Reflect after reading Chapters 5-7:
How do we answer questions in a thinking classroom? When and how do we give tasks?
Consider the following questions:
- What is resonating with you from the reading?
- What caused you to pause and think during this section?
Respond and Interact
After reading these chapters, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
The reading about questioning was interesting. Totally makes sense but I'm wondering what happens if you don't answer a second grader. They'll follow you around asking and get hurt feelings if you don't I'd think. I will try to turn the questions around on them instead of answering. The part about giving a task while the children were standing is interesting. By task, are they meaning a lesson or the thinking tasks given in the book?
ReplyDeleteI think that a task can be any rich problem that makes kids think. Sometimes tasks are found right within a lesson or student journal - other times I search for them.
DeleteI really struggled with all aspects of this section. This week I attempted to ignore questions that stopped thinking and just smiled at the student when the question was asked. They were not deterred! They just asked the question louder until I have 5 voices yelling their questions at me. I also struggled with the idea of starting thinking tasks within the first three to five minutes of class starting. My students travel to me from other areas of the building, and by the time they stop at the bathroom or water fountain other students have already been waiting for up to 5 minutes. I give these students an independent activity to start while they wait, so we are not wasting precious minutes of our short time together waiting for their peers to arrive. My final struggle was with presenting the thinking tasks verbally. I have multiple students with language processing disorders who need visuals in order to understand the tasks. If I only presented the tasks verbally, they would not understand what they needed to accomplish. I am having trouble rectifying this section with my world in special education. I will end my rant here:)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading these chapters I thought about some students from my class last year and what their reactions would be to some of these ideas. What might work for one student, doesn't always work for another, that's for sure! Good job testing them out, even though I'm sure not easy!
DeleteTerran, I struggle with this too! It really depends on the specific kid too! Unfortunately, many follow me around, ask louder and also get fixated that I didn't answer their question!
DeleteYou have a unique classroom Terran - give yourself a break! I am impressed by the moves that you are trying...don't be afraid to adapt them to meet the needs of your math groups and your students!
ReplyDeleteSomething that both resonated with me and caused me to think more about was in chapter 5 around questioning. It was helpful to read about the types of questions that students ask. I identified with the proximity questions, based on my experience in the classroom. It didn't take long at the beginning of the year to identify some students that habitually asked questions as I made my way around the room. The part of this chapter that I spent some time thinking about was teacher response to questions. 3 teacher moves were presented and I could imagine that smile and walk away might create a lot of frustration in students. I gravitated towards using the other 2 moves. For all, I feel like it will be a process to get used to and important to couple the perceived "lack of answering questions" with talking to students about the reason. On another note, I LOVED the teacher moves in chapter 6 with when, where and how to give thinking tasks as well as reframing 'homework' as checking your understanding in chapter 7.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading chapter 5 as I've been thinking about the amount of questions students in my classroom are asking this year, both related to student thinking but also just questions in general. I was joking with Alyse that we need a clicker to keep track one day. But, as the book mentions it DOES become overwhelming and makes me think more about how I can support students doing more of the thinking. Reading about proximity questions really resonated with me as I can relate. It seems at times like a learned helplessness (as mentioned in book) to instantly seek help prior to truly listening or thinking about the question. I liked the idea of the ten responses to questions, by answering with another question. This is something I would like to try out in my classroom and could see even having on a little note as I circle around. As the book mentions on page 93, you need to read the situation and know when a nod, wink is needed instead of answering. This also made me think about how each responds differently (ell, spectrum...) depending on the student. I like the example of the Ice Cream cone question and will try this next week. It was interesting to read about giving instructions while standing in Chapter 6. I really like the warm ups in Illustrative math and how it engages students prior to their activity. Giving the task three to five minutes into a lesson (suggested for primary) made me think about how much time we're spending sitting prior to the activity and how this can impact student learning & engagement. Lots of reflecting!
ReplyDeleteOut of the three chapters, what made me stop, pause and honestly, uncomfortable, was chapter 7- What Homework Looks Like in a Thinking Classroom! On page 124, it states that homework is not working! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteHomework has always been a hot topic for me as a teacher, a recent student, and as a parent. I do not believe in giving extensive homework assignments or busy work but I do think it can be used as a life skill such as time management, responsibility, and organization as well as a bridge between home and school. I am thinking I should change the name from homework to "Check for Understanding!" though! (In my defense, my homework is really a newsletter to the families of our weekly schedule that includes reminders for the kids to read nightly and usually an easy short math sheet or questions that mirror what we are learning in class so the parents can see what we are working on!)
All of the chapters in this section caused me to pause and think! As I reflected on why, I realized that the underlying concept for me is that the purpose of each of these strategies is about one thing...student thinking. While this is of course what I worked for and wanted in my classroom, it was not always the lens I used when I asked questions or gave a task or gave homework. When I focus solely on student thinking, I find that all of the strategies, even the ones that make me unsure make sense. The types of questions chapter in particular, resonated with me. As a kindergarten teacher, I answered many proximity and stop thinking questions. I wonder what would have happened if I focused more on student thinking and less on answering questions because that is what I was supposed to do? I am sure it would have started off much like the author describes with very persistent five and six year olds wanting to get their questions answered. After a while though, I imagine keep thinking questions would have become the norm.
ReplyDelete