(Reflection: Part 2)
(Action Plan)
Next semester I will be teaching sixth grade math and science. I think my first step prior to starting my placement will be to closely examine the standards for sixth grade, fifth grade, and seventh grade. I want to see the mathematical concepts that are emphasized in sixth grade, the concepts that they are building off of from the previous year, and where I am hoping my students will be by the end of the year/beginning of next year. This is important for me because I am coming in with a year and a half of experience working with first grade students. Even though I tutored a fifth grade student in Chicago and we covered higher level concepts in my math methods course, I do not have much experience with upper elementary and middle school students or developmentally appropriate mathematical concepts.
In terms of next steps for teaching math, I think that I could do a better job of preparing more general higher-level thinking questions that can be used to guide conversation. Even though I used a variety of talk moves in my lesson (Kazemi and Hintz, 2014, p. 21), from watching the recording, it seemed like many of the questions that I asked had fixed answers (i.e. asking them to tell us what they knew from the problem, if the answer would be bigger or smaller, and even when I asked them to tell us what their classmates said).
I also think that the design of my rubric did not really meet the objectives outlined in the Term III lesson because it was focused on what the students did rather than how what they did illustrated where they were in their thinking. It will be important for me to remember that it is okay to be less specific with my rubric and more about checking which general concepts the students understand from the lesson. I think it was difficult to design a rubric like that for the lesson that I taught because there were only two major things that I was looking at- if the students were able to identify the important pieces of information from the problem and if they were able to identify which piece of the start, change, and end chart they were trying to find based on the word problem. It was difficult for me to identify the different levels of thinking that were involved in this particular lesson.
In terms of next steps for teaching math, I think that I could do a better job of preparing more general higher-level thinking questions that can be used to guide conversation. Even though I used a variety of talk moves in my lesson (Kazemi and Hintz, 2014, p. 21), from watching the recording, it seemed like many of the questions that I asked had fixed answers (i.e. asking them to tell us what they knew from the problem, if the answer would be bigger or smaller, and even when I asked them to tell us what their classmates said).
I also think that the design of my rubric did not really meet the objectives outlined in the Term III lesson because it was focused on what the students did rather than how what they did illustrated where they were in their thinking. It will be important for me to remember that it is okay to be less specific with my rubric and more about checking which general concepts the students understand from the lesson. I think it was difficult to design a rubric like that for the lesson that I taught because there were only two major things that I was looking at- if the students were able to identify the important pieces of information from the problem and if they were able to identify which piece of the start, change, and end chart they were trying to find based on the word problem. It was difficult for me to identify the different levels of thinking that were involved in this particular lesson.
(What Did I learn?)
In terms of my students' thinking, I learned that it is difficult to get students to think outside of an answer oriented mindset. Even though my classroom mentor uses a math curriculum that appears to value the process through which students reach their answer, when my students saw the number sentence that we used to represent the problem, many of their first instincts were to write the solution even though I talked about only recording the information that was given in the problem.
In terms of my teaching, even though I felt like I was giving an appropriate amount of wait time, I learned from watching my video that I could give more wait time. I also want to remember to give more wait time when students' thinking might be interrupted by disruptive behaviors or outside noises.
One thing that I could work on is slowing down my pace. My Penn Mentor noted multiple times that various components of my lesson were rushed and my initial feelings immediately after my lesson were very similar. I felt very flustered and rushed. I think that I could work on taking some deep breaths prior to the lesson to re-focus and slow myself down before beginning a lesson. I think going in with the mentality that I was already running behind made me try to move too quickly through material that was new to the students. As a result, as my Penn Mentor noted, some of the students were often confused during my lesson. I think that I could work on altering my lesson goals on the spot and allowing myself and my students to spend more time on the material if they need to rather than thinking that I have to cover everything that I planned. I feel like in a natural teaching setting I would have set aside more time to go deeper into the material, but for some reason I felt like I needed to finish everything outlined in my lesson plan for the Term III assignment. I need to remember, it is not about what I am teaching, it is about what my students are learning!!
In terms of my teaching, even though I felt like I was giving an appropriate amount of wait time, I learned from watching my video that I could give more wait time. I also want to remember to give more wait time when students' thinking might be interrupted by disruptive behaviors or outside noises.
One thing that I could work on is slowing down my pace. My Penn Mentor noted multiple times that various components of my lesson were rushed and my initial feelings immediately after my lesson were very similar. I felt very flustered and rushed. I think that I could work on taking some deep breaths prior to the lesson to re-focus and slow myself down before beginning a lesson. I think going in with the mentality that I was already running behind made me try to move too quickly through material that was new to the students. As a result, as my Penn Mentor noted, some of the students were often confused during my lesson. I think that I could work on altering my lesson goals on the spot and allowing myself and my students to spend more time on the material if they need to rather than thinking that I have to cover everything that I planned. I feel like in a natural teaching setting I would have set aside more time to go deeper into the material, but for some reason I felt like I needed to finish everything outlined in my lesson plan for the Term III assignment. I need to remember, it is not about what I am teaching, it is about what my students are learning!!
(What Questions Emerged?)
Even with a focus on process and thinking rather than the answer, I still found myself and my students getting caught up in talking about or referring to the answer. This led me to think about:
- Are there specific things I can do to set up norms around getting my students to think about the process rather than the answer? (I feel like I tried some different things, but perhaps it is more of a long-term goal and changing one thing will not significantly change students' answer-oriented thinking. I get the sense that the norms will need to be established over time.)
- How can I check for understanding in a whole class setting without relying on worksheets and initiate-respond-evaluate conversations? I know discussing our thought process will help, but what if some students don't participate or we run out of time and don't get to hear from everyone?
- I realize that there will be many times when I will be teaching and things may not go according to plan. How can I alter my lesson goals based on in the moment changes, specifically having less time to cover the same amount of material?
- How can I design my lessons so that there are more checks for understanding throughout the process rather than relying on an end of lesson discussion?
(How Can I Continue To work on my pedagogical focus?)
Although I see the value and importance of using representations to make mathematics meaningful, I think the pedagogical focus that I would like to focus on next semester is facilitating mathematical discussions around mathematical ideas by eliciting, clarifying and following up on student ideas. I really enjoyed facilitating my number talks this semester. I felt like I was able to elicit students' thinking and better understand where they were in their conceptual understanding (i.e. who counted all, who counted on, who counted on from the higher number) through the number talk. Even though facilitating discussion was not my main focus for my Term III lesson, I tried to include some elements of discussion. Unfortunately, I felt like the discussions in my Term III lesson were not as strong as the discussions in my math talk. I would like to work on incorporating the same level of discussion from my math talks into my lessons.