2 Questions 2 Better Teaching

For new teachers, and experienced ones for that matter, there is so much to focus on and remember. Did my students master the skills? Did I take attendance? Did I call the student's parent about not turning in his permission slip? Do I have copies made for tomorrow's lesson? 

For teachers, it can be overwhelming, so when coaching them I simplify some of the most important aspects into two questions that I ask them to reflect on daily. Although simple, these questions focus on the priorities for a classroom teacher, and if utilized properly, may have a significant impact with improving teaching and student learning.

1. Did ALL my students learn today, and how do I know?

In any one class, a teacher will have varying student ability levels causing them to wonder how to ensure that the struggling student is learning, and yet the gifted student is still being challenged. "By the 4th grade, public-school children who score among the top 10 percent of students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are reading at least six grade levels above those in the bottom 10 percent. Even differences between students at the 25th and at the 75th percentiles are huge—at least three grade levels" (https://educationnext.org/all-together-now/). As I informed one Special Education teacher I was working with, just because the students have accommodations and modifications, it does not mean they cannot learn and master the skills. Sometimes we have to just be creative in reaching them. To ensure that all students' needs are being met, connecting to prior knowledge and scaffolding are vital. Connecting to prior knowledge and scaffolding can be accomplished in fun ways such as through movie trailers and even songs. For example, the movie trailer of "The Minions Movie" can lead into a lesson on inferencing, the song "Battle of Belleau Wood" by Garth Brooks to introduce the Christmas Eve cease fire of WWI, or even using a "cracker sandwich" analogy to teach the elements of an essay. 

Just because a lesson was taught, it does not mean students learned it. This is where the second part of this question is so important, which is to ensure that all students learned the skill(s) being taught. Checking for understanding is key to not only ensuring that students are learning, but also allows the teacher to know if the lesson needs to be adapted or changed. For example, I was teaching what I thought was a great lesson on Homer's "The Odyssey" to my 9th grade students. Ten minutes in the lesson I did a check for understanding and realized my students were not understanding. At that moment, I switched my method of teaching and started drawing stick figures on the board, resulting in students better understanding the story. Since I did a check for understanding early in the lesson, I was able to go back and reteach it without wasting so much precious learning time. "If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn" (Ignacio Estrada). Checking for understanding should be done often in a lesson, and can be done in a variety of ways such as through thumbs up/down, discussion via turn/talk/share, creating a symbol to represent the skill being taught, as well as many others. The most important aspect is to not wait until the end of the lesson to see if students grasped the concept(s) being taught, but instead do frequent checks to determine if any adjustments need to be made so precious learning time is not wasted.

2. Did I have fun teaching today?

Many have heard the saying "Attitudes are contagious", and now there is scientific research to show that this statement is true. "Recent research has discovered that humans have millions of mirror neurons that cause us to mimic each other’s behaviors, emotions and facial expressions. Mirror neurons are why we tend to smile when someone smiles at us, or why we wince when we see someone get hurt" (https://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/positive_emotions_and_behaviors_are_contagious). If the teacher is having fun, the students probably are as well. There have been many times I would run up and down the rows of student desks with flailing arms while reading a poem, or wear a black veil during the entire reading of "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, or sing and dance to teach the order of operations. Students have many times commented, "Mrs. Craig, thanks for making the lesson fun, even though the overall story wasn't that great!" Students need to see you actively engaged in the lesson for them to be engaged. For example, I pulled a song with motions to help some 4th and 5th grade students with the order of operations (PEMDAS shuffle) after their teacher informed me they were struggling with this concept. I shared the video with her before giving the "guest lesson" (AKA model lesson) to inform her what we would be doing. When teaching the students, I called the teacher up to do the motions and song with us. As soon as they saw their teacher engaging in the song and having fun, the ones who were just barely doing the motions began to do them with full motions.   After the song ended, laughter and clapping ensued. An important aspect to remember is that fun in the classroom is not just limited to the elementary classroom!

Bringing laughter back into the classroom is also a great way to increase student learning. Studies have shown there are many benefits to laughter. Based on studies by the Mayo Clinic, laughter can increase the endorphins released by the brain, help relieve stress, soothe tension, make it easier to cope with difficult situations, and improve your mood (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456?pg=2). This ultimately can result in better learning by the students, and even better classroom management.