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#Post#: 70--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Pam
Date: June 27, 2011, 7:58 am
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The chapter on questioning gave me much to think about. It
again reviewed techniques and ways of teaching that I know I
should use more often. The ideas on page 42 that show that an
adult is interested in listening to a student is so important
but so frustrating. I try to teach my students that during
reading we must talk about reading yet my students want to
discuss upcoming events of the day, what happened last night,
and things that they want to do later. Having that reading
block first thing in the morning makes it hard for students to
dive into studies before they cover things that they consider
more important. I wish that I could do writing first thing in
the morning so they could write and share and get over all their
chatter. I am going to set a goal to listen more intently yet
try to insist that we stay on topic. Thank you Julie for your
comments.
#Post#: 71--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Matt
Date: June 27, 2011, 11:05 am
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Wow! Lots of great comments an insights. Thanks for sharing. I
thought the first sentence of chapter 3 captured a profound
truth. "The art of questioning is central to the practice of
teaching." Effective questioning is an art. It is deliberate,
well timed, and elicits responses that reveal understanding.
Take a question like- "Does anyone have any questions?" This
puts everyone on notice that they may be the only person in the
room that did not understand. The risk of responding is high.
Here's another. "Bill, do you think President Reagan influenced
the end of the cold war?" Immediately, as other class members
hear "Bill" they know they are off the hook. Brains may shift
to neutral. Bill knows that he can get by with a "yes" or "no"
with no real thought. Compare that to, "Class, why did you
divide to solve that word problem? Be prepared to explain your
reasoning." I have been interrupted 6 times since starting this
note. I've lost my line of reasoning. I'm emailing a few other
Checking Understanding ideas that I have saved which you might
review.
#Post#: 72--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Julie
Date: June 27, 2011, 3:20 pm
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Matt, welcome to our world as teachers in dealing with
interruptions! We deal with interruptions all day long. I'm
not talking about interruptions from adults or the phone, I am
talking about the students! The behaviors, the nose pickers,
the off task students, etc. It becomes challenging to stay
focused and now you want us to ask quality
questions!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a good thing that we just got a
raise!
#Post#: 73--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Margaret
Date: June 27, 2011, 4:38 pm
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I am mostly enjoying the reading and your comments. Thanks!
#Post#: 74--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Carol Powers
Date: June 27, 2011, 6:29 pm
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I have worked hard this year trying to get my reading group to
write good questions this year> I tried to model question
writing on the board. Towards the end of the year Yulisa and
Halli were writing really good questions. Questions that would
make the person that answered the question think about their
response. I find it easier to come up with questions in reading
than I do the other subjects. I am going to really work on
having the students write about science more. It seems to be
the hardest subject for me to get the students to write about.
The students did like using sticky notes to write about 1
important thing they learned from the main idea and leave it on
the page. I get bogged doen in science trying to teach all the
vocabulary words and having the students write their meanings
especially at the begining of the year it seems to take forever
to journal.
#Post#: 75--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Pam
Date: June 28, 2011, 5:41 pm
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I printed off the handouts that had different ways to check
for understanding on them. There were so many good ideas. I do
believe that using a variety of ways has to be the answer.
Stephanie helped me start my reading group in responding with
writing to check to see if they understood what I was teaching.
It was toward the end of the year which is important for first
grade. I was surprised that it was manageable and actually kept
the students more on task. It was much easier to extend those
students who finished first. I am going to try to start to use
this method earier in the year because writing is an excellent
way to check for understanding.
#Post#: 76--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Julie
Date: July 1, 2011, 10:56 am
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I enjoyed reading the information on Brain Strategies. It
reminded me again of the training we received a few years ago.
I try to use several hand signals to help children learn
concepts. Stephanie had my vocabulary words for reading made
with a picture to help the students. It really is helpful, and
I need to take the time to do that for math, science and social
studies. Sometimes the words in social studies are hard to
picture such as responsibility or citizenship. Rebecca, I
really liked your idea of having all the teachers who work with
a class on the same page in regards to responses. It would help
to have the same expectations and then they would be able to
review that skill several times each week. Thanks for the idea.
We will have to work on that. You are always so good about
trying to help us out in our teaching. I think that Dallin did
a great job of scanning. I have my reading overheads to scan,
does Dallin want to show me how or just do it for me?
#Post#: 77--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Susie
Date: July 2, 2011, 7:40 pm
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Really terrific posts! I am also reading a book called Write
Beside Them (can't get the underline or italics to work) in
preparation for the Wyoming Writers Institute. A lot about
journaling has struck cords for me in the Checking for
Understanding. I like the reference sheets, too. I am hoping
to use sentence starters more and to encourage more journaling.
So much of what was in these two chapters echoes the techniques
from Quantum Learning. Now if I just had a week of
uninterrupted time to start putting it all together! And then
writing lesson plans to go with all the ideas. Julie, I really
like your idea of partner sharing.
#Post#: 80--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Hans
Date: July 5, 2011, 9:06 am
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OK, I hope this is Reading 4 I'm responding to. Life has been
crazy and we've been in and out and in and out for nearly two
weeks, but now I'm back and in the saddle again.
Several things from this reading caught my attention. First, I
was reminded of the critical importance of wait time. I've
known this for awhile, but as a former ELL and Spanish teacher,
I appreciated the comment they had about ELL students needing
time to translate the question and answers in their minds first.
Second, I like the idea of charting which students answer and
keeping track of that. I disagree that boys tend to dominate
the classroom discussions. My experience over the past 10 years
has been just the opposite. But there is definitely a vocal
majority that will always jump in before others if left to their
own devices. This brings me to my third point. Having whole
class respons systems in place, like boards, cards, hand
signals, etc greatly helps to not only ensure that students "get
it," but it also helps shyer or slower students answer more
freely without feeling like the center of attention. Fourth,
and finally, as an English teacher, I am always pounding the
idea of active questioning while reading to my students. I've
never quite known exactly how to teach this apporpriately. It's
one thing to tell kids to ask questions while they read. It's
another to model that behavior for them. The technique of
having students and teacher question each other back and forth
was so simply profound, I smacked myself in the head for not
thinking of it earlier.
#Post#: 87--------------------------------------------------
Re: Checking for Understanding- Chapters 3 and 4
DIR By: Karen
Date: July 11, 2011, 7:27 pm
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I realize I am a little behind, with family visiting and
reunions happening, homework was a little hard to get to. I
loved chapter 3, as I was reading I was hoping I could find a
way to practice what I am reading when I teach the children at
church. I appreciate the reminders of how to help a student who
answers incorrectly, and to make sure we really listen when we
ask questions. Many times I have been a student in a class and
not been brave enough to answer a question because I didn't want
to be wrong, the hand signals or response cards would have been
very nice for a shy student like myself. The one quote I am
going to keep in mind when I am preparing to teach is; "The goal
is for questions to provide students with an opportunity to
think and the teacher with an opportunity to check for
understanding.'
With chapter 4, I was surprised to realize how often I have used
writing to help myself learn and remember things. Not just in a
classroom setting, but everyday life. I am always making lists
to brain storm, or outlines to organize my thoughts and the
things I have studied for a talk or lesson, writing in my
journal is a way of writing to remember and clarify the things
that happen in my life. I liked the idea of not grading each
paper, I would be less nervous and stressed if I could just
write what came to mind instead of worrying about grammar usage
and sentence structure (which are a little rusty). Maybe the
ideas would flow more easily.
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