Story of my question...
Throughout the course of my student teaching, I was naturally curious about how to talk to my Kindergarten students so I chose to research classroom discourse for my original inquiry question. The concept of classroom discourse fascinated me as I used their language as a tool for learning. Although I was highly interested in using discourse as a tool for my lessons, I realized that I struggled facilitating classroom discussion with the students. This had ultimately affected the outcome of my lessons where discourse was an imperative tool for their learning. I faced constructive criticism from both my Classroom and Penn Mentor that I needed to “get more from the kids” rather than handing them all of the information. Learning is about shifting the learning onto the students by taking control of their learning. My task as a teacher is to explicitly state the learning goals and monitor their progress in achieving them.
During seminar this past semester, Professor Dean used a metaphor with a tour bus to talk about teaching. As the bus is cruising along, passengers can point out the features from their window but the only way to truly experience the beauty of it is to get off the bus and explore. This metaphor reminded me of how I have the tendency to blow past through my lessons without stopping when I should. I have noticed from my lesson plans, videos and feedback from both my mentors that my thinking tends to be very linear where I rush past through the lesson just like a bus not stopping to enjoy the scenery. What I should be doing is stopping when necessary to ask questions, allow students to take control of their own learning by responding to others in meaningful discourse but at the same time be mindful of timing and pacing. I decided to change my inquiry question from classroom discourse to reflecting on myself as a learner and teacher in the framework of how successful my lesson was. So… How do I know my lesson was successful?
During seminar this past semester, Professor Dean used a metaphor with a tour bus to talk about teaching. As the bus is cruising along, passengers can point out the features from their window but the only way to truly experience the beauty of it is to get off the bus and explore. This metaphor reminded me of how I have the tendency to blow past through my lessons without stopping when I should. I have noticed from my lesson plans, videos and feedback from both my mentors that my thinking tends to be very linear where I rush past through the lesson just like a bus not stopping to enjoy the scenery. What I should be doing is stopping when necessary to ask questions, allow students to take control of their own learning by responding to others in meaningful discourse but at the same time be mindful of timing and pacing. I decided to change my inquiry question from classroom discourse to reflecting on myself as a learner and teacher in the framework of how successful my lesson was. So… How do I know my lesson was successful?