o Looking at your case study, how did student talk deepen the teacher’s understanding of his/her students’ thinking?
I think that this case study was a really great example of something we are learning in my classroom right now... how to talk together and read together as partners/groups. When this teacher began talking to her students, she assumed that they were going to know to lead a meaningful discussion in groups. This is not the case- the students were so hung up on details that they couldn't understand the actual point of the lesson. The teacher was not looking for the answer to whether they should take their shoes off or not, rather using that to facilitate a discussion.
Now the teacher's lesson went haywire right in the beginning of the lesson, which is something that she might not have anticipated but she could have had lesson prior to this math lesson which worked on group talking and partner discussions. In my classroom, we are doing "Making Meaning" which is very clearly mapping out how the students can read with each other as well as something as simple as talking in a voice that isn't too loud but can still have inflection and able for their partner to hear them. The teacher then realized after the students were so confused she might need to start in a different place other than math to facilitate the math learning in her classroom.
Hi Katie! I agree, especially in the lower elementary grades where some of these things may be new to some students. They could be trying so hard to please you, that they completely miss the objective or point of the lesson. Setting expectations and modeling are great tools to use in the beginning of the year to show the students what is expected during these times. Otherwise, it will be an ongoing battle for the rest of the year trying to implement the norms within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteIm not sure if you feel this way, but one thing that surprised me in the classroom is exactly how much time is spent on explaining how to talk in groups/with partners and how to "turn and talk". We had to really reiterate the idea everyday for the first two weeks of school before they got the hang of it.