Participation is Success
This week I was teaching three classes of really amazing students. I had my two classes of introduction to agriculture and I have added a large animal science class. I have realized that teaching two classes that are the same subject can be really tricky. It all really depends on the students in the class, I realized that in the first section I don't get as far in the second section.
At first it was stressing me out that I wouldn't get as far in the first section as I would the second. Then I realized that the first section seems to be asking more questions, really awesome good questions. The second section seems to be a little bit more shy ( I am working on that).
The state FFA officers came in, and I am super proud of the way my students responded and participated with the officers. They did whatever was asked of them, and I think they were able to learn a lot too. I loved to see my shy group of intro students really get into the activities that were going on around them. The state officers really strived to take the students out of their comfort zone, and have them investigate different communication strategies.
I did an egg lab, that was cool. It was crazy to me to see that some of these students have never cracked an egg, or peeled a hard boiled egg before. I loved to see how engaged they were even poking their eggs. They were able to learn about the different parts of the egg, and see how those parts change when an egg is cooked. We also investigated different eggs from different breeds of chickens.
With my large animal science class, they are all really bright students and are always really excited to learn. I just feel like I am not using the amount of time correctly. Class is 42 minutes, It is really hard to complete on of the CASE labs during that short period of time, so I have been splitting the labs in half. The first day we read the lab, do an interest approach and then start the lab, the second day we do a bell- ringer then further investigate and then finish the lab.
Please: any suggestions to better my time issue with my large animal class would be greatly appreciated.
At first it was stressing me out that I wouldn't get as far in the first section as I would the second. Then I realized that the first section seems to be asking more questions, really awesome good questions. The second section seems to be a little bit more shy ( I am working on that).
The state FFA officers came in, and I am super proud of the way my students responded and participated with the officers. They did whatever was asked of them, and I think they were able to learn a lot too. I loved to see my shy group of intro students really get into the activities that were going on around them. The state officers really strived to take the students out of their comfort zone, and have them investigate different communication strategies.
I did an egg lab, that was cool. It was crazy to me to see that some of these students have never cracked an egg, or peeled a hard boiled egg before. I loved to see how engaged they were even poking their eggs. They were able to learn about the different parts of the egg, and see how those parts change when an egg is cooked. We also investigated different eggs from different breeds of chickens.
With my large animal science class, they are all really bright students and are always really excited to learn. I just feel like I am not using the amount of time correctly. Class is 42 minutes, It is really hard to complete on of the CASE labs during that short period of time, so I have been splitting the labs in half. The first day we read the lab, do an interest approach and then start the lab, the second day we do a bell- ringer then further investigate and then finish the lab.
Please: any suggestions to better my time issue with my large animal class would be greatly appreciated.
Britton,
ReplyDeleteJust a friendly reminder to always clearly indicate in your blog the following:
1) specific question you would like readers to respond to
and
2) Specific pro-tips you want yourself to remember about teaching that could be applied in the future in different contexts...the gems you don't want to forget
For example, why was the "Egg Lab" successful? Just because it dealt with eggs? Are Northwestern students more likely to be interested in the poultry industry or is there something else?
Hey Britton,
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to read about all the success you're having in the classroom! You're absolutely right: teaching multiple classes the same content is a lot trickier than we give CORE areas credit for! ;-) I appreciated the questions you're asking along those lines: How do we get the same depth of questioning out of the second section? OR how do we channel the first sections questions to cover more content? The bigger question here is: What is important? Is it important that students are all on the same pacing (or is it convenient)? Is it important that students are digging in and asking questions (or that we cover more content)? These don't have to be either/or questions, but before you can figure out how to keep your classes on the same pacing, you have to be really laser focused on what is important for them to get out of your course.
The other consideration is: what can you build into your lesson that you don't absolutely have to get to but can use if you get ahead? Rather than trying to catch one section up, try challenging the section that's ahead on the content. Add an extra wrap up or review activity. Think about enrichment activities or clarification conclusions that you can use if you need, but don't need to sweat "missing" crucial content if you don't get to. Tech like quizlet and quizzezes are great ways for students to work at their own pace while providing you additional data; and offer ways to engage the whole class simultaneously.
I'd echo similar questions and suggestions for the time challenge with animal science. Don't teach bell-to-bell or a full lesson plan for the sake of those things in themselves. Think about what's important (and by all means, please share that with us!). As we clarify what you're working to accomplish in the time you have, we can be much more effective in offering advice to help manage the time.
I agree with Becky. I know how nice it is to have all of your same-subject classes be at the same place. I somehow have very little problems doing that or I have managed to find ways for them to "catch up" easily. But I remind myself that like your seeing, it's more important to take the time to answer their really good questions. Perhaps challenge the shy class that finishes earlier how they might answer those same questions posed by the other class.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I try to give more responsibilities to the faster classes out in the greenhouse or I'll have them work on their SAE records in AET. I also have a leadership speech that I do in my upper level classes that I'll tell students to work on if they're done their work early.
But just like Becky said, I would also agree that you can always dive in deeper with the shy ones. Have them watch a video that shows real world application of the topics your discussing. Have them create review questions that they think would be good test questions from your notes or lesson. Give them puzzles or an e-moment challenge to do to help them reflect on the lesson. If you give them homework, they could start it early while the talkative class will just do it at home.
Ultimately, you don't have to be on the same page as your other classes but if you find that your more vocal classes are getting off topic more easily or asking a lot of questions that might be better saved for a different time, you can always try to redirect that too.
I hope those tips helped. They might be small things, but trust me, they'll help.