Immediately following the lesson, Mark agreed to reflect about his teaching that day.
What is Reflection?
(from Johns Hopkins University's statement on Professional Development)
Reflection has many definitions in the context of teacher cognition. Reflection involves "a state of doubt, hesitation, perplexity, or mental difficulty, in which thinking originates". This uncertainty is followed by the act of searching to find materials that will resolve this doubt and settle the perplexity (Dewey, 1933).
Reflection, however, is more that "just thinking hard about what you do" (Bullough and Gitlin,1995). Reflective practitioners give careful attention to their experiences and how meaning is made and justified. They analyze the influence of context and how they shape human behavior.
Critical reflection goes beyond the technical aspects of an experience to the personal, ethical, and political dimensions of teaching. Reflection is about social justice, equity, and change. Reflection is inquiry into pedagogy and curriculum, the underlying assumptions and consequences of these actions, and the moral implications of these actions in the structure of schooling (Liston & Zeichner, 1987).
Becoming reflective requires active engagement or consciousness in the experience, and in this case, the act of narrative writing. Reflection requires the ability to analyze and prioritize issues, to use tacit and resource-based knowledge, and to develop a feasible plan of action. Clarke (1995) suggests that reflection is not about a single event in time, but occurs over time as teachers begin to construct meaning for themselves.
| VISITOR: | Well, basically I'd just like to hear a little bit of, you know, what did you see happening today and what was coming out of those writing conferences with your students? |
| TEACHER: | I think I'm at a point in the workshop where kids are all at different points. Some kids have chosen their topic, some are still deciding, some are drafting. So I kind of saw a whole range of things but I was very excited to see kids trying techniques from authors. I saw kids coming back and taking the books and taking them back with them and experimenting and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of things that were happening. Nicole was trying just a new piece of writing with her techniques and then some of the kids were incorporating it into their writing already, you know, something that they had written. And then of course, you know, there were some kids who were not really trying any techniques. I think they were still trying to decide their topic or trying to figure out what they're writing. And I definitely enjoyed that piece, of trying to work with kids who are still struggling with their topic. |
| VISITOR: | Well, it seems like that would probably come out in those individual writing conferences. So tell me a little bit about that, like what were some of those ways in which you differentiated that instruction as you were rotating around the classroom. |
| TEACHER: | Just try to start the conference by asking the kids an open ended question. How's it going, what are you working on, how's your writing today? I try to start that way so that they can give me some feedback as to where they're at and see what their focused on. And then I just try to ask questions that lead them to tell me about their writing and what they're working on and I try to keep it focused on the piece of writing and the techniques that they're using but sometimes I think I have to veer off a little bit and try to pull out information from them and ask them questions about themselves. So I'm just trying to get them to talk about their writing and to always kind of go back to, what is it that you're trying today and what is it that you're going to try when I leave you? |
| VISITOR: | So like in going around was there anything that surprised you or things that made you realize like, okay, here's what I've got to work on next? |
| TEACHER: | Yeah. I think it was still unclear to some kids, what they were supposed to be doing, whether they had to try a new technique or whether they could just continue writing. So I think it has to be very clear what you want them to do. But I also like to leave it open ended because some of them really aren't at a point right now where they need to use that technique. So I think what I saw is that they were - I was surprised how many kids when I talked to them were still kind of asking me what to do. They weren't sure they were doing what they were supposed to do. So it makes me think, I just need to really make the instructions clear when they go back to their desks, and if it's open ended, make sure they know that it's open ended. |
| VISITOR: | And so tell me a little bit about [inaudible]. I know that you were in your conference with him, he seems like he's in kind of a different place in regards to his English language learning. |
| TEACHER: | Right. |
| VISITOR: | So what do you think about when you're preparing to work with him and when you're conferencing with him? What frames that interaction for you? |
| TEACHER: |
He's a level one, sub level. He's been in the country less than a year so his English level is pretty low right now but he is someone who I try to make sure I work with briefly each day. And what I'm working on with him is to develop confidence in his writing, no matter what he's writing. So you saw what I try to do is get kids to write something and share it to the class and make sure that kids compliment them. So I feel like the first thing I've done with [inaudible] is to make him feel a part of the class and he feels comfortable sharing what he's written, even though at this point it's very basic sentence structure. So I think that's the first thing I always make sure, is he feels comfortable and feels a part of the class and not left out and not doing something totally different but make sure he has pictures, he's got an encyclopedia with pictures, so he can look through that if he needs to find the word.
And then what I've tried to create is an atmosphere where kids help each other. So you saw where Nicole sort of stepped in. When I leave she often will step in and try to help him. So I try to create an atmosphere where kids work in groups, where they help each other, they read to each other, they compliment each other. So I think that's really helped [inaudible] too because I can leave and go help other kids but the kids around him can also help and scaffold things for him and help him with what he needs. But it's definitely a challenge. I feel like I have to make sure I touch base with him every day in reading and writing workshop, at least once to get him focused and to know what he needs to do. And then hopefully when I leave, other kids can step in and help. |
| VISITOR: | Yeah, I was going to ask a little bit about that. Are there any times in which you feel like the help that he gets from the other kids is really helpful or less helpful? |
| TEACHER: | Yeah, I think sometimes it's very helpful and then sometimes the kids don't know exactly how to help him because they're not even quite sure either what he's trying to say or what he needs help with. But I still think it's been official that he is included in the activities and he's having to communicate with them and they're having to communicate with him. I don't want to always be there to step in and help. I want them to go through that struggle to help each other because I think it's happening all around the room, not just with [inaudible]. I think all the kids are going through different struggles and I think it's important that they're all helping each other and sometimes now knowing how to help each other is okay. |
| VISITOR: | It seems like that connects like kind of to the community values as well like [inaudible] the overall - like I would imagine that would cross over through the whole curriculum. |
| TEACHER: | Yeah, I try to model that through all the subjects. I just really try to have a classroom where kids are listening to each other and trying to help each other and trying to make each other feel good about what they're doing. |
| VISITOR: | Thinking about writing in particular, what are your hopes for this class as writers? Like, what will - where do you want them to take their writing? |
| TEACHER: | I want them to feel confident as writers. I didn't always feel confident as a writer. I still don't always. So I want them to feel that they have a contribution to make in their writing, in some way, and so I just want them to walk out with that confidence and I want them to walk out with a love for writing. I want them to leave with their writing notebook as a real prize possession for them, most of all is to know how to take that love and that knowledge of writing with them and to share their writing with others and to be able to listen to other people's writing and to be able to compliment them and comment on it and discuss it and I want them to have that life skill of being able to use writing as a tool and as a conversation piece and as a place of enjoyment. |
| VISITOR: | Well, it seems like they're highly motivated to exchange their writing with each other, you know. Like I saw a lot of kids kind of like, here, I just wrote this and I really like it, let me read it to you. You know, and I think one of the little girls, Cameron, she was like, I love writing more than everything in the whole world. And it was like, wow, that's awesome. And the other girl's, yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| TEACHER: | Yeah, she's a definite future writer. She's already decided she's going to be a writer. She takes her writing notebook with her, she reads to me whenever she gets a chance. Her older brother is also a writer. So she definitely sees herself as a writer and I want that for all of the kids in the class. I want them to feel that same sense of, yes, I am a writer and this is what I am good at. |
| VISITOR: | So where are they going from this point for the rest of this unit? |
| TEACHER: | So they're kind of in the middle of deciding a topic and drafting. They'll spend a few days next week working on their drafts. Then they'll start getting into the revising and editing phase, where we'll look at some other papers that other students have written and start looking at how we can revise it to make it better, always with that idea of significance. And then editing, we'll just look at certain conventions that we're really going to focus on and then we'll publish the piece and then it will be ready for parent conferences so that at their parent conference they're going to share their writing with their parents. |
| VISITOR: | That's pretty neat. Do you have any kind of - like, what's the structure of that parent conference? Is the kid there? |
| TEACHER: | Yeah, the student is there and so that we go through their work and I often try to get the students to reflect a little bit on their work and talk about their work. And so they'll have their writing portfolio, which has their writing in it and I want them to share this narrative with their parents but they will also have their other examples of writing to show their parents what they're working on. |
| VISITOR: | the various things - that makes me think about that book, which I guess you were taking [inaudible] notes as you were going around? |
| TEACHER: | Right. |
| VISITOR: | Do you use that to frame the parent conferences or is that for your use? |
| TEACHER: | This is more - mostly what I use this binder for is to just keep track of the conferences and keep track of what I've talked to students about. So that when I go up to them I can look back and see what I asked them to work on next time., so that then I can ask them if they tried it and try to look for examples of what they've done. So it's to kind of help me remember and then to keep the kids kind of focused on that idea that you pick something to work on and you work on it and then see how you did. |
| VISITOR: | So that seems like it would probably look a lot different in fifth grade than it would look in kindergarten. Is there something about this particular grade level that frames kind of your approach? What would you have specifically to say about this to other fifth grade teachers? |
| TEACHER: | I would say that just to really - to know that kids are capable of very high level thinking, high level conversations, they're able to set goals and they're able to work on their writing technique and to take other authors and use their examples and to put that in their writing. They're very capable of doing very amazing things and I think we have to hold them up to that high level of standard and keep pushing them to be those kind of writers, because they can do it. |