Most school-aged children in America wake up in the morning thinking, "Ugh! another day of school that I have to deal with again." Their wish is to play and be a kid in a world with limitless technological outlets. Video games, make-believe play and unsupervised activities are higher on a child's wishlist than learning how to differentiate between a geometric shape's sides and vertices. So how do we as educators motivate our students to perform well on in-class assignments and ultimately, standardized tests? The expectancy x value framework for teaching shines a light on the complex topic of motivating students (Weinstein & Romano, 2015, pg. 202) . The idea is that students look at assigned work with two lenses that must work in unison before a clear path to completion can be found. They must expect to be able to do the work with prior knowledge and reference materials to back them. They must also have some sort of value or ownership in their learning, otherwise it becomes lost in long term memory. In the case of our students who feel happiness from being a kid, (e.g. cartoons, trading cards, Disney princess culture), they are seemingly shunned in the fast-paced academic flow of the classroom. By bringing in books about what students like and doing Read-Alouds with them, we can connect teacher-to-student over many interesting topics that also spark curiosity in the children.
We want to know what our students are thinking, especially when it comes down to ideas of an academic nature. Any misconception that a student has can be easily addressed by way of discourse and discussion in the classroom. It's all about what questions are asked, who the questions are directed to, and by whom. Are students having plenty of opportunities to ask each other questions? Several of my education professors have mentioned that elementary students often best learn from their peers. At this developmental stage in their life, they are used to and desensitized by adults telling them what to do. Their wish is to explore the world for themselves with their newfound abilities to be independent from their parents all day at school. We as teachers can channel their excitement and wonder towards lesson content with multiple ways of expressing understanding. Several strategies for improving individual work and questioning are providing adequate think time, providing feedback while keeping everyone else in mind (pausing for whole group re-teach), and knowing when to employ evaluation feedback to student response or a follow-up as transition into something else (Weinstein & Romano, 2015, pg. 250).
Challenging the norms and beliefs of the traditional classroom has become a modern necessity of in-service teachers. Realistically, how would students ever be able to judge or value their thoughts if they were only required to keep to themselves and perform their own work individually? Small groups can offer a life-line for students should an assignment appear to be challenging. Instead of all of the learning responsibilities falling on a single child, the responsibilities can be shared equally among group members so that everyone has a job and everyone has a say in their project/assignment. Small group work models real-life career situations where adults gather to solve a problem such as how firefighters enter a burning building by looking at blueprints, or how to talk with your caddy about the undulation of a putting green to sink a putt for birdie. As teachers, it is our responsibility that students feel safe and welcome in our classrooms (#FEAP2f). My goal as an educator is for students to be able to assign themselves into groups of diverse people every day, showing they feel comfortable enough to work with anyone in the room. They will only feel this way if everyone has had opportunities to show their brilliance, and by methods that are tailored to their learning intelligence/style. There are some challenges and limitations to such an idea, and I believe that assigning team captains each week can alleviate some segregation formed from free student choice (Weinstein & Romano, 2015, pg. 258).
Whether it's peer tutoring, cooperative learning with a unified goal in mind, or circle group meetings, the theme is always students. Why look towards students with distrust and misconceptions when you could take a step back and say "I'm a teacher, and it is my professional responsibility to provide the best education possible for these students." This is the way it should be, because teachers are reaching back with a helping hand and bringing up the next generation. We are trained to provide academic instruction, but are never really explained that there are other mind-spaces that are developing right along side our ability to count numbers. Sharing and caring are the two themes that come to mind being a first grade intern. Learning how to manage classroom etiquette through attention to detail and group coherence helps make informed decisions about where children should work in the classroom and who they should be working with. What does it mean to be a teacher? Being a teacher means that you must always keep your instructional strategies in mind, but never forget your instinctual knowledge of what it was like being a child in the American public school system.
(Classroom Management)
Reference(s)
Weinstein, C., & Romano, M. (2015). Elementary classroom management: Lessons from research
and practice (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
We want to know what our students are thinking, especially when it comes down to ideas of an academic nature. Any misconception that a student has can be easily addressed by way of discourse and discussion in the classroom. It's all about what questions are asked, who the questions are directed to, and by whom. Are students having plenty of opportunities to ask each other questions? Several of my education professors have mentioned that elementary students often best learn from their peers. At this developmental stage in their life, they are used to and desensitized by adults telling them what to do. Their wish is to explore the world for themselves with their newfound abilities to be independent from their parents all day at school. We as teachers can channel their excitement and wonder towards lesson content with multiple ways of expressing understanding. Several strategies for improving individual work and questioning are providing adequate think time, providing feedback while keeping everyone else in mind (pausing for whole group re-teach), and knowing when to employ evaluation feedback to student response or a follow-up as transition into something else (Weinstein & Romano, 2015, pg. 250).
Challenging the norms and beliefs of the traditional classroom has become a modern necessity of in-service teachers. Realistically, how would students ever be able to judge or value their thoughts if they were only required to keep to themselves and perform their own work individually? Small groups can offer a life-line for students should an assignment appear to be challenging. Instead of all of the learning responsibilities falling on a single child, the responsibilities can be shared equally among group members so that everyone has a job and everyone has a say in their project/assignment. Small group work models real-life career situations where adults gather to solve a problem such as how firefighters enter a burning building by looking at blueprints, or how to talk with your caddy about the undulation of a putting green to sink a putt for birdie. As teachers, it is our responsibility that students feel safe and welcome in our classrooms (#FEAP2f). My goal as an educator is for students to be able to assign themselves into groups of diverse people every day, showing they feel comfortable enough to work with anyone in the room. They will only feel this way if everyone has had opportunities to show their brilliance, and by methods that are tailored to their learning intelligence/style. There are some challenges and limitations to such an idea, and I believe that assigning team captains each week can alleviate some segregation formed from free student choice (Weinstein & Romano, 2015, pg. 258).
Whether it's peer tutoring, cooperative learning with a unified goal in mind, or circle group meetings, the theme is always students. Why look towards students with distrust and misconceptions when you could take a step back and say "I'm a teacher, and it is my professional responsibility to provide the best education possible for these students." This is the way it should be, because teachers are reaching back with a helping hand and bringing up the next generation. We are trained to provide academic instruction, but are never really explained that there are other mind-spaces that are developing right along side our ability to count numbers. Sharing and caring are the two themes that come to mind being a first grade intern. Learning how to manage classroom etiquette through attention to detail and group coherence helps make informed decisions about where children should work in the classroom and who they should be working with. What does it mean to be a teacher? Being a teacher means that you must always keep your instructional strategies in mind, but never forget your instinctual knowledge of what it was like being a child in the American public school system.
(Classroom Management)
Reference(s)
Weinstein, C., & Romano, M. (2015). Elementary classroom management: Lessons from research
and practice (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.