So building a positive classroom culture where ideas are respected, voices are heard, collaboration is valued, in-depth thinking is encouraged, then, is of utmost importance. (perhaps more so, now that society's polarizing beliefs and, often, failures to communicate with + listen to each other are ever so prominent) Speed and precision, while still may be of use somewhere, are no longer primary pillars that support learning and deep understanding of mathematics.The above quote is from the part 1 blogpost where I shared some thoughts and strategies about how I work on a positive learning culture in the classroom. The two main categories were "learning about students" and "Problems + Tasks"
In this post, I continue to share some thoughts and strategies.
Listening to students
No, like really listen to them.
Davis (1994, 1997) differentiated between 'listening to' and 'listening for' as well as establish the ideas of evaluative, interpretive, and hermeneutic listening. At the risk of being brief and simplistic, I will offer some definitions of these three ways of listening: Evaluative listening is where we look for specific things that the student is saying. Seeking our own opportunities to say "correct" or to check off a box (a good reason to be careful with observation checklists). Interpretive listening is when we attempt to make sense of what the student is saying, and consider the depth and complexity of their understanding. Hermeneutic listening is when we listen and participate in the same mathematical exploration that students are involved in.
Of course, how we listen also has implications for assessment (which I see, at least in part, as practices and strategies for generating, interpreting, and responding to student thinking). However, in this post I will focus on the implication for culture.
Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (VNPS), along with other thinking classroom elements, are valuable structures and strategies in the classroom for providing me with opportunities to listen to students' mathematical thinking, and to encourage students to listen to each other's ideas. As students continue to interact with different peers each day (through visibly random grouping [VRG]), they earn valuable lived experiences solving problems with one another. Over time, this often helps facilitate opportunities for the development of a positive classroom culture.
When I listen and participate with students at each board, I am also mindful of what I say and how I say it.
Because it matters.
It matters whether I stop their thinking with my prompts or suggestions.
It matters whether I choose words that paint mathematics or learning in a particular way (e.g. growth mindset).
It matters whether I follow up on their ideas and suggestions or use them as talking points.
It also matters who I pay attention to in the group when I enter into their world of problem solving.
Listening often also include what students are 'doing' with their gestures, diagrams, and more. For this reason, I also provide manipulatives for students when it makes sense to use them for the activities. As I watch what students are doing with the items, it can often be helpful for providing me with ideas as to how to better support their learning.
Value their thinking
Along with listening carefully and responding in a way that isn't dismissive, I am also talking here about valuing their mathematical thinking. When students don't feel like their work is valued, it works counter to the positive culture that we are attempting to build throughout the semester.
**as I prepared this post, I actually had a conversation with many others over twitter about a particular aspect of what I wrote regarding defronting, student notes, and board work. As a result, I rewrote this section to incorporate aspects of that conversation instead.
It began with Laura's tweet and my subsequent wondering. I had my own thoughts on this, but I wanted to know how she dealt with this tension of power:
I personally struggle with the inclusion of tech & how its effects seemingly counter efforts to defront the classroom. How do you deal?— Jimmy Pai (@PaiMath) September 26, 2017
Throughout the conversation, Anna and Peter also jumped in and shared some of her thoughts.
The concern was about how we leverage technology in a way that does not counter the idea of 'defronting' the classroom.
It seemed that many suggestions aligned with some of my own practices.
Notably I summarize two thoughts
1. Letting students have a role in presenting and summarizing ideas
Try to have kids present and summarize and control the "front" as much as possible. I'd love to hear other ideas on this.— Anna Blinstein (@Borschtwithanna) September 26, 2017
The goal is to synthesize work from class, embedding photos of math work into a written reflection/summary. Here's a snippet of one. pic.twitter.com/58jPn0VkfR— Anna Blinstein (@Borschtwithanna) September 27, 2017
I used to create a handout with images of group work with spaces to explain steps. pic.twitter.com/IPm9mgX37z— Laura Wheeler (@wheeler_laura) September 27, 2017
These were actually going to be my responses to a previous question from Joe Herbert:
I sometimes find that my Ss have TONS of great work on the boards, but we don't have time to discuss & I need boards erased for next period.— Joe Herbert (@herbertmath628) September 19, 2017
I often encourage students to take images of their work from the board because the boards are erased from class to class. But images are useless when it's swimming among million other pictures of my dog or my daughter. Using google photos, the images I take of their work on the board is often incorporated into tasks for the next day. These are synced automatically, which allows me to easily transfer and cut the images to a different document. Similar to Anna's work, I provide them with another activity involving these notes, often involving the mathematical processes that we have in Ontario. These activities often involve several images being stitched together and then provided for students in the same way that Laura had put up.
2. Having the teacher building a narrative through what students have done
It is easier to control the debrief if the teacher builds a narrative out of students’ work.— Peter Liljedahl (@pgliljedahl) September 27, 2017
At the same time, if I need to personally debrief activities, I either make use of what they have already worked on their boards, or I make use the images and debrief the concepts that way.
So in general, with the images I take of their work, I may structure another activity that allows them to continue thinking about the problem, engage them in reflecting on what they have learned (as well as the math processes), or utilize their work in a debrief of the concepts.
With respect to tech, perhaps this contribution from Michael was the most telling
I also have found that my use of tech during class has been decreasing. Mostly for Desmos and collecting student evidence.— Michael Pruner (@cafedepruner) September 28, 2017
Thoughts? Ideas? How do you build culture?
Thanks for your post Jim.
ReplyDeleteFor the "debrief" portion, I draw a lot from Cathy Fosnot's "Math Congress" and also from Japan's Bansho Board Writing. In either case, student work or portions of student work are thoughtfully selected by the teacher and strategically sequenced during the group conversation. What I am personnaly looking to improve is "teacher annotations"- from what students are saying, I to add mathematical words, symbols, drawing, representations, etc. in order to visually represent their thinking. Anticipating what important ideas and models to surface is not easy, but key in order for the conversation to be productive. Recent resources such as The 5 Practices and Intentional Talk are great in breaking down the "steps" and the intentions to think about. All of this is obviously a balancing act between teacher structuring and student ownership of the work/conversation. In building culture, we can't forget that we are both part of the community and leading the community. Not an easy balance to achieve!