Thursday, September 26, 2013

Effective Questioning in the Classroom


Strategies for Asking Questions to Improve Learning
Asking questions in the classroom increases student participation, encourages active learning and in my opinion, creates the classroom to be a welcoming place for students. There are a few basic strategies to asking and responding to questions in the classroom. The strategies include keeping course goals in mind, using follow up yes-or-no questions with an additional question, avoiding asking leading questions and being clear with the ones you ask, asking a mix of open and closed questions, only asking one question at a time, and for the teacher, planning out when you will pause for questions.

The first one that stuck out to me was that teachers should follow up yes-or-no questions with an additional question. With our classrooms moving to common core and career ready objectives, the students need to know more than just how to solve a problem; they need to know why as well Both Common Core and Career Ready objectives call for students to think at a higher level, more than basic memorization and recall. Simply asking, "Is 2+2= 4?" is not enough for higher level cognitive thinking. The students need to be able to explain how they came to the answer of 2+2=4, why 2+2=4 is the answer and why it is important and relative to real life.

The second strategy I thought was very useful was that teachers should ask a mix of open and closed questions. Closed questions are those that have a limited number of correct answers and really do not call for discussion. They are for lower level cognitive thinking. These are necessary in the classroom because they are a basic quick check for understanding, comprehension and retention of information. Open questions, which are my personal favorite, are questions that open the classroom for discussion. I love these when teaching math. I think a lot of people think that math can only call for closed questions, that there is just one answer and no need for discussion. Common Core and project based learning have changed this thought about math. Math teachers now have to instruct using open ended questions and create the classroom to be a discussion area. I love open questions because you really get to see how your students process information and how their mind really works. It gives them a chance to speak in front of their peers and even teach the class how and why they got their answer. I think open questions shows us teachers that our students can teach us almost as well as we teach them and gives everyone a chance to be heard and even kind of show off their brain.

Tips for Responding to Questions
1. Wait for your students to think and formulate responses.
2. Do not interrupt student's answers.
3. Show that you are interested in answers, whether right or wrong.
4. Develop responses that keep students thinking.
5. If a student gives an incorrect or weak answer, point out what is incorrect or weak about the answer, but ask the student a follow-up question that will lead that student, and the class, to the correct or stronger answer.

It's Not What You Ask But How You Ask
As teachers, when we ask questions, a lot of the time it is to check for understanding. The basic and obvious question would be, "do you guys understand?", but that simply is not enough. Ben Johnson tells us that as teachers we need to go more in depth with our questions because the students may not know the real answer to that question. We need to be specific in our questioning and address the entire class with the question first, then call on one student randomly. This way, no one student is completely on the spot without any time to think about the question and each student has the potential to answer at least one question. Also the floor is open for everyone in the class to think about the question and their answer. In my opinion, this creates a better way for the class to participate and confidence to be built within each student.


Questions are More Important than Answers
I love this motto in our EDM 310 class. I think that answers are important, but I also think that the questions that drive us to these answers and the thought process in between matters more. In my classroom, I want my students to think and think critically and not just become robots reciting answers all day. Answers are great for tests and checking for understanding, but for retention and comprehension I think that asking questions provides a better way of thinking critically and discussion. The robotic behavior of reciting and recalling answers can make the classroom boring and unwelcoming. I want my students to discuss with others and myself, which I think would give everyone another way of thinking critically, learning from others and teaching others.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Project #3 Presentation

C4T #1

Struggles-Becky G

In this blog post Becky talks about her 5th graders preparing to become 6th graders and how they had become more talkative during instruction time. She said she had talked with some coworkers on how to control this and they suggested taking away minutes of their social time. She asked other teachers what their suggestions were and how they prioritized learning time over socializing.

In my reply I took the approach of what I would want as a student. Repeating "get to work" or "be quiet" many times throughout the day would just get annoying to myself as a teacher and a student. I feel that the students would eventually block the noise out. I also suggested that taking away social time would be the wrong approach. I think that it might only provoke the students to talk more during instruction time and for them to even do it on purpose. I suggested that she should reiterate that instruction time is for just that and nothing more and enforce some consequences if those rules aren't followed. If as a class they choose to completely go against this, then social time would be completely removed and they wont have it anymore. I think that this would show them that she means business and not take her actions for a joke. I see that in her following post she came up with an action plan that does this.


"Turning it Over to them- Success in the Making!"-Becky G

In "Turning it Over to them- Success in the Making!" she talks about the struggle of too much social activity and not enough learning happening in classrooms. She then came up with an action plan, identifying the focus areas, collecting data, identifying the data and developing a plan of action. She identified the areas of focus being in the area of behavior: being on task, voice levels, and respect and care towards others. With these areas she identified the times in which they most frequently occur being math, words their way and during independent reading. She had the students assess themselves with a rubric and give themselves a goal. Once the students reached their goal she consistently kept up with this plan and after each week had the students set a new goal.

My reply to Becky G basically said that I like the fact that she had the students assess themselves instead of herself, the teacher or administrator because I think it gives them a better understanding of how others see their behavior and how it can even affect their work and grades because they are not on task. I know from experience that involving socializing with instructional time non-educationally is means for disaster. It only takes away from the student focusing on their work and creates an area where they can fail at turning in and correctly doing assignments. I also expressed that I thought it would capture the students respect for her as an authoritative figure and teacher, seeing that she has enough respect for them to let them assess themselves.

Why Podcasts?



Langwitches: First Graders Create Their Own Read Along Audiobook

I absolutely love this idea! I think that all students can be easily distracted in class, especially when it comes to the subject of reading. Therefore, just reading to them aloud while they listen can be somewhat of a bore and doesn't call for teacher-student interaction or really any interaction from the student to ensure their comprehension. Langwitches showed me an alternative way for reading comprehension and gave me some ideas to use in my classroom.

In addition to teaching Math I would like to teach English. This blog showed me that for better attention grabbing and improving reading comprehension, the students must have an interaction with what they are reading. For elementary students and even middle, I think recording themselves reading a script of the story would provide the students with a want to participate. Langwitches said
Students are so engaged, wanting to re-record, if their voice, didn’t sound “just” right.
Students started to experiment with their voices: inflection, fluency, pitches, emotions, volume, speed…
I think the use of podcasting would be a great tool for the classroom. It engages students and could potientially influence them to become more interested in the world of podcasting. Langwitches even said
Students (6-7 year olds)Â are very interested in the mechanics of Garageband (ex. tracks, dead air, sound clips, moving clips, etc).


Langwitches also taught me that even without the use of podcasts, a teacher simply reading to their students is not enough to ensure reading comprehension. In my opinion, I think she is right. I remember, especially in elementary and some middle school, when the teacher sat in front of us and read aloud, my classmates and I took that time to turn on our selective hearing and only partially listen. I remember we would pass notes, whisper and play around, etc. It was simply because nothing was capturing our attention and requiring us to do anything. The only time we would actually fully pay attention was if the class was doing something called Popcorn Reading, where any student could possibly be called upon randomly to read a selection of the story. Langwitches mentioned that even just printing out the script and having the students follow along on their own papers would involve them physically instead of just sitting there, capturing the students attention and requiring them to take part.

The Benefits of Podcasting in a Classroom

This video gave detailed benefits of podcasting in the classroom. 4 of these benefits really stuck out to me. One of the main benefits I liked was podcasting being an effective way of interacting with students outside of the classroom. With teachers and their classrooms using the technologoical advancements of the 21st century, I think students need to be able to access not only their teachers but their classroom work, notes and resources. As college students we have that, with Blackboard and Sakai and other e-learning sites, but elementary, middle and high school students do not. Podcasts, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and educational communicative sites like Moodle give these students a resource that they need in this century. The video also stated that podcasts can be an aide to absent students and long term out of school students. Instead of students just missing work because they were not in class for instruction, they can listen to a podcast for instruction and assignments.

I also liked the benefit of podcasting involving the parents. Parents can listen to instruction themselves and be an aide to their child and also understand what is going on in the classroom. A lot of time parents can not come for meetings or be of that much help to their child at home because of time and work. The availability of the podcasts allows the parents to listen to it on the go with a mobile app and be updated without taking time out of their busy schedules. It allows them to be an involved parent while taking care of their other obligations and responsibilities of the day.

A lot of our curriculum is changing to the Common Core Learning Standards, which is heavily involved with project based learning. Podcasts provide benefit to this because it gives a greater area for the project based learning. The podcast can be used as a project itself. Podcasting can be used for almost every subject. Students can write and act out a script for English and can write out and describe steps for Mathematics instruction. Overall, podcasts provide differentiation in the classroom. They require the students to take an action, rather than just listening to someone talk. In my opinion, this creates a better understanding and comprehension of the subject.

Langwitches: Listening-Comprehension Podcast

I love that in this blog Langwitches lets the readers know how Podcasting has affected her students. She says her students understand what they are saying and what it means. When learning new words it is important to not only know how to say the word but also know the meaning of the word. I think a lot of students are just taught the word itself and how to say it, but not the meaning, so when it may be brought up later in the year or in grades after, they don't know what it is. Langwitches says that this provides better comprehension of words and meanings and their context. She also says that the students sometimes want to re-do their part because of how they sound. Podcasting had become something they were interested in. They learned how to record and edit their podcasts and she even let them edit on the SmartBoard for the class to see.
It gives the learners the opportunity to see their voices, read the sounds, manipulate the sequence of sentences, sounds can be deleted, edited, emphasized and re-arranged similar than a word processing program can do this with the written word.
I loved her use of podcasts. It required the students to think critically and logically, collaborate with other students, and use their speaking and listening skills. Langwitches blog taught me that podcasts can be an overall tool for students inside and outside of the classroom and builds skills they already possess.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Peer Editing


Video: "What Is Peer Editing?"
The peer editing video proved to be a big help when I was editing classmate's blogs. I gave them compliments on simple things like grammar and communicated my feelings towards their blog in a positive way. I think this sets the tone of how the other person is going to take my critique. I then included suggestions via email, so that the corrections suggested could be made without everyone knowing there was any needed.

Slideshow: "Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial"
I think that one of my main reflections on peer editing is that whenever I am editing my group member's or classmate's work, I should stay positive and correct or edit them as if I was receiving the editing myself. No one wants to be called out in a rude or negative way and no one really wants to be critiqued period, so when you have to do so having a positive attitude would help the editing and correcting be taken in a better way. The peer edit tutorial showed me that it is all about delivery when critiquing and editing someone's work. It taught me that one should start with compliments, moving to suggestions and ending with minor corrections, but not telling them what to do or doing the work for them. These three steps to peer editing would make you and the other person a better writer and a better peer editor.

Video: "Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes"
This video made some very valid points. I wish some of my peers from school could have watched this before editing my work in earlier grades. The video showed that being a Picky Patty was not a positive way of editing. When we edit each others work, or as teachers edit our students work, we're supposed to build confidence while correcting others. Picky Patty picks out unnecessary things and the way she corrects her peers is rude which could break a person's confidence completely. For me, confidence is a big thing I want to ensure my students have while learning and growing in my classroom. Mean Margret's are filled with negativity. This video showed me that we can edit each others work without being mean. Being mean when correcting doesn't help anyone understand why they need to correct their mistake. Peer editing creates a way for everyone to learn: the editor in how to correct someone positively and the writer in how and why they need to correct their mistakes.

I chose to email my group members to peer edit their blogs. I feel that in emailing them personally gives them a better insight on my thoughts on their blog and presents my suggestions without coming off negatively in their comments. These videos and the slideshow definitely helped me peer edit my group members blogs. They gave me insight on what to say and how to say it and how to remain positive when giving suggestions and corrections to my group members work.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Blog #2


Teaching In The 21st Century: Kevin Roberts:
According to Kevin Roberts video Teaching in the 21st Century he believes that it would involve students being able to reach their work anywhere anytime and through every technological port available, such as Google, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. But he also wants them to understand the material, analyze it, communicate and collaborate with information retrieved. The main question he asks is if curriculum should be based off of facts and content or skill? I agree that it be a combination both.

I completely agree with notion that teaching in the 21st century would strongly involve and encourage almost entire use of technology as a greater tool inside and outside of the classrooms. As an educator I think it would be an asset to everyone in the classroom; teachers, students and even parents. It gives everyone alternative ways to understand and interpret material. I think it makes the overall classroom a better learning environment for everyone. It would give teachers a way to move into the technological world that our society is moving toward. For students, it allows them to see another aspect of how the technology they are so accustomed to presents another aide to them. They can see that it can be used not just for entertainment, but also learning. For parents it is simply another way to become involved in their child's education.

I agree with Kevin Robert's who argues that teachers in the 21st century must teach quite differently than teachers of the 20th century. Some examples of this would be incorporating technology into the classroom. Teachers can use Facebook, Twitter and a class blog to communicate with their students outside of the classroom and they can use Moodle to upload homework and classwork assignments. I think new improvements to the ways of the classroom strongly involve the use of technology.

Group Project:
I believe in the “Mr. Dancealot” video, it clearly shows that technology is not always the best choice for teaching. Teaching dancing just through use of smartboards and powerpoint presentations isn’t what will have students learn how to dance. An easy example of how this didn’t work is the amount (about half the class) of students that were asleep in the lecture. Certain subjects require teaching in different ways. The way this teacher chose to teach may have been ok in learning the history of dance, but not learning how to dance. The little physical instruction the professor did give was behind a desk where the students couldn’t see anything. This highlights the inappropriate setting in which the class was held. Most students are hands-on learners so a video showing them what to do wouldn't be as effective as an in class instructor.

Eric:
According to Vicki Davis’ video “Harness your student’s digital smarts”, she taught her students by allowing them to teach themselves and to collaborate with one another and teach others in the classroom. It helps have students think independently and give them the drive to succeed. When she talks about empowering of the students, she is talking about the feeling of when a student figures something out on their own and they feel like they can take on the world and learn anything and everything. When talking about the subject of having students collaborate with other students in the world, I believe generally that is a good idea, introduces students to new cultures and ideas. However, specifically talking about students collaborate with other students in the world, it determines on the subject to see if it is a good idea or not, some subjects it is wonderful, other subjects it is not exactly necessary, so generally good idea, specifically it depends. With the internet, it does not matter if one is in a rural area or not, everyone is connected. With the internet everyone lives in the same neighborhood and can casually skip on over to your blog or twitter or even youtube video. If you give the student the proper tools and with a little push, the student can harness their own digital smarts and impress and teach even the most advanced of educators.

Ronald:
The Networked Student was a true story about a 21st century high school student. The story revolved around a certain class he was taking and the format in which it was being taught. The format was called Connectivism, which is based on learning from various connections from people mostly from the internet / social media. The student met with the class three times a week and two other times via the internet. The class centered mostly on the student going out and finding reputable connections to strengthen his knowledge on the subject matter. These reputable connections included scholarly articles, college level podcasts of lectures in his subject area, and other information compiled by current and former students. The teacher of his class was mostly there to help the students along with the process when they got stuck, not for lecture purposes.

There are several things I like about this kind of education. The first thing is the acquisition of research skills. By having to search for connections in his subject area he will gain a lot of experience in research. Having a solid foundation in research is important in many factions of life, not only in higher education but future careers as well. Another positive point about this article is the use of technology. The class is based on technology and acquiring this skill has advantages. One advantage is the fact of technology and research going hand in hand. Using technology in research can yield much more powerful results than not using it. Another great thing this education style uses is people connections. Part of the story included the student making a connection with a documentary filmmaker. This connection led to the filmmaker Skyping with the whole class.

There are also a few things that I didn’t care for in this educational approach. The first thing is only meeting three days a week due to holding class online for the other two days. I think on a high school level students should be in a classroom together the whole time. At the high school age students are really coming into their own on many levels and I think socialization is a very important one. Having face to face contact and having personal interactions with other students and teachers is very important. There is a big difference between sitting behind a computer and interacting with someone compared to doing it in real life. Getting along with, working with, and even joking around and having fun with other students is better in person. Another issue I had was the interaction of the teacher with the students. I don’t have a problem with the interaction as a whole, rather a few minor things. I think it is great that the teacher encourages the students to be critical thinkers and self motivators, but I feel lectures are a very important part of learning. Having the skill to listen and pick out important information from lectures is a rewarding skill to have. In most careers one will have supervisors that lecture in meeting type atmospheres. Having the discipline to be attentive and learn from those lectures may determine the quality of work one puts out. Learning these types of skills in the classroom can prepare one for situations like this. I think this goes hand in hand with the question of why a is teacher needed. Lecture skills can be provided by the teacher in addition to supporting the students in their own research / connection making.