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As I am starting this post, I’m feeling a bit like a bad teacher. I’m sitting in class typing while everyone is working on group presentations, but I haven’t put myself in the corner… they have.
I quote, “Miss, we’ve got this”.
It’s an odd feeling to be doing the thing I have been told not to do, but to be doing it because something is working well. These students are invested, they are working, and more importantly, they genuinely want to own their work. To me, this was a sign of learning and a sign of that smallest bit of intrinsic motivation that I had been looking for this year.
(I am no longer in class now…)
Backing up a few steps, my question this year was How might we increase the intrinsic motivation of students in the Grade 10-12 English classroom? Over the course of the year, I looked at a few key areas: assessments and feedback, class structure, and the opportunities for student choice. As I went, these areas shifted and morphed and became an intricate mass of connections in my mind.
When it came to classroom structure, I found that a set routine really is essential for comfort. If I wanted to push the envelope on assessments or choice in books, students really did appreciate being able to anticipate what each day was at least going to look like. It also helped me squeeze in little teaching tidbits that I wanted students to take away and that might require some explicit instruction, without overwhelming them or eating up tons of time. I found I gravitated to a model I was introduced to at a conference (they credited it to Kelley Gallagher, an ELA heavyweight) where we started with 15 minutes of reading, which cut down on homework, a 10 minute book talk, where students could ask questions of their peers and clarify what was happening or share their opinions, a 10 minute mini-lesson, and the rest of class to work on an activity that practiced or explored the concept from the mini-lesson. Suddenly I was teaching less, but students were retaining more and implementing the stuff we covered one day in other activities in the following weeks. Perhaps the shining star was when an entire class of Grade 12 students came in and were reading before class had even officially started! They cared more about what we did and actually did everything. And it wasn’t marked. Who would’ve figured?
The whole structure of the day trickled into a little more freedom in assessments with far less work being taken out of the room. Each of the mini-lessons started to become more clearly connected to whatever final task was coming and suddenly students were working more with each other in that leadup time instead of competing against each other. In Grade 11, as they geared up for the in-class essay, for which they’d had the questions all unit, the initial lessons unpacked the questions, but of their own accord, students started using their book talk time to find quotes together and really dig into what their books were saying about the question. It was organic, which, though it was motivated by assessment, did seem to be more driven by a desire to interact with each other and work together to do good things.
Now, most of the twitter-chatter and bigwigs that I had been looking into spoke pretty highly of choice and the importance of offering choice. I loved the idea but felt super overwhelmed by the thought of opening up everything to choice, which, granted, is not exactly what they meant. Now though, in the framework of a set class schedule, and the practice of building continual work on a few core assessments, it doesn’t seem like quite as big a piece to bite off. We offered more books in lit circles and have made a point to offer more open questions or tasks. And it was great! When students signed themselves up for something, they just cared more and wanted to buy into it. This area is the one that I think has most intrigued me and I feel most excited to really pursue in earnest next year. I feel comfortable in the ways things are going, that opening more option and freedoms seems like just the natural next step. Which leaves me with the question…
How might we integrate more student choice in the Grade 10-12 English classroom?
Thank you, Cohort21!
@krichardson – I love the quotation in your blog, “these students are invested, they are working, and more importantly, they genuinely want to own their work.” Sounds like teacher heaven to me! Thank you for unpacking the “architecture” you put in place like the routines, explicit teaching, formative assessment and now the idea of adding more choice/student agency into your curriculum. I think you are wise to introduce smaller changes at a steady pace as a way to make the practices sustainable. Congrats on your current action plan and the direction of your future one! @cferguson @ljensen @ckirsh
Wow! @krichardson Thank you for sharing your journey so eloquently. I love the tension you present. Research and instinct tell us that students thrive with choice but how much practice do they have navigating, absorbing and finally acting on it. My guess (and your gut confirms) that too much too soon can lead to challenges. It sounds like there is an art and fine balance to how to best scaffold and bring it in. What an AWESOME action plan. Congrats! I also love where you will go next!
@lbettencourt @jweening @lmitchell @tjagdeo
@ckirsh @egelleny
@krichardson – Congratulations on what sounds like a truly successful “beginning” to your journey. It sounds like the small changes that you made in your classroom added up to be more than the sum of their parts. As @tjagdeo said, that sounnds like “teacher heaven”! I have been having an almost polar opposite experience in my class this year, and so to read about your experience is inspiring. I want to try to initiate some similar changes as those you described in order to start fresh in September, with an especially strong focus on routines and expectations. I am looking forward to hearing more about it tomorrow at the F2F!
Jen
Nicely done, Kristen — you clearly thought deeply about the problem and goal at hand and came up with helpful strategies.
The lines in your blog that particularly resonate with me:
“Suddenly I was teaching less, but students were retaining more and implementing the stuff we covered one day in other activities in the following weeks. Perhaps the shining star was when an entire class of Grade 12 students came in and were reading before class had even officially started! They cared more about what we did and actually did everything. And it wasn’t marked. Who would’ve figured?”
In response, I simply say: Bravo you!