Best Practices Question answered by a biology teacher.
Apr 14 '11 (Updated Apr 17 '11) Write an essay on this topic.
I was given these questions to answer for a student. I decided that it would be cool to post them on epinions.com also. If you have any thoughts or want more pontification, just message or e-mail me and I'll do my best to address it.
I want to make it clear. This is just a small piece of a very large puzzle. So just understand that this is just 6 simple questions answered in an informal way.
Fieldwork Activity & Best Practices
You will need to interview a master teacher, one who has been teaching for at least 5 years, the following questions:
I'm going to start off by saying that there is no such thing as one pressing thing or one best way to do things. If someone says that then they are just fooling themselves and not doing what is best for our students. The most important thing a teacher can do for their students is to remain flexible. To be able to bend as a person, as a professional, and bend your lessons at times. This is not meaning you have to give in, you never have to do that. You are the conductor and are therefore bound to complete the symphony. But you need to always keep an open mind, an open heart, and always think about what you can do as a teacher to help your students succeed.
1. What is the most pressing issue with your students in regards to the subject you teach?
The most pressing issue with teaching today is teaching your student to take a state mandated, multiple choice test based on the California State Standards. Everything is based on this. There are some schools (Norte Vista being one example) that have been threatened by the state that if they do not improve then they will be closed or taken over. Everybody is scared of this scenario.
Because of this, the relevance (of the three R's) is harmed. Some teachers will go so far as to say that what they teach has no relationship to the real world. Rather the information they teach has to be taught because of these tests. That is why they tell the student why they need to learn the information.
The clear decrease in relevance is not just my opinion, but it is clearly demonstrated the data collected at my school and across the state.
By the way, the other two R's are rigor and relationship.
I try to do the opposite. With that in mind, I tell students why it is important. That is one of my main ways to get student buy in. I try to show them that by understanding how their body works, they are better able to understand what it takes to be a better athlete, parent, healthier individual, etc. And no, this is not an easy task. Every once in a while I will say that they need to know this sole because it will be on a test and in college biology.
2. What do you find is the most effective strategy to begin class with students focused?
Depends on the class of course. Pop quizzes work. CST prep questions can work. But for me I find that doing a good anticipatory set that either makes them think, forces them to interact with a group, or share their opinion; can be one of the best ways to start a class. Just a question as simple as what do you think of. I can get them focused. It all depends on the class, their mood, and their confidence. Those classes with high confidence will want to share. Those with low confidence may not.
I also do my best to tie in what they already know (or their opinion) with what my lesson will focus on.
Ultimately I want my students to do something interactive and hopefully get them excited for the up coming lesson.
Now this is the part where flexibility comes into play. Sometimes you have a class that just gets into it and loves the process. This is not normal. It is because you got a lucky group of students, or you worked very hard to create a classroom climate that all students can feel comfortable in.
Two main ways to create this climate is to show the students you are interested in their opinions and ideas (or pretend that you are) and to NEVER berate a student for a stupid answer. Making fun of a question or comment just cements their mouth shut.
Each teacher has a different personality and your personality has to shine in such a way that student know what to expect from you. Some teachers might want to start out with an interesting story. Sometimes a joke. I do them all depending the the class dynamics and my mood. Remember what I said above? Stay flexible.
3. What do you find is the most effective strategy for grouping students?
I love the idea of cooperative learning. There are formal lesson based on the social family where students work together as groups or as a class (jurisprudential lesson, Socratic seminar, role-playing, cooperative learning lessons). But in my classroom I have my students work in groups of 3. They usually work together to discuss the bellwork/anticipatory set, think-pair-share, guided practice, etc. I almost always have them write their answer so I can see it. This is just a good classroom management technique.
There are other techniques too. You can have them go to different corners of the room based on their opinion on an issue. You can have them wander around the room until I say stop and find a partner (or stop the music). You can have them fill out a clock and later on that week they have to find their clock partner and discuss the topic (you can find many of these online).
4. What do you find is the most effective strategy for introducing new material?
If it is a new unit, you may want to consider a pre-test. It takes time but can be useful in focusing your attention towards a specific standard later in the unit.
I always try to add relevance. How does the new material relate to their own world, or the world they are going into. That is where I have had the most success but not all new topics can be addressed this way.
In those times where I feel it can work, I will bring out their prior knowledge or find a way to make them think. Give them a problem to solve. Throw out a hypothetical for them to discuss in their groups (think-pair-share maybe?). Cheat and find a cool short video on YouTube.
5. What do you find is the most effective strategy for checking for understanding?
This right now is my weakest area and Iím finding it is a really weak area for most teachers. I keep it simple by asking some very fundamental questions right before I go to modeling and guided practice. I donít ask complex questions, I do that in guided practice. You can do choral response, just be really careful. I recommend you do it randomly with a card or popsicle stick at the beginning of the year. When I go along later in the year I will avoid choosing my advanced learners intentionally so I get a better idea of what the lower level students are grasping. I also can do it pseudo-randomly by using my seating chart. But some teachers love their popsicle sticks and start making ugly faces at you if you even joke about taking them away.
Other times I will have them answer in groups. After a few minutes I will have random groups answer the question (while they are in their groups working, I can go around and see their answers to see if there is anything I need to re-teach that way.)
Another good technique is to ask a check for understanding type question every 3 minutes in your lesson. Avoid choral responses if possible.
Also a good classroom management technique is to keep switching activities. If for some strange reason you are doing a 30 minute input (lecture), then you need to stop every 10 minutes and do a check for understanding or an activity. You will lose their attention somewhere between 5-8 minutes, so break it up. And if you are teaching teachers, you will lose their attention at the 3 minute mark. Trust me, teachers are worse (I know because thatís my attention limit.)
If you have access to them, pass out small white boards to the students so they can write their answers. This is great for the shy students who would never speak up verbally. I don't use them but a fellow biology teacher just started using them and absolutely loves them. Think of the newly wed game.
6. What do you find is the most effective strategy for summative assessment?
I think the most effective is an essay and/or diagram assessment. Not only do you look for key words, you look at how they connect the dots. But I donít do that. I do multiple choice because Iíve been told in the past to do multiple choice tests. The idea is to prepare them for the multiple choice CSTís. At the beginning of my career I actually taught students how to bubble. That alone raised test score significantly. By now they have been hammered with proper bubbling that I rarely see that as an issue. The two main issues are that they fill in the right test version and bubble in the right number. But I digress.
When you do multiple choice summative assessments you need to make sure each question is related to a standard. That way you can see which standard they are weak on and re-teach it. I do my assessments every 6 weeks but I also give out district assessment every quarter. The district assessments are done through Edusoft so I can go back and see how each student did on each question, each standard, or each unit.
After CST's are done, I like to do activities such as Jig-saw. The difference is I do review with my regular biology classes and try to activity based learning with topics suggested by my AP bio teacher.
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