Answer my question!
We’ve all been there: we’ve carefully prepared what we as
pre-service teachers think is an engaging lesson. We’re in college after all,
we still know what fun is! Granted, for me fun is sitting down with a good
novel and a strong cup of black coffee or binge watching a television show
while parsing each scene for subtext. So maybe we don’t exactly know what fun
is, but we’ve given it our best shot and we’re going with it.
You’re standing at the front of the room, bouncing with excitement
(read: anxiety), lesson plans tightly clutched between your hands. At least
twenty pairs of eyes are studying you, wondering (ideally) what you have in
store for them today or maybe they’re just wondering what’s for lunch, but they
are looking at you. You begin to
build a little background knowledge or maybe you’re trying to figure out how
much background knowledge they already have. You’ve created what you feel like
is a safe environment for discussion and you’ve covered discussion expectations,
so you ask a question. Maybe you’ve asked something vague and ambiguous that
has multiple right answers or maybe you’ve asked a very specific question with
one right answer but either way, immediately following the last sound that
exits your vocal chords, you hear it: crickets.
The silence resumes after you’ve rephrased your question and
internally you’re thinking (read: pleading) “please, someone just shout out an
answer”.
So my question, a question I hope to find multiple answers
to, is this: How can I increase student participation? After all, according to
Bomer (2011): “our students need to be ready for college and/or career, as so
many standards movements would have them be, but they also need to be ready to
participate in communities well beyond those” (p. 8).
After taking a considerable amount of time formulating my
question, I asked for advice from my Mentoring Teacher. She smiled brightly at
me and dashed to one of her bookshelves. She returned with a well-loved copy of
Rigorous Reading by Nancy Frey and
Douglas Fisher (Side note: I think it’s an English thing but I love running
into other people who write all over their books). I scanned the cover and my
eyes lit up with recognition as I recalled seeing those very same names on a
textbook from a previous semester. She encouraged me to take the book home and
see what I could find.
Once I was home I sat down on my living room floor, textbooks
and notebooks in organized piles (read: a haphazard semicircle, completely surrounding
me), flipping through annotated pages and tried to come up with an answer. I
found myself perusing a chapter called “Collaborative Conversations” and then
it dawned on me: productive participation doesn’t always have to come from whole-class
discussions. I think I had ruled that out as counting for participation because
I enjoy classes structured around whole-class discussions. Sure, I had
considered literature circles and think-pair-shares but I had isolated and
categorized those exclusively as instructional strategies.
Fisher and Frey (2013) further enlightened me on the
significance of collaborative learning by explaining that: “it enables them to
consolidate their understanding with peers and provide support for one another
in the absence of the teacher” (p. 74). Sometimes students (read: humans in
general) need to talk things out before being certain; sometimes they just need
someone else to listen. Either way, breaking students up into groups and having
them work together before asking for whole-class responses is a brilliant way
to increase participation. In fact, I’ve seen this in multiple classes.
I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in the little things
that we have learned in segments and we forget to take a step back, look at
what we’ve learned, and combine those segments. We get so focused on one thing
that we forget to look around us and see things that are already in place.
This is not to say that I have completely answered my own
question – far from it. However, I have scratched the surface and some days,
that’s quite a feat.
Sincerely,
Ms. (Holli) Dawson
References:
Bomer, R.
(2011). Building adolescent literacy in today’s English classrooms.
Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2013). Access Point Three:
Collaborative Conversations. In Rigorous Reading:
5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts
(pp. 73-96). Thousand
Oaks,
CA: SAGE Publications.
Holli, I think you have made an excellent post here about something we all struggle with. I want to start with my own experience as a student. Throughout my entire career as a student, I have always wanted to be a teacher. But I have also had this horrible fear of putting myself out there (public speaking my first year of college nearly killed me). I just always have this self-doubt within me that asks the questions: what if I say something wrong? What if my answer is not correct? What if look like a fool?
ReplyDeleteNow, I knew that I had to take public speaking and I had to pass, so I got myself together and did it. And at the end of the day, everyone always said I did a good job. I got good grades. They couldn't tell I was nervous inside. But I think that is what some students, not all, fear: putting themselves out there.
Even in college I have constantly been afraid about bringing up my opinions in class. I'm more the person that likes to put their thoughts on paper and turn it in. I have found though that in my education classes, our instructors have used these strategies (because they are trained teachers) and using these strategies works. I love getting together with a partner first and talking to them about my thoughts on a particular question. Afterward, I feel fine to contribute. It's almost like I need that one person's reassurance and I'm good to go. I think it gives students the confidence they need to put themselves out there.
Now, should we always be doing this in class? I think that question could be debated. I think we need to prepare them for what is to come though. Unfortunately, in most college classes, they are not going to paired off in partners to discuss. They are going to be expected to contribute their thoughts in front of the entire class, to people that they do not know. I think it would be great if we had more opportunities in college classes for strategies like think pair share, or partnered discussion. But unfortunately that is not the case. If I had had more opportunities in high school with these types of strategies (unfortunately I did not), I feel that it may have prepared me to better speak my mind in college. But unfortunately, high school was the same. We were usually expected to contribute to the whole class and I never felt I got the confidence I needed to really be able to speak my own thoughts.
But that is besides the point. Now, we can change that. I think using these instructional strategies (such as think share pair, or partnered discussions) are an excellent opportunity to get students to share their thoughts with their partner and really flesh them out. Afterward, the class can regroup and I think that more students would be willing to share their thoughts.
In the lessons that I have done, I feel that I have done the usual. I stand at the front and ask questions, sometimes I get a response, but most of the time I get nothing. I feel like I want to try and integrate one of these partner strategies into my lesson. In my classroom, the students sit at different tables so there is an opportunity for them to work in a group. I think it would be a good opportunity for them to discuss their ideas as a group and then we can share them as a class. I really love your thoughts in this post and I think you have some excellent questions and ideas.
Woohoo! Love this post and the response it elicited from Mr. Naylor! Ms. Dawson, thanks for depicting a snapshot of your journey as a teacher in this post. You illustrated the anxiety we all have felt when we pose a question (or two) and, even with sufficient wait time/think time, we fail to elicit responses from students. Then, you illustrated how your perspective shifted as a result of engaging in your own inquiry into engaging more students in whole-class (or small group) discussions. Thanks for sharing your revelation. I look forward to reading more as you, perhaps, continue to pursue this line of inquiry.
ReplyDeleteMs. Dawson, I think it's wonderful that you are exploring ways to help your students participate in class and your mentor teacher is sharing resources in help you do that. When students realize that they can learn from one another and do not always need a polished answer for the teacher, then they can begin to learn. Building that type of atmosphere in your room will greatly assist in that process. I look forward to hearing how you progress in this endeavor.
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