Program standard 2.2, component 3c highlights the importance of student engagement. If all students can connect with the content in meaningful, demonstrable ways, a teacher is on the right track. Even better if students are so engaged, they continue to follow the trail of their learning into deeper places of discovery, consolidating their learning and making meaning for themselves.
My work this quarter included revisiting some lessons I had written in the past and revising, refining, rethinking, and repurposing them! After editing a poetry lesson I originally drafted last winter, I had a chance to teach it to my husband, who served as an excellent “second grader.” (He knows the population well, since he teaches them every day.)
In the video featured below, you can see my efforts to engage my student throughout a long lesson included lots of eye contact, warm energy, and flexibility when my first questions were proven ineffective. My first question, “Have you heard of alliteration?” was not open-ended, and when I realized how it would yield a dead end for my student, I tried to modify and ask a question that would yield richer discussion, engaging him more meaningfully: “What do you think it means?” It isn’t a perfect question, but it was my first attempt at catching myself in order to help him connect with the content, as I’ve learned is essential through my study of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).
Watching the lesson again, which I have done several times now, continues to reveal small ways in which my teaching is both engaging--I work hard to use expressive tone, small gestures of affection, and a big smile--and also still in the early stages of mastery. I need to continue to allow wait time, ask more targeted questions, and generally talk less in my instruction (no small feat). Curating my words seems it might be my greatest challenge as a teacher!
Hopefully, however, my students will develop deeper understanding of the material because of my effort to help them explore and enjoy the curriculum. I hope when I finally get to teach this lesson to children, the chance to scout out alliteration in classroom texts will feel like the ultimate treasure hunt, inspiring them to notice and appreciate this literary tool in all their future reading.
References
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Retrieved from:
