I feel I have moved along in my inquiry. I realize that I need to teach my students the conversational moves--teaching them to not only listen to their classmates (that are sometimes non measureable) but also teaching them to agree and disagree in respectful ways and be able to articulate that. I think that would be one way to help them grow as a community of learners.
I also feel that by using more explicit ways of giving "I messages" using a manipulative and modeling that, I will give the students vocabulary for their thoughts and feelings and others to acknowledge that.
I would like to implement the "Reflections Sheet" idea where students have an opportunity to relfect on a problem they might have had/are having with another student and their thoughts on it and what happened and what they would do differently. I would really like to have that structure in my classroom for that to happen--time wise and logistically but I will try to figure how to make that possible.
I do think that my inquiry is hard to measure but I keep feeling that it is an important one. I think I am trying to create a classroom culture and trying to improve the quality of my classroom culture. It is still somewhat unclear if the question focuses on the student learning or my own. If I try to reiterate my question, it would be... What are some ways my students are showing that they are a communtiy of learners?
Hi Rachna,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is hard to measure, but it is exciting to see how far you have come in deciding on specific assignments and specific ways of teaching – I have the feeling that it is only a few small steps to really being able to measure this in an authentic way.
I’m wondering if you have thought about which students to focus on? And if you have predictions about what they might say when you ask them about their interactions with another student? In terms of teacher learning, one important way to measure your own learning is to predict and then compare to what they actually say … keeping track of your own thinking would be a good way to track your own learning as you are focusing on their learning. I don’t think you have to decide on student learning to the exclusion of teacher learning – you can focus on student learning and consciously watch your own learning at the same time.
Claire