Things Start Ramping Up

1. How do I bring progressivist methodology into the classroom?

- connect curriculum/content to student lives

- engaging students by letting them state opinions about techniques used in class and make suggestions

2. In what ways does my coordinating teacher affect my thinking about teaching and my teaching?

Question 1

Ok - so I didn’t get three for each content area, but I did manage to try three different techniques overall. The first was the LEA in math. I had the students think up their own story problems, read them out loud in class, and then wrote them down using the projector. I then picked two problems for the students to solve with their partner. This technique worked great. Not only did the students all write a story problem, they were all very excited to share them. Most of them were unhappy that we didn’t solve all of them.

The second technique I used was “The Mystery Box” review. I had a fancy black box that was filled with a mystery prize. I then divided the students into four teams and they could choose the level of review question their team wanted to answer. The harder the question the more possible points. The students liked this review, but because it was the first time I had ever done this I did not plan enough time and in both math classes we only got to review about three questions. In addition I learned that teams of four were too big because in some groups only two students would work on the problem. About half of the groups had 100% team participation and the other half had about 50% participation. I told them that there could be anything in the box: candy, pencils, toilet paper, etc. With some adjustments I think this could be a very powerful review technique.

The third thing I tried was a graphic organizer in science. I was not particularly happy with student reaction to this exercise, but I am beginning to notice a bit of apathy with many of the students in the science classes. [See Question 2 for more on this.] There is little teacher/student discussion during the unit. The students do a lot of reading, computer research, worksheets, and labs, but as far as I can tell, there is never any class discussion except for correcting the worksheets. I have talked to my cooperating teacher about this and I always get the same reason: there is not enough time because of all the standards that need to be covered. The point being, the graphic organizer was basically just thought of as more busy work.

One thing from science that I was very excited about was some of the responses to an exit question I asked them: What sort of review would help you get ready for the next quiz. Some of the students did not answer this part of the question (it was a two part question, and some students only answered the first part), but the answers I did receive were great:

• jeopardy game review
• making a note-cheat-sheet as a class (I would do this as students suggesting what they felt were the most important part of the unit). I loved this one and hopefully can convince my CT that we have time to do it.
• teacher leading a review the class before quiz is given
• giving the students 10 minutes to study before the quiz

These were all great suggestions, and they were student ideas. How much more progressivist can you get?

Question 2

I talked with five teachers, both active and retired, about their student teaching experiences. Some were more positive than others, but everyone I talked to said that there is difficulty jumping into a classroom that is not yours from the beginning of the school year. Even the teachers that had a very positive experience expressed how much better it would be once I had my own classroom.

That said, as discussed above, the feeling I am getting from my students in both of my science classes is definitely apathy toward the class. It seems each unit is taught in the same order:

1. Reading and vocabulary/main idea identification.
2. Read aloud (the same reading they just did the vocabulary for) in class.
3. Worksheet and/or activity related to unit
4. Some computer research
5. informal or formal lab (if warranted)
6. unit quiz

I think this monotonous routine has created boredom in most of the students. This is just my opinion, though, as I have not been brave enough to actually ask any of the students. As far as I can tell, there is no review as a class, but students are allowed on page of notes for the quiz. On average, only 10 to 15% of the students actually make this cheat sheet for the quizzes.

While I am teaching I am still having feelings that I would teach this differently. It is difficult to try to get students excited about something that I think is boring and not effective. The frustrating part is when I do bring things up to my cooperating teacher, she whole-heartedly agrees that it is a good idea, but then follows that up with the fact that we just don’t have time to do things “like that”.

Next Steps

Question 1: I am moving into my ESOL work sample in my math class (Sheltered Content work sample). I am excited to us SIOP and other techniques specifically designed for ELL students as I think all the students in the class will benefit from these techniques. Most of the techniques I have learned during my ESOL classes have been progressivist in nature so I think my work sample will lend itself nicely to my Dialogical Analysis. Also, I really want to try to incorporate the class-created cheat-sheet for the next quiz and I am going to push to do this with my CT in science.

Question 2: I think I need to try to convince my CT to let me try a few of my own ideas in class, even if it means that we have less time to do the material she has already pre-planned. This will have to be done very tactfully as to not step on toes, but I think in the end it will be worth it. So my goal for this section is to get at least one of my ideas incorporated into a lesson within the next two weeks.

Getting Things Set Up

My questions changed a little from my original five questions in my research plan. I have two questions that I am starting with:

1. How do I bring progressivist methodology into the classroom?
- connect curriculum/content to student lives
- engaging students by letting them state opinions about techniques used in class and make suggestions

2. In what ways does my coordinating teacher affect my thinking about teaching and my teaching?

Question 1
One of the first steps I planned to take for this question was getting the journals passed out and set up in each class. As of today, I have taught three days of science and one day of math. The students have set up their journals and are using them for warm-up questions, exit questions, and notes (notes so far only in the math classes). Through the journals I have been able to make formative assessments in all classes about the level of understanding pertaining to content knowledge, but I have not successfully used the journals to get feedback from the students. I did have a lot of interest when I told them there would be times I was going to ask for their opinions and suggestions and they were allowed to be honest (and appropriate).

I also plan to try to do an LEA (Language Experience Approach) in math this coming week to see if I can get the students to create examples from their own life to use in our math lesson.

Additionally, the Joint Inquiry I have planned with my science CT has to do with student engagement.

Question 2

Through personal reflection and observations I have already seen a difference in the way each CT (I have two) affects my thinking about my teaching and my actual teaching. I feel I have more freedom with my math CT, and because of this when I took over her classroom I started by introducing my own classroom procedures, setting up the journals, establishing new rules (like no use of calculators in class until every passes their times tables up to 12x12), etc. This established very different feeling in the math classes compared to the sciences classes.

In the science classes I did not feel like I had the freedom to set up my own structure. I basically just stepped into the existing structure that was there. I co-develop lesson material (my CT develops some materials and I develop some materials - and we both use the same materials) and write my own lesson plans, but I do not decide topics that will be covered, flow of the units, etc. Because of this I did not feel that I could step in and teach the class like I would teach a class of my own. For example, I had to ask if I would have time to have the students set up their journals the first day, and I was told, "...hmm....possibly not, we have a lot to do in class today."

To sum up, I feel like I have more control and ability to manage the classroom where I was allowed to set up my own procedures compared to the classroom where I was trained to step in and teach within an existing structure. This not only affects my own perspective on different teaching techniques I can try in the classroom, it also definitely seemed to affect the level of respect the students gave me as an authority figure in the classroom.

Next Steps

Question 1: I would like to try at least three things for each content area that bring progressivist methodology into the classroom and track how it effects each content group. I will try to collect data through observation (both mine and CT), through student opinion, and through student performance.

Question 2: I am going to talk with/interview teachers that I know about their student teaching experience and how they felt when they took over their classroom and things they did during their student teaching to make the classroom their own.