Monday, June 13, 2011
Direct the Rider
In the first section Direct the Rider, the authors discuss actions that speak to our logical side, the Rider. These actions include finding bright spots, scripting the critical moves, and pointing to the destination. Share an example in which you have used these strategies in your classroom, OR in retrospect, an example of how you could have used one (or all) of them in your classroom.
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Our fourth grade Multiplication Hall of Fame is a great example of pointing to a destination. We find a bright spot the first time we use a timer to just see how much a student knows already. "See you can already do 50 in 3 minutes; you're half way there!" We script our critical moves when we do daily timed test, put practice games and pages on our websites, use a dry erase multiplication board, etc.
ReplyDeletePat G
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ReplyDeleteWow - Switch distills the results of complex research into the essentials of a powerful and usable framework. "Hands-on" describes the essentials of 5th grade science and history this past year, but a definite bright spot was the success students had with peer-teaching projects. What was happening when it went right? Critical opening moves were scripted enough that small groups knew how to begin, without being paralyzed by details and decisions; the destination was well-mapped enough that all groups successfully reached the goal, and all individuals were successful in contributing to the group effort. I was truly impressed by their results and felt that my role as facilitator was where I wanted to be. My greatest satisfaction as the observer was the freedom they felt in being able to approach their chosen destinations by highly individual paths. At the times when I was working out the mechanics of how to carry out this type of project, there were two sets of observers and a student teacher in my classroom; these third party observers were impressed with our students, but I appreciated the validation of having that "impartial" outside view. Analysis: how did students achieve their results? Specific, intentional procedures for working with the content were directly instructed and analyzed in whole group settings; a variety of end-products were modeled and analyzed for purpose, audience, and appeal; this left the middle open for students to use their own strengths and creativity. Switch gives me a framework to explain and to try to reproduce that success. My rider is gratified by the knowledge of content and procedures that were demonstrated; my elephant is motivated by the accompanying student feedback: "That was fun. When can we do it again?"
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of "bright spots." This is probably what most of us do in our classrooms. Find the bright spot in each kid (their strength) and use that to encourage and guide through the curriculum. Last year I had a child who was having trouble with academic work; however, she was amazingly creative. I focused on her creativity and encouraged her to use it in her academic work. Once she started drawing her imaginative creatures in her journal, she got excited about writing about them as well. Slowly, I assisted her and guided her towards classroom resources to write. By the end of the year she was writing stories independently. Using her bright spot as a starting point, she found success in other areas and even inspired others to do the same. Bright spots are a good thing!
ReplyDeleteI, too, like the bright spots. What I enjoyed most about this reading was the way of questioning the difficult student. I'm going to incorporate those types of questions when dealing with challenging students. Of course, I just might give them some Cheetos! : - )
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jane and Amie. Finding the bright spots of our students is important. By asking the right questions, we can find a bright spot or something that is working for a student, who might not be doing what is expected in other areas. The questions can help not only in academic areas but in social and behavioral as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the preschool, at least in PK, we really don't know the kids. These families come from the neighborhoods and surrounding community so they are truly strangers to us as teachers (unless you have a sibling). So we look for "bright spots" early on in order to get to know the child and help them become comfortable in a new school.
ReplyDeleteI agree we are doing a good job finding the strengths, or bright spots, for our students. I liked how the author mentioned a common occurrence with many parents is to fixate on the negative. This reminded me of the importance of sharing and communicating the bright spots with our parents for them to utilize too. In the middle school specifically, we complete quite a few strength explorers, learning styles inventories and such. This information should be shared either during the conferences or somehow be disseminated to them. For myself, I also thought about how I might be able to better communicate the destination with the students. Often times I know where we are going and the why, but I would like to be more deliberate in sharing this thinking with the students. Hopefully this will lead to better buy in by the often-cynical adolescent.
ReplyDeleteI am going to direct my comment in a little different direction. Quite a few of us on the pre-school faculty would like to change the format of our report cards. As we have discussed this issue we have always centered our discussion around the things that we do not like about our current format. As I was reading these chapters, I kept coming back to the question of what would happen if we went about this dilemma from a different perspective? We know that we want a more efficient and less time-consuming way to communicate detailed information about each child. We also know that our current format does communicate good information but it is frustrating for the teacher to use. What other bright spots exist in the existing format besides good information being communicated? How could we use those to improve what we currently use? We seem to always let our Rider get control and spin his wheels by continually analyzing everything that we do not like. What can we do to make this process less time consuming? Is it our assessment techniques that are the problem or is it finding the right words to effectively describe a particular child? What if we make a specific goal - we want to be able to write each report card in half an hour for instance? If we then defined exactly what was to be covered under each heading and then helped to provide the words, would that make it possible? I think we all agree that we want some change and I think we could all agree on a desired outcome, so we just need the specific steps outlined on how to get there. Pre-school let's give it some thought to see if we can actually put this methodology into practice to deal with a dilemma that is frustrating us all.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kappi! I don't think you could have said it any better. I especially agree that if we defined the headings and refined the language that we could streamline a lot, but still get the expressive product that we value.
ReplyDeleteWe are always looking for "bright spots" in our classroom! We look for "special helpers" who have strengths in certain areas such as cleaning, writing or drawing, quiet play, etc., and try to use them as leaders and helpers for the other children.
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