This video discusses the procedures taken to test my unit plan prototype. The eighth-graders that I teach struggle to understand individuals who are different from themselves due to a lack of experience with diversity in the school and the community. To help combat this problem, I decided to create a unit plan that would engage students in reading novels with diverse characters, discussing the themes of these novels, and reading or watching stories from real-life examples. I tested this unit plan on two individuals, a Kindergarten teacher and the 7th grade ELA teacher that has the students right before I do. Both of these users gave positive feedback overall about the unit and came up with new ideas for me to add to make the unit more detailed. One user suggested that I make the mini-lessons interactive by allowing the students to share an activity or presentation based on their novel. The 7th-grade teacher suggested that the challenge might come from managing appropriate behavior. This user also suggested that students brainstorm their own questions to be more engaged in these discussions. I appreciated these recommendations and will be using them to make the unit more detailed and personalized.
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Testing Protocol:Since my prototype is a unit plan, I think it is best to test it on fellow educators. Since we are under quarantine, I will be testing my prototype virtually by allowing them to view, make comments, and then answer questions.
Testing Report:For the last few weeks, I’ve been working on designing a unit plan that will enable me to impact an issue that I see in my daily teaching experience. The students I teach struggle to relate to people who are different from them, as they have a lack of experience with diversity. I decided that a way to combat this would be to design a unit where students read novels with diverse characters, hear real-life stories from a variety of people, and learn how to be more culturally aware. After designing this unit, I decided to test it on two users, both of whom are teachers. They will both be able to analyze the unit plan from different perspectives.
One user - a Kindergarten teacher - took part in a think-aloud observation, where that teacher discussed their thoughts on the unit plan aloud for me to observe. The goal was that this user would provide me with clarifications I needed to make to the plan more clear. Upon testing, this user gave really positive feedback. This teacher loved the book choices and the concept of having themed weeks, even commenting on how “elementary teacher” it was. This user did seek clarification once, asking about the different mini-lessons that were going to be taught. This educator asked if students would be able to participate in these mini-lessons and almost represent their novel or theme in some type of activity or presentation. I really liked that idea as it will help spread awareness of the topic to students who are not reading from that novel theme. This user summarized by saying the structure will be helpful with expectations, especially when taking on this challenging material and working on classroom and group norms. The other user is the teacher who teaches the students right before I do in seventh grade. This teacher was given the unit plan and asked questions about the content and level of ability of the students that have just been with this educator. This user loved the book choices and even offered some other options for novels as well. When asked about the unit as a whole, this user agreed that a lot of the challenge is going to be having difficult conversations, managing appropriate commentary, and teaching how to behave appropriately and not just “spout propaganda.” I appreciated that this user truly understood and took into consideration the challenges we both face at our school. This user also suggested that while I give the students discussion questions, maybe the students could also contribute questions to be discussed to get everyone involved. Overall, these users really helped me brainstorm more details and ideas to add to the unit plan. As a prototype, this unit plan was very vague and the users really helped add new ideas and spotted clarification needs. I will definitely be using their recommendations to add more detail and continue developing this unit into a well-rounded, well-articulated, cohesive unit. Every hour, roughly 30 eighth graders walk in my classroom. At least five of them are disengaged before I’ve even gone over the warm-up for the day. Then, that one student chimes in. The one student brave enough to ask a question. All students are now alert waiting to see how I respond or commenting at the student for even asking the question in the first place. Some teachers might see asking questions as a challenge to their content knowledge or their authority in the classroom. I see it as an opportunity. This questioning probably happens once a day, while the rest of the students sit complacently allowing me to teach, but not remotely engaged in the material. Why do very few middle schoolers ask questions? Why do some teachers see this as “inappropriate”? It’s instances like this that show me glimpses of what Warren Berger is discussing in his book, A More Beautiful Question (2014). Berger states that “...as kids stop questioning, they simultaneously become less engaged in school...Do kids stop questioning because they’ve lost interest in school, or do they lose interest in school because their natural curiosity (and propensity to question) is somehow tamped down?” (p.45-46). This really stuck out to me. Considering the experiences in my classroom, I would argue the latter, as many of my students tend to be more engaged when asking and being asked questions that they can ponder. Throughout their education, my students have been taught that sitting in their seats and keeping to themselves is appropriate behavior, whereas asking a question for clarification may make a student look unintelligent in front of his or her peers and asking a question to further knowledge may be considered disrespectful to the teacher. While I see these questions as opportunities for engagement, is that just temporary engagement? What about the students who still choose to disengage? Why are they disengaging? I started asking myself some of these questions in a quickfire this week. I took five minutes to write down all the questions that came to mind stemming from one question. Here is what I gathered: During this process, I felt my brain trying to answer each previous question with a statement. The true challenge was changing that statement into another question. Right now, I have at least ten students who refuse to do work in class. What is the root of this? What strategy have I not tried yet? By asking these questions, I started brainstorming resources to further address my students on an individual basis. All too often I feel stuck “teaching to the masses,” where I teach the same exact lesson to all the students with only a few accommodations. It is unfortunate that I feel I have to do this, but state standards, state testing, resources, staff, and time are pressure factors as well. Berger (2014) justifies this feeling by stating that the “problem of schools favoring memorized answers over questions is nothing new” (p.47). I would love to allow for more student input, more student inquiry, more individualization of lessons, but how can I make that possible? I’m sure students would love an activity like the quickfire, where they can brainstorm questions and proceed to try and tackle them. It’s a shame they may not get this opportunity. One of my favorite units to teach all year is argumentative writing. The students are super engaged because I am allowing them to express their opinion and answer all types of questions. Berger (2014) also introduces a woman named Deborah Meier who created many inquiry-based schools in New York. Her structure of the “five learning skills” or “habits of the mind” resonated with me. They include evidence, connection, conjecture, relevance, and one that my students need- viewpoint. “Viewpoint: How might this look if we stepped into other shoes, or looked at it from a different direction?” (p. 51). My students struggle a lot with empathy, especially as middle schoolers who have experienced so little outside of their rural community. These ways of thinking - and especially asking questions - could definitely contribute to a deeper understanding and strong engagement in my class. ReferencesBerger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: the power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
More and more children are getting diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (or ADHD) every year. Nowacek and Mamlin report, “This disorder involves inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, or a combination of these symptoms” (2007). These symptoms can impact students both academically and behaviorally. In my personal experience as a teacher, many middle school students with ADHD are challenged by staying organized and completing tasks, due to this inattention and hyperactivity. To help develop and improve these skills, Nowacek and Mamlin state that any software must have “individual instruction levels, easily readable display formats, self-pacing, motivational features, and game formats with animation” (2007). Keeping this in mind, I set out to find an application that could help my middle school students remember tasks that need to be completed. Check out what I found: Students could use personal technology (phone, tablet, etc.) to keep track of tasks to be completed both in class and at home. As a teacher with 150 students, it is very challenging to make sure all students are engaged and on task during a class hour. Nowacek and Mamlin state that “increasing the opportunities to earn rewards and providing immediate feedback as well as defining the criteria needed to meet behavioral goals, had powerful behavioral effects” (2007). To provide feedback and rewards, my assistant principal has arranged a system where students with ADHD meet with me after class to discuss their behavior. I sign their behavior checklist and the students receive rewards of their choosing. Using the EpicWin app would allow teachers to do quick checks of understanding and completion of academic tasks. A check of this app could be added to my after-class meetings to make sure students are successful both academically and behaviorally in class. ReferencesNowacek, E. J., & Mamlin, N. (2007). General education teachers and students with ADHD: What modifications are made? Preventing School Failure, 51(3), 28-35. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/docview/228529175?accountid=12598
After demographic statistics were released that my school district is 87% white and many incidents happened with our middle schoolers that could be considered potentially insensitive, there was a lot of conversation amongst teachers on how to give students opportunities to experience diversity, not just racially, but in many different ways. After asking the students, it was clear that they wanted to be exposed to other people who were not just like them. My specific problem is that my 8th-grade students' interest in becoming more culturally aware is hampered by a relative lack of experiences. However, the next question I faced was how can I offer these experiences? As an English teacher, the first place my brain went to was novels. Books, if chosen correctly, can really showcase characters who experience the world differently than the ways of my students. After many rounds of book tasting, the students ended up selecting the novels they were interested in and will be grouped as such. I planned out the day by day, finding resources that push for deeper thinking and personal reflection. By being a model for how students should discuss these topics, I can hopefully inspire them to become more well-rounded. By designing this unit, I think I learned that I can do my part in trying to correct this lack of experience with people who are different than my students. However, I can’t do everything and can’t fix the problem entirely. I see this unit as setting the students on the right track, so they are able to collaborate and communicate respectfully and responsibly with all types of people later on in their lives. My View of Student Learning:My view on student learning is largely impacted by the students I teach today. Every year, I teach the poem “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shakur and my students truly connect to it in their own individual way. That’s where this view of learning stems from. The students I teach deal with economic factors, a lack of resources, and some rough family life situations. If schools and teachers provide access to education, engaging opportunities, mental and physical health support, collaboration, and fair representation, students can truly grow into well-educated roses. At first, when coming up with this model, I wanted to make notes before creating it. I tried and struggled to brainstorm ideas. I changed my approach and found that if I just started putting pieces together, more and more ideas came to mind. I thought of what might make the concrete for my students and thought of ways that schools can counteract some of those obstacles to help them grow. Instead of sitting and planning, I found it easier to just start doing and creating. That’s definitely something that resonated with me during this activity.
Normally, in my world of teaching middle school, I, and many other teachers, face many daily obstacles. From grading over a hundred essays to dealing with defiance in the classroom, our days are filled with opportunities to influence our students to be respectful and responsible future leaders. If someone would have asked me two weeks ago what my biggest issue at school was, I would have responded that we had many students refusing to do classwork. However, yesterday, our school closed down for a month. I said goodbye to students who I know struggle with their home lives and see school as an opportunity to get away. Will they be able to take a break outside of the home? Many students survive on the food they are provided at our school. How will they get the nourishment they need? Some of my students will be responsible for their siblings while their parents are working. How can we assist them? We were originally told we must move to teach electronically, but I got upset thinking of all the students without this technology access at home. What about the kids who don’t have a device or internet for that matter? A lot of thoughts swirled as I put on a strong facade for my students. As of now, we are to provide educational opportunities, but nothing is to be graded or required to be completed. While that settled some of my worries, I am now on the hunt to find resources for the students to use. What materials or resources are available? There is always a new obstacle being a teacher, but I think I’ve learned that’s the fun of the job. ReferencesSnapchat photo created by author.
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Jennifer StirlingThis is my #MAET journey! Thanks for reading! Archives
August 2020
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