Weekly Vitamins: The Essential Nutrients for an Involved Classroom

This week we read about asking effective questions in the classroom. There are many reasons teachers ask questions and there are many types of questions they can ask. 

Why ask questions?

Cornell University says that there are several reasons:

• check student understanding of the materials
• keep student's attention and encourage participation
• review or summarize what they've just learned
• promote critical thinking
• encourage students to put their reasoning into words rather than linger in their thoughts

In my mind, questions are the most effective tool a teacher can use to teach. You don't have to buy it, don't need to physically put something together.. you don't even need to write it down (though it's recommended)! Just asking questions lets the teacher know where their students are at in their learning and can get them refocused if they are off track. 

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Questions should hold meaning, and meet the goal the teacher is trying to reach, not just going through the motions. If the students need to know something specific, they might hear a closed question. Open-ended may have multiple answers that students can use their prior knowledge to figure out the best response. Discussion can be a great tool to not only practice critical thinking and reasoning skills but also communication and debate skills. Rhetorical questions are also effective by forcing students to think.

What techniques can make questions more effective in the classroom?

I think a lot of it depends on the context of what students are learning and the goal the teacher desires to reach. However, there are some really good tips offered by the University of Florida. 

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One tip is to avoid asking "are there any questions?". How many times have I asked that and was received with blank stares. Whether it was in meetings or workshops or classrooms, I assumed silence meant my audience had no questions and completely understood. But I know there were times when that question was turned on me. Did I have questions? Yes. Did I ask them when the teacher asks if anyone has any questions? Most likely no. Unless I was confident that other students had similar questions or I knew I was not going to be judged for my question, I tended to stay quiet and wait until the end of class. If I can rephrase that question so that I am asking students more meaningful questions, I'll be able to determine who needs help and with what.

Another tip I saw was to wait 5-7 seconds after asking a question for a response. Teachers want to ask these meaningful questions but sometimes expect these equally meaningful answers right away. Students don't know what they're going to ask, so they need some more time to process the question and come up with a good answer. By pushing after only a second or two isn't giving them enough time to think and have a quality answer. I think I've even heard that teachers should wait at least 10 seconds on complex questions. Some students simply need more time. 

Who are our students?

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In some of the TED talks we watched, they talked about student value. Students are very talented and intelligent. And they are not too far off from being thrown into the real world once they reach high school. They should be respected as adults and valued for their thoughts and innovative ideas. Teachers are teaching them how to be adults and yet, when they want to talk about complex and more "adult" things like politics or news, some may automatically assume they can't handle a conversation like that. Teachers should use their wisdom to share, not hide for only those around their age. 

Leaving Thought

"When you ask for genius, it will show up, if you believe it"--Angela Maiers

 

Lab Trial #2: Interest Approach

Question or Problem

How do I create an effective interest approach or anticipatory set that captures student interest while also tying into the lesson prepared for the day?

blog.engineeringstudents.org

...doing research on interest approaches... hypothesizing that students will be interested in lesson and make a connection to their learning goals...

Testing the experiment

My lesson was an introduction to the Food Safety Laws unit in my Food Science course. I wanted to start them off with food contaminants, as this is how their textbook begins the Food Safety chapter, and I think this would be relatable to them as many are probably familiar with the concepts of food contamination. 

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I presented my students with three food items, each with a contaminant in them. Students had to come up to the food and observe what they saw, and hypothesis what they think happened. 

Analysis and results of data

When I finally figured out an interest approach, I was really excited to do it. However, what I had in my head was not exactly what came out in class. I believe for the most part, my interest approach went really well. It was fairly simple, after all. But my clarity in explaining the process of what they were doing as well as rules of what not to do were lacking. I didn't tell the students not to touch the food until after I saw them touching it, and even then didn't make those expectations clear enough because another student ate part of the interest approach! These were actual contaminants, however the students should have been okay.

But I ask myself, what if I had facilitated this in a real classroom? I think as far as clarification goes, I would have gotten an F... okay maybe a D if I'm being nice to myself. We talk so much about how clarity is essential to a smooth lesson and a happy group of students. I am still trying to find my flow, I think, and once I do, I'll be able to more effectively explain directions. I think when I sit down and do lesson plans, I almost have to anticipate everything and plan for that. It's like coming up with twenty different plan B's for anything that might happen. 

Something else that was mentioned from my peers is being more forceful in disciplining them. I am good with immediately approaching the problem, but need to be stronger in my response to the student's misbehavior. Students need to see that I am serious and will follow through with consequences as needed. 

Conclusion

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Overall, I still think the interest approach in itself was effective. Some interest approaches are much simpler, and that's okay, but I was glad to bring in actual food and have students do a little observation. It got them up and moving and thinking critically about the food they were observing. As long as I keep in mind clarity and preparing myself for situations to occur, I think my lab would have been golden. I look forward to leading this lesson with my real students in the future, and make some major improvements the second time. 

Leaving Thought

"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."--Thomas Edison

A Vlog on Resource People

I decided to change things up this week and make a vlog! I didn't realize I could talk that much but I think there's just so much to share!

So this week, we read about cooperative or group learning techniques to use in the classroom. Each of my cohort members were given a group learning method to report on and mine is utilizing resource people in the community!

Watch the video to hear some of my thoughts about guest speakers in the classroom. Sorry the video is too big for Blogger, so you'll have to click on the link to watch it!

Resource People Vlog!!

Here are some of the articles I mentioned:

For tips on planning for a resource person, Click Here.

For more "what" and "why" as far as resource people in the classroom goes, Click Here.


Also, check out this video about National Teach Ag Day (today!). I got to be a part in this video!

*video credit goes to Victoria Herr

Happy National Teach Ag Day!

Weekly Vitamins: Ingredients of a Well-Balanced Plan

Ever heard of someone say that well-balanced meals are full of color? Just as food should have the right mix of nutrients, be paired with similar items on the plate, and be made at the right temperature, so should lessons. Let's break down how this week's readings require that teachers teach with balance and attention to levels of instruction.

The Ramon Noodle lesson

suffolktimes.timesreview.com

In my last blog post on the readings, I talked a little bit about objectives. This week, we also had a reading on objectives, but there were a few little things that really struck me. Whittington talks about lower-level objectives (to which I equate to Ramon Noodles). This meal is easy to make and can be done with a low level of knowledge in the kitchen. Whittington says that by raising the bar in the objectives (or maybe making a spaghetti and meatball platter instead), it shows that if they can demonstrate understanding through a more complex level of thinking, then they must also be able to understand the lower-level thinking. 

Food analogies aside, the author says that teachers should be cautious of teaching to lower-level objectives like listing or recalling information. Instead, have students problem solve and apply the lists by explaining or creating. If that can be done successfully, teachers know that the students must also have mastered the recall level.

I think, however, being able to list information is important, and sometimes, it is a necessary step to focus on before diving too deeply into complex areas. At least in the very beginning of a unit or lesson it may be beneficial to take time to focus on rote memorization, and then use that foundation to propel the student into higher levels of thinking. Some students may otherwise be overwhelmed if they don't have some sort of a foundation to begin with, and within their zone of proximal development. For example, one can't explain why parts of an engine work together if they don't first know what the parts are called or what their purpose is. 

The balanced plate

exclusive.multibriefs.com

I loved this quote from the article: "when we write objectives designed to challenge students at higher cognitive levels, we, as teachers must equally challenge ourselves to teach at higher cognitive levels". This statement is so powerful because it says that teachers must mirror the level they teach at to the level at which they want their students to think. Teachers can't teach how to make Ramon Noodles and expect that their students will make a spaghetti and meatball platter. Likewise, teachers shouldn't teach a spaghetti platter and only evaluate at a Ramon Noodle level. This creates confusion of the goal of the lesson and what they are to carry over into the next lesson.

Family meals

So we've set up an idea for the level at which to teach individual students, but now we must differentiate our instruction and give students a chance to practice as a group. There are many reasons to incorporate cooperative or group learning, but one that Groseta and Myers shares really stood out to me. They said that students more frequently use higher-level reasoning strategies when they're expected to explain something to their peers. This makes sense as I think about Bloom's taxonomy and those higher-level objectives as discussed earlier. "Explaining" is much higher than "listing", and students that have to explain something to their partner or small group are more likely to have better discussion and reasoning skills than those that just simply list off the answers. 

steadyhealth.com

In our Methods of Teaching Agriculture book, it offered some examples of ways to go about group teaching. Here, group teaching can be taken to mean large groups as well as partners or small groups. The idea in group teaching is meant to facilitate other ways to get students involved and learning with one another; not just individual instruction. I really liked how the book emphasized that teachers must teach to their strengths. They should also take into consideration the subject matter being taught and whether the method will best drive home the learning. One of their examples was how a lesson on parts of a plant probably wouldn't be done by role-playing or taking a field trip.

Conclusion

This is important for me to remember as I plan ways to differentiate my instruction. I have to ask myself does the activity or action I'm having my students perform best reflect the objectives I need to meet? Are students being challenged to the appropriate level and by the right way?

Having a firm grasp on those thoughts will aid me as I build a well-balanced lesson plan.

Leaving Thought

"Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow"--Vincent van Gogh

Whittington, M.S. (2005). Writing objectives in secondary agriculture courses that challenge

         students to think. Agriculture Education Magazine. Retrieved from

         http://www.naae.org/profdevelopment/magazine/archive_issues/Volume77/v77i5.pdf

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of

        teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Groseta, K.J. & Myers, B.E. (2006). Using cooperative learning in formal and nonformal

        education. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06200.pdf

Lab Trial #1: First Day of School

Question or Problem

How do I create an engaging first day of school lesson plan identifying student interests, instructing classroom management procedures, and engaging students in their first taste of the content for the first unit of instruction? (Added Challenge: How do I create the inviting and comfortable learning atmosphere I desire based on my teaching philosophy?).

getchemistryhelp.com

...doing research on activities and classroom procedure practices... hypothesizing that students will enjoy planned activities and walk away with understanding of the course...

Testing the experiment

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In lab on Wednesday I had my students do a bellwork activity by writing some information down about themselves. Following this, I went over the objectives, and led them in an icebreaker. There was much more to my lesson, however this was what could fit in the 10 minute time period for the lab.

Analysis and results of data

I really enjoyed planning and facilitating this lesson plan! My students (classmates) had some strong characters as they acted out different types of students. One had a cell phone addiction, and others shared inappropriate comments or put-downs that I had to correct. After watching the video of the lab, I think I did a good job of paying attention to the behavior of my students. There were only a few behaviors that I didn't notice that I should have taken care of. (Still growing those eyes in the back of my head, I guess). Despite those few unnoticed behaviors, I think walking around the room, engaging with students, and approaching them as soon as I noticed the misbehavior helped.

On the other side of this, I know I need to work on managing those students once I've caught them. After hearing some very helpful and supportive feedback from my peers, the biggest thing I got was to be more stern, and serious from the second an issue happens so students immediately know that I'm not playing around when it comes to misbehavior. 

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It always seems to be the case that I think of good responses after the fact but in the moment, I'm never quite sure what to say. I think this is difficult because each student reacts to a response in different ways. While one student may be receptive to a "teacher stare", another might need to be pulled out into the hall way 2 or 3 (or more) times before they get their act together. Knowing that there are many options and that they differ from student to student make discipline difficult for me. Especially when I have to do it in the moment.

Conclusion

I truly welcomed the suggestions of my classmates because I think their perspective and honesty helps me more clearly see where I need improvement as well as see what my strengths are. Discipline is the key area I need to improve! 

Otherwise, I felt very good about being in front of the room, leading the activities, and transitioning. 

Leaving Thought

"If it's both terrifying and amazing, then you should definitely pursue it"-Erada

Weekly Vitamins: Objectives and Interest Approaches.. No Longer the Gummy Bear Vitamins

Anyone ever have to take the gummy bear vitamins? Maybe they take Flintstones vitamins? I've never taken them because I never really needed to and always thought they were a silly promotional movement to get kids (and I'm sure some adults) to take their vitamins. OF COURSE vitamins are important, but I guess I always felt that you should only take it if you needed to take them. And as I now know from my food science course, Americans eating a typical diet get plenty of vitamins in the foods that they already eat. So unless you have a specific deficiency, you don't need to take extra vitamins. Even before this tidbit of knowledge, I thought they were unnecessary; pointless. 

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Full disclosure time... that was how I felt about objectives and interest approaches a while ago (gasp!). I assumed that they were part of standards and procedures that teachers had to do, but didn't actually want to do. For some reason, it seemed like something that was dreaded. But before you become outraged, know that there is a happy ending to this story. 

The main objective of using objectives

In our book, Methods of Teaching Agriculture, I love how they define the purpose of objectives: "what the teacher wants to achieve from the unit". Overall, it's about what the students should be learning at the end of the day, unit, and semester. They are the underlying goals of the fun labs, interesting videos, and informative articles. Everything, then, must be purposeful. 

jongose.ninja

As I push myself to think like a teacher, I realize that this is important. Especially when I think about how I'll be teaching 42 minute classes. I'm used to my high school block scheduling with about double this time, so I need to make sure each aspect of my lesson and unit is purposeful. 

Some highlights for the importance of objectives from the book are as follows:

• relevance of the assignments
• structuring the sequence and order of the course
• growth toward the knowledge/skill to be learned
• provide a basis for evaluation

Students and teachers alike can look to objectives to know what it is they are going to be tested on, what they are doing that day, and what the whole point of the lesson is. 

I remember in my educational psychology class, we used the acronym "TSWBAT" which stood for "the students will be able to" and then inserted our action verb, and finished with the evaluation portion of objectives. I think this is such a useful equation that they also mentioned in the book. Another source I found ties in several of the key concepts we've been learning about including Bloom's taxonomy and domains to make objectives. Check out this article on using Bloom's to figure out your objective. It is the older taxonomy version, but I think the same principles apply. 

The three domains

Just like vitamins serve a specific purpose, some domains focus more on specific areas of learning than others. By being sure to include the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, teachers can better differentiate their instruction to include all types of learners. Students should be challenged in many ways; pulling them from their comfort zones and getting them accessing their brain from all means. 

One thing that objectives can encompass this is by using action verbs to describe the action that needs to be performed by the students. They used the example of saying "explain" instead of "list". It requires the student to not just say, but cognitively express their understanding of the information they learned. 

Keeping these things in mind will keep my lessons purposeful and make sure that students are engaged in learning in more than just one way. I think this is so essential as I learn about student strengths and ways to be adaptive. I also think that even the most skilled students require differentiation. I recall from my summer reading book, Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by their Brains by Louanne Johnson, that people learn better when their brains are surprised. If I keep my students on their toes, I can keep their interest, no matter what level they're on.

Speaking of interest...

Speaking of that, I should mention those interest approaches. I hadn't even heard of interest approaches until my junior year of school and even then it sounded funny to me. Do you always need one? What is its purpose? Did my teachers in the past use one?

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I honestly can't remember any of my teachers in high school using an interest approach. Not to say that they didn't use one... just that I don't remember it. But I don't think that's a bad thing. If they did in fact use one, they were able to successfully link it to the lesson that day, so it didn't seem like it was a random activity or random start to the class. 

When I first really learned about interest approaches, I thought they were just fun little packages of information that piqued the interest of students. It would have had something to do with the content, but wouldn't directly roll over into the main lesson. For example, if I were teaching a lesson about the water cycle, I might have thought a good interest approach would be "discuss all of the uses of water". While the students might touch on the parts of the water cycle, they probably would have talked about food, cleaning, the beach, etc. While it relates to the subject at hand, it's not what I want to teach about. 

Now I understand that interest approaches directly and (again) purposefully pertain to the lesson. Some interest approaches are actually a part of the lesson. I thought that was really interesting too. In the book, it shares some examples of types of approaches. Some are just meant to be discussed at the beginning of class, and then there is a transition into the lesson. However, some are questions that the students discover they can't answer until they learn more. The teacher will teach new content, but carry that initial approach until the end of the lesson so that students can see if, with their new information, if they can figure out the solution. 

Clarity and reflection

As I've stated many times throughout this blog post, I'm discovering that everything teachers do is purposeful. Sitting through 12+ years of school, and I never realized the real reasons for why teachers did what they did or said what they said. Now it's becoming clear why my teachers would write out the objectives on the board, or why they used the transitions that they did. I'm excited to begin implementing these ideas in my lessons. Perhaps those silly gummy bear vitamins truly served a purpose.

Leaving Thought:

"It's very difficult to plan a journey if you don't know where you are headed and have no mileposts to guide you; and so it is with planning instruction"-(Newcomb, et al., 2004)

Weekly Vitamins: A Spoonful of Principles Helps the Units Get Planned

Just as the children Mary Poppins nannies need some sugar, the readings for this week were just what I needed to understand the value in unit planning. I knew on the surface what unit plans were, but didn't understand the tie-in between other units and goals of the year. I simply thought they were the over-arching topic and the lessons within the unit taught about that topic. Now I understand that every teacher has an interwoven structure that links all of the topics taught in a class and that there aren't only connections found within each lesson, but also connections between lessons and units. 

The chimney sweep

I had to clean out some of what I knew (or thought I knew) about unit planning and start from scratch. The general idea isn't what was new. It was the planning principles that I needed to understand. I found it really insightful reading about Bloom's taxonomy. I have known and even referenced it many times in the past. But I never knew it was revised. Seeing the two taxonomies side by side made me think about why it was changed and how knowing this new order would make a difference in how I went about teaching. 

The main difference that struck me was the switch in order between synthesis (now creating) and evaluation (now the verb form: evaluating). This new change makes sense to me. Students should first evaluate based on their knowledge and experience and the steps leading up to that one. When they are able to express their thoughts, it is then that they can add on to it or create something from what they've evaluated. 

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I would liken it to a mechanics project. Students should evaluate what the best techniques are and critically think about how the project is made, what the best materials are, what important procedures they need to follow, etc. and then they can create on their own. If they've created what they've carefully evaluated, that would show the deepest understanding of the subject.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Just like the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious can be a mouthful, so can some of these theories and principles. But each list provides such valuable information that can be chunked into more manageable meanings. 

Significant learning (Fink, 2003) is all about the backbone of unit plans. There are many steps involved but they split it into three basic areas: building strong primary components, assembling components into a coherent whole, and finishing important remaining tasks. What I like about this set-up is that part 1 (building strong primary components) is all about the heart of the operation. This is the part that students experience and are directly impacted by it. Part 2, (assembling components into a coherent whole) is the fitting together of the course and determining the flow of the course. Finally, part 3 (finishing important remaining tasks) is the one that the teacher is impacted by the most. I'm glad Fink included this part because it talks about grading, potential issues, and reflection. This is so essential to the process. A teacher cannot only plan and implement, they must evaluate and reflect on what they've seen.

More and more I am seeing the need for self-reflection and the benefit it has to a classroom. I'd hope to get feedback from my students but also look at each element of the lesson, unit, and course as a whole and see how effective I was at meeting the objectives and goals established in part 1. 

There were also a lot of great principles outlined in Strategies for Great Teaching. The main points I got out of this were that every brain is unique and must be catered to in different ways. Emotions, experiences, and practice will help maximize learning and will allow students to be motivated. 

I'm sure every teacher faces the challenge of adapting to each students' specific needs. I hope that I would be able to find ways to include all of the elements of learning modalities, motivation, and types of intelligences to impact as many students as possible. 

The bottomless bag 

Just when I thought I've seen all of the theories another one finds its way to me. The theory of Understanding by Design is something so simple, yet is something I wouldn't have thought of in the same way. I love the concept of planning with the end in mind. What do I want my students to know when they leave? What is important for them if they were to pursue a career in this area of study? What should my lessons/units connect to when we reach the last day?

I tend to like working in chronological order so I would assume unit planning and course planning would start with identifying the units, and then planning lesson 1 for unit 1, then lesson 2, etc. I realize now that I can still follow this format, but if I don't first identify the desired results, I might just be teaching in circles. Or worse.. I might commit the "twin sins" of either activity-driven lessons or content coverage.. yikes! 

Content coverage doesn't teach what's important and doesn't make connections. It teaches that they should know a bunch of information by the end of the semester or before the test.
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If we teach with intent and purpose, and if students are actively working toward that purpose with a clear understanding of the goals, it won't be about covering information and sprinkling some activities. It will be about finding meaning and connections to the information they are learning. 

Relating to reality

Some of the readings really dove into the brain and how students learn. In my summer reading book Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains by Louanne Johnson, she mentioned that there was a really good TED talk about how the left and right hemispheres of the brain operate differently, even though information is stored in all parts of the brain. She thinks that most teachers are more left-brain dominant, meaning that they are more analytical and thrive with literal meaning. Students, she feels, are right-brain dominant, so they seek images, patterns, and context to find meaning. Check out the TED talk on The Divided Brain to see what connections we can make to how students learn in the classroom and how teachers can use this information to adapt to their students.

Leaving Thought

"Great teaching is a series of purposeful acts, professional judgments, and designed decisions based on experience and theory about how learning happens best"-- (Derner and Reardon, 2004)

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of
teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Reardon, M. & Derner, S. (2004) Strategies for great teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Zephyr Press

Mctighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved
from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

West Virginia University, (2010.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from
http://community.wvu.edu/~lsmong/Articulate%20Blooms%20Wheel/blooms_wheel.html

Greenwood Ag Sciences Program Video!

I'm super excited to share my video on my cooperating center at Greenwood High School. In this video, I highlight some of the key areas of the program including their agriscience program information, FFA Chapter, SAE projects, local industries and community support for the program.

 

Enjoy the video!

Thanks to Mrs. Pontius and Mr. Clark for working on this video with me and allowing me to record their facilities!