I picked Domain 3 – Instruction. During instruction, there is an array of comprehension among students ranging from “don’t know” to “know”; “don’t understand” to “understand”. Students are learning and gaining knowledge. If an academically successful student is the product of a school, then instruction is the most important process to add value for the children.
The component of the domain that I would like to focus on and that I feel most comfortable with is Component 3c: engaging students in learning. I believe this most strongly ties to instruction.
As required for foreign language instruction in my district, most of my instruction much be given in the target language (Chinese). The communication between students and I will be mostly in Chinese. Of course, many props (puppets, diagrams, dolls, etc…) and gestures will help their understanding. Questions and discussions will help students to make the connection between Chinese learning and their background knowledge. I create various kinds of activities and assignments for students to engage in learning Chinese. They learn through singing, dancing, moving, watching videos, games, group work etc… Hopefully, each student will find a best fit to learn. I use a rubric and “can do” statements for students’ self-assessment. Most of the on-going assessments are oral. Frequently checking students’ understanding, students will receive points by successfully finishing the informative assessment; their learning is monitored.
In my classes, students display a very wide range of learning capability for Chinese. Some students learn very quickly. They become bored and lose interest if we spend too much time in review. Other students never remember what we learned in previous classes. I have to spend too much time reviewing fundamentals. I’ve heard the answer “aim for the middle.” To be honest, this response sounds like the easy answer – it doesn’t deal with the reality of my students. I’m still left dealing with students who either “get it” (want to learn) or students that are lost (probably don’t really care). How would you handle the pace of instruction in this situation?
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Cheng,You just need to aim for the middle....No I’m just kidding :) I too have difficulties just accepting mediocrity from students and that’s why I simply don’t accept it. I am the type of person that will worry about all of my students. I think what you are saying is that the students are not engaging in the lesson and it might be the result of management. Some students will "pretend" not to understand just to get out of doing the work and you can't slow the pace down for something like that. I really like what Danielson has to say on pages 34, 67 and 71. I know that is in Domain two but I think it will help you with your question on how to handle the pace of instruction. Out of my four classes, one class is inclusion with 28 students (15 of which have special needs…autism, deafness, mitochondrial disease, etc...) I struggle to keep my inclusion class at the same pace with my other three classes. In my experience it has helped me to set high expectations. Just the opposite of what most people would think. The students must know that you have confidence in them. They will work harder once they get that “good feeling inside of them” from accomplishment. And I mean true accomplishment....not tasks that have been dumbed down. If a student is attempting to camouflage (Danielson 71), I call them out to the hallway and address what I am observing. I let the student know what I am noticing. I always ask the student if they are doing their best in class. I ask them if what they are doing is going to get them what they want. When they answer “No”, I ask them, "What do you think I want you to do?" I always reinforce the expectation before allowing the student to re-enter the room. The most important thing to do is to NEVER accept work that is substandard! This is incredibly hard at first. It takes a lot more effort to follow up and require that the student submits quality work. Simply not accepting it is easier because the student is off the hook. But,you must require the student to complete the task with quality. If I have a student that is submitting substandard work. I will hold it up and ask students if I will spend my time grading it. My students will say “NO” and if I ask them why,they will say “because it is crap and Mrs. Sturgil doesn’t accept crap”. Now I know that many educators will shame for me for doing this. Please keep in mind that this is something that I build up to only after I have created my classroom environment. It does work! Students appreciate that I hold them accountable to high standards. It does take a lot of effort at the beginning…but it pays off in the end.
ReplyDeleteCZ, I agree with you that some students will get bored during review, and I have struggled with your question over the years. I know there will always be kids who just don't get it, and I think in the past I have taught too slowly. I have heard from all different kids of teachers and their ideas about this topic. I have really started to understand what differentiation means and how I can tie it into my instruction. That helps me keep my higher kids from getting bored too easily. It is a work in process. My district recently started the "I Can" statements and I am still getting used to them honestly. We also have a completely new report card this year and it is all based on skills. We haven't been taking letter grades anymore, so at this point I am doing a lot of observational notes, oral assessments, and whiteboard assessments. I have written a few rubrics, I just have a hard time completely wrapping my mind around them. My team has been meeting weekly to reflect and plan, but we are still not writing assessments. This is an area that I still need work on as well. I am glad to hear that you are using the I can statements, I will be using them more and forming assessments from what the outcome of lessons are. Thanks for the comments!
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