Response to Face-To-Face #1

Since, I didn't make it to our first face-to-face meeting on Tuesday I have done a make up assignment. Again, I am sorry that I didn't make it. I didn't realize it was going on and will make sure to check my canvas and email on a more regular email to make sure that I don't miss it in the future. I look forward to meeting and talking in the discussions with all of you.

If I was asked to observe a teacher and give them feedback on the rigor they were expecting of their students I would focus on their questioning strategies.   While observing I would focusing on the questions and responses given by both students and teachers as well as the number and types of questions that both gave.  I would have a chart where I could make tally marks where I could record this information so I could show the teacher in a quick and concise way what I observed.   It could be as simple as that shown below:

Type of Question	Student Questions	Teacher Questions
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesizing
Evaluation

Since  studies have shown that encouraging students to ask questions help us as teachers find out our students level of understanding as well as gives them skills that will help them in the future I would look to see how that teacher encouraged and answered the questions.  One of the things I would be looking for is if the teacher answered the question or responded with another question.  I would do this because by answering with another question is a way for a teacher to get more information on the understanding level of the student as well also to show value to the student’s question.  I would also look for strategies that the teacher is using to gather questions that students have since we don’t have enough time during class to get to all the questions.

On the teacher’s side, I would also be looking for a central question be posed for the lesson through their learning target.  I would expect that questioning by the teacher would be building up to answer this question and aligned with the learning target.  During these time I would listening for students providing accurate text-based evidence.  If it is not being used, I would be looking to see how the teacher re-directs students to provided that text-based evidence.  Lastly, I would looking at the wrap activity to see if students were providing accurate text-based evidence.

When providing the feedback, I would be asking the teacher I was observing the following questions:

• What do you think was the student to teacher ratio of questions for this lesson?
• What strategies did you use to gather unanswered student questions?
• How many of your students are providing text-based evidence when answering the questions you have asked?

I would then share the chart with them and ask them what questions that had.  This way I could evaluate their understanding of using questions to provide a higher level of rigor in their classroom. I would also be modeling for the teacher why it is important to let students be the ones who ask the questions as well as providing text-based evidence.

REFERENCES

Kohn, A. (2015). Who’s Asking?. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 16-22.

Reisman, A. A. (2017). How to facilitate discussions in history. Educational Leadership, 74(5), 30-34.

Tovani, C. C. (2015). Let’s switch questioning around.. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 30-35.

Walsh, J. W., & Sattes, B. B. (2015). A new rhythm for responding. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 46-52.