Reading the article regarding Mrs. Jones' class, I couldn't help but see myself in the shoes of the teacher and the student. Constantly in class I am trying to keep my students on task about their text to self connections when going over social studies material. I even have in my class expectations for my 6th graders to make sure we stick to 'intelligent' questions when asking them in class. I did this to try and curb any nonsense questions that might throw us off task. But what do I even mean by that? Did me listing that expectation make the students feel some type of way? When I asked them what they thought they did seem to be on the same wave length as me. But when I think of myself outside of my teacher persona, you might as well call me Deena from the reading! I don't think I could be more round about, the way I tell my stories (I enjoy it to be honest).
But enough about me, (see.). As teachers, how are we more aware, IN THE MOMENT, about the way our students communicate to us and with their peers and vise versa? Mrs. Jones struggled to understand and keep Deena on task, and if she hadn't she might have gotten what she expected out of her student. When is redirection and guidance too much when we ask students to participate in an activity that asks for them to share their perspective? Is that even a place for us to step in, and chime in, when we have provided this platform for them? How do we make sure that we are responding fairly (even toned) to each student regardless of their verbal communication style?
No comments:
Post a Comment