you know that your passion and knowledge in education would grow immensely in your four short years.
Your passion for education would be ignited your freshman year as a Co-op student at an elementary school. You'll quickly realized elementary education is SO not for you, but those kids will steal your heart anyway. Those 5-10 year old kids will teach you so much over the two years at that elementary school.
Then, you and Shea will decide to switch to Secondary Education in English Language Arts. You'll be terrified. You'll tell yourself you're not intelligent enough, deep enough, witty enough to be an English major. You will threaten to drop out after the first day of your poetry class. Actually, you'll threaten to drop out because of every English class you'll take for the next two years - which is a lot, by the way. But you won't. Your intelligence, your depth, and your wit will surprise you.
Core I will terrify the hell out of you. Your first placement will be at one of the toughest schools in the district. You'll sit outside the school in your car and just pray that none of the students will talk to you. In Core II, you'll move to a middle school and meet the most amazing Mentor Teacher. You don't know it yet, but you'll get to stay in his classroom for the next year and a half in Core III and IV. He will teach you so much about education, but more importantly about life. Try not to take it too personal when you're stuck with a substitute. Those days will be your most challenging, but they'll also be the ones that teach you the most.
Student Teaching will be the most challenging semester of your life. You'll struggle financially, emotionally, and spiritually. Even on your second-to-last day of Student Teaching, you'll stumble and be unsure of yourself. Keep pushing. Be reflective. You jumped through all the hoops of Student Teaching. You should be so proud of yourself! I know I am.
Love,
Sarah
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Group Work vs. Collaboration: Is There a Difference?
Group work and collaborative learning are often used interchangeably.
If the goal is collaborative learning, group work should be able to accomplish
this, right? In some cases, yes. But in many cases, group work can lead to what
some might call “hogs and logs”. Some students shine in groups: they take on
the role of a leader and try to keep the group on task. Other students – the logs
– tend to sit back and may or may not participate with the group, causing the
whole group to suffer.
Recently, my 7th graders finished reading the novel The Outsiders. This is the first novel the classes have done. My Mentor Teacher and I knew it would be important to split up the reading so students would not get tired of doing the same thing every day (and so we wouldn’t either) and could participate in a variety of learning activities to compliment the novel.
A project my MT has done for several years is a Trial Project. In this project, the students split into four teams: Johnny’s prosecution, Johnny’s defense, Ponyboy’s prosecution, and Ponyboy’s defense. This project was spread out through the entire book. Students were split into their “trial groups” almost daily to complete comprehension questions and work on their trials.
During the trial prep and even the actual trials, it was obvious that the “hogs and logs” pattern was developing. Some of my students were able to just “get it”, while others definitely could have used more background information and guidance through the process. Wouldn’t it be easy if all of our students just “got it”? Absolutely. Would I have a job if all students “got it”? Probably not.
This project is an example of group work that was not collaborative. In group work, students are typically working with content they have already been taught. The goal is to finish a certain task by a certain deadline. Group work is typically very low in structure, giving several opportunities for off-task behavior.
On the other hand, according to Karl A. Smith in “Cooperative Learning: Making ‘Groupwork’ Work”, collaborative learning entails “people working in team to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that involve both positive interdependence (all members must cooperate to complete the task) and both individual and group accountability (each member is accountable for the final outcome)” (Smith).
With collaborative learning, students are forced to be held accountable for their learning. This is partly because the content is usually new to students. In a Kagan strategy called “Simultaneous Round Table”, “in teams, students each write a response on their own piece of paper. Students then pass their papers clockwise so each teammate can add to the prior responses” (Kagan). There is 100% participation and contribution to the group is being accomplished by each group member.
If I were to do the trial project again, I would use Kagan’s collaborative strategies to teach students more background information about lawyers, trials, courtrooms, and other background information needed to help them be successful in the project. For example, I might use the Simultaneous Round Table strategy and ask students to write down a possible argument for why Ponyboy/Johnny is innocent/guilty.
Using collaborative strategies, such as Kagan strategies, would ensure a higher percentage of daily student participation, give students more guidance, and keep them accountable for their learning.
Articles used:
http://www.linqed.net/media/28435/1-useful-for-reading-Cooperative-Learning-Making-Groupwork-Work.pdf
http://cooperativelearningresources.weebly.com/simultaneous-roundtable.html
Recently, my 7th graders finished reading the novel The Outsiders. This is the first novel the classes have done. My Mentor Teacher and I knew it would be important to split up the reading so students would not get tired of doing the same thing every day (and so we wouldn’t either) and could participate in a variety of learning activities to compliment the novel.
A project my MT has done for several years is a Trial Project. In this project, the students split into four teams: Johnny’s prosecution, Johnny’s defense, Ponyboy’s prosecution, and Ponyboy’s defense. This project was spread out through the entire book. Students were split into their “trial groups” almost daily to complete comprehension questions and work on their trials.
During the trial prep and even the actual trials, it was obvious that the “hogs and logs” pattern was developing. Some of my students were able to just “get it”, while others definitely could have used more background information and guidance through the process. Wouldn’t it be easy if all of our students just “got it”? Absolutely. Would I have a job if all students “got it”? Probably not.
This project is an example of group work that was not collaborative. In group work, students are typically working with content they have already been taught. The goal is to finish a certain task by a certain deadline. Group work is typically very low in structure, giving several opportunities for off-task behavior.
On the other hand, according to Karl A. Smith in “Cooperative Learning: Making ‘Groupwork’ Work”, collaborative learning entails “people working in team to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that involve both positive interdependence (all members must cooperate to complete the task) and both individual and group accountability (each member is accountable for the final outcome)” (Smith).
With collaborative learning, students are forced to be held accountable for their learning. This is partly because the content is usually new to students. In a Kagan strategy called “Simultaneous Round Table”, “in teams, students each write a response on their own piece of paper. Students then pass their papers clockwise so each teammate can add to the prior responses” (Kagan). There is 100% participation and contribution to the group is being accomplished by each group member.
If I were to do the trial project again, I would use Kagan’s collaborative strategies to teach students more background information about lawyers, trials, courtrooms, and other background information needed to help them be successful in the project. For example, I might use the Simultaneous Round Table strategy and ask students to write down a possible argument for why Ponyboy/Johnny is innocent/guilty.
Using collaborative strategies, such as Kagan strategies, would ensure a higher percentage of daily student participation, give students more guidance, and keep them accountable for their learning.
Articles used:
http://www.linqed.net/media/28435/1-useful-for-reading-Cooperative-Learning-Making-Groupwork-Work.pdf
http://cooperativelearningresources.weebly.com/simultaneous-roundtable.html
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
"So, Does Anyone Know the Answer to This?" - Fostering Student-Led Authentic Discussions
All of us dream of a classroom in which students are engaged 100% of the time. This in turn would make class discussions rich and entertaining, where the teacher is on the sidelines and students are free to assert their thoughts and opinions. Too often, however, class discussions are led almost entirely by the teacher. The teacher poses a question, such as "Does anyone know what it means to be and the student(s) responds only if they are certain they know the "right" answer (AKA what they think the teacher wants to hear).
This may seem like a success to some teachers. If one student can respond with the "right" answer, all of the other students will hear this answer and comprehend it in the 15 seconds it takes to pose and answer the question, right??? NO. Through these types of discussions, the teaching is being validated, but is the learning? NO!!!
For students that are confident in their answers to these types of questions and like to share out to the class, it gives them more opportunities to share in class. For students that know the answers but are not as willing to share, it gives them a way out of participating. For students that simply do not know the answer, it does not keep them accountable for their learning.
In her article "Authentic Student-Led Discussion, Music to My Ears", Starr Sackstein writes that "fostering student voice means forcing them to be certain as they assert their ideas. Doesn't matter what the teacher thinks, only maters what they think in this scenario".
I love the idea of the teachers asking questions they do not know the answer. For some students, this takes off the pressure of having the perfect answer when sharing with the class. For other students, it gives them more freedom to go above and beyond where the teacher thought the conversation might go. I have found again and again that when I pose questions to my class that I do not know the answer to, I am surprised by how profound some of their answers are. They often contribute ideas and thoughts to the discussion that I had not even considered.
Most teachers are not naturals at fostering these types of discussions right away. Sackstein writes that when done correctly, student-let authentic discussions "are vibrant with opinions and support from the text and they engage a larger number of students". But at their worst, these discussions "can be exclusive and controlled by a few more aggressive participants".
It takes practice to become skilled and natural at leading student-led authentic discussions and teaching students how to do these without completely steering the conversation. In order to do this, teachers have to take several things into account.
One major element to consider is the personality of the class as a whole. Are they very chatty and willing to share their ideas? Or, are they quiet and not confident in their answers until they can discuss with shoulder partners to see what their peers' thoughts are?
Peter Smagorinsky lists several strategies in his text Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry out Instructional Units. One that might work for students in my classes is the fishbowl. In this strategy, there are several students in a center circle of the room that are given prompts to respond to. Students outside of the circle take notes and listen actively. Each student is given at least one opportunity to sit in the fishbowl. According to Smagorinsky, fishbowls "have the potential to move outside the boundaries of conventional interpretation and allow students to discuss the literature on their own terms" (Smargorinsky 34).
This strategy might be ideal for students in my class that need extra think time to piece their thoughts together or just need to hear other peers' opinions before they feel confidence to voice their own. Students that might struggle with this strategy are ones that continually have something to say and like to be heard.
Although this strategy may not be perfect for every single student in the class, it allows them opportunities to learn how to participate in student-led authentic discussions in which the teacher is the observer and is not there to tell them if their answers are right or wrong.
Sources cited:
Sackstein, Starr. "Authentic Student-Led Discussion, Music to My Ears." Education Week. Editorial Projects in Enducation, 6 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
This may seem like a success to some teachers. If one student can respond with the "right" answer, all of the other students will hear this answer and comprehend it in the 15 seconds it takes to pose and answer the question, right??? NO. Through these types of discussions, the teaching is being validated, but is the learning? NO!!!
For students that are confident in their answers to these types of questions and like to share out to the class, it gives them more opportunities to share in class. For students that know the answers but are not as willing to share, it gives them a way out of participating. For students that simply do not know the answer, it does not keep them accountable for their learning.
In her article "Authentic Student-Led Discussion, Music to My Ears", Starr Sackstein writes that "fostering student voice means forcing them to be certain as they assert their ideas. Doesn't matter what the teacher thinks, only maters what they think in this scenario".
I love the idea of the teachers asking questions they do not know the answer. For some students, this takes off the pressure of having the perfect answer when sharing with the class. For other students, it gives them more freedom to go above and beyond where the teacher thought the conversation might go. I have found again and again that when I pose questions to my class that I do not know the answer to, I am surprised by how profound some of their answers are. They often contribute ideas and thoughts to the discussion that I had not even considered.
Most teachers are not naturals at fostering these types of discussions right away. Sackstein writes that when done correctly, student-let authentic discussions "are vibrant with opinions and support from the text and they engage a larger number of students". But at their worst, these discussions "can be exclusive and controlled by a few more aggressive participants".
It takes practice to become skilled and natural at leading student-led authentic discussions and teaching students how to do these without completely steering the conversation. In order to do this, teachers have to take several things into account.
One major element to consider is the personality of the class as a whole. Are they very chatty and willing to share their ideas? Or, are they quiet and not confident in their answers until they can discuss with shoulder partners to see what their peers' thoughts are?
Peter Smagorinsky lists several strategies in his text Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry out Instructional Units. One that might work for students in my classes is the fishbowl. In this strategy, there are several students in a center circle of the room that are given prompts to respond to. Students outside of the circle take notes and listen actively. Each student is given at least one opportunity to sit in the fishbowl. According to Smagorinsky, fishbowls "have the potential to move outside the boundaries of conventional interpretation and allow students to discuss the literature on their own terms" (Smargorinsky 34).
This strategy might be ideal for students in my class that need extra think time to piece their thoughts together or just need to hear other peers' opinions before they feel confidence to voice their own. Students that might struggle with this strategy are ones that continually have something to say and like to be heard.
Although this strategy may not be perfect for every single student in the class, it allows them opportunities to learn how to participate in student-led authentic discussions in which the teacher is the observer and is not there to tell them if their answers are right or wrong.
Sources cited:
Sackstein, Starr. "Authentic Student-Led Discussion, Music to My Ears." Education Week. Editorial Projects in Enducation, 6 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Mamma Said There'll be Days Like This
Mamma said there'll be days like this.
Your roommates will give you Strep throat
your first week of Student Teaching.
There will be no microwave at your placement school
and you will forget a spoon for your yogurt, again.
You will sweat obnoxiously every time you
teach. Or you'll end every day with a headache.
No matter how many times you say "voices off and eyes on me,"
students' voices will be the furthest thing from "off" and
their eyes will be anywhere but on you.
Your Mentor Teacher will have to step in to help manage,
and you will feel like a failure.
Two students did not bring their homework.
Seven students forgot their binders with all of their notes.
14 of them need a pencil, but, of course, they aren't sharpened.
So they'll stand there grinding their pencils in the
sharpener while you're giving directions.
Your classmates will be filled with worry,
which makes you worry that you are not worried enough.
Nights and weekends will be spent working to support yourself, while
the bills keep adding up and the paychecks do not.
There's a story about a man who works a hard, tiresome job.
After a rough day on the job, he brings home
a friend to meet his family.
He stops at a tree outside his house
and touches the branches with both hands.
He walks in the door with a smile on his face,
greeting his children and wife with open arms.
Struck by curiosity, his friend asks him
about what he had seen earlier.
The man tells him that is his "trouble tee", where he
leaves his troubles from the job each night when he comes home.
And in the morning he goes to pick them up again.
In the morning,
there are never as many as he remembers hanging up the night before.
Tomorrow is not today. Tomorrow,
Trevor* will finally bring his notes to class AND a pencil.
Your MT will compliment your lesson
or let you know you did well taking over for one of his classes.
The sweating-while-teaching will gradually dwindle.
You'll gain confidence in and outside of the classroom.
Leave your troubles on the trouble tree.
Pick them up tomorrow.
*Not real names
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