Evaluate Your Teaching and Students' Progress
Chapters 33-44
"Teachers have too often feared data, and for understandable reasons: the information has too often been used in counterproductive ways to judge or otherwise criticize them."(p. 157)
I have never really understood how or why we fear data. We must take the time to analyze our students' mistakes so we can correct our own teaching mistakes.
Make sure you notice the Academic Vocabulary on pages 179 and 180. Oftentimes our students could do better on tests, in class and on assignments if we just teach them the language of the tests.
Let us here what you think about these chapters.
6 comments:
Reading 4 – Chapters 33-44
Good for Burke! He said it out loud. “As teachers, it is our responsibility to assume the role of learner. The very instant a teacher ceases to recognize the need for continuing education, in any form, is the same instant that teacher should retire from the profession. Writing reminds us that we always have something new to learn from our colleagues, from our students and from the word at large” (p. 158-9). Burke suggests that teachers evaluate our teaching as well as student progress. “It’s time we began seeing errors as invitations and signposts, instead of as judgments and evidence of our failure” (p. 157). We must reflect on our practices and procedures as well as accept feedback from observers/peers to gain new perspective and insights to become more effective teachers. Can a student be motivated to truly understand something which they have not “bought into”?
A reminder to go back to the basics in planning; the infamous standards. With the overwhelming amount of ancillary materials now available and universal time constraints, it can be confusing to determine the best approach for teaching topics. Experience is still the best teacher, I think. There are many ways to present content, performance, assessment and delivery standards to students. The composition and personality of every class is unique which presents challenges and rewards. Regardless of the individuality of each student, there are observable patterns that can assist in improving writing. Patterns can provide information and opportunities to correct and compliment writers. “The Traits of Effective Writing” on pp. 176-7 and the “Academic Vocabulary” on pp. 179-80 are fabulous references for teaching writing. Also, the “Traits of Effective Literacy Instruction,” pp. 199-200 were informative for me. I like……..”A student should not be taught more than he can think about.” A strong statement for prioritizing curriculum. Do we “get through it” or teach a few things really well?
I love pages 165-166; I need to have little bookmarks for myself of these reminders.
The other chapter that caught my attention to re-read bits of it is Ch. 37--looking for patters in errors and progress . And this is where I think we can make a case for smaller classes or for year-long classes. don't get me wrong-- I do like the Block schedule, but i also think that one semester is not always long enough to really see, understand, and address pattern in the struggling writers' work. ( I always have been a fan of the A/B schedule...)
But, in the absence of the imaginary ideal schedule, I do think the 6 traits rubric does help see patterns--if notes/comments are made--not just numbers jotted down.
Time...time..time...never enough. Or is it my own organization...never established?
Speaking of evaluating, I and my 2nd block did some of that collectively this week in restructuring literature circles. With the reduced 2nd block time during HSAP, this class was in a bad state. Tuesday morning I stared at the fiasco before me and cringed; then I started taking notes.
I wrote two questions on the overhead:
- I think lit. circles are going very badly; what do you think and why?
- What can I do to make this a better experience for you? What questions, problems, needs, etc., do you have or does your group have?
I had students answer these questions in exit slips. They brought up a number of good points; most every student had significant feedback to offer, and their feedback resonated with each other: not enough time to read, others’ loud and distracting behavior, apathy and uncertainty about the purpose of lit. circles, boring book, and boring or confusing work to complete. The next day, I wrote these topics on the board. At the beginning of class, I reviewed with students their responses and I began addressing them. I first referred them back to the EOC letter and standards distributed at the beginning of the semester and pointed out the standard mentioning literature circles; I also showed them the vocabulary-in-context standard. Then, I apologized for lack of time and assured them of large amounts of reading time over the next two days. For motivation, students and I agreed that grades are motivating as well as preparing for the EOC exam; only a handful of students wished to change books. Students asked for a “fun” group project and a participation grade to discourage off-task behavior. I then asked them, in groups, to set a new reading goal for Friday and divvy out role folders. I gave them the bulk of that day and the next day for lit. circle reading/written work. When we met for lit. circle discussion the next time, groups ran much more smoothly.
In these chapters, Burke addresses the importance of evaluating our teaching and students’ work/progress. Although nothing of this situation had to do with writing instruction, the principles are the same: when I inform myself of my teaching and my students’ progress, I better my practice and their performance. When I did that, I found surprising outcomes: students noticed the same problems I did, in fact, noticed problems of which I was not aware, and they came up with good ways to resolve those issues. They did not excuse their behavior or try to get out of work; rather, they wanted more work that was relevant and wanted their misbehaving classmates to be held accountable. In a sense, students did the work of restructuring lit. circles on their own (and better than I had planned, for I was going to start all over from the beginning), and they did so in a way that is more effective for them.
Blog #4 - Chapters 33-44
This section of chapters moves from the creation of student works to the evaluation of those works.
Clear direction for the teacher at the beginning of the process will help students to see the big picture as their works are being evaluated.Using the Standards (Chapter 34) provides the anchor in these evaluations, but there is still plenty of room for individual preferences in using some of the other suggestions (teaching by design,reviwing, reflecting and revisin techniques)that any teacher of writing can find plenty of support in these chapters.
Blog 4: Evaluate Your Teaching and Students’ Progress
On page 169, there is a list of prompts for a learning log. I like this idea of actually starting them off with a prompt instead of just asking them a discussion question. I’ve never used prompts for science discussion before, but I think it just might work!
I didn’t enjoy chapters 37-39. I am not an English teacher or a writing expert, and I felt that most of these chapters focused on that type of teacher. However, I did find the section on communicating the purpose of assessment very interesting. As I said in an earlier blog, I believe very strongly in letting students know exactly what is expected of them. This actually takes it a step further, and allows the students to not only understand the requirements of the activity but also the reasoning behind the requirements.
Chapter 41 really took me back to my high school days: this chapter was on writing portfolios. I remember being so proud of my portfolio, and I wonder if any of our English teachers still require them. I use the portfolio for assessment in various science projects, and I know that my students enjoy putting them together.
In this section, one of the most important reminders for me is “Manage the Paper Load.” Judging from my last blog and my comments on “Provide Timely and Useful Feedback,” I clearly struggle with managing the paper load. This section has given me ideas on how to decrease the load by conducting numerous informal evaluations that do not require me to write comments on papers. Also, when I do write comments, I should focus on what we have been doing lately. That advice connects to something I have tried before (very poorly and without follow through) and to advice Burke gives in reminder 33 about limiting comments: I decided to assign papers and grade them according to only one trait of good writing (this was based on the 4-trait HSAP rubric). My thinking was that I could address the areas of focus and development, organization, voice, and conventions separately and in more detail, then grade them on how well they have managed each individual trait. Of course, there would be a final paper that I would grade using the whole rubric. Unfortunately, my inability to manage the paper load sank that idea before I could get to the end. But, hopefully, by applying some of Burke’s suggestions, I can make a go of it again. What I find very important in this reminder—and throughout the book—is this: Burke obviously assigns numerous writings, one a week and then some, but seems to grade only a few. I should try it.
In the opening to this section, Burke writes, “Teachers and students who maintain portfolios and use them to monitor and reflect on their growth can improve…” Another problem I have is organization—a problem my desk makes painfully obvious. For that reason, filing and keeping track of student portfolios in my classroom has proven difficult. Yet, if I maintained my own right along with them, writing when they write (when I’m not circulating and conferencing and such), then I would be forced to keep up a better filing system for my students. Also, I’d have the added bonus of having my own writings organized, which would hopefully encourage me to send out my own work for publication.
I also enjoy Burke’s practice, which he describes in reminder 36, of having students respond to specific reflective questions before turning in drafts. These comments would get them thinking about their own performance in their drafts and could help guide and focus teacher comments. Also, when they receive the papers with your comments, they can read them along with their own. It provides a nice place for teachers to applaud and help develop students’ self-evaluations.
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