Reflect after reading Chapters 5-7:
How do we answer questions in a thinking classroom? When and how do we give tasks?
Consider the following questions:
- What is resonating with you from the reading?
- What caused you to pause and think during this section?
Respond and Interact
After reading these chapters, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
The three types of questions in Chapter 5 really resonated with me. As a 4th grade teacher, I feel like I have spent a lot of time on the stop-thinking questions this year in all subject areas. My students have needed a lot of reassurance and I have been really trying to encourage them to be confident in their thinking/learning and to use various tools to affirm their own work (checking their work, using checklists/rubrics, having a friend evaluate/review their work, etc.). I appreciated that Liljedahl had a list of ways to respond to stop-thinking and proximity questions, as well as ways to answer in certain scenarios. I want to implement these responses in my classroom to harbor my students’ self-confidence and encourage persistence.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 really made me stop and think. I liked Liljedahl’s way of renaming the homework to “check your understanding”, which encouraged students to participate more, along with no grading or checking. It was interesting to see the percentage of students who did the work once this happened. I don’t do homework anymore, but I could see doing this as a weekend challenge for students. It would be interesting to see how many students would participate in it on a regular basis.
Tasks given at the beginning of the lesson when energy and engagement is high makes so much sense to me. A part that I underlined was: ."just know that the longer you talk, and the longer they listen, the less likely you are going to be able to get them to think." We need our kids to be DOING math within the first few minutes of every lesson.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 5, the three types of questions really resonated with me. I also teach 4th grade and have been trying to build my students confidence in themselves and their ability to try work without asking me first. We have come a long way from the beginning of the year, but I will start trying to only answer keep-thinking questions. I really appreciated the list of responses to give to students when they ask a proximity or stop thinking question.
ReplyDeleteWith chapter 6 it was eye opening to me that you have 5 minutes to get students to start doing math. I feel like I start off well with this, by starting each class with a review type question on the board, but then I get stuck with introducing the concept of the day and modeling. I need to think about how to flip this around so the students are doing more discovery of math. I think I need to also remember that a thinking-question doesn't necessarily need to be a 20 minute work session. We can go over the constraints of a problem and they can work on it. Then after they work on it we discuss what they discovered- whether it's how to find the area of a rectangle or something else. This is some good food for thought. I already flipped my desk to the back of the classroom, now I need to flip my teaching to more thinking problems and student lead learning!
Chapter 5 was eye opening for me with questions. I reflected on how I ask and respond to questions in my small groups. It was impactful and I plan to revisit this chapter. I move forward very mindful of avoiding answering stop thinking questions while responding to question w/questions that could further student thinking. The suggested responses to student questions offered in this chapter are very helpful.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 6, it made me think how I start each small group. I have been mindful of how I start and how soon I start student thinking tasks. We have been starting math thinking tasks right away. It was very enlightening reading this chapter. I have a small space, so students are always close to me, which I find beneficial in teaching my small groups.
What resonated with me in chapter 7 was the way how students responded to, check for understanding questions vs homework. I liked how Liljedahl shared how students who checked their work for understand with peers and were not policed, marked or checked by teachers were likely to be more invested when comparing their thinking with their peers.
Ch 5- I have a couple of kids who definitely ask a lot of "is this right?" Questions in every subject. It will be a big change to just smile and walk away. Feels a bit like a test. I know I have said many times on review days in math, "Today is the day to ask questions and get help, so can't answer questions on tomorrow's test." But really, I need kids to think everyday, not just on test days.
ReplyDeleteCh 6- I gave my first task on Friday and I was trying to figure out how to give the task- this chapter would have been helpful! Ha!
I really like the idea of turning problems into stories! For example, the tax collection problem I can see how it is like a game-I want to beat that score of 22- it is instantly motivating!
I'm challenged to try to give problems in the first 5 minutes and standing- going to try it again!
Ch 7- This was why I dropped out of math my Jr year! Page 123
Mimicking as a homework strategy -"less than 20% were even willing to move beyond this strategy when the examples ran out, and less than half of those were able to answer questions for which an analog did not exist in their notes or textbook."
I loved geometry in 9th grade because I understood how I could use proofs to find the measurement of a certain unknown angle. Follow the rules/procedures. Even Algebra 2 in 10th grade, I had a basic understanding of being able to find x and simplify equations. Follow the rules/procedures. My teachers modeled, we practiced, I got it.
Then in JR year, our teacher would give us a quick little lesson that only helped us answer the first section of math homework, problems 1-8. Then problems 9-20 were "extension" problems I didn't have an example for and I had no clue how to think and figure them out myself. Our teacher would spend most of the next class period going over how to do the previous night's homework then the last 5 minutes teaching new content for us to use on that night's homework #1-8. So I never actually did much work, I didn't even mimic much and I had no clue what was going on.
Check your understanding- wow, It seems really hard to let go of control. Now, I don't give any traditional homework. But it seems at some point an in class quick quiz or now try this one on your own seems needed???