High Expectations - Review and Analysis of Technique
Teach Now: Module 4 Unit 3 Activity 2
This is a series of analysis for three videos for high performance expectations in a variety of teaching strategies.
Video 1: Roller Coaster Physics
Roller Coaster Physics Lesson
In this video, the students are engaged in a STEM lesson where the goal is to design and build a functioning roller coaster. The students use their understanding of math and physics and apply it to the project. They also engage in real life problem solving as they balance a budget and consider the costs of the materials they are using.
If there's an example of a lesson that is class management, then this lesson would be a prime example. All the students were focused on their assigned tasks, and because the task is by nature interesting and applicable to real life (engineering), the students clearly found the task meaningful. They were given roles that imitated real life as well, such as budgeting, and it appeared that the students appeared proud of what they were being asked to do, and rose to the challenge in order to prove their teacher right.
It's one of those lessons where as a teacher you dream of being able to do, and I'm sure the students themselves also enjoyed completing the tasks. The high standards weren't set as a punitive thing, where the teachers expected high scores just because, but the task in and of itself challenged them in a way that believed in them and their abilities. It was positive, rather than negative. And based on the way the teacher guided and facilitated things, she was also able to teach the kids additional lessons on teamwork and cooperation, soft skills that go beyond the content. All in all, it was an extraordinary lesson, one that I hope to be able to create someday.
Video 2: Third Grade Chinese Math
Third Grade Chinese Math
This is a short video clip of a Chinese teacher teaching basic multiplication to a group of 3rd graders. The math is taught to repeated chanting and clapping, while behavior is also managed by regular hand gestures, rhythm, and patterns. The teacher also continually reinforces appropriate behavior by redoing certain actions to ensure that proper behavior is developed. The lesson is not small group, but the whole class.
Having been familiar with the Chinese method for teaching maths due to my own family background, I was at first hesitant when I watched this. However, it is clear that the students were engaged. In fact, a few of them were a bit too eager to answer, which showed just how enjoyable they found it. The rhythmic way of chanting also helped to ensure that the memorization became instinctual, and that the concepts became that way also. While students weren't taught the reason why the multiplication table worked in that way, there is a possibility that this was reinforced outside of the 2 minute clip, though the article states that this is rare. At the same time, do students really need to know why 4x4=16 by adding 4+4+4+4? Couldn't it be told to them later? I don't know. But I do know that my math is way worse than the rest of my family, and I know that this was in part because I quit doing practice problems, while my brothers continued doing them.
What we see in the result is something that I see in my own parents and cousins, one result which I, being raised in the West, lacked: an instinctual understanding of numbers and their relationship with one another. This instinct is honed through hours of practice. Rather than being told the reason why, the students come to develop an understanding of why as they practice, much the same way I developed an understanding of why Chinese characters are written in such a way after hours of writing rows of them.
Despite Western education's general disdain toward rote memorization, you could see that the students took to the lesson, as even after the teacher stopped the recitation, some students continued to recite, and recited it correctly. If the goal is to teach the students basic multiplication tables, then it worked. It achieved the standard and accomplished its goal. The lesson is not mind blowing or innovative, but it got the job done. Clearly, the students know their times tables.
Video 3: Whole Brain Teaching
Whole Brain Teaching
In this video, the teacher is teaching a group of students latitude and longitude. She reinforces it first by repeating the information to the kids using repeated hand gestures, then motions for the students to teach each other using those same hand gestures. Each bit of information is reinforced with hand gestures, including behavior and classroom rules. Review of the rules appear to be regularly recited in class.
If there's any lesson that epitomizes "Practice makes perfect," this teaching method is it. Not only is the content taught in this way, but behavior reinforcement is taught in this way too. It seems that the underlying philosophy is that students will perform correctly if the behavior becomes habit. High standards are achieved because achieving or reaching for high standards has become habit. It is an interesting and innovative idea, but I do wonder if the habit actually does lead to students thinking about their choices.
I also wonder about the age appropriateness of this teaching style. I know that as an adult I would find this strategy utterly humiliating, but it works for extroverted, energetic kids. I can see it being very successful for elementary school students. However (and this applies to the Chinese lesson above as well), what about introverted, quiet children? While the behavior is regulated and the students follow directions, for kids who do seem to be quite old (late middle or early high school perhaps) it does not feel age appropriate, or intrinsically motivated. I know that Whole Brain Teaching claims that habit induces thinking, but I'm not convinced entirely by this argument. After all, I teach too many students who do something just because they're told to, but when pressed, don't actually know why a certain thing is "good" or "bad" (or why they're categorized in that way at all). Just good.
One thing I did like was that the students were then asked to teach each other, and the content was continually reinforced in this way, something I have also used in my classroom, but not so regimented. I'm unsure of what high learning standards there are, but where it is acceptable for third graders to regurgitate content, as it is age appropriate, I would prefer older students to go a little deeper than merely knowing what longitude and latitude is for.
Summary
In short, there were three different types of lessons, with different teaching strategies. One asks the students to apply concept they learn in class to a real life task, another uses chanting and practice to memorize concepts, while the third engages in repetition and gestures to reinforce both content and behavior. Of the three, I want to aim for the first lesson, which was applicable in real life and seemed to create mature, thoughtful, and motivated students. Right now I teach apathetic sixth grade students, and one of my goals is to go beyond just knowing grammar and reciting it back, but to think critically about both their reading and writing. I want them to engage in metacognitive skills and higher level learning instead of regurgitation, which is what I saw for Chinese and Whole Brain teaching. That being said, neither of those two techniques are inherently bad, for I feel that they would also be great to adopt when teaching content that does require memorization. Considering that my main focus is sixth grade, some of the movements could be used to reinforce concepts, and it can also instill habit in a big group of unruly, hyperactive children. However, since I only have four students in my classroom, it is currently unnecessary, but certainly a useful tool for the future when I do have a full classroom.
This is a series of analysis for three videos for high performance expectations in a variety of teaching strategies.
Video 1: Roller Coaster Physics
Roller Coaster Physics Lesson
In this video, the students are engaged in a STEM lesson where the goal is to design and build a functioning roller coaster. The students use their understanding of math and physics and apply it to the project. They also engage in real life problem solving as they balance a budget and consider the costs of the materials they are using.
If there's an example of a lesson that is class management, then this lesson would be a prime example. All the students were focused on their assigned tasks, and because the task is by nature interesting and applicable to real life (engineering), the students clearly found the task meaningful. They were given roles that imitated real life as well, such as budgeting, and it appeared that the students appeared proud of what they were being asked to do, and rose to the challenge in order to prove their teacher right.
It's one of those lessons where as a teacher you dream of being able to do, and I'm sure the students themselves also enjoyed completing the tasks. The high standards weren't set as a punitive thing, where the teachers expected high scores just because, but the task in and of itself challenged them in a way that believed in them and their abilities. It was positive, rather than negative. And based on the way the teacher guided and facilitated things, she was also able to teach the kids additional lessons on teamwork and cooperation, soft skills that go beyond the content. All in all, it was an extraordinary lesson, one that I hope to be able to create someday.
Video 2: Third Grade Chinese Math
Third Grade Chinese Math
This is a short video clip of a Chinese teacher teaching basic multiplication to a group of 3rd graders. The math is taught to repeated chanting and clapping, while behavior is also managed by regular hand gestures, rhythm, and patterns. The teacher also continually reinforces appropriate behavior by redoing certain actions to ensure that proper behavior is developed. The lesson is not small group, but the whole class.
Having been familiar with the Chinese method for teaching maths due to my own family background, I was at first hesitant when I watched this. However, it is clear that the students were engaged. In fact, a few of them were a bit too eager to answer, which showed just how enjoyable they found it. The rhythmic way of chanting also helped to ensure that the memorization became instinctual, and that the concepts became that way also. While students weren't taught the reason why the multiplication table worked in that way, there is a possibility that this was reinforced outside of the 2 minute clip, though the article states that this is rare. At the same time, do students really need to know why 4x4=16 by adding 4+4+4+4? Couldn't it be told to them later? I don't know. But I do know that my math is way worse than the rest of my family, and I know that this was in part because I quit doing practice problems, while my brothers continued doing them.
What we see in the result is something that I see in my own parents and cousins, one result which I, being raised in the West, lacked: an instinctual understanding of numbers and their relationship with one another. This instinct is honed through hours of practice. Rather than being told the reason why, the students come to develop an understanding of why as they practice, much the same way I developed an understanding of why Chinese characters are written in such a way after hours of writing rows of them.
Despite Western education's general disdain toward rote memorization, you could see that the students took to the lesson, as even after the teacher stopped the recitation, some students continued to recite, and recited it correctly. If the goal is to teach the students basic multiplication tables, then it worked. It achieved the standard and accomplished its goal. The lesson is not mind blowing or innovative, but it got the job done. Clearly, the students know their times tables.
Video 3: Whole Brain Teaching
Whole Brain Teaching
In this video, the teacher is teaching a group of students latitude and longitude. She reinforces it first by repeating the information to the kids using repeated hand gestures, then motions for the students to teach each other using those same hand gestures. Each bit of information is reinforced with hand gestures, including behavior and classroom rules. Review of the rules appear to be regularly recited in class.
If there's any lesson that epitomizes "Practice makes perfect," this teaching method is it. Not only is the content taught in this way, but behavior reinforcement is taught in this way too. It seems that the underlying philosophy is that students will perform correctly if the behavior becomes habit. High standards are achieved because achieving or reaching for high standards has become habit. It is an interesting and innovative idea, but I do wonder if the habit actually does lead to students thinking about their choices.
I also wonder about the age appropriateness of this teaching style. I know that as an adult I would find this strategy utterly humiliating, but it works for extroverted, energetic kids. I can see it being very successful for elementary school students. However (and this applies to the Chinese lesson above as well), what about introverted, quiet children? While the behavior is regulated and the students follow directions, for kids who do seem to be quite old (late middle or early high school perhaps) it does not feel age appropriate, or intrinsically motivated. I know that Whole Brain Teaching claims that habit induces thinking, but I'm not convinced entirely by this argument. After all, I teach too many students who do something just because they're told to, but when pressed, don't actually know why a certain thing is "good" or "bad" (or why they're categorized in that way at all). Just good.
One thing I did like was that the students were then asked to teach each other, and the content was continually reinforced in this way, something I have also used in my classroom, but not so regimented. I'm unsure of what high learning standards there are, but where it is acceptable for third graders to regurgitate content, as it is age appropriate, I would prefer older students to go a little deeper than merely knowing what longitude and latitude is for.
Summary
In short, there were three different types of lessons, with different teaching strategies. One asks the students to apply concept they learn in class to a real life task, another uses chanting and practice to memorize concepts, while the third engages in repetition and gestures to reinforce both content and behavior. Of the three, I want to aim for the first lesson, which was applicable in real life and seemed to create mature, thoughtful, and motivated students. Right now I teach apathetic sixth grade students, and one of my goals is to go beyond just knowing grammar and reciting it back, but to think critically about both their reading and writing. I want them to engage in metacognitive skills and higher level learning instead of regurgitation, which is what I saw for Chinese and Whole Brain teaching. That being said, neither of those two techniques are inherently bad, for I feel that they would also be great to adopt when teaching content that does require memorization. Considering that my main focus is sixth grade, some of the movements could be used to reinforce concepts, and it can also instill habit in a big group of unruly, hyperactive children. However, since I only have four students in my classroom, it is currently unnecessary, but certainly a useful tool for the future when I do have a full classroom.
In regards to the whole-brain learning, I used to work with a teacher who used it in first grade. Her class had a large percentage of ELL students, and this method really worked well with them. I can understand why it seems like it wouldn't work with older students, but I think it all depends how you set up and develop expectations at the beginning of the year. If you have student buy in from the beginning, I can understand how it would work for them. I think it really depends on the subject and dynamics of the students though.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Western society tends to have a disdain for rote memorization, but my biggest issue about it is that I don't feel it's age appropriate for young learners.
Dephanie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your stance of the STEM class. Ms. Mingal exemplified meaningful class management and it is what I strive for my own students. She certainly held high expectations for her students. Ms. Mingal brought real life instances into the classroom and I think as teachers we need to emphasize this into our lessons to help them prepare for their future. I'm glad you highlighted that into your analysis.
"The lesson is not mind blowing or innovative, but it got the job done."- This summarized my views of the chinese lesson as well. It seems that the teaching style has never evolved or changed for thousands of years- each teacher teaching the same rote memorization style. I find it ironic how in the west we are focused on what the research tells us yet our math is behind the Chinese at young ages. This tells me that teaching, its methods and styles, aren't really that dependent on doing everything the "correct" way, considering the way the west is so focused on differentiating. I would assume that this is because for good teachers, teaching is natural- and we naturally use methods that work best- regardless of whether research "validates" our methods. I assume that since there are so many variables in teaching styles, content, etc, that practically any particular element of a teacher's method could be considered conductive for the class in the right circumstances. In some ways, teaching is overthought in the west as a result of this focus on the individual. I'm curious what our teacher makes of this assessment.
ReplyDelete