The following image was used for Lesson 4:
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Video B, Lesson 4:
Assessing Student Engagement and Learning: All students were engaged during the lesson and... both girls and boys participated in the discussion! Yea, a breakthrough! Most students focused on the girls and created a narrative about how they got to this place and what they were doing at the time of the photo. For the most part, they still exhibited Stage 1 thinking, but one student did speculate about the meaning/ artist's intention. I hoped this would spark similar thinking for the others, but they quickly referred back to observations w/ evidence.
Reflecting on Practice: The VTS discussion felt okay, not great or terrible. I tried to focus on the prescribed teacher behaviors and paraphrasing with scaffolding, but they stumped me a couple of times. When the student made the speculation about the meaning of the image, I was floored for two reasons- (1) this level of thinking hasn't happened with my students yet, and (2) the student who made the comment really struggles academically and performs well below grade level on written assessments. I was also caught off guard by one students blunt observation about the license plate. I wasn't sure how to link his observation without implying more, so I basically repeated what he said and moved on. I realized later that these contributions stumped me because one was more advanced and one was more simplistic than the others in the discussion.
Planning: I feel like I forget to pay attention to my use of conditional language while facilitating. When I use conditional language, it is without effort, which is good, but I want to be aware of all prescribed behaviors. Using the three questions is becoming easier each time, and paraphrasing is more natural, so I am ready to really focus on using conditional language. I think I may write "conditional language" on a note card and hold it during my next VTS to serve as a reminder. Any suggestions to help with this would be greatly appreciated!
Ginia,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really great job in your video! It looks like it came really easily to you!
I was very impressed with on or two of your students are becoming stage two viewers. It's even more exciting to hear that they are doing so despite other academic challenges. They are also very thorough in linking their ideas off of one another, which you reinforce during paraphrasing which is great.
ReplyDeleteI noticed several times in your video that you were naturally using conditional language. The note card might be helpful, but I think it comes with practice and reminding yourself that you cannot take any assumptions for granted. That will also help with question two. So even if it painfully obvious that it is a truck, "This object that you think could be a truck" or "What do you see that makes you say this is a truck?" That makes them provide evidence for the observations that feel extremely obvious, but can't be taken for granted. How do you know it is a truck from any other vehicle?
I saw you get stumped by Riley's comment about the license plate, as it was very cut and dry. Paraphrasing those simple observations is fine. However, be careful about asking if they can find anything else/more, because that might make the student feel like their contribution was incorrect or not as important. Also, there are a few times when you transition using "Ok" or "OK, good" which doesn't seem to bother your students, but also has the same potential to make some feel more correct than others. So just try to keep your response the same each time so it's neutral :)
I agree that your students were engaged and I had a sense watching your video that your students were enjoying the conversation/process, and that they will keep impressing you the more they grow! I bet you get a few more stage two viewers developing soon! Good job, and great job sneaking in some nice vocabulary words while paraphrasing. Keep it up!