Do they know what it looks like?

I find it easier to see the hidden figure when I know
what I am looking for. (from)

When I ask teachers to fill out an action plan identifying their current challenge in teaching, I sometimes get comments like these:

• Students are not engaged in the lesson;
• Students do not take good notes;
• Students fail to do quality work;
• Students struggle to apply what we are doing to new situations;
• Students do not engage in productive discussions; or
• Students cannot work well in groups.

My initial response is usually to ask, "Do they know what this looks like?"

This happened recently around the last issue, group work. When I asked the question, the teacher responded as they typically do, "I don't know. I haven't addressed it explicitly." Herein lies the problem; too often we expect students to come to class with certain skills that they do not possess.

As a middle school math teacher, I spent considerable time at the beginning of the school year focusing on fostering skills associated with working effectively in groups. For nearly two weeks the students took part in "plays" representing productive and unproductive groups. After reflecting on these experiences, we created expectation around working in groups that were referred to throughout the rest of the school year. This was time well spent as it allowed me to work with individuals and small groups confident that the remainder of the class knew what was expected of them as they worked together. (It also served another purpose. Near the end of the second week, someone inevitably asked, "When are we going to do math?" Before my two-week bootcamp on groups, students rarely begged to do math.)

Unfortunately, it is not the beginning of the year, and the teachers was looking for something to do now. We brainstormed things that would support the development of productive group work through explicit action. For example, the teacher was tired of constantly reminding the students to get back on task, so I suggested setting a timer that went off at regular intervals as a reminder that they ought to monitor whether or not they were being productive. If students start ignoring the timer, stop the activity and identify some of the positive behaviors exhibited during the activity. Next time an activity involves group work, remind the students of those positive behaviors and try again. Once they complete an entire activity, set the timer for longer and longer periods of time until the students begin to self-monitor their efforts.

What are some examples of ways that you have ensured that your students know what group work (or some other classroom expectation) looks like? I would appreciate your thoughts in the comments so that I can share them with the teachers I am coaching. Thank you in advance for you participation.

 

What's your problem? Part III

Previously in this series, I shared about action plans (here) and how one teacher used an action plan and observation to improve her use of questions in assessing learners (here). In this post, I provide another example - this time focusing on evaluation. (I have explained before that our framework treats assessment and evaluation as different phases of the Teaching-Learning Cycle.)

The teacher being coached was using entry slips to gather data on her learners but was unsure how to interpret the data. Her question to develop her understanding literally asked, "What do I do now?" It was with this in mind that I entered the class and saw the following on the board in the front of the room.

After about five minutes, the teacher collected the sixth-graders' efforts, looked over them, and, satisfied, moved on with the rest of her lesson. 

During a lull in the lesson, I asked if I could look over the slips. With her consent, I began to analyze the assessment data. I organized it using the table shown. As you can see, there were no incorrect answers, however, there was a problem. Approximately 22% of the learners were unable to complete the task in the time provided. Fortunately, the teacher had asked the learners to show their work so that some of their thinking would be made visible to us. This would provide further insight into the problem.

I began to apply the evaluation framework by asking myself, "What can they do? What are they trying to do? What comes next?" Looking over their work, it became clear that they were fluent in comparing fractions using common denominators. Below is an example of how nearly all of the learners went about finding the first answer.

This also seems to suggest where they were approximating. By trying to apply this method (finding a common denominator by multiplying the two denominators) to all the comparison problems, some learners had run out of time. It seemed clear to me that what came next was considering alternative approaches to comparing fractions that might be more efficient. I shared the following list with the teacher:

• Using benchmark fractions like one-half and one;
• Comparing like numerators;
• Finding least common denominators; and
• Converting to decimals.

We talked about ways to introduce these strategies and how to make subtle shifts to the worksheets that she was expected to assigned. By asking the learners to look over the worksheet and match each item with a preferred method, they would be engaging in more meaningful work than simply applying a particular approach over-and-over again. As always, I left it open for this shift to be a part of the teacher's next action plan.

What do you think about while running?

My colleague, Robert Talbert, wrote a post today connecting teaching and running. The analogies he points out are effective and I have little to add of any substance from this perspective. His post did rekindle my interest in sharing what I think about during a run. And it should come as no surprise that I am usually thinking about teaching.

During the first mile of today's run, I thought about the following idea that I wanted to tweet:

This is related to a concern I have about attendance issues in my Introduction to Learning and Assessment class. I am trying something new this semester by not using in-class participation as part of their grade. In fact, I showed this video the first day of the semester and encouraged the preservice teachers to be learners instead of students. Perhaps I ought not be surprised when they take advantage of their new found freedom. The tweet was intended to remind me that learning has no bounds and that I need to trust a process that values intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation. I tweeted it because I know I might be wrong and hoped that my Professional Learning Network would challenge me to refine my vision.

Halfway through my second mile, the podcast I had on got my attention. I like listening to All Songs Consider while I run. The combination of new music and analysis supports my pace and offers plenty of distractions as I consider, "How might this apply to education?" Today, I was listening to a question and answer session with Wilco about their new album. About 14 minutes and 45 seconds in, a listener asked, "How do you know when a song is finished?" 

How would students respond to this question as it relates to their work? I would guess the answer would typically be, "When the teacher says so?" whether that means the teacher deciding when the work is good enough or when they call "times up." But Jeff Tweedy said that during the making of the album, it seemed to be when all the band members were satisfied with their personal contribution. This idea of learner autonomy is exactly what I wanted to get across in my #TeachingReminder tweet.

It also reflected the focus of last night's outside observation with four of our student teachers, which is what I thought about during the third mile. We do outside observations to remind our teachers in training that instruction is only one part of the Teaching-Learning Cycle. Last night, the question the student teachers shared on their action plan asked, "How can we make assessment and evaluation less stressful for students?" Based on their experiences over the semester, they were concerned with the unhealthy relationships many of their students seemed to have with tests and grades.

I know that some people have suggested that doing away with tests and grades would solve the problem. In fact, we just read an article by Alfie Kohn on this very topic in Introduction to Learning and Assessment.  While this might be a solution, it is one that is curently beyond the student teachers' control. Therefore, we tried to focus on what we could do to help students have a healthier relationship with those grades.

When I finished my run, I saw this common thread in my thinking: supporting learners in developing autonomy. Now, how do I go about doing that? Maybe that will come to me during another run (or in the comments).

What's your problem? Part II

In this series of posts, I want to share an approach we use with student teachers to support their development as reflective practitioners. The first post introduced the idea of using an action plan as a way for teachers to identify an area of challenge and seek out support. In subsequent posts, I plan to share examples of this approach in action.

After reading a teacher's action plan, I assemble any resources that might come in handy and then head to the observation. During the lesson, I keep notes on what is going on and ideas, questions, and concerns related to the challenge identified by the teacher. In the example given below, the teacher asked me to focus on formative assessment.

More specifically, she asked, "What types of formative assessments would be beneficial to student learning and how can I use these assessments?"

The notes are a combination artifact of what I saw and stream-of-consciousness of what I thought. I try to keep everything related to the focus provided by the teacher. (Unsolicited advice is an insult.) All of this is shared with the teacher during the debriefing after the observation but I try to attend to a few important points - highlighted in pink.

When I sat down with the student teacher after this particular observation, she started by saying that she felt there was very little formative assessment in her lesson. She was frustrated that because there was so much material to cover there was little opportunity to check for understanding. This seems to be a common challenge this semester.

I responded by pointing out a particular question she asked early in the lesson. The class was discussing issues with story problems on the homework. The teacher asked, "Is your problem the set up or the solving?" There was a resounding "set up" from the students. So the teacher focused on setting up several problems, leaving the students to do the solving on their own. This was a significant moment where the teacher used formative assessment to make an effective instructional decision but she had not recognized it as such.

Part of my responsibility as a coach is to help teachers to recognize things that they do intuitively and make them more intentional. We spent the rest of the debriefing time identifying places during the lesson where using formative assessment could focus instruction. This would provide more time for the formative assessment.

Finally, the teacher is asked to reflect on the experience. Here is part of what this teacher wrote after the observation and debriefing:

For the in-class observation, I was most concerned about assessing my students informally during class. After the debriefing, I feel I was able to recognize moments in my lesson that could have been altered to include more assessment. I feel that I have learned to consider the one or two important question within the lesson. If I recognize the few points that I really want my students to focus on, I can be sure to form my lesson around those specific ideas. Plus, if they are learning new material that progresses from previously learned mathematics (as it almost always does), I can 'skip' the information that they may already be very comfortable with to focus on the more difficult material. ... I feel this observation was very helpful in giving me ideas to use within my classroom to assess my students, as well as learning to focus more on the 'big picture', rather than material they may already be comfortable with.

These reflections often support teachers in developing their next action plan.

What's your problem? Part I

My problem is that I tend to teach as I was taught. I know that research shows that I am not alone in this, but I thought I had gotten over this hurdle. Since 1990, I have been teaching math differently - and I have the student comments and parent phone calls to prove it. The changes I made as a math teacher were one of the reasons I became interested in mathematics education. Unfortunately, these changes did not transfer to all aspects of my teaching.

Early in my career as a math educator, I began doing observations of novice teachers in their first practicum experience. I remember going into classrooms and watching lessons that failed to meet the principles of good mathematics teaching suggested by the NCTM. After an observation, I would sit down with the novice teacher and play "fix the lesson." I would share with the novices everything that was wrong with their teaching and what they could do to improve it. I left feeling as though I was making a difference in math education, much as my university supervisors must have felt after filling me with their ideas. 

Then, one day I took a deep breath. I had just watched an awful lesson where the teacher read the overhead to her students, who were sitting in rows, and then had them work independently on 30 problems from the textbook. I was getting ready to share my fixes when the novice teacher spoke up.

"That didn't go the way I wanted it to go," she said. "If it were my class, we wouldn't be in rows but in groups so that students could learn from one another. And I wouldn't assign all those problems. I would ask the students to pick out the ones they think they needed practice on. But, you know, I am a guest in this classroom and I need to follow the cooperating teacher's plan. Also, I normally don't read the overhead slides but I saw that Jamal didn't have his glasses and I wanted to be sure that he could participate."

I do not remember how I responded but there was the sense that my points of judgment were being ticked off one-by-one - check, check, and check. My problem had reared its ugly head once again but this time in terms of teaching teachers. I was doing what had been done to me. It was time for another change.

Fortunately, I was introduced to a literacy coach from The Learning Network at about the same time. When I shared my problem with her, she responded with two pieces of information. The first was how her motto, "Unsolicited advice is an insult," influenced her practice. The second was the book, Literacy Coaching: Developing Effective Teachers through Instructional Dialogue by Marilyn Duncan. These led to the thing that most affected my teaching of teachers - action plans.

In chapter two of her book, Marilyn Duncan describes action plans as follows:

The action plan is also a tool to focus the support provided by the coach. It allows the coach to see where the teacher needs feedback. It provides the coach with a window into what the teacher already knows and has tried. It becomes a planning tool for their job-embedded work. (p. 20)

Here is her example:

With colleagues from the GVSU Mathematics department, I adjusted the action plan to meet the needs of our novice mathematics teachers. Our form asked:

• What is my current challenge in teaching for mathematical literacy? Four areas were suggested (assessment, evaluation, planning, or instruction), based on our work with the Teaching-Learning Cycle.
• What do I already know about this?
• What questions do I have?
• Which one of these questions do I need to focus on to develop my understandings?
• How will I develop my understandings?
• What support do I need to enact my action plan?
• How will I monitor my progress?

This framework provided a way for novice teachers to ask for help, which meant that our advice would nurture their developing practice rather than insult it. 

My experience in student teaching 'taught' me that observations were intended to be dog-and-pony shows where I was expected to impress the observers. Consequently, I was actually concealing my flaws from the person best situated to help me address them. I cringe when I think about all the teachers I passed that same lesson on to early in my career. Action plans have been my amends and I have been amazed by the results. 

This action plan from one of our student teachers demonstrates the power of the approach. The plan helped him to self-identify his "problem" and articulate where he wants to be. It provided me with something to focus on. Without this focus, it is easy for me to fall back into my old pattern of judging lessons based on what works for me. It is interesting that by asking teachers to identify their challenges, I have been addressing my own.

In future posts (here and here), I plan to share other examples of how these action plans have aided our efforts to support the development of effective mathematics teaching.