VIII. Necessary Building Blocks of Understanding
In each of my classes, discussions tend to go better when there is some form of prior preparation in the form of an activity or homework assignment that allows students to feel ready to speak aloud rather than attempting to have a spontaneous progressive discourse. To get to that level of discourse, students need the proper tools to work towards being able to generate conversation. At the conclusion of the poetry unit with my 9th grade classes, I required every student to read aloud standing in front of the class one of their original poems (Artifact 11). In doing so, I continually framed and reinforced what a respectful audience looked like as well as how students were to read their poems. As a result, students were respectful of one another and everyone shared, even the most shy and reluctant of my students. I was so excited to finally have a class in which students shared something that they themselves had generated--most of which was personal in nature--and that every voice had an equitable space in the classroom even if just for one day.
In response to my journal reflection on this class, my Penn mentor asked, “What can you use from this specific knowledge of preparation to build towards spontaneous class discussion”? (Artifact 12). During my final weeks of student teaching, I ruminated on this question, noting the importance of preparing students for sharing out loud or participating in discussion. Additionally, this activity reinforced along with my other experiences the importance of proper scaffolding and preparation for the type of engagement I would like to see in my classroom. These ideas then brought me to consider Bloom’s taxonomy in which remembering and understanding and applying are critical building blocks to be able to then analyze, evaluate, and create (Ormrod, 2008, p. 108) (see Figure 2 above). While I am not sure that the steps in Bloom’s taxonomy are as strict as they are presented in that some of them can connect and work together simultaneously, it is, nonetheless, critical for me to remember the need to properly prepare students with basic skills and understanding before expecting them to be able to engage in dialogical discussions or productive and on-task student-to-student interactions.
To promote and to work towards these higher-level thinking goals, I tried to find ways in which I could force students to become vocal participants. The conclusion to the poetry unit accomplished this goal as well as a drama activity that I had my 9th grade students perform in connection with The Odyssey. At the start of The Odyssey unit, I had swung the pendulum back again to overly basic understanding and reading aloud with the IRE model in place. Recognizing the proper amount of time to spend on each level--particularly the base levels--of Bloom’s taxonomy is incredibly difficult for me as a teacher but so very necessary. Each step is valuable and important, yet students should not be forced to linger too long on any of the stages, for learning is a dynamic and progressive endeavor. Realizing that I had spent too much time getting students to understand and remember the plot of The Odyssey, I decided to search online for interactive activities. In my search, I found a dramatic rendition of the cyclops scene from the text that had enough parts for the entire class to be involved as either major or minor characters and a chorus. As a result, all students were able to participate verbally at their own level of comfort (Artifact 13).
Every student seemed to be engaged in acting out the play. No heads were down and no cell phones were out. The play was successful in getting students to engage with the story of The Odyssey in a new manner. After this activity, I noticed students were much more willing and even some eager to continue reading the story. The play enhanced understanding and remembering of the story while also leading students to apply the story to another medium. In doing so, students were then able to critically evaluate the episode from The Odyssey, noticing differences in the story and the importance of how a story is told having an effect upon the reader’s experience. Getting students out of their seats in an organized, productive manner was also valuable in increasing the energy level in the room as well as student excitement and interest. While the play was not a full-class discussion, it was, nonetheless, a full-class verbal activity that both interested students and promoted text-to-text comparisons--which I would argue fits under the umbrella of higher-order thinking skills.
In response to my journal reflection on this class, my Penn mentor asked, “What can you use from this specific knowledge of preparation to build towards spontaneous class discussion”? (Artifact 12). During my final weeks of student teaching, I ruminated on this question, noting the importance of preparing students for sharing out loud or participating in discussion. Additionally, this activity reinforced along with my other experiences the importance of proper scaffolding and preparation for the type of engagement I would like to see in my classroom. These ideas then brought me to consider Bloom’s taxonomy in which remembering and understanding and applying are critical building blocks to be able to then analyze, evaluate, and create (Ormrod, 2008, p. 108) (see Figure 2 above). While I am not sure that the steps in Bloom’s taxonomy are as strict as they are presented in that some of them can connect and work together simultaneously, it is, nonetheless, critical for me to remember the need to properly prepare students with basic skills and understanding before expecting them to be able to engage in dialogical discussions or productive and on-task student-to-student interactions.
To promote and to work towards these higher-level thinking goals, I tried to find ways in which I could force students to become vocal participants. The conclusion to the poetry unit accomplished this goal as well as a drama activity that I had my 9th grade students perform in connection with The Odyssey. At the start of The Odyssey unit, I had swung the pendulum back again to overly basic understanding and reading aloud with the IRE model in place. Recognizing the proper amount of time to spend on each level--particularly the base levels--of Bloom’s taxonomy is incredibly difficult for me as a teacher but so very necessary. Each step is valuable and important, yet students should not be forced to linger too long on any of the stages, for learning is a dynamic and progressive endeavor. Realizing that I had spent too much time getting students to understand and remember the plot of The Odyssey, I decided to search online for interactive activities. In my search, I found a dramatic rendition of the cyclops scene from the text that had enough parts for the entire class to be involved as either major or minor characters and a chorus. As a result, all students were able to participate verbally at their own level of comfort (Artifact 13).
Every student seemed to be engaged in acting out the play. No heads were down and no cell phones were out. The play was successful in getting students to engage with the story of The Odyssey in a new manner. After this activity, I noticed students were much more willing and even some eager to continue reading the story. The play enhanced understanding and remembering of the story while also leading students to apply the story to another medium. In doing so, students were then able to critically evaluate the episode from The Odyssey, noticing differences in the story and the importance of how a story is told having an effect upon the reader’s experience. Getting students out of their seats in an organized, productive manner was also valuable in increasing the energy level in the room as well as student excitement and interest. While the play was not a full-class discussion, it was, nonetheless, a full-class verbal activity that both interested students and promoted text-to-text comparisons--which I would argue fits under the umbrella of higher-order thinking skills.