SHARING REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING AT CATE SCHOOL
by Rachel Van Wickle What is it that creates a classroom environment where students feel supported and believed in, and safe enough to take risks without fear of failure? In past years, it has felt like some of my classes have had this “magic” while others have not. How can I break the magic down into tangible and repeatable steps? I’m thinking that constructing classroom values is one step in the right direction. In my Integrated Problem Solving II course this year, I experimented with the first three days to try to create a sense of safety and belonging. I did so by first presenting my values as teacher, then asking students to journal about their individual values, and finishing with a discussion of values for our class as a whole. Later in the term, we revisited our class values and reflected on what might be added or adjusted. Here is what it looked like: Day 1 – Teacher Values On the first day of class, I presented my students with the following: We discussed why these values are important to me as a math teacher, and I explained how my grading and assessment policies align. To drive the message home, I asked the students to take about five minutes to journal a response to the prompt, “Why are mistakes important?” This idea came from Jo Boaler’s course, “How to Learn Math For Teachers.” Here are the main themes that I took from discussing mistakes with my students:
Day 2 – Individual Values On the second day of class, I asked students to journal about their own values. This prompt came from math department member, Taylor Donovan Wyatt, and allowed students an opportunity to be specific about how they view themselves as a member of the class. Here is the exercise, followed by three student examples: A question I have after conducting this activity is whether or not to ask students to share these with each other. Do they gain the feeling of safety and belonging from this activity merely by me reading and responding to their journal entry? Would it be asking them to be too vulnerable to share out as a class? Or, would sharing them with each other create an even better sense of community? Below are three student examples that show the variety and scope of the exercise. Day 3 – Class Values On the third day of school, I asked students to partner up and discuss what values we should set in place for our class so that our discussions for the rest of the year would be as successful as possible. After sharing out, we compiled the list shown at the right. I then posted this list on the main page of our LMS so that we could refer back to it as the year progressed. Because the students all agreed to this list on day 3, I was able to hold each student accountable so that everyone in the class would feel supported and encouraged. Day 40 – Revisiting Values On the first day of the second term, I brought out the list of class values that we created on day 3. I asked students to reflect on which of these values was a strength for our class in the first trimester and which, if any, we could work on more. Students also used this exercise as an opportunity to add and revise our list since so much time had gone by since it was first created. I find it interesting that the student in the example below uses the word “we” to discuss the growth of our class as a whole. Then, she finished writing by detailing how the class dynamic affected her own individual experience. Here is what she wrote: All in all, I am excited to use this sequence at the beginning of next year, but I am definitely interested in adjusting it to better serve my students. Is this too touchy feely to start math class with? How do I encourage students to be authentic right at the start of the year? What else should be done as the year progresses to revisit the values and continue cultivating the sense of safety and belonging???
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
Taylor Wyatt Archives
May 2018
Categories |