Wildcat Weekly
George Washington Carver Creative Arts Center 09.18.16
Agressive Monitoring
Specifically, deliberate focus should be placed on the Introduction to New Materials, Guided and Independent Practice of the lesson cycle. Your work during each section of the lesson cycle is to be active and not passive, I know it can be easy and tempting to take a break or use the time to complete many of the other task you are responsible for. However, it is crucial you monitor your students ability to accomplish the task or skill the first time. Remember it is harder to reteach misconceptions or gaps once it has been presented previously. Therefore, the following behaviors should become a part of your teaching repertoire.
- Make sure students are on task individual practice - Circulate around the room, lean over students' shoulders and kneel by their desk to carefully examine their work, using proximity to be an active and visible presence. Student should have no doubt that you are monitoring them. Praise students who are working hard, set and enforce time-limits, and implement consequences are necessary. During the Guided Practice, ensure that all students have an opportunity to practice. Don't allow one student to serve as a representative for the entire class, leaving the rest of the students without adequate engagement with the materials ( which invites misbehavior). Ask for volunteers to participate but be mindful of what what the others are doing.
working effectively with peers--listening to each other, overseeing each others
behaviors to ensure they remain on task, and maximizing each others talents and
contributions. Cooperative small group learning consists of complex procedures,
behaviors, and norms of communications that groups is a regular feature of the
classroom, teaching and reinforcing these norms.
- Pay Attention to the Quality of Student Responses - Monitor the quality of student work to gauge degree of comprehension
Seize the opportunity to observe individual student progress and to tailor
assistance. Enable students to progress at their own pace on a class-wide
learning objective.
During Guided Practice, actively examine student work and thinking. Monitor
efforts by silently noting the errors and then correcting the errors aloud for all
students to hear., before attempting more complex problems. Ask question,
scaffolding them to gauge, the degree of comprehension, take notes on student
performance (using clipboards), fully engaged students.
During Independent Practice, circulate around the room, lean over students'
shoulders and kneel by their desks to carefully examine their work
Groups
Determine if each student has mastered the objective. Don't rely on group output to
reflect individual learning. The group must be accountable for achieving its goals
and each member must be accountable for contributing his or her share of the
work. Formally and informally assess the performance of each group member as
well as the entire group by assigning students to given responsibility in the group.
- Offer clarification and extended understanding - Answer student questions, provide assistance and re-explain key concepts/ideas if necessary. When an individual raises a question that might be pertinent for the whole class, consider stopping the activity to share both the question and responses.
- Gauge your coverage and improve your efficiency to monitor as many students as possible
Rigor and Alignment
A Strategy to Practice - No Opt Out
Why DO YOU teach
Alignment and Rigor
A Strategy to Practice- No Opt Out
In typical classes, when students don’t know an answer, or don’t want to try, they quickly learn the teacher will leave them alone if they respond to a question with “I don’t know” or shrugging their shoulders. The teacher then moves on to another student. Instead, NO OPT OUT is a useful tool to get all students to the right answer, as often as possible, even if only to repeat the correct answer. For example, on day 1 to review you ask Charlie, “What is 3 times 8?” He mutters, “I don’t know” and looks away.
Many teachers don’t know how to respond, and students come to use “I don’t know” to avoid work all year long. Instead, at a minimum, you can turn to another student, ask the same question, and if you get the correct answer, turn back to Charlie, “Now you tell me what is 3 times 8.” Charlie, and all of the students, have just learned that they can’t get off the hook and must do work in your class.
In a more rigorous form of NO OPT OUT you or another student can provide a cue. For example, in a class where a student was unable to identify the subject of the sentence, “My mother was not happy” the teacher asked another student, “When I am asking you for the subject , what am I asking for?” The second student responded, “You are asking for who or what the sentence is about.” Then the teacher turned to the first student and said, “When I ask for the subject, I am asking for who or what the sentence is about. What’s the subject?” This time the student was able to respond correctly, “Mother.” The sequence began with the student unable to answer and ended up with him giving a correct answer. Note that the tone in most classrooms that use NO OPT OUT is positive and academic and using it only reinforces the teacher’s belief in students’ ability to get the right answer.
(Taken From, "The Main Idea" of Teaching Like a Champion.)
Why DO YOU Teach?
Dorthy Hastings
I teach because, I believe that it is my calling to help students in urban schools become excited about learning, engaged in the learning process and to excel in all that they do. I also want to instill a love of learning in students, so that they will always have a desire to grow and develop.
Angelique Brown
Dates To Remember
SLO and PD Plan Due to District September 26, 2016
Assessment (5th Week of the Six Weeks) Week of 19-23.
Development of Wildcat University Calendar (Sept. 23 2016)
Grade Level Lead Meeting 7:00 - 7:50 (Friday - Sept. 23, 2016
Third Six Week Instruction Calendar (Fourth Week of the Sixth Week)
Lesson Plan and Targeted Assessments are due Wednesday Morning @ 8:00 for the upcoming week.
Grade Level Meetings Wednesdays weekly
PLC meetings on Thursdays weekly