Happy Wednesday!
Welcome to the Teaching with Intention Summer Book Study!
Please click on the button below (our wonderful host!) to read everyone's thoughtful contributions to Chapters 1-3 of
Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller.
Today we are tackling Chapter 4: Classroom Culture
I'm pretty darn excited to be co-hosting with Schroeder Shenanigans in Second, a blogger I've long
Be sure to visit her for her insights!
I'm also thrilled to be sharing about Classroom Culture. It's a topic I think about often, as it is always evolving throughout the school year. To me, strong classroom culture isn't something you can necessarily "see," but you can definitely"feel" it the moment your enter into a room full of engaged students.
In this chapter, Debbie Miller stresses the importance of setting a classroom culture where students feel willing to take on the
"heavy lifting."
She provides examples of successful interactions where students felt valued and were willing to take the risk of pushing their thinking. It is obvious that promoting thinking in this manner will require laying the groundwork from the very start...and this chapter is FULL of thoughtful suggestions.
As I read and re-read this chapter while reflecting on my own teaching philosophy and experiences (don't we all do that?!?),
I kept coming back to the idea of ratio:
Reflect: What is your current student-talk to teacher-talk ratio?
Is it 50/50? 70/30? 80/20?
Goal: What do you think is an ideal (& realistic) goal?
It may look different with older/younger students!
Action: What next steps will you take to reach your goal?
This chapter is full of ideas and inspiration, including examples of using explicit modeling ("putting our thinking on display") to promote more student-talk.
A painfully wonderful way to get a clear picture on classroom culture in your classroom is to have someone video your teaching interactions with your students. It's not for the faint of heart :)
When you're feeling brave, go ahead and watch!
What are you saying (verbal and body language)?
What messages are your students hearing?
What messages do you want your students to hear?
As I was reflecting on this chapter, I saw this timely message:
♥
In this chapter, Debbie Miller shares "Something to Try," including thinking about the words we choose and the messages they send. She lists TONS of questions we can immediately put to use until we find our own voice.
I also put together an "Accountable Talk" reference page to encourage our students :)
There's just so much more information to share and I hope you join the conversation! Please follow the links below and add your own. Thanks! Jen
I LOVE the idea of video taping yourself!! I actually have that same goal to do this school year for a few reasons!! :) Great post, co-host!! :)
ReplyDeleteAshley
Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd
We really do have to believe in the power of our students' thinking while we teach them to think for and believe in themselves. Monitoring the talk ratio in my class will be on my mind as I head into next year. I want to be more intentional about handing over the bulk of the talking time to the kids. Thank you for hosting this week!
ReplyDeleteThinking about the student talk ratio, mine was not so good this past year. I will try to implement more student talking in the coming year. I found that when I did turn over the talking/teaching to my students they truly were more engaged and loved to hear what their classmates had to say when sharing their thoughts and ideas. I also want to put Debbie Miller's questions on stickies or create something so I have them handy. This chapter made em think more about how and why I need to turn my class over to my kids. They will be more engaged, more adept to learning from each other, and more willing to listen to what others' thoughts and ideas are. This book is giving me more try in my class. Now With all the other books and blog posts I need/want to read, I will have to implement things in stride and not try to rush into everything all at once.
ReplyDelete