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After I give a lesson, let's say intro to decimal fraction
multiplication, and send the children off into the wild blue yonder, I
expect that they do any follow-up that is appropriate. My question
is, would you think it appropriate to meet with those children a
couple days later to actually do a few problems together to see who
actually gets it and or who has actually taken the material out?
I think that the key is to never consider a first lesson the last.
Whenever you give a lesson, no matter the subject, always tell the
children that you are going to meet about it again in a few days.
Leave it open ended, but make it obvious that you will be revisiting
the topic.
It is fair and reasonable to expect that children follow up on new
lessons in some way. If I give a lesson on writing introductory
paragraphs on Monday, I tell the children that we will meet again
on Wednesday. Then I mark that on my calendar so that I don't
forget.
I do the same thing if I am presenting solving equations. I present
and then we meet again later in the week. When we meet, I simply
ask what children have done with the work. Usually the children
who have worked on it are enthusiastic and this inspires the others
who have not to take it out before the next time we meet.
With a math work, at the second meeting, I might give them a
problem to do to show me if they understand it. If it is writing, I
might read the paragraphs that they have written and we comment
as a group on positives and places to improve. And in both cases, I
pick still another day to meet.
Welcome back, G. Hope all is well. Welcome also to you, F. Feel
free to jump in with questions or comments. Either can be
submitted in the question box at the bottom.
Does anyone have any topics they would like to chat about?
If not, I have some previously submitted questions. I am curious,
though, do most of you meet regularly many times on the same
lessons?
One of the new challenges that the primary teachers are facing is
that if they do not physically stay with a child after a presentation,
the child usually puts it away. I think that we are seeing this in the
elem in a different form. It’s not that they put the work away, they
never take it out. Often for them, just knowing that we will be
together again with the common topic generates interest. If you do
wendyc(P) this religiously, as your week progresses, you are giving fewer new
lessons in the day and more follow-up meetings. It truly relieves the
feeling of pouring out lessons into a cup that has a hole in the
bottom. I am refreshed and I know that I am accomplishing
something. In addition, I get to know the children through these
repeated meetings in a way is not clear when the lesson is new each
time I see them.
My class is small and I think that I spend too much time with
students working with them on lessons, rather than letting them
work together. The result is that I usually know if they have
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understood the lesson or not. I think that I will work more towards
the ideas that you are setting forth.
Having a small class comes with many hidden traps. One is the
ability to see everything. Things that children should be doing that
they are not, and things that children are not doing but should be.
For many years I gave lessons only at a lesson table. I now give
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them also at the tables children are working at. This allows me to
have deeper insight into the goings on and the relationships. The
other danger of a small class is, as you mentioned, giving too many
lessons. It is hard to resist!
I am going to post a previously submitted question and then answer
it. Do you all know that you can now submit questions at any time?
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They will be answered even if you cannot be on the live chat and
then published in the transcripts.
I am having a difficult time getting classroom jobs, general cleanup, dusting, straightening of materials etc..to be a successful part of
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our classroom culture. Any ideas? We have a job list, we rotate
jobs, but the children just don't take them seriously or do them well.
wendyc(P) I think that this issue is a challenge for most if not all of us.
I have not been successful with just getting the children to "notice"
that things need to be done, and then do them successfully. Now
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that I think of it, I have the same problem with my own children at
home.
What we are doing now that has been more successful is to have the
older children create and assign jobs to all the children in the class.
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We then pick some of the older children to be responsible to check
if jobs are being done.
But this in itself did not solve the problem. The teachers were
wendyc(P) constantly reminding the children to remind the children. Not much
help.
So we had a discussion with our oldest group, as the class leaders.
We told them that they had a responsibility to provide leadership.
From that day forward, we said, whenever we had to remind them
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to remind the other children, they would need to do the job with
that child. Not just remind them. Things are not perfect. But we
have never seen more spontaneous cleaning.
And I believe it is perfectly reasonable to expect the oldest children
to take this responsibility on. It is their class! We are striving to
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prepare them to be good leaders, workers, citizens. We can't do this
if we are in charge of everything.
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And it keeps you out of the equation.
wendyc(A) Which is always a positive!
I love the enthusiasm of the 3-6 year olds! In terms of
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cleaning...they often ague over the broom.
I have definitely found that by elementary, as the saying goes, the
wendyc(A) thrill is gone. But it still needs to be done, and they are still the ones
that need to do it.
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That is so true, Wendy.
Tell us something about your class. 6 - 9? 9 - 12? 6 -12? Large or
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small?
I am actually a Primary guide. But, I am always on the alert for
what I need to be preparing them for once they graduate.
Sorry, had to step away for some class management of my own
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children.
As an elementary teacher, I think that we understand that children
wendyc(P) can only reach the level of responsibility that is similar to what is
expected at home.
I think in terms of academics, again you can only help a child go as
far as he can. But certainly an ability to read simple phrases at a
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minimum and to write legibly, if not beautifully. It is hard to get
along in elementary without those two skills.
Anything to add? If not I will go on to another pre-submitted
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question and we can see if it interests us.
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Move on, I am listening.
wendyc(A) Good enough.
We have work journals that the students record the time, the work
and any details of the work. I am trying to start doing work review
meetings and I want to know how people are going about this, what
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has worked or just any general suggestions about keeping them on
track with appropriate work choices and getting them to be
responsible for proper maintenance of the journals themselves.
Important to view the work journal as an eternal work in progress.
In the first year, I think that it is reasonable to simply help the
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children keep the journals accurately and consistently. Sometimes
that is all the work review meeting consists of.
To look at a first year journal and try to establish goals for the next
meeting is reaching too far. You and the child will find yourselves
discouraged. There is nothing wrong with simply continuing to
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look at the journal and make suggestions for improvement. In the
beginning, the improvement is to be writing regularly in the
journal. Period.
As the children progress, the journal should become more
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elaborate. They should be accurate and kept consistently. They
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should also be introduced to the idea of adding details. This helps to
evaluate whether the time spent is reasonably.
When looking at a journal, if all it says is fractions from 9:00-9:45,
there is really not much I can evaluate without looking at every
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piece of work. Not to say that I haven't tried that. Totally
exhausting and self-defeating.
As for work review meetings, my approach to them has evolved
mightily over the years. I no longer use them to make sweeping
wendyc(P) evaluations about their work or how their time is spent. I just didn't
find that workable. I always hated having the meetings and
consequently didn't keep up with them.
But I have found now, with the frequent follow-up meetings that I
mentioned earlier, I have a good idea of who is and is not working,
wendyc(P) what they understand, and how they spend their time. I also gather
this information more from observation and just pulling up a seat at
a work table.
I recently heard a teacher say that her trainer said the journal
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shouldn't be a list of work. How would you like to record
everything you did in a day?
I also heard this discussion. I thought about it for some time. In the
end, I decided that the work journal is an important tool for the
children to reflect on how they are spending their time. The
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difference now in how I approach it with the children is that I just
look at the day in progress. I ask, so how have you spent your
morning? Let's take a look.
My students keep a journal and a math notebook. They also have
files for unfinished work/work in progress. At each meeting they
bring their journal, math notebook and unfinished work file. We
look through the file to check progress on projects. We usually set
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goals based on unfinished work related to lessons that they have
had. I also look at the lessons that I have given to see that they are
following up on them. Due dates are written down on a goal sheet
that is kept in a folder. They are responsible to refer to the folder
regularly. I try to week every 2 weeks with each child.
I know that people have many different philosophies about the
work journal and work review meetings. If you have something that
works for you, stick with it. I always felt that trying to give
feedback about two weeks worth of time in five minutes was
discouraging. If you find this to be the case, consider looking at
fewer pages of the journal more frequently. Just the one day, even. I
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always have the child read it to me and go over what he has been
doing. This way when the time is well spent we have an interesting
and enjoyable conversation. If time is not well spent, the child
himself is the one announcing it. And he knows if he has chosen
blow off work or if he has been wasting his time. He is the one who
has to read it aloud himself.
wendyc(P) I am realizing that we are near the end of our time.
Happy to hear from you again, G. Hope to chat again next week.
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Are you attending the Refresher in Fla? Not sure of your training.
My training is AMI. I have gone to the refresher course for the past
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several years. I have decided not to attend this year. I am hoping to
attend some of the summer workshops at Northbrook.
I hope to see you there. I am very excited about what we are
offering. I am intimately aware of exactly what is being presented.
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There is not an offering that will be disappointing. I hope you can
attend so that we have the chance to meet.
wendyc(P) Thanks for logging on. See you (in print) next week.