Saturday, March 21, 2009
Jerry Fisher
Another week of learning exactly how I would not want to run a class. I wish I could find something positive to express about this observation besides the fact that the two teachers are really nice guys who appear to have given up. First off the week was cut short by an electrical outage on Thursday and an asbestos scare that had Friday’s classes cancelled. The sad part is I had Friday all to myself and we were going to Tinikle, the Philippines national dance, with the students. I had worked for two days building the sticks required to do the dance. Since spring break is this next week it looks like another week until I can teach the dance. That being said, this last week involved continuing the PACER run for students who hadn’t run yet. Again I implemented the Marzano strategy of cooperative learning as I worked at getting the entire class up and supporting the students who were running. We finally had a girl run out the CD and it was exciting watching everyone get behind her effort. As with before after the runs, any time left in the class is spent tossing basketballs around. So again, the mere fact that it’s a physical education class the teachers automatically accomplish Non linguistic Representation just by engaging in kinesthetic activity by running around the gym floor. I can’t wait to get back in two weeks and get into the dance and fitness lessons that I have planned. Once the weather breaks and we get some consistent temps. I hope we can play some Ultimate Frisbee and some touch Rugby outside. Again I feel guilty for not providing more for these students to do with their time in class. After their spring break I am hoping to have even more input into the class since the FITNESSGRAM should be complete by then. Until then I just shake my head and wonder how a teacher can set behind a table the entire class period and not get out on the floor and pump it up some. I know that I can’t do it and never have been able to. What confuses me most is the fact that both of these teachers are coaches. As a coach I could never set down and just watch my players without getting up and hopping all over the place. The energy level that a teacher exhibits directly relates to the energy level of the class.
Blog 1
This is my account I compiled from my notes from my *first* day observing!
Upon the beginning of 7th period, Mrs. “Green” met her students outside of her classroom, greeting and welcoming them. The students were still in the first week of a new 12-week rotation, so the environment was still seemingly unfamiliar – and Mrs. “Green,” quite aware, reminded her students of where to find basic materials needed to complete the day’s bell-ringer. While some students finished rather quickly, before she could proceed, Mrs. “Green” waited patiently on those who needed an extra minute’s time to carry out the simple assignment. She quieted the other eager and anxious pre-teens -- realizing though, they were reaching the end of their day. Nothing much could silence their enthusiasm.
Mrs. “Green” gave detailed instructions to the students, asking them to collect their materials and head to the cafeteria – where they would then meet with the 6th grade health classes, culminating the final stages of a cooperative learning projected entitled “Affirmation.” There, the students were broken up into groups randomly, where they were to answer intuitive questions of their peers’ artwork – a critique in a sense. These questions addressed higher-level critical thinking skills, calling upon students to form an opinion, asking for example “Of the group, which artwork do you think shows the most positive affirmation?” In order to insure full cooperation, the co-teachers disclosed that the group would receive one grade – and that each member was responsible for writing and answering one question. This, they believed, would prevent hitchhikers.
As students finished, they were told to hang their images in the hallway following a particular format. They then received immediate feedback verbally, as well as that which would come later -- as mentioned, a grade summative in nature. Some groups finished earlier than others (as expected), and they were instructed to read AR books or finish homework until the bell rang. Some followed suit and quietly completed work – and not surprisingly, some chatted and flirted like most middle schoolers do. But like always, promptly at 2:55, class dismissed and the students scurried off – without a second thought!
In my opinion, Mrs. “Green” did most everything right – and conducted her classroom in a similar fashion to how I will one day. I appreciate the idea of greeting the students and welcoming them upon arrival, letting them know you care. I also feel that taking plenty of time for tasks, even those like a bell-ringer, keeps the playing field level and “allows for students’ different paces of learning” and working (McTighe, 2006, p. 51). I feel that Mrs. “Green” understood the unique time of day and sought to find an assignment that would captivate her audience and keep their attention during the last minutes of the day.
Marzano (2001) also champions cooperative learning, mentioning that in order “to maximize students’ experience, it is probably a good idea to use a variety of criteria [for grouping purposes]” (p. 89). By randomly pairing students, Mrs. “Green” makes use of what Marzano (2001) calls Informal grouping. I believe this was quite successful, as it truly called the students to come together as group! Students could not rely on a single member, as they were required to write at least one question (which was checked by means of different handwriting). The questions asked of students were intuitive and thought provoking and more than likely a good measure of understanding in terms of their comprehension of the term “affirmation.”
Lastly, I feel that the assessment tools used for this project were appropriate and necessary. Once again, Marzano (2001) mentions the importance of regular feedback – that which is criterion referenced and also sometimes, student-led. Mrs. “Green” and her contemporary (co-teacher) spoke with student groups individually, as well as the conclusive grading through the use of a rubric. Also, the conclusive nature of the critique in general, I believe, was a wonderful way to conclude the project. Students hopefully drew connections between what they learned to their work and others’.
Any thoughts?
Jordan
Upon the beginning of 7th period, Mrs. “Green” met her students outside of her classroom, greeting and welcoming them. The students were still in the first week of a new 12-week rotation, so the environment was still seemingly unfamiliar – and Mrs. “Green,” quite aware, reminded her students of where to find basic materials needed to complete the day’s bell-ringer. While some students finished rather quickly, before she could proceed, Mrs. “Green” waited patiently on those who needed an extra minute’s time to carry out the simple assignment. She quieted the other eager and anxious pre-teens -- realizing though, they were reaching the end of their day. Nothing much could silence their enthusiasm.
Mrs. “Green” gave detailed instructions to the students, asking them to collect their materials and head to the cafeteria – where they would then meet with the 6th grade health classes, culminating the final stages of a cooperative learning projected entitled “Affirmation.” There, the students were broken up into groups randomly, where they were to answer intuitive questions of their peers’ artwork – a critique in a sense. These questions addressed higher-level critical thinking skills, calling upon students to form an opinion, asking for example “Of the group, which artwork do you think shows the most positive affirmation?” In order to insure full cooperation, the co-teachers disclosed that the group would receive one grade – and that each member was responsible for writing and answering one question. This, they believed, would prevent hitchhikers.
As students finished, they were told to hang their images in the hallway following a particular format. They then received immediate feedback verbally, as well as that which would come later -- as mentioned, a grade summative in nature. Some groups finished earlier than others (as expected), and they were instructed to read AR books or finish homework until the bell rang. Some followed suit and quietly completed work – and not surprisingly, some chatted and flirted like most middle schoolers do. But like always, promptly at 2:55, class dismissed and the students scurried off – without a second thought!
In my opinion, Mrs. “Green” did most everything right – and conducted her classroom in a similar fashion to how I will one day. I appreciate the idea of greeting the students and welcoming them upon arrival, letting them know you care. I also feel that taking plenty of time for tasks, even those like a bell-ringer, keeps the playing field level and “allows for students’ different paces of learning” and working (McTighe, 2006, p. 51). I feel that Mrs. “Green” understood the unique time of day and sought to find an assignment that would captivate her audience and keep their attention during the last minutes of the day.
Marzano (2001) also champions cooperative learning, mentioning that in order “to maximize students’ experience, it is probably a good idea to use a variety of criteria [for grouping purposes]” (p. 89). By randomly pairing students, Mrs. “Green” makes use of what Marzano (2001) calls Informal grouping. I believe this was quite successful, as it truly called the students to come together as group! Students could not rely on a single member, as they were required to write at least one question (which was checked by means of different handwriting). The questions asked of students were intuitive and thought provoking and more than likely a good measure of understanding in terms of their comprehension of the term “affirmation.”
Lastly, I feel that the assessment tools used for this project were appropriate and necessary. Once again, Marzano (2001) mentions the importance of regular feedback – that which is criterion referenced and also sometimes, student-led. Mrs. “Green” and her contemporary (co-teacher) spoke with student groups individually, as well as the conclusive grading through the use of a rubric. Also, the conclusive nature of the critique in general, I believe, was a wonderful way to conclude the project. Students hopefully drew connections between what they learned to their work and others’.
Any thoughts?
Jordan
Monday, March 16, 2009
blog 2 marzano ch 7
The strategy from marzano I will talk about is cooperative learning. I have used this once in my unit and I love the benefits of this. Marzano points out that it is important for students to be grouped based on abilty as little as possible. Some of the obvious disadvantages of homogenous grooping is that students know. They know who the smart kids are in their class and who the "dumb" kids are. Grouping them based on ability for say, a class activity, would be in my opinion a bad idea. For my group activity I split the class up inot groups of 3 randomly. I wanted to keep the groups small so they would work with each other. I think that if the groups get too large students will make their groups smaller by themselves by not always including every group member in a discussion or decision that the entire group is supposed to be in on. I am not sure how often my teacher uses cooperative learning strategies in his classroom but I can see that it would not be a good idea to over use them, as marzano points out. I could see some classroom management problems that coudl arise from over use. For me, I like to make group work a little more challenging than I work I would have the students do by themselves. This way students would need to rely more on each other to figure out what to do. For my activity the student were supposed to read an article summerizing the main points of one of the documents that influenced US foreign policy the most for around 20 years of the cold war. They were then supposed to examine 5 key events, polices, or conflicts and see where each point the author made about the soviets and communism was represented. Although I know I could have done a much better job explaining exactly what I wanted, I knew the activity would be challenging anyway. They were forced to work togother to get the assignment finished. One thing I did not take into account was the different interests of the students. Marzano points out the importance of considering things other than ability when grouping students such as interests. I am not sure if this would have been relavent to my activity but I could have allowed the students to choose their own groups. I chose not to do this because I was afraid of the management problems that could arise from this and this was only my 3rd day in the teaching role and did not feel ready to take on something like that.
Blog #2: Marzano Ch.7
Marzano chapter 7 was our most recent reading assignment. After reading through this chapter, I realized my supervising teacher does not utilize cooperative learning (or at least not that I have seen). I'm sure he does use it occasionally. From what I have observed so far he focuses mainly on class discussion, short writings, printouts to go along with lecture, and internet resources. These are all really great things! He does a great job of utilizing different technologies and different teaching methods. However, he does steer clear of group work or cooperative learning. It may be that he has been teaching for several years and he is now in a groove that he feels works for him and his students. While I'm writing up my lesson plans, I'm attempting to include some "think-pair-share" exercises, some role-playing, 4-corners, and other activities that promote discussion and student interaction. With all of these group activities, I wish I could rearrange the class so the students would be more in a circle, facing each other, rather than rows facing each others' backs. This type of set-up (rows) doesn't necessarily promote discussion and it makes it more difficult to get into groups for cooperative learning. I do realize that not every scenario will work out the way I'd like (the desks are immovable because on every desk there is a computer that's hooked up to a power source through outlets in the floor). Regardless, I will do my best to incorporate group work and lots of discussion. I think if you can get students to realize the big ideas on their own and then you (teacher) elaborate on those discoveries, it causes the students to better understand the concepts and retain the information. Most of the time this can be achieved through group work and class discussion. Prompting questions and well-planned tasks are a big help, as well.
Blog 2
The Marzano strategy I would like to blog about today is the homework and practice. In my clinical at Fairland High School, we are getting ready for the Ohio Graduation Test and this requires many class hours of working and even more hours outside of the classroom studying. The OGT is the test given to Ohio 10th grade students and is their last achievement test before the students graduate.
In the clinical, my observation teacher has opened my young, blue, educational eyes to a new realm of homework study for secondary students. The activity is called Study Island, and it is an online based program where the students get online and take quizzes and the quiz score are directly transported to the administrator of the course. This of course will prepare students for the online world of higher education. Even blue collar jobs are now requiring their workers to get certified on their time off by taking online classes and taking tests all on the same basis of online quizzing.
The students must complete this task before the 8:00 A.M. bell rings on the due date. The teachers all have computers in their rooms, as well as there is 2 computer labs in the building so the kids can come in early before school and do their Study Island work. So the argument that the students who do not have computer access at home is a farce. There are more than enough computers at the school so the students can get their work done.
Another practice that I am using in my clinical is a worksheet/study guide booklet with around 9 sheets of questions and information for the students to know. This booklet is to be done either at the end of class if there is extra time, or at home. The worksheets are sectioned so the students can keep up with the days lecture with a worksheet to follow. All of the test questions will be pulled from this booklet. Therefore, every piece of paper in the booklet is a reliable study source for the test at the end of the chapter. This is a practice that I have learned from my clinical teacher and from a former teacher of mine who also taught 10 grade social studies.
The Marzano strategy I would like to blog about today is the homework and practice. In my clinical at Fairland High School, we are getting ready for the Ohio Graduation Test and this requires many class hours of working and even more hours outside of the classroom studying. The OGT is the test given to Ohio 10th grade students and is their last achievement test before the students graduate.
In the clinical, my observation teacher has opened my young, blue, educational eyes to a new realm of homework study for secondary students. The activity is called Study Island, and it is an online based program where the students get online and take quizzes and the quiz score are directly transported to the administrator of the course. This of course will prepare students for the online world of higher education. Even blue collar jobs are now requiring their workers to get certified on their time off by taking online classes and taking tests all on the same basis of online quizzing.
The students must complete this task before the 8:00 A.M. bell rings on the due date. The teachers all have computers in their rooms, as well as there is 2 computer labs in the building so the kids can come in early before school and do their Study Island work. So the argument that the students who do not have computer access at home is a farce. There are more than enough computers at the school so the students can get their work done.
Another practice that I am using in my clinical is a worksheet/study guide booklet with around 9 sheets of questions and information for the students to know. This booklet is to be done either at the end of class if there is extra time, or at home. The worksheets are sectioned so the students can keep up with the days lecture with a worksheet to follow. All of the test questions will be pulled from this booklet. Therefore, every piece of paper in the booklet is a reliable study source for the test at the end of the chapter. This is a practice that I have learned from my clinical teacher and from a former teacher of mine who also taught 10 grade social studies.
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