Author: joelgarner

Wednesdays class really struck a chord with me with the importance of using Multi-modality in the classroom. This is not done only to help ELL students but also to help engage all students!

Chelsey brought in a teacher from California to lecture us on different strategies on how to help teach ELL students. She works in classes that are comprised of at least 50% ELL students. We went through an exercise with vocabulary that made us write the word, give the definition of it, try, draw it and then use it as an example in a sentence. She also gave us sentence structure worksheets and shared stories with us from her classroom experiences so far. What I was most impressed with was that the majority of her strategies that she has used so far have been self taught.

Over the past couple months we have been been completing our readings, most of us hopefully, and giving presentations on what we have read. I know, for myself personally, that although I do obtain knowledge when I read, I tend to learn better when it is being explained our exampled and then letting me try and exercise to fully understand the concept. The book that has been assigned, although very knowledgeable, I find has been dry and after reading for a certain period of time I lose focus and interest. This occurred to me during this class. While the exercises Chelsey’s guest brought were simple they were effective. They kept me engaged and interested and also challenged me to think about past knowledge we have learned in the class. It also made me think about how I want to teach. I am a thirty year old man who possibly after an hour of reading needs to take a good break because I know that by that time I will have lost my focus. Now I have to put myself in a teenagers shoes who has been bouncing around from subject to subject, sitting for hours in seats and getting at best five minutes break between some classes. Even if I believe that the subject matter that I am teaching to the kids is interesting they may have already walked into my class completely disengaged. It is up to me, as with every teacher, to implement as many learning strategies as I can in each lesson to help students focus on what is being presented and help them absorb the knowledge and have fun while doing it.

In the end, if I am an adult who needs to break after an hour or so of learning and then expect a teenager to be doing the same thing without changing up my tactics, what business do I have teaching these kids in the first place?

After reading the article The Case Against Grades by Kohn I began to wonder, are we being too easy with youth today. Kohn suggests in the article that instead of grades we should implement “narrative assessments”. I understand that as an institution, education is trying to stay in touch with the youth it teaches and help provide an atmosphere that encourages students to come to school everyday and be motivated, excited and relaxed when it comes to learning. However, I do not believe that getting rid of grades is the answer. I believe that if students were to receive “narrative assessments” that probably they would be noticeably more relaxed in a classroom environment but at the same time I believe many students wouldn’t be as driven. If a student knows that they aren’t being graded perhaps they wouldn’t put the same effort into their work that they would if they were being graded. For example, this is out of school context but I still feel is relevant, when I worked for The Gap approximately ten years ago each sales person who worked there had a sales goal they had to try and achieve every shift. When an employee would arrive they would see where in the store they were assigned and then beside the section they would be given a fair but challenging sales goal. If an employee did not reach the goal they were not reprimanded or fired but if they were not able to meet goals regularly they might be asked to get advice from other employees to learn how to be better sales representatives. Now I can understand that when a customer shopped there it would be aggravating every so often to be constantly approached by employees offering to help, sometimes even being approached twice by the same employee because they forgot a face! This had happened because they were driven to accomplish a goal, an end product. When Gap got rid of the sales goals I noticed an almost immediate drop in salesmanship. Employees would congregate in the dressing area or stock room and customers would be looking for help. This was because the employees were not driven any longer. The same could happen with students. Without a goal to achieve students, quite possibly, will just give the amount of effort they need to adequately move on and nothing more. Does this mentality honestly benefit them?

Maybe the enemy isn’t necessarily the grade itself but in how we grade. Maybe teachers put too much emphasis grading the final product rather than the process that leads to the final product. I understand for some classes such as math that the final product is just as important as process. Even other science class and classes with tests that have definitive answers. I feel though that some class, such as many art classes, have the opportunity to put more emphasis into the process that the student is doing compared to the final product. If we,as teachers, give a very specific rubric of what we are looking for and let the students know before they begin then maybe we have the chance to really encourage students to experiment and be brave with their work and not worry so much about failing in the end. Emphasis will be focused on students work ethic and not so much on their final product. I believe that if the students know that their work ethic is the primary focus of attention for their grade that their final product will be good regardless and if not then if they tried hard at least they will not fail.

The class on assessments really got me thinking about what it will be like during my long term practicum and how on earth am I going to assess the kids!!!

During class the group gave students and activity for the students to do. One was to write a ridiculously hard test and the other was discussion based with others at our table and unknown to us the group leaders would walk around and “assess” how we were performing in class. The test turned out to be fun since we understood there was no pressure behind it. I think it was evident from Kathy’s drawing of a cat to answer the last question. It was the second activity that sparked my interest. During the activity a group member walked by and assessed a fellow classmate while I had just finished contributing what I had believed to be valuable insight to the discussion. However, another table member began with, “I believe,” and then was assessed with a contributes well to the group! To be honest I felt slighted after I had just said my piece. Others felt this way too. Ren had been assessed with something along the lines of “not talking about the topic”, which to her seemed like a very unfair assessment. The group explained that this was just one method and it is easy for a teacher to assess incorrectly if they happen to just walk by at the one moment of fault by the student.

Because of this activity it got me thinking about how do I assess kids in drama. I have been a firm believer that, especially in lower grades in high school, it is more important about the process rather than the final product. Some teenagers can work brilliantly when other are working around them and the focus isn’t directed on one person. When a student has to do their final performance they may develop a little bit of stage fright. With that said I believe that it is very important to observe closely how students work on their performances before they present. But how do I do this and not assess incorrectly? Hypothetically with 30 students in a class and working on 2 people scenes how do I make sure that I have assessed these kids correctly and not judge them possibly by one incident? There are the obvious examples if students aren’t focussed if they are talking with other groups or trying to sneak a look at their phones but what if I walk by and a student is telling a story that actually helps to relate back to their scene? A drama class can be like organized chaos and sometimes I just have to accept it!

This class has taught me to properly assess I can’t just walk around the class monitoring and dropping my ear in to groups every so often but really engage with the groups as they work and constantly ask questions to see if they are progressing and them let them continue.

Over the past two weeks during my short practicum I had the chance, like the other teacher candidates, to observe what goes on in classes and how teachers interact with their students. One observation that I found particularly interesting happened in my drama 9/10 class. Each of the Drama classes that I will be teaching has a handful of students who are ELL at different levels. During one of the exercises a student had a hard time trying to understand the concept that the teacher was trying to run. The student doesn’t have an aid to help with language barrier difficulties in class and it seemed that most of the students weren’t willing to help either. My SA had noticed this and walked over to see if she could be of any assistance. The student made it clear that she did not understand the instructions and the teacher tried to explain the steps again. For a student who can comprehend english easily the instructions sounded pretty straight forward but I don’t think that the ELL student had a concept of some of the terminology the teacher was saying. However, the teacher persisted but continued with the same language and slowed her voice down and over emphasized what she was saying in hopes that the student would eventually understand. It was evident that the student still didn’t understand and I could tell that she was becoming frustrated with the teacher. It seemed as if the student was feeling patronized by how her language barrier was being handled. She looked uncomfortable for a few more moments before she saw a student performing the exercise, understood it ,and then went and did it herself.

This incident provided me with the thought that even if I come up with a lesson plan and have key words, brick words, that I want to teach to students I should have a back up list in case I have students who have trouble understanding the original word that I am trying to teach. Hopefully by having a list of back up words I will be able to properly communicate to a student so that they aren’t feeling left out and can contribute to the class as well.

Wednesdays class with Graham was an interesting experience. The class played a series of theatre games that Graham had led before we ended up working on our lesson plans again. One game was a simplified version of May I? In this game the class stands in a circle and one student initiates the action. To do this a student has to may direct eye contact with another student and show a hand gesture towards the student that indicates that they would like to come over. The student who is being signalled to acknowledges by saying yes and the student who made the gesture then can proceed to walk over. It is then up to the student who said yes to continue the hand gesture to another classmate so on and so forth. During the run of the game classmates would get confused who was looking at who are started to walk without even asking permission and once in awhile there was small confusion. Granted this all took place in a small work space and there were many people involved. But that only stressed the fact that the participants had to be very specific with their eye contact and gesture.

What struck me was that over the last two months our class has been discussing the importance of language. The idea of “bricks” and “mortar” words that will help us communicate our disciplines language to students. But what we need to do os learn to communicate with our students starts even before we open our mouths. If we cannot make direct eye contact and be physically engaged with what we are presenting then we may have already lost the students attention before we begin to speak.

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.

Since LLED 360 first began I had been wondering exactly what the course would be about. It wasn’t until last classes demonstration that I started to have glimpses of what it was all about. The demonstration was to partner up with another classmate who was not in your same cohort and try and get them to draw something that was related to your specific field of expertise. I being a Theatre cohort paired up with a student from Social Studies. He had asked me to draw China and I had asked him to draw a Proscenium Arch. The amount of struggle, although it was fun, was surprising! I did not think it would be such a challenge to essentially have my partner draw a wall with a large hole in the middle and I knew this was because of my inability to effectively convey what I was trying to describe. After class I had reflected on the class and understood that situations would often arise like these and that was a hurdle that I will have to deal with. I just did not know how often these situations would occur and it couldn’t have been more apparent the following day.

After a class the following day a large group, which included myself, met outside to discuss a video project that we were going to work on. The group comprised of two different cohorts, Theatre and English. One classmate, whom is a fellow theatre student teacher, was discussing with the group on how we should organize the video sequences and to do that a storyboard would be an effective way to organize. As he spoke he paused briefly and asked, “does everyone know what a storyboard is?” As he was speaking I had understood all the terminology he was referring to being immersed in it myself and did not think twice about whether or not others knew as well. I responded to his question, “yes” as did others from the theatre group but everyone else remained silent! No one knew! It blew me away! I also thought it was great that the gentleman speaking could sense that others were confused by what he was saying and took the time to make sure everyone was on the same page.

It was a simple situation outside the classroom and controlled demonstrations that I really began to understand what LLED 360 will be about and the effectiveness it will have on me as I pursue my goal to become a Theatre teacher! Looking forward to the year ahead and the challenges it will bring! Even if it is just describing what a Proscenium Arch is.