Domain 3b: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques
Since Domain 3 focuses on Instruction techniques for students, it only makes sense to consider questioning and discussion strategies. A large part of teaching any subject involves formative assessment throughout the lesson to ensure that students understand the content fully and completely. In order to gauge their progress and enhance their elaboration of the content, teachers must ask proper questions and utilize a variety of approaches for discussion.
Summary of Field Experience
School, Grade Level, Subject I received the opportunity to teach comprehension skills and phonics in a second grade classroom at Hillview Elementary School. Over the course of seven weeks, I came every Wednesday to help run a reading station and instruct the whole class.
My Schedule Since I arrived right after the students' lunch period, they immediately reported to their appropriate reading stations. Typically, I set up my station in the back at a kidney table that doubled as a whiteboard. On most Wednesdays, I worked with the group of students classified as the advanced readers. We often read Crayon Passages, which are page-long reading texts that students must read out loud three times. After this thorough exercise, the students answered questions on the back. Each question is color-coded to a corresponding crayon, so before writing down an answer, students must use that crayon to highlight their evidence from the text. Crayon Passages can be completed independently or in groups. I also completed Reading Response Code worksheets with my students. These charts broke down narratives based on characters, settings, plots, main ideas, supporting details, and themes. However, I also liked that the chart had a space for students to write what they already knew about the topic before reading the text. After this small group time, the class transitioned to phonics booklet work, where the students typically learned new phonemes. They identified the phonemes in words from a small passage; then, they would create their own words and sentences using the phonemes. The students always excitedly shared their sentences out loud. Finally, my co-op would end the hour with whole class instruction (usually a writing workshop) using her Promethean white board.
This picture features the advanced group of students with whom I worked.
This is a picture of Hillview Elementary School.
My students loved their cause/effect lesson!
Lessons Although I worked with my students in small groups every week, I received the unique opportunity to plan a lesson ahead of time based on my own discretion of what the students needed to practice. Using a short story I found online, I gave my students another crayon passage that emphasized pairing cause and effect. When reflecting on this lesson, I noticed that my students struggled to define the words "cause" and "effect" even though they provided good examples, so I realized how important it is to provide concrete definitions. Feel free to view my lesson below! I also got to lead the phonics whole group lessons throughout the experience, which gave me insight on how to motivate the students and implement many opportunities for my students to express themselves creatively.
Overall Reflection This experience has taught me so much about both instruction and classroom management. One of my biggest takeaways is the idea that every student is a unique learner. Therefore, some students need extra scaffolding and help to decode words, whereas others do not wish to receive help immediately. Where some students respond to firm feedback, others respond better to a gentler approach. No matter what, it is the job of a teacher to accommodate the needs of all students. By varying classroom activities (group work, independent reading, whole class instruction), teachers can positively impact the education of these learners. ELA provides students with a voice to express themselves, so lessons should provide space for them to take learning into their own hands as well. I feel extremely grateful to Hillview Elementary School for this amazing opportunity.
Field Experience Within the Danielson Framework
This relates to Domain 3b, because students learned effective strategies for how to respond to questions as I picked up new techniques to increase understanding. By completing the Crayon Passages with my students, I realized the necessity of having students reread a text before trying to answer questions. Additionally, effective discussions occurred with textual evidence to back up arguments. Therefore, the act of highlighting the answers showed them how to search for the information necessary to complete the question. I also learned how to ask students different types of questions using these passages, since the worksheets challenged the students to connect things to their own lives, respond with a direct quote from the text, and infer/predict events. By asking higher-level questions, students could see the purpose for discussion. They also could better focus on the passage by reviewing what they already knew in the Reading Response Code worksheets. By asking this question, teachers can motivate their students and prepare them to focus on the task at hand. Therefore, this also contributes nicely to questioning and discussion techniques. I usually wrapped up my days in the classroom with phonics instruction. The students typically worked on phonemes each Wednesday, but the questions were much more open-ended and therefore prompted higher-level thinking. Students generated their own words and sentences based off of these phonemes and shared them with the class. By providing a good mix of direct and open-ended questions, the students would gain an enriching ELA learning experience.