The Lesson Planning Panel

Mesmerizing. That is the exact word I would use to describe the lesson plan panel we saw during class. I wrote down more notes in that half-hour than I have in any one of our entire three hour classes. What became my focus pretty quickly when I began to watch these teachers discuss the lesson was writing down any and every question these three would throw at each other, anticipating the moment when I sit down to write my first lesson. My objective was to develop a list of questions I could refer to whenever I feel like I am either lost or think I am finished, as It is becoming more and more clear that there is no such thing in the pedagogical field as over planning.

                Some questions I now have in my back pocket when writing a lesson plan are: What is the objective? What is the purpose? What will students be doing when this is going on? What will you be doing? How will you “Hook” the students? Is this good for some of the students, or all of them? How will you manage time? How will you transition? How are you going to make sure everyone is understanding/doing? How does this relate to the objective? Can the learning target be met in multiple ways? These questions will be running through my head at all times when I am planning a lesson, as they will guide me towards being fully prepared for each and every lesson I prepare.

                There were some things I noticed that were a little enigmatic. For one, I noticed that they didn’t start with the objective and instead began with talking about group work and how to best implement it. I was ready for Buddy to ask what their objectives were right off the bat, but that did not happen until midway through that Buddy finally asked how the grouping activity will connect with the learning target, and that was when they found the idea to group students according to the four main conflicts in the story. I assume that this isn’t always the case, and regardless, I am already in the mindset of Backwards design and will only plan my lessons according to that framework. Another thing I noticed was that if you are planning a lesson with someone, it is not easy to always agree and sometimes you have to meet halfway. You will not always have it go 100% your way, but teaching never goes 100% your way anyway. As long as you can live with the decision, sometimes it is better off come to a happy medium and move on.

                The best thing about these questions is that they can be categorized in accordance with Backwards Design. Some of the questions will help make sure my objectives are purposeful. Others remind me to assess whether students have attained the objective. Still others remind me to keep to the objective when brainstorming activities. Listen, I am no expert on designing a lesson, and I could use all the help I can get. That is why I found this panel so engaging, as I was face to face with one of the main jobs a teacher has: planning an effective lesson. 

What I Observed

I finally feel like everything is starting to come together after having completed my observations. You can only learn so much in a lecture class like SED 407, but it an actual experience like an observation we can perceive all the knowledge we have been given actually put into practice. I recently read an article in Educational Leadership by Grant Wiggins on “Getting Students to Mastery,” which discusses a true definition of mastery in a content or of a skill; one that places performance based assessment in authentic  various authentic situations as the ultimate decider of whether something has been mastered. Although written for use in assessing students, this article got me connecting this concept with my teaching journey as well. It was not be until I actually had that authentic experience with observing several full-length classes that I was able to get inside the mind of the teacher, and really see how everything we have talked about in SED 407 is performed. However, there were some things I saw that we have yet to really touch upon in class. From what I have seen so far, there are some factors outside of our control that we simply must account for when we are planning and teaching, as environmental, and more importantly, disciplinary factors will influence our lessons daily, causing, at times, some serious consequences.

                When I arrived for my first visit, the classroom seemed like a suitable environment for learning. Good size, an abundance of pictures and student work hanging on the walls, and desks neatly aligned in rows facing the teacher, with ample space in the front for the teacher to move around freely and keep attention directed on him or her. However, this was prior to the student’s arrival, and as they piled in, a wave of claustrophobia began to linger in the atmosphere. The room began looking smaller and smaller, and the rows suddenly extended into that teaching space I think so important to a teacher, especially one like me who likes to move around. The student’s DO NOW was a Silent Sustained Reading exercise, so after settling in, the room became rather quiet. Quiet, that is, until screams and shouts meandered into our classroom from next door. As I looked towards the back, I realized that this classroom was connected to another classroom, separated by a paper-thin wall that resembled a curtain from a theater. So while these students were silently endeavoring to read a book of their choice for the first ten minutes of class, they had to also attempt to drown out the obtrusive classroom behind them that sounded as if a herd of chimpanzee’s were jovially bouncing off walls and throwing bananas at one another. Yes, it was that bad.

                This got me thinking what a bad use of ten minutes of student’s time this is. The idea of Silent Sustained Reading is fine, but with the stipulation of the noise from next door, SSR became ineffectual. Professor Horwitz said something many weeks ago that has stuck with me ever since, that we must always do what is fair for the students. Don’t waste their time. As I looked about the room, no student seemed to be actually reading. Some were on cell phones, others stared at the same page for the entire duration of the exercise, and still others had their heads down, probably listening to the needless ramblings from the class next door. The teacher would make comments on staying focused and putting cell phones away, but it became clear that he is beginning to get tired of the saying the same things to the same students over and over, and thus is happy with just silence and a book on their desk. I felt bad for both the student and the teacher, as I think if there was actual silence, more students could at least put more attention on the book and not the class behind them. And what could the teacher do? At one point, the assistant teacher got up, pulled open the “wall,” and asked for the class to please be quiet. I wonder how the teacher of that classroom must have felt?

                Environment plays a major factor in the classroom, and I honestly don’t think it gets addressed enough in SED. How spacious is the room? Will it provide for adequate group or partner work? How will the desks be set up? Is there space to set them up in any other way than rows? I mean, we just talked about book clubs in the last class, and while it is a great idea, not every classroom will be set up for easy implementation. I love conducting discussions, so I am partial to the circle set-up due to the vibe it elicits on a class, but there is simply no way the teacher of the class I am observing currently would be able to make that happen in this classroom. There are simply too many students and not enough room. That would mean the teacher would have to get a little creative and develop other ways to implement a discussion based lesson.  There is a positive with small classrooms however, as implementing group work in a smaller space means you can facilitate and assess the groups easily and efficiently. The major insight that comes out of all this is that each classroom I teach in will allow me to do certain things and prevent me from doing others, and I will need to be aware of the environment when planning my lesson and/or teaching that lesson.

                The other issue I want to elaborate on is the disciplinary aspect of teaching, especially when it comes to us rookies. It was my second observation when I noticed that one of the students, and this was a very small class of only eight students, was in an extremely bad mood. He came in and sat down immediately; all the while a mean scowl was advertised on his face. He did not want to contribute to anything that was going on in the class. My first thought was, what do I do if I have a student, or even worse two students, who arrive in my classroom like this? I did a pro’s and con’s list in my head, considering that if I leave him alone, I will avoid a possible confrontation that would potentially stall the entire class. However, that will also leave him behind in whatever activity we are working on and will also give off the notion that is ok to disobey the expectations I set in class, leading to other students attempting to get away with things as well. I continued observing as the teacher sat down next to him and got him involved by warmly asking him questions and constantly working to get him to contribute, but in a congenial way. I inferred that because this was a small class, it was easier for her to deal with the student on a more personal level, and a bigger class would have posed a more difficult problem. I have learned through multiple resources over the course of my studies that sometimes the best thing you can do is avoid confrontation with a student who you know is going to give you push back, as it will lead to an awkward environment in the class and your lesson will lose its fluency.

                 I think that in those cases that while it is important to know the student, as a newbie in the teaching game, I am at the disadvantage of not really knowing how much to push the student before it becomes a giant issue. I think that the best you can do for a student like that is give him that day, but don’t let him fall super far behind. If that moody behavior persists, further action will be required, a call home or a one on one intervention to see what the issue is with the student and see if a solution can be obtained. I am worried about situations like this arising when I teach my two lessons, as the class I am in does have a reputation for disruptions and inattention. The reading levels of the junior English class I have been observing range from grades 3-12, and reading is nowhere near the top of any of these students’ priority lists. Each time I observed the class, the teacher inundated the students with a heavy load of scaffolding, as he believes it is the only way to get students to follow along in the book and stay on task with him. During the third observation, he conducted a round robin read aloud, something he said he has not tried with that particular class before. The students were told what paragraph they would be reading the day before, so they had time to go home and practice. It was clear these students were nervous, as they were all hesitant to begin their assigned paragraph. The teacher told me after that she differentiated according to paragraph length and difficulty. I had not known how difficult reading was for the students until a conversation with the teacher afterwards explained to me that for them to have read a paragraph aloud is a major step in the right direction in helping these kids harness their reading abilities.

                I have come to the realization that disciplinary problems happen in higher numbers and degree when you don’t get creative enough and provide an uninteresting lesson, as well as how prepared and knowledgeable of the content and lesson you are. If there is any dead time or any lapses in which you slip up and show your unpreparedness, students will react negatively. What I liked about the teacher I observed is that he was passionate, enthusiastic, and knew what he was teaching on that particular day, (besides the fact the he has a good rapport with the students, and although they dislike reading, do respect him enough to at least let him teach). In essence, I learned that the best way to keep students on task is to create a community in the classroom where staying attentive is the only real choice. I recall on the administration panel, the assistant principal has said that even if the content of the lesson is dry, just acting like it is the best thing ever will get students involved. Maybe portraying extra enthusiasm and excitement will even get that one student out of that bad mood and at least get him to listen. I am not saying that this will solve all disciplinary problems, but the teacher I observed didn't do more than the average, “cell phones away!” and “Pay attention!” routine, and it was because he kept students invested and on track.

                There really is absolutely no excuse for dead time. So many negative aspects will come with it. If anything, plan extra to be on the safe side. Things fall apart during time lapses and shaky transitions, so always keep students focus maintained. During a read aloud (which I observed a lot of), constantly break and either ask a question or elicit an activity. This particular teacher used a graphic organizer called “Dialectical Journals,” which is a form of note taking by pulling quotes out from the text and responding with your reactions. Time ran smoothly, and at the end, an exit slip was given to the students to see whether they had met the two main objectives of describing the character in the story and applying the list of vocabulary words in meaningful scenarios. Although I am still a little nervous on getting in front of an intimidating crowd of 25 students, these observations have related to me that the best thing I can do is just stay passionate and enthusiastic, plan for extra time, and make sure that I give off the feeling that everything that comes out of my mouth is the most important thing in the world for the students to focus on. 

Questioning Standards and Assessment, Assessment, Assessment!

After reading these chapters, I feel as though I got some insight in relation to the question posed in class on why everything we discuss and read when it comes to effective teaching isn’t being truly portrayed in the classrooms we observe. The question has many answers. My first reactionary answer was that teachers simply fall back on the more traditional ways of teaching because that is what they are most familiar with. The more progressive ways are also a bit more difficult to enact because it demands more student centered and learning centered instruction, and much less teacher-centered. Now that could be part of the answer, but I am beginning to realize that there is a lot more to it than that.

                I do not think enough teachers are asking the meaningful questions that relate to the standards, the ones that are deeply rooted in backwards design and in chapter 10. I mean, there is a reason why it is in this relatively new textbook on teaching, as backwards design is a new idea that is being created as a result of the heavy emphasis on the implementation of Common Core. I think we are focused too much on standards and not enough on what those standards represent. The ending of chapter 10, the part where the teacher put her essential questions on one side and the standards those correlated with portray an important aspect to standards. If you think about that exercise in reverse, standards could be turned into questions. I think that is what I don’t see when I come back from observing classrooms. It is not the teacher’s fault all of the time, as this job is very demanding and sometimes we forget just what we really want our students to get out of the days lesson. We are so pressured into trying to implement standards that we leave out those inquiry questions, the ones that students really do engage with and want to answer, have fun answering, and stay with them long after any dull lecture focused on a skill the Common Core says me must teach.

                The book club is one way that standards and fun, engaging lessons can be combined harmoniously to feed both the common core and the student’s engagement needs. What I like the most about this is if the teacher can do it correctly, the students probably don’t even feel like they are being assessed. Just sitting down with a pen and clipboard with the book club, contributing if necessary, and making the environment community based will give everyone, including common core, what they want. This chapter also got me thinking about how I am always going to have to SHOW the effectiveness of every lesson I teach, through data collecting and assessment practices. I know I am going to need to do a lot of assessment, but it finally hit home that every lesson I teach should be backed up with data that can tell administrators and colleagues exactly how and why this lesson worked or didn’t work. It will also show me what I need to do to modify or enhance.  Assessment of even a fun, community centered unit like a book club NEEDS to be assessed to show its effectiveness so that others can see why it should be utilized in classrooms, and not used to give a grade to a student.

Letter to Dr. Thomas Newkirk

Dear Dr. Newkirk,

                Before attending The Rhode Island Writing Project Conference, I wanted to familiarize myself with some of your earlier work. Perusing JSTOR.com, I found an interesting article titled “The Dogma of Transformation,” that you wrote back in 2004. First, let me say that it was a really interesting article, and I am wondering how you stumbled upon such fascinating writing! I hope that one day I can get my students to write such great narrative pieces like the writers you displayed in the essay. I think the concept of the “innocent bystander” that writes whatever he or she observes does help future writers grasp the basic concepts of analyzing literature before connecting it to them. This essay got me thinking about the importance of narration in all forms of writing, but it wasn’t until your speech that it really hit home.

                When I read through the common core, it didn’t seem so bad. Higher emphasis on connecting to literature and finding evidence in the text to support claims and answers seems like a good thing. I am curious Dr. Newkirk, if you know the reasons behind the common core state standards divergence from fiction and narrative writing and towards more non-fiction and informative texts. I listened to a few speeches by the man himself, Mr. David Coleman, and it just seems that by graduation, they really just want students to be able to read an abundance of really complicated college level texts, with less emphasis on being able to write those narrative pieces text that you seem you still feel is so important to maintain in high school, and that they have been writing since elementary school. As a current college student and having just recently finished my Seminar in English Language Arts, I can attest that I was reading some extremely difficult analytical essays that I spent days trying to comprehend, and wish I had seen some of those earlier in my educational career.

                I am close, but have yet to see a first-person perspective of how the common core affects classrooms, and more importantly, how much it affects writing. I want my kids to be engaged in narrative writing, but I just feel that they have been doing it since 5^th grade, and can now move on to more non-fiction and informative texts and writing about them. Is that wrong? Again, I do agree that narrative writing is everywhere, and I will make sure they have a very firm grasp of the concepts at the beginning of the year, but am I wrong for thinking that they already have those concepts down pat when they enter 9^th grade?

Sincerely,

Ryan Marsland

Bulldozing the Wall

This chapter brought up a funny memory that I believe surrounds the teacher-student relationship and its role in a community classroom. Think back to when you were in high school and you saw one of your teachers shopping in the same market where you happen to be shopping at the same time. We all remember our reaction, OH MY GOD THAT’S MR. (insert teacher name here). I know for my friends and I, seeing a teacher outside school was an unfathomable sight. Students just do not see a teacher as a human being, and instead see them as this institution built robot that turns itself off and charges from after school until the next day. It is this concept that is one of the main themes on chapter 7: getting students to see that you are human like them and they can communicate honestly and openly in your classroom without fear of judgments or making mistakes.

                This idea really struck me with D&Z’s first strategy for Building community in the classroom, the strategy involving teachers to endeavor to make the classroom a safer place for students to express themselves, their ideas, and most importantly, their questions. There are a lot of reasons why a student might hold back a comment or question during a class discussion, and one might be because they are afraid of being embarrassed. They see in front of them a teacher who appears all knowing and perfect, incapable of making a mistake. What we need to do is show our students who we really are, and that is far from that portrayal.  We all make mistakes, especially me, and I think it is ok for my students to see that. I spell wrong occasionally, can be a little disorganized, and I do not know the answer to every question. I do not expect to, and I do not expect that out of them either.

                The first time I took FNED, I read about the “wall” that stands between students and teachers, and it has stuck with me ever since. It is that wall that students and teachers stand behind, on opposite ends, and is what stipulates establishing a community of learners. All of the strategies represented in the chapter work a little more and in different ways to break that wall, giving students the impression that we are human like them, and simply have a talent and a knowledge for helping them achieve goals they never thought they could attain. By achieving this communal vibe, they will be less scared to approach next time they see you at a market, or possibly racking up a high score playing guitar hero at the local Dave and Busters. 

Traditional methods need to become obsolete!

All of the readings for the week had a few central themes worth discussing further. The Strong chapter asks us to try to make our writing assignments more active, relevant, and purposeful. This connects well with last week’s D&Z chapter on providing variety in sources, with Strong asking us to do the same with our assignments. Use variety when we create our assignments under the CRAFT rubric, and students will feel like they have a role in the assignment and not just an innocent bystander. In Chapter 6 of D&Z, the authors provide six activities to get reading a textbook more active, relevant, and purposeful, in an attempt to make the dry, raw material of the text more accessible. As you can see through my utilization of the bold lettering, I used the same words to describe the two separate readings dealing with two separate topics, textbooks and writing assignments. After finishing the strong chapter however, I realized that there was an underlying theme with these articles that are essential concepts to the philosophy of teaching in general.

          One statement that stuck out to me in the strong chapter was how one teacher reflected on the creative writing assignment she implemented in her classroom, saying that she cannot see herself going back to the “stand and deliver” method of teaching. I think that’s what both of these readings are trying to tell us. That type of teaching needs to become almost obsolete because it simply doesn’t work anymore. Whether it is  drudgingly going through a textbook to provide your students with knowledge that will almost definitely forget when the test is over, or giving them a standard, straight-forward 3 page essay on a topic they couldn’t care less about, that kind of teaching does not harness the power of real learning. If we are going to model our teaching methods on backwards design, then we need to start instilling some real, meaningful, engaging, and relevant assignments and sources for our students. Make them feel like they are a part of something and not just an on-looker. We heard it from the students on the panel, they want respect and to feel like what they are doing matters. By putting the traditional methods of textbooks and essay writing under a microscope, we can manipulate these processes to cater to the student’s wishes for connection with their learning.