Megan Purcell Self-Examination Videotape #1 How do I manage question-and-answer cycles?

End of unit studies are often a chaotic time for both teachers and students. Students are taking summative exams, writing analysis papers and teachers are grading all these submissions while simultaneously attempting to plan for the next unit. Papers are being shuffled back and forth, instructions get lost in translation and those due dates always seem to arrive more quickly than anyone had anticipated. However, once all the dust has settled, a new unit begins; hopefully with as seamless of a transition as one can possibly muster. My 10th grade English students have been feeling just that; chaos, as they tie up the loose ends from their Crucible unit and move on to studying To Kill a Mockingbird. In order to make this transition less abrupt, I had students fill out an anticipation guide that dealt with themes theyd be later encountering in the reading. I gave students 6 statements, to which they had to agree or disagree and then provide support for their opinion. The following day, the day of the videotaping, I led students in a whole class discussion of their anticipation guide, not only to get them thinking about the next unit, but to also see where they stand on various issues we will later be addressing. For this video, I wanted to examine how I manage question-and-answer cycles. Although I was not looking for specific or correct responses from students, I feel that the guidelines are very similar because there are still appropriate and inappropriate opinions to share in class, just as there are appropriate and inappropriate answers during more formal assessment. The category for my question cycle, thusly, would fall into the category of opinion or interpretation. In this category most answers are potentially valid, but as I will soon notice, not all answers end up as so. First, I had my students get out their anticipation guides so they would have something to reference as we discussed their stances on particular issues. I would then read the statement and ask all those that agreed with the statement to raise their hand; once I looked around the room for a rough estimate as to how many students responded with agree, I would have them put their hands down and ask for those that disagree with the statement to then raise their hands. In doing so, I was trying to get students participating early on while also subliminally encouraging them to share their opinions with the class, for if they see others with the same beliefs as they have, they might feel more comfortable divulging why they believe what they do. During this portion of the activity, I noticed that all of my students (with the exception of one or two on occasion) were participating. I tried to model this for students by raising my hands also, so I was glad to see more active participation than I am used to with this class. After students declared their stance by raising their hands, I would then open the floor to any student who which to give their reasons or support for why they agreed or disagreed on a particular stance. Again, I was very pleased with the participation I got from the students as a whole. One thing I noticed when I reviewed my video, is that I could often hear students eager to respond. I heard one student say, Oh I have such a good reason for this one when I opened up the floor for discussion which shows me that students were ready, willing and able to respond. Through analysis of my video I could also see a student eagerly raising his hand and often waiving it around trying to get my attention and be called on to share. I saw that I did not respond to the student right away because I was focusing on a student who was seated at the opposite end of the room as they were currently sharing their response and I wanted them to feel like I was listening.

Another thing I noticed as I was watching my video is that I tried to offer responses or feedback to each student that volunteered their thoughts, but I struggled to give feedback for those thoughts that were too far off topic or were just inappropriate. I noticed that I did a lot of head nodding to provide students with nonverbal affirmations as they shared their thoughts, and would often conclude with a good or alright or does anyone else have something theyd like to share about that. I also found that I did a lot of repeating when I was addressing students. I know that in my class I have students that dont speak loud enough for everyone else to hear their responses so I often repeat what they say, or parts of what they say, not only to allow everyone to hear but also as a way of affirming the information they have shared. I think that if a student hears their thoughts being shared with the rest of the class it brings a little more validation to the idea than if I were to just listen to it and move on to the next volunteer. I think that Saphire and Gower, in their chapter on attention getting moves in The Skillful Teacher, would classify these techniques as winning (6). Saphire and Gower explain that winning moves are positive and tend to attract students attention which is the goal most teachers have when giving a lesson (6). These winning techniques offer encouragement to students which hopefully keep them participating in future class discussions as they learn appropriate answers will be acknowledged and validated. An additional technique I saw in my video is that I would sometimes as students to expand on their thoughts or clarify what they mean, not only for my sake, but for theirs as well. This is another reason why I wanted to discuss these themes with students and not merely have them state agree or disagree. By expanding on their thoughts and having to articulate why they responded to one side or the other, students are forced to think about their responses and evaluate their judgments. One of the core skills for English Language Arts is the ability to critically think, so I often try to get my students to implore this technique unknowingly. By asking students to respond and discuss as well as think about others opinions, students are better able to understand their own positions as well as some arguments made from the opposition. A few things that concerned me about my video, aside from the poor quality of the webcam that did not enable me to catch all the student voices, was that I had some students participating in side bar conversations or not giving their full attention to the speaker at a given moment. I see that in the video, when I did notice these things happening, I tried to steer the attention of the students to one focal point but that was not always a successful endeavor. On the one hand, I was not too bothered by some of the extra chatter that I would get because it was mostly on topic and showed me that my students were not only alert and paying attention, but that they had things they wanted to say about the statements and the way they were thinking about them. However, when side chatter became too distracting or took place at inappropriate times, such as when another student was sharing, I tried to get students back on track. I am hoping that this shows students I validate their willingness to share and will gladly give them an opportunity to share if theyd like, but when their peers are speaking they need to show them the same respect they wish to receive in return. Looking back on it, these situations could be used as a way to help students learn, or refine, their self regulation skills such as those discussed by Willingham in his article on teaching self-regulation in Can Teachers Increase Students Self-Control?. Willingham explains that activities that encourage collaborative turn taking will help teach or build self-regulation behaviors in students; I believe that is exactly what a class discussion is, knowing when it is your turn to share and when it is not (4). Those students who were having side conversations were displaying a lack of self-regulation, while those attentively listening were showing a control over self-regulation. I would then also consider my own

tracking of the speaker a form of modeling this behavior as I did not focus on the kids waving their arms at the other end of the class, I gave my attention to the speaker and moved on when it was appropriate to do so. I was a little worried when taping this video because this activity took place at the end of the class period and I was not sure how much or how little students would have or want to share/discuss. Surprisingly, my students had a lot to say about each of the statements which caused a little bit of a chaotic rush right at the end of the activity. I was trying to let anyone who wished to volunteer an opinion have time to do so. I ran into a little bit of a dilemma in using this technique as I had not allotted enough time for as many volunteers as I was getting. To remedy this conundrum, I would have a few volunteers share their opinions and after each one ask if there were others who felt similar or had the same idea. This gave students an opportunity to quickly respond, but did not take up extra time listening to similar or repetitive answers. This also gave others with uncommon answers more time to share and explain their thinking. Overall, this video was able to show me how I handled various situations within a teacher led class discussion. I am still trying to figure out how to respond to inappropriate comments, for this activity I just listened to them and moved on without affirming or really validating them, but I am not sure if this is the most effective technique. It might be worth trying some of the desisting techniques that Saphire and Gower mention in their chapter on attention getting moves in The Skillful Teacher. Saphire and Gower talk about various strategies to communicate to students that they need to stop what behavior they are exhibiting and get back on track, but many of the techniques such as punish, sarcasm, or exclude are all verbal cues and Im wondering if nonverbal cues may work in these situations as well (2). This is also something I can talk to my mentor teacher about as I dont want to discourage students from sharing, but there are certain things that are just not valid within a particular discussion. The challenge comes when I know this boundary but my students do not, I think that students often feel their train of thought is valid and warranted but that is not always the case. The only other thing that was challenging about watching the video was trying to stay within the frame. I am a teacher that likes to walk around and circulate the classroom during discussion so it was hard for me to stay within view of the camera; however, I feel like this is the slightest of downfalls in the overall picture.