Classroom+Environment

Domain 2: The Classroom Environment



Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport Establishing a Culture for Learning Managing Classroom Procedures Managing Student Behavior Organizing Physical Space

Assignment Two: Self Reflection of Teaching

PART 1 Focus: Considering practice (against the levels of performance and the highlighted statements that best reflect performance) to determine areas of strength and aspects of teaching that could benefit from focused attention.

“Somehow, we must all find our teaching selves. Many times it is a path of gaining experience with each year that we teach, savoring our experiences to enrich the next year’s instruction. From our challenges and successes we are able to bring together a repertoire of instructional practices that influence who we eventually become as teachers. It is an evolutionary, self-actualization process that is never ending.” (Dantonio & Beisenherz, “Learning to Question, Questioning to Learn”, 2001) Studying Charlotte Danielson’s “Framework for Teaching” is one step along the way to my “finding my teaching self”. As a relatively new teacher (fourth year as a full-time classroom teacher), I find that I’m often engaged in self-reflective practices based on an (as yet) unformed, vague, personal “framework” which reads more as a series of questions such as: Am I happy with the work that I am doing? Are my students engaged and happy in my class? Am I practicing and implementing new strategies regularly? Are my students progressing? But this of course leads to only a very basic feedback, and fails to give satisfaction in terms of feeling confident about my own teaching practice. Charlotte Danielson’s framework is helping to provide a more substantial, evidence-specific base through which to reflect upon my teaching, and give direction in terms of choosing a focus.

In terms of strengths, I feel good about my classroom environment. My students appear happy to come to school, and feel comfortable in talking with me about their lives at home, events over the weekend, problems at recess or in class etc. Parents report that their children are happy and feel connected with school and their classmates. I try to maintain high standards of performance, and communicate to students what kind of quality of work I am looking for through demonstrations, student examples from the year before, as well as exceptional work done by classmates. Because the students we teach are great kids, interaction amongst students tends do be (relatively) free of negativity, bullying etc. My students work with me to design their own classroom expectations, and these are posted and easily referred to when necessary. Students remind each other about what behaviour they know is acceptable when something is amiss.

To create a comfortable and productive working environment, I’ve worked with various desk arrangements and “station” areas in the classroom to create suitable learning environments for various activities. There’s the reading library and reading couch, calendar area, science and investigation counter, demonstration table, reading instruction center, math supplies center and meeting carpet. At times, I feel frustrated with my lack of having planned sufficient time for clean up/transition (“how could it be 3:00 already!?”), or that I failed to foresee problems with accessing resources for a particular activity. (Today, for example, while students worked on decorating their Valentine pouches, I realized, that I had not provided enough space and locations ahead of time for use of sparkles, and other decoration items). These are areas where I am learning to be more consistently prepared.

I feel that I contribute to the school community and professional duties by my involvement in professional development (SUNY, Nesa conferences) and find ways to serve the school through running student council activities, and coaching track and field. I am an active member at staff meetings, contributing to conversations and problem solving. I would like to improve my communication with families regarding their child’s involvement in school, sharing successes during a particular day, and being able to offer helpful suggestions on supporting their child’s education at home.

The areas that I feel need the most focus are in planning and instruction. Partly, this is due to being the “new kid” in school, and working to figure a lot of things out for myself in terms of curriculum, (not having a grade-level teaching partner to help talk me through it all). However, I’d like to feel more secure in my knowledge of certain disciplines and in specific pedagogical practices most suitable to them. For example, several areas of our social studies curriculum feel vague to me, and it is easy for me to focus on a project that the students can get excited about, but that does not always wholly cover all of the learning outcomes stated (or, to get caught up in a particular project to the exclusion of other outcomes). I am still learning to time projects appropriately.

When it comes to assessment, there are certain areas that I feel I do well at in assessing for instructional purposes (math and reading for example), however, in the areas of social studies and science, I would like to become more effective at using appropriate assessment strategies not only for reporting purposes, but also for instruction. These are the two areas where I also find it most difficult to differentiate instruction. While in reading, writing and math, I am able to have various students working on specific tasks for their skill level, or to provide feedback and guidance based on their individual abilities, I find this much more difficult in these other areas (science and social studies).

Demonstrating flexibility to seizing teachable moments, is something I am still learning to do. Not wanting to become “behind” in a unit, or to get too far off what I have planned and organized for, I am certain there are times when I miss significant teaching opportunities in favor of doing the routine.

The area that I am most interested in focusing on for the purpose of this assignment is in using questioning and discussion techniques. Having just recently begun to implement “Junior Great Books”, I have enjoyed seeing students engaged in discussion about the stories. However, it bothers me that there are always a few who seem to be simply observing and not taking part unless pressed directly. I’d also like to see student discussion occurring more regularly between students rather than being directed to me.

PART 2 Focus: Assessment of the evolution of content in the subjects taught and determining where there is need to bolster mastery in any area.

As an elementary teacher, there is a wide breadth of content that must be known prior to teaching. In the area of mathematics, the program of study (which the school district has chosen) has forced me to consider new and different methods for simple computations. In this way, I have had to learn the new methods themselves, as well as the suggested approaches to teaching. In terms of basic math, the concepts have not changed dramatically, but the approaches to instruction have changed, even in the few years in which I have been teaching. In my beginning years as a teacher, we were encouraged to use manipulatives for teaching math concepts, however, the math work books that the children used tended to focus more on drill practice and rote memorization. Not having exposure to many teaching methods using manipulatives in a systematic way, when I did use them, it often felt disconnected to what we were doing in the student workbooks. Now however, I have gained significantly more experience in teaching through the use of a wide variety of activities and resources (which systematically use hands-on approaches in teaching math). In this way, there is a clear connection between “book work” and the activities.

In reading, I have tried to stay current with new resources that come into the class for reading instruction. In the past four years, I have welcomed the additional reading resources that arrived in the classroom. I try to keep current with knowing what my students are reading and what interests them, not only as a group, but individually as well. Recently, the content has changed to include the explicit teaching of strategies for reading comprehension. Students are learning to draw on personal experiences to make connections as they read, create mental images, synthesize information, make logical and reasonable inferences and to consider various strategies when they encounter difficulties.

In science, there are three main areas of study: Insect life cycles, Rocks, Balance and Motion. Each year I am adding to my content knowledge in each of the areas. I would like to become more familiar with the various types of rocks that are located here in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to discussions with one of the middle school science teachers, I have been able to make some progress in this area, but still do not know nearly enough to be able to give confident answers to all of my students’ questions! It is another area for growth that I expect to add to as I teach this subject again this year.

Community is the main theme of study in the grade 2 social studies program. Topics of study include roles and responsibilities of community members, mapping, landforms, and goods and services. Staying current with this content requires keeping informed of changes in the community here in Abqaiq, as well as changes in personnel. Keeping updated on world political and geographic (border) changes as well as having access to current political maps is another way of staying current in this area.

Teaching technology is one of the most difficult areas for me to keep current in. It requires constant professional development opportunities. The changes are happening so fast, it feels like I have just mastered one, and another has arrived! I also struggle with not being sure about how much technology is relevant and appropriate to my grade level. At this point, my students have opportunity to work with word documents, publisher, power point, graph club and kidspiration.

I teach health, and discovered last year that I was not current with my understanding of the present accepted food pyramid. This year, I have adapted my lessons to reflect my new learning. By reading health articles, and joining on-line health groups, I’m working to keep up to date on current health-related content understandings.

PART 3 Focus: Survey of recent developments in pedagogical research and determination of whether there is one area to investigate further with a view to incorporating it into everyday practice.

Recent pedagogical research suggests that student learning is increased when there is: • more experiential, hands-on learning • more active learning • more diverse roles of the teacher (coach, mentor, model) • more emphasis on higher-order thinking • greater depth of study rather than breadth of topics • more use of “real” texts (whole books, primary sources, non-fiction) • more student responsibility for work • more choice for students • more modeling of democratic principles in school • more attention to the affective needs of students • more cooperative and collaborative study • less segregation of students with special needs and more in-class support • more cooperation between teachers and principals, teachers and parents • more use of descriptive evaluations of student growth

(Best Practice, 2005)

Clearly the current research indicates a need to move away from a teacher-centered classroom, to a living, active, student-oriented environment.

Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde, in their book “Best Practice” outline 3 main “clusters” of principles that ought to guide our instruction. First, instruction ought to be student-centered. That is to say, students should be involved in hands-on experiences that are purposeful and relevant, challenging and authentic. Second, instruction must be cognitive. Students must be expected to use higher-order thinking in a way that is appropriate to the developmental stage. Children must be allowed to create meaning for themselves while being given the opportunity to express that meaning and understanding through a variety of media. They must also have opportunities to reflect on their own learning. Finally, instruction should be guided through sensitivity to social aspects of the learning environment. Children should learn through interactive experiences and activities that allow for cooperation and collaboration.

With these over-arching principles in mind, we begin to look at certain pedagogical approaches. In their book “Models of Teaching”, Joyce and Weil outline several models, which fit well with current pedagogical recommendations. These models generally fit into four main families: social models, information processing models, personal models and behavioural models. The social model views the school as a productive community or society, rather than as a group of individuals striving for education. Methods through which we might instruct using the social model would be through the use of shared inquiry through which students construct their own learning in an experiential, collaborative way (for example, students working together in pairs or small groups to explore the best balancing position for their paper “crayfish”), or through role-playing (for example, for the purpose of practicing effective problem solving). Researchers Johnson, Slavin and Sharan, have found that cooperative grouping and collaborative learning result in greater mastery of content (Models of teaching, 2000) as compared to a lecture style approach.

With the informational processing model, emphasis is placed on students learning to think. Activities include classification, inferring, connecting, predicting and verifying the predictions. Of course, these activities are well suited to a cooperative and collaborative approach as well. The theory behind the informational processing model is that the core of good thinking is its application to solve problems. Solving problems is all about learning in complex or confusing situations. Therefore, learning how to learn is critical. (Models of teaching, 2000)

In the personal models, the emphasis is on growth of the student mentally and emotionally, having the student themselves take initiative and responsibility for their own learning, and the development of creative and expressive thought. In the personal model, the teacher’s role moves into the role of facilitator and even counselor as they guide their students’ growth and development. This means that there are times when the teaching of content will take a secondary place to the discussion of a particular student’s affect and it’s effect on their learning or work. Through free discussion, students are able to define a problem or area of focus, while the teachers accepts and clarifies the students message. The student does some initial decision making while the teacher clarifies and possible options, which enables the student to gain further insight and move into positive action. With focus on student personal growth, academic skills increase, and allows for greater success for students in school. (Methods of teaching, 2000)

The behavioural model is based on the premise that once a behaviour is learned, the likelihood that it will occur again depends on the responses received from the environment. Examples of this would be sequential, programmed instruction that provides immediate feedback, direct instruction through the presentation of a new skill and then the slow releasing of that skill into the students’ own repertoire (through modeling, and scaffolding with various levels of assistance), and learning through simulations. (Methods of teaching, 2000)

Clearly, no one teacher is likely to teach in any one of these models exclusively, but varies the models they use accordingly to match the content area or the particular group of students they are working with. As I survey these models, I realize that I (generally) often use a mix of behavioural and social methods when teaching math, social and information processing models when working in language arts, and science, and personal models and information processing models for teaching social studies.

As I look more specifically at my chosen area of focus (using question and discussion techniques in the content area of reading, through book talks), I find myself looking generally at the best practices recommended for reading instruction, and then more specifically at techniques for encouraging good discussion and questions.

It has been agreed that skillful readers must be able to: • make mental images of what they read • make connections • ask questions • infer • determine what is important in what they read • analyze a text • be able to summarize/retell what they’ve read • monitor their own understanding

Also, that a balanced primary reading program is one that provides read alouds, good literature, shared reading, comprehension instruction, phonics study, and writing in response to literature.

(Best Practices, 2005)

In these areas, I feel confident that my students are receiving from me, sound instruction guided by current research. My reading program includes each of th3se elements with sensitivity to individual students’ abilities.

With attention to my area of focus – asking better questions and the enhancement of discussion amongst students, I have consulted Morgan and Saxton’s work in “Asking better questions” (1994) for guidance. Here, three types of questions are outlined: questions that elicit information, questions that shape understanding, and questions that press for reflection. Although we may look at the first (questions which elicit information) as a “lower level” question and the other as “higher level” questions, it is important to note that one is not necessarily better than the other. “Lower level” questions can be an effective way to check for understanding, while “higher level” questions may lead to more complex and lengthy student responses. Both are important.

Some guidelines to effective teacher questions are: • plan questions to structure lesson • phrase questions clearly and specifically • adapt questions to student ability • ask questions logically and sequentially • ask a variety of level of questions • follow up on student responses • give students time to think • use questions that encourage wide student participation • encourage student questions

(Dantonio and Beisenherz, 2001)

There are several cues that can guide our questions to students. First, when a student response is off-focus, we can use a refocusing question to aid the student in returning to the material read to check for understanding. Second, when a student response needs clarity, questioning can be used to have the student be more precise in their answer. Third, verifying questions force the students to return to the text to check for the accuracy of their answer. Fourth, a narrowing question can help the student to focus on the critical characteristics of their answer. Lastly, there are the questions that call for other students to participate when one student is dominating.

Saxton and Morgan also point out the importance of modeling good questions in order to elicit good questions from students. This can be done covertly or overtly. When we demonstrate our own “thinking aloud”, praise good questions, encourage students questions, reflect purposefully on the question asked, and focus on quality questions, we are teaching students to ask good questions in turn.

In his book “Literacy Techniques”, David Booth talks about the use of a dialogue journal. It occurred to me, that this could be a great strategy to implement with my students, in getting across the idea that books should be talked about regularly, and to provide a safe venue for them to practice “talking” about books through written dialogue between myself and them, as well as between the students themselves.

PART 4

General reflections on my practice

Overall, I feel good about my practice. I can see many areas of my teaching that reflect current research. I can see myself moving towards more cooperative and student initiated learning opportunities. The more I read, the more I can see areas that I’d like to grow in further. At this time, I’d like to improve my ability to lead good discussions through asking good questions. Although I am focusing at this time in the area of book talks, by developing my skills in this area, I believe this is a skill that will carry over into all other areas of the curriculum.

The process of self evaluation is always a worthwhile one. This particular process has been interesting in terms of how my perception of my own teaching (and how I “measured” myself on the rubric) changed slightly as I continued in my practice throughout these two weeks. As I paid attention to various details in my daily teaching, I would come home and change parts of my hi-lighted evaluation. A big part of the process is paying attention to the evidences that I can find for the various components that I was assessing. I also found that (as I referred to earlier in this paper), there are portions of the rubric where I felt I could place myself in more than one space, depending on the subject area I was teaching, it was difficult to always choose one “label” when I can see differences in my competency depending on the subject being taught.

Also, as I began to research methods and pedagogy, I came to realize that simply wanting to “improve my questioning techniques and discussions” is really only one part of leading a good book talk. When I notice students not participating, I need to consider not just the questions that I ask, but the issue of reading comprehension, the ability of my students to understand oral questions, as well as the freedom students feel to respond to each others’ comments without “raising their hand” or “taking their turn”. For now, I’d like to keep questions and discussion as my focus. I’m looking forward to working towards cooperative discussions with my students, modeling good questions, and using good questions to elicit deeper understanding.