My first assumption seemed valid, as the students did indeed perform better when we began literary discussions by dealing simply with the plot.  I was surprised with how easy it was to move along the levels, and how quick it took.  My supervisor was correct in telling me that I could adjust the amount of time we took on each level according to my class’s needs.  I do need some more practice though, especially with the later levels and figuring out which types of questions those entail for my discussions.

Regarding Lee, I think my assumption that confidence played an issue is not really debased or fully true.  I tested this assumption both through my class discussions and with Lee personally.  Lee did not answer any questions this entire week.  I was sad by this, as I thought this structure would illicit more participation from her seeing as her peers were volunteering more often.  In speaking with her individually, I found out from Lee that she is not too sure herself why it is hard for her to participate.  She said that a lot of times she wants to answer and she debates with herself whether or not she should raise her hand, but then she simply allows other people to take control of the conversation.  Lee said that she usually regrets not participating, but she is not sure if it’s because she’s made it a “habit” to do so, or if it is a matter of getting nervous, which she admits to.  I think I need to explore more with Lee and figure out how we can get her to participate, perhaps through other structures and do it within smaller groups.  We are doing another spider web next week, so I am planning on developing an environment where she will not only be required to speak (a rule for our spider webs), but that she will do so with greater ease.

Another website I found (http://educ-reality.com/benjamin-bloom-and-his-taxonomy/) breaks down these levels more pragmatically:

1. Knowledge – remembering or recognising something previously encountered without necessarily understanding, using, or changing it.
2. Comprehension – understanding the material being communicated without necessarily relating it to anything else.
3. Application – using general concept to solve a particular problem.
4. Analysis – breaking something down into parts.
5. Synthesis – creating something new by combining different ideas.
6. Evaluation – judging the value of materials or methods as they might be applied in a particular situation.

Essentially, my main problem with class discussion is that I have been jumping into levels 4-6 when I really need to help students get there more gradually.  I’ve been attempting this, but I guess the assumption that goes into it is that the students are still grappling with the more basic levels of cognitive thinking.  While our conversations are going better, perhaps tomorrow morning I will question some individual students to see what works for them….  I need a way to test my assumption; maybe Lee would be a good person to interview.

We are studying King Lear right now, which is obviously quite intense and full of questions.  I had a lot of areas that I wanted to cover about our section we were reading.  After covering that day’s section, I jumped right into prompting the students to think about deeper themes and significances.  I think the conversation went fairly well, although the class still tends to teeter towards the bad discussion habits, i.e. I ask the questions, one or two students answer. 

After class ended, my supervisor and I reviewed how things went.  She had a fantastic recommendation for me that I think will be the structure I test out: to ask simpler questions.  I was a bit surprised by this advice at first, but then my supervisor explained that if you jump right into higher level thinking, the students are still grappling with comprehending the text and are not quite ready to get involved.  There is a series of questions that I can ask that will gradually lead to deeper questions.  This series comes from and  modern-day educational philosopher (who I have since forgotten the name, but I’ll let you know once I find my notes!) who showed the depth of thinking learners naturally develop as we prompt their thinking.  You need to start with basic comprehension and gradually move towards deeper thinking.  The type of questions you need to ask are specific, but they do not need to take long.  I was excited when my supervisor told me that following this structure can take up two minutes and it can take up a half hour.  Essentially, I will be able to better set up my students to answer the intense questions I was posing.

I think this structure will also help Lee, my case student.  She can build her confidence by answering more simple, straightforward questions–hopefully this will lead to her participation in deeper modes of discussion as well.  I am anxious to try out this structure and will begin to do so next week.  I’ll post in between to give links to the actual type of questions and the philosopher behind them.

After reading tomorrow’s article for class, I realized that perhaps I am missing some important elements in our current discussion format that is not creating a platform for student to become personally invested and later, accountable.  Because of this, I have chosen to have my inquiry revolve around this question: “How can a structure better elicit participation from students in an academic setting?”

This inquiry is based on a few assumptions.  One, is that the students current lack of participation is due in large part to how well I instigate their full participation.  I am assuming that once I find better structures and/or routines, that student participation will progress.  My final assumption–and perhaps my most important–is that students’ current level of participation does not arrive from lack of analysis skills or solid comprehension, rather it is more of a matter of them not being personally invested in the purposes of the discussion. 

In coming posts, will consider what data I can collect to answer these assumptions as wel as explore how my experimenting is improving my teaching and student learning.

Essentially, my dream involved us getting PACT back with all of these comments covering our bundle of papers.  I had a bright pink post-it on the top of my work informing me that I would have to do mine over.  Erica asked if she could see my results and I responded by fleeing the premises.

Hopefully just a nightmare?

This is the same in her writing.  While Lee incorporates good vocabulary and carries wonderful insights that her peers do not even think of, it struggles to be put on paper in a coherent way.  It is often like putting the pieces together, although they are intelligent piece.  I have included an excerpt from an essay that she wrote in class.

You can see the puzzle pieces.  Also evident is a level of insecurity in writing.  Lee is not far behind her peers–in fact, she is ahead of many of them; but she is anxious about beginning an essay and calls me over during writing assignments to see if she is doing things correctly.  I have spoken to Lee about her previous writing instruction and she told me about her teacher last year who taught her good strategies to essay writing and made the students practice a great deal.  This practice is most definitely evident in her writing–it is what separates her from a good number of the class.  She says that practicing writing a great deal in that class helped her feel more confident in her writing.  I think that that are still some insecurities that remain, but from this direction I can see that perhaps a lot of it can be guided through simply practicing writing more in class.  I have incorporated this decision since hearing this from Lee and hope to see some more gradual improvements.

She did fairly well last quarter with a B-.  She was thrilled with this grade and I felt that she deserved it because she takes things more seriously than other students; something I think everyone can learn from her.  I am anxious that she is better prepared for college though, and hope that she follows through with her plan to attend.  I worry that if she doesn’t go to community college right off the bat that she might never go; it does not appear to be something her mother would stress for her to do.  I plan on following through with Lee after graduation and before then do my best to hone her skills so she feels confident and ready to take on the challenge of higher education.

This was the same story when Lee allowed me to call and gather more information from her.   Lee kept exclaiming how much she was talking and saying that I was like her therapist.  Here is what I learned from this conversation regarding Lee’s personal life and prior educational experiences:

Lee and her family moved to Oakland from Vietnam.  Once in school, Lee’s father was very strict about her education.  He went to classes with her and got storybooks and tapes from the teacher and made Lee practice them at home.  Lee said that she feels she learned English very well because of this and doesn’t feel she has any problems.  (As her teacher, I can identify several problems that Lee has linguistically, but I will refer to these in a later post.)  She loved to Alameda and subsidized housing at the latter end of grade school.  Sadly, when she was ten her father died from cancer.  She now lives with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend, and some half-siblings that are a lot younger than her.  Lee said that because she was an only child for so long she is fine being on her own.  She does not have the best relationship with her mother, saying that her mother struggles with some mental issues.  They only speak Vietnamese at home and I believe that Lee is pretty well on her education wise.

I talked to Lee about her educational experience.  Lee said that it was an adjustment coming to Alameda because she feels they were more lax in Oakland.  She has had to put more effort into classes to get similar grades.  For Lee, school is just part of her schedule.  She does not think about it too much and just attends because it’s on her agenda.  While education was important to her father, Lee does not take it as seriously.  She is overjoyed with B grades, saying that when she gets a B she is pretty awesome.  When I asked her about her tendency to remain quiet in class discussions, Lee explained that this is a habit of hers.  In group situations, she prefers sitting back and having others do the work.  I appreciated her honesty!  Her favorite class is French, which she thinks is funny because Lee said she is not very good at it. 

After graduating from high school (remember, I teach Seniors), Lee is planning on attending community college but she does not know where and isn’t too sure about what she wants to study.  Before, she wanted to be a secretary but now she is thinking about becoming a paralegal.  Lee has the “spontaneous” desire to go to France–she thinks because she likes studying it.  She imagines living there and learning the language.  It was fun to encourage her to explore.

Overall, I think Lee is in need of friends.  She has some, but I think she has led a lonely life.  Lee maintains a happy attitude, but there is definitely things under the surface.  I was happy to give her time to talk and talk and enjoyed our conversation; because of the length and the openness of our phone call, I could see that it has been a while for Lee to simply air out everything on her mind.  Everything was very stream of conscious.  I enjoy Lee and hope to help her aspire to these developing dreams.

Overall, it was a good day experiencing what a real schedule I can expect this coming year.  And it didn’t help that I got paid as well.  I hope that perk never wears off!

But I couldn’t help myself.  Over time, I would gradually try speaking with her–casually asking about an upcoming basketball game, how she was feeling as I passed out papers (she is often tired and sick-looking), etc.  Each attempt received a response as different and unpredictable as the one before it.  Either she looked at me through slits and responded through a nod or a shrug of the shoulders, or she would tease me as though she might actually like me.  The biggest surprise came after a class discussion where she actually hugged me.  I almost fell to the floor.  But don’t you worry, she was back to slits the net day.

Last week was a week of “catching up”–not only content wise, but a lot of students have been skipping out on class, not doing their independent reading so we get behind on the book, and generally just brushing off everything.  I was frustrated.  I blamed the school’s culture of learning.  I blamed senioritis.  I blamed lazy students.  But ultimately I kept chugging away thinking it was something that I would have to expect from this class.

On Thursday, the students were assigned 8 pages to read independently during the last phase of class while I took care of making up work with sick/absent students; and yet most of my time was spent acting like a mother hen, poking at her chickens and trying to get them on task–poke, poke, poke. 

As I poked around, I found “the one” outside.  (She likes to read in the hall so she can concentrate better, and I had no problem with it.) 

She was the only one really on task.  And she was ticked.  At first, I thought it was me.  She hates this book.  She hates my teaching.  etc., etc., etc.,

She gave me yet another surprise.  She hates how her peers are acting.  I listened to a 10 minute rant on her best friends, how she is so tired that they think they can get away with anything, how they don’t do their work, how they slack off over and over and expect to be saved while people like her, students who actually do their work and are responsible, suffer. 

Wow.  I was so happy.  She was never mad at me personally–she was frustrated that we weren’t moving faster, doing more quizzes, that I wasn’t getting more upset over how things were.  In a nutshell, she said I was “too nice.”  Truth is, I was upset–but I just thought I had to accept the way things were and keep things simple.  What this student taught me is that I no longer have to lower my expectations.  And that students want strict teachers–really, they do.

The next day, I did so–and happily.  “How many finished the assigned pages yesterday?”  Three hands.  “Pop quiz!”  I expected grumbles, freak outs, and anger.  What I got was a good kind of panic, a “oh no, looks like I can’t get away with things” reaction.  It felt good.  Following the pop quiz, I informed the students that we aren’t going to do this anymore; no more babying, no more running around trying to get people to do their stuff, no more letting the responsible students pay for the rest of the students’ mistakes.  And no more poking!

So far, I am thrilled with the results.  It’s still a big work in progress.  The students slip so easily back into their habits.  But I can’t let them, I can’t afford to slip myself and get lazy about my instruction and following up with consequences to actions, reward the good and pushing the bad. 

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

Oh, and “the one” is smiling a lot more this week.

John Denver seems most appropriate for a night like this–it’s soothes my nerves and reminds me of home. 

But I’m not leaving on a jet plane.  My bags are packed for tomorrow morning–my first day of my PACT teaching event.  My goodness, it has already been a ride. 

Currently I am most nervous about two things: 1) Timing.  Every second is accounted for in my lesson plan.  I’m worried about not getting to the most essential parts.  2) Sound.  I have the microphone–I’m scared it will only pick up on me or not work at all.  If I don’t use it, I am nervous that the camera won’t pick up on me.  The worst part is that there is no way to find out which of these outcomes will have occured until I have actually finished teaching.  That will be a scary moment!

I have planned for both of these worrie as best as I can, so I simply need to relax and let things flow. 

Oh wait, there is most definitely a third thing I am nervous about: 3) Seeing myself on camera.  Yikes!

All this being said, it can be left unsaid that a lot of prayers are going to be offered from this body.

But I just said it.