LLED 360

In today’s class (Oct.9^th, 2013), we briefly discussed about the ideal length of waiting time after asking questions to students, and opinions were voiced which ranged from “1 second” and “less than 30 seconds”, etc. After I heard some responses, I recalled my experiences from first and second school visits. I observed that, when they asked some questions, few students who are considered to be the smart ones in the class answered the questions right away. It seemed that students who were less prepared, but perfectly capable of answering the questions if given some time, did not get a chance to answer the questions at all. Immediately after hearing an answer from those select few, teachers would resume their lecture. On my own take as a student teacher without much teaching experience, I find that I often don’t know how much time I need to give to the student before answering the question myself. For me, it was very awkward standing in front of students, since I had no idea whether they were too shy to answer the question or actually didn’t know how to answer the question. So I answered the question myself right away which is probably not an ideal approach. Ironically, as a student, I would often find that before I could answer a teacher’s question, I would need more time than 1 second or 30 seconds because I needed to think exactly what I was asked and why I thought a particular answer was correct. Taking into consideration the accounts of both sides, I think teachers should give more time to students to promote their critical thinking and quality of their answers. However, It wouldn’t be easy to know whether the majority of class is ready to answer a question or not. Therefore, I think before we go on, it is better to ask students to write down some sentences about their thoughts. Then few smart students won’t dominate the class, and most students can have some time to think, and if they write things down they would have an easier time formulating their ideas and also they would be more likely to be engaged.

Please join us on Weds, 10/16, from 12-2, in the DLC (Ponderosa F103) for a talk by Dr. Hetty Roessingh, University of Calgary.

Dr. Roessingh research program focuses on the instructional needs of learners (K – 12) for whom English is a second language (ESL). Her published works have included tracking studies for ESL high school dropout and achievement outcomes in grade 12; rates of English language acquisition; ESL curriculum and program and materials design. Her current interest includes funded program development and research on the transitional supports from high school to university that can produce better academic outcomes for English language learners (ELLs).

We’ll have more information shortly about the specifics of the talk she will give soon, but for now, save the date!

A light lunch will be served.

I found the group presentation and reading this week quite helpful in thinking about academic discussions. For me, this type of learning makes a lot of sense. I find I engage and remember information better when it is presented in a conversational and dynamic way. There are certainly spaces in art education where I think these discussion techniques could be used effectively such as controversial art pieces in public art, galleries and museums, social justice issues to inform an artwork or finding themes and big ideas within different works and texts. I think these kind of discussion, if executed well would also help to build a classroom community that is positive and generous with their ideas. Ideally, this community would make it easier for students to share their personal thoughts, ideas and artwork. I think there is also sometimes an assumption that art is not academic, (I of course disagree) and this would be a great way to introduce students to the idea that art is about ideas.

-Meghan Leeburn

After first reading this chapter, I found its description of language exploration activities and its discussion of overused questions to be a contradiction. However, after taking some time to think and consider the essential role inquiry has come to play in our own studies this past month, I think that I may have misinterpreted the author’s comments. Questions may in fact be overused in schools. I believe that it is a specific type of questioning practice that has been exhausted.

While lesson planning, teachers may over anticipate the direction of lessons and come to class with a predetermined list of questions that work to guide the class discussions in a specific direction. This, in my opinion, is the type of questioning that prevents students to explore subjects based on their own curiosities. In comparison, inquiry style questioning requires some preparation on behalf of the teacher but to instead create an environment that fosters and encourages students to ask questions. These questions are also to be student engineered and not asked because the teacher has directed thought processes to inevitably develop them. The questions are a result of critical thinking and of a dynamic learning environment.

Minimizing the quantity of questions asked by a teacher to place effort on creating questions that inspire critical thinking in students are the most effective. When a teacher is able to be “out-questioned” by the students, then questioning can be effective.

During yesterdays presentation, the presenting group had gotten the class to split up into two groups. One group had to rally for why smoking should be legal and the other rallied why it should not. Then the students were asked to talk to opposing views to try and argue their point. In the follow up I thought something Justin said had rang true for all of teaching. Forgive me because I will be paraphrasing what he said but it went along the lines of, it’s important even if we don’t believe in a certain view to look from that perspective as well. That  got me thinking about teaching in general and when it comes to teaching students who are SLL.

I have had teachers in the past who had gotten frustrated with students, be them SLL or english speakers, because they weren’t able to comprehend what was being taught. Luckily the teachers never actually said it but you could see it. The reason why Justin’s comment impacted me was because it made me think “why where the teachers getting frustrated?” and “who were the getting frustrated at?” In a recent post of mine I had said that there have been teachers who seem to have gotten used to a certain style of teaching and have done it for years. Maybe it’s this plateau that some teachers reach that stop them from being effective teachers. The teacher has been stuck in their own way for so long that they believe that the way they are teaching makes sense to everyone.

This is why Inquiry of language is so important in any class environment. As times change, so does the vocabulary and it is up to us as educators to keep up with the ever evolving language. What seems clear to us may not be to a student. Instead of thinking that a student may not be putting in the effort required it is our responsibility to critically think from the students perspective and have the courage to constantly evaluate ourselves. Educating is a two way street and we as teachers must be willing to meet students and make sure that we are speaking the same language.

The topic, are questions over used in school today came up during the presentation and I had found that to be ironic and was happy that another classmate had commented on it. As we, student teachers, go through the education program we are being encouraged and trained to teach in the form of inquiry. This process asks a teacher to step back to evaluate or assess a situation and then ask the question why something had worked or didn’t and then asks us to ask why and how can it be better improved. In the end the process helps to ask a question with more questions to keep a teacher sharp and to always be curious. So when are questions too much?

I believe that the idea of inquiry is a good one and paramount to the success of not only a teacher but the student as well. It helps a teacher remain a critical thinker and prevents them from being stagnant or disjointed from their students. I have had teachers in the past who seem to have found a magic formula that worked for them possibly a decade or longer before I took their course and have stuck to the formula ever since. While it may have worked in the past it seems to leave the teacher uninspired to do their job and the teacher had troubles relating to the students. If they were to step back and evaluate how the class was doing and if there was something that he or she as a teacher could have done better than maybe the teacher would have been more effective in the room. Inquiry is also great for students. It allows them to grow and mature as thinkers and hopefully motivate them to explore disciplines with a focused eye. As long as inquiry helps to keep open ended questions then I don’t believe that questions are over used.

Where I do believe questions are over used are yes/no questions. They are an assessment done by teachers to see if their students have done the work but from what I have experienced they do not motivate a student to do anymore than what is required of them. I believe a teacher could do the same assessment with open ended questions and through class discussions. If there are quieter students in the class a teacher can be patient and encourage a student to get involved. Classrooms don’t always have to be quiet and it’s important that students learn that it is okay to speak and be heard. It’s up to us, as teachers, to develop a safe classroom atmosphere so that everyone feels confident to speak. With the combination of a safe environment and a teacher helping to facilitate open ended questions to help motivate and invigorate learning in students then I don’t believe there could be enough questions asked.

Chapter 5 of Building Academic Language discusses the importance of questioning, group discussion and listening in education. This was a very practical chapter and would like to respond in a practical way. I have compiled a list of questions you can ask in art class:

Questions for art class

I also reflected on the suggestion that students should contribute questions just as often, if not more than the teacher. In the context of an art class, this could happen in a couple different ways. One way would be during a class critique of student artwork, students could write a question about at least a certain number of each other’s pieces. They could do this by placing a sticky note next to the artwork. That way class critiques can start with something to think about and everyone has a chance to contribute. The same thing can be done with the classmates offering reflections or reactions.

I have also participated in a “speed dating” style group strategy that worked really well in the art classroom. This technique was used to have students share their ideas for their art projects with each other and grown their ideas. This is called “idea generation”. It is meant to have the students critically think about their ideas, come up with new alternatives and develop their creativity.

I felt the guidelines suggested to help shape expectations during group discussions was very important. Especially when critiquing student work that may have many personal elements, students need to know how to have a productive and sensitive but also critical discussion. It is important to model these behaviours from the start and reinforce them by offering suggestions for productive language throughout classroom discussions.

Chapter 5 on academic classroom discussions made me think about what I feel a productive classroom discussion should look like.  To me this would be a discussion which is guided but not dominated by the teacher and I think asking appropriate questions is a key to this. I especially found the section on asking questions to be helpful as I have never really thought about the various types of questions in such detail before. But in thinking about my university experience, for example, we always had the best discussions in our classroom when the teacher provided some guiding questions that made us think about the major issues we should be focusing on, versus teachers who said “so who wants to say something?” and expected this to lead to an in-depth discussion. (I actually had one teacher who did this every week, and then got mad when no one really knew what to say).  I can also see how the over-use of display questions leads to discussions that follow the IRF model, which tend to be dominated by the teacher, and I remember most of my own high school “discussions” to be modeled this way. These discussions were always surface-level and we were looking for the teacher’s approval that we gave the right answer, afraid to say something wrong and look stupid. I think that the best types of questions for fostering classroom discussion would be open-ended questions which allow students to analyze, interpret and take on other perspectives. They also don’t have “wrong” answers that can make students feel inadequate.  I find open-ended questions helpful in my own learning for this reason. Also, it can be difficult to expand on display questions which are not really intended for deep thinking.  In my discipline, social studies, open-ended questions are regularly used to get students to engage in critical thinking and interpretation which is a major aspect of the discipline and I know I will be using them as a teacher for my own class discussions and activities.

One activity mentioned in the textbook that I thought was useful was conversation circles. This is the activity where students form a circle inside another and pair off to talk about a topic, and then rotate partners by moving a certain number of people to the right or left. I like that this gets students up from their desks and talking to others whom they may not necessarily choose to talk to if they were allowed to pair up by themselves. This fosters a sense of community in the classroom and allows students to see a greater range of perspectives.

One potential problem is that students may end up saying the same thing to each partner they face and could get tired of repeating themselves. A workaround for this is to have students think of (or write down) a number of points they want to bring up and present one point per partner.

There is also the issue of students not paying attention to or understanding others’ comments. Teachers should encourage students to (1) paraphrase what their partner has said, and (2) reflect on what they said. Here we can teach students how to frame their responses using language suitable for respectful discussion, such as: “So you’re saying that…” and “I like your point on… which makes me think of…”

Finally, there are some logistical concerns with the conversation circle activity that are difficult to solve. I have noticed that during think-pair-share sessions the class gets quite loud and often it difficult to hear and be heard. With conversation circles students may be standing quite near to one another (especially due to space constraints) which could aggravate the problem. Also, this activity requires a large open space, usually necessitating desk rearrangement. Moving around desks takes away a fair amount of time that some might argue could be better spent. Still, I think the conversation circle activity would be a great addition to a lesson if it were planned out well.

I think that often one of the most difficult things to do in a class discussion is to allow adequate response time for all of the students to consider a question and formulate an answer. Oftentimes it can be hard to slow down the pace of a discussion if there are a number of students who are really engaged and interested and who respond quickly. It seems to be that there would be a very delicate balancing act as a facilitator if you were trying to provide time for students to consider while also not slowing down the discussion to the point that some students lose interest or focus.

With oral activities, especially ones that move fairly quickly, it can be quite challenging to follow the discussion and hold both the question and response in your mind while you wait for your turn. I thought the suggestion that you have students jot down notes, questions, and thoughts was useful, especially in the sense that it would help ensure that students take note of what you are asking them. There is a potential challenge to this approach, however, because if students are focused on keeping some sort of record of what is going on then they may not have the time to consider a response or could even lose track of parts of the discussion as they write. To that end, it would be interesting to see if it were possible for the teacher to note down the questions asked, while still being able to facilitate the discussion (and without students falling into the need to copy down everything the teacher puts on the board).