Questioning Strategies...

On Thursday, I used the Muddiest Part of the Lecture questioning strategy. I was teaching my students about rhyme scheme in poetry that day. After handing out the index cards to the class (we only have six students) I told everyone to write down any questions they still had about that day's lesson on the card. Then I'd collect the cards at the end of class and we'd go over the questions the next day. Later, one of my students said he didn't have anything to write down because he understood everything. So I decided to make the questions mandatory as a way to make him think harder and find something that could be confusing for him, and I think this was my first mistake. Making it mandatory for the students to write down a question created an atmosphere that allowed the students to take the task less seriously. There were at least two students that couldn't think of a question to write on their note cards; at the end of class they were making jokes about how they only had a minute or two left to think of a question, and in the end, did not write down serious questions--they wrote down questions that I know they already knew the answers to. So I'm thinking I won't make it mandatory next time I decide to use that strategy in class.

But at the same time, I was surprised how helpful it was. Although I had to take the time to explain every step of determining the rhyme scheme of a poem, I really felt that all the students were with me by the end of class and understood how to do it. I asked them if everyone understood exactly how to do it and they all said they did. I had them figure out the rhyme scheme of a stanza in class and they were able to do it. So it was kind of startling when I collected the note cards and saw that a couple of students had said that they don't understand rhyme scheme. Those students went through the entire class saying they understood it when they actually didn't. And on top of that, I couldn't tell. That alone scares me. But this is helpful because it lets me know what I need to work on: my informal assessment technique(s) either suck(s) or just isn't suitable for my class, so a new method of informal assessment will help me make sure that they are truly comprehending the material.

There were some students in the class who just didn't follow the instructions. Instead of writing down a question about the class lesson, they asked a question they were thinking randomly about poetry or a question about homework or something like that. But even having this happen is helpful because it tells me that if I really want their questions to pertain strictly to the current lesson's material, then I have to be more explicit in my instructions.

Overall, the questioning strategy was very helpful in my class, just not in the way I expected it to be. Benefits? It tells me what's going on with my students, whether or not they're really getting the information. If they say they're understanding the material and then I find out that they're not, I know that I need to find a better way to make sure comprehension is actually taking place and that it takes place the first time around.

Last Year's Focus Papers...

One paper that quickly caught my eye was on charter schools. I have 2 younger siblings that have been in a charter school for a year now and are going to start at a new charter school in the fall, so this topic really hits home (yay for real-life connections). So the paper on charter schools was saying that one way to better our public schools is to give them more competition (the charter schools being the competition). I'm not exactly sure what the competing forces are though: is it the public school trying to prove it's just as good as the charter school so the public school administration begins to crack down on the students and teachers and school policies? Or is it something more personal, like the students themselves want to prove they're just as smart as charter school kids or something so they step it up a notch? Maybe it's a mix of the two. But anyways...

As I was reading the paper, I couldn't help but wonder why any school would need any form of competition in order to [start trying to] be[come] a good school. The thought bothers me. There are certain telltale signs that let a school know that it's failing itself, its students and its community. The proximity of a charter school should make no difference. Why is the public school not taking a greater initiative to fix its problems? Does it even know it's problems? No? Well why not?
I am not against charter schools. In fact I think I'm generally in favor of charter schools. But it seems like too often suggestions are made for fixing the public school system and/or its academically malnourished youth that don't actually fix the schools. Not really. Instead of the schools holding themselves truly accountable for the betterment of their students thinking minds, they continue to promote students to higher grade levels while ignoring the fact that those students don't deserve any kind of a promotion (much more often a demotion). Parents don't help the situation when they don't demand more of the faculties and administrations of the schools they send their kids to; so instead of making these demands, parents (the ones that care) remove their children from the public school system, and put them in charter, magnet or private schools, leaving the public schools just as bad as it was before. This is just a solution to the problem but doesn't fix it.
For example, I know of this program called Prep for Prep. It takes young children in elementary public schools that show considerable academic achievement and puts them through 14 straight months of extra schooling (there's even school 5 days-a-week during both summers), by the end of which they will have found placement in a private school. The start attending that private school in 7th grade and mostly continue to attend private schools for the rest of their academic lives. It's a really good program, I know a number of people that went through Prep for Prep and reaped the benefits of the program (there's a lot more to Prep than those 14 months). But despite how good the program is, taking students out of the public school system shouldn't be the answer. Again, it does not attack the root of the problem, just works around it.
But now, what if the parents think the best thing for their child is to put him or her through a program like Prep for Prep or switch the child into a different schooling system? Because quite frankly, I could easily see myself moving my child from a public school system to a charter, magnet or private school in the future if the state of public schools in the US doesn't change. Can you really blame parents that actually care for wanting the best for their children and not wanting to wait for public schools to become the best? I feel like you can't. So much more weight falls on the shoulders of public school administrations and faculties to improve their schools. And if the only way to get public schools to make any progress is by an outside stimulus like a competing school, then that wait for public schools to be the best option for students is going to be quite a long one. But it is somewhat comforting to know that there are programs like the Mississippi Teacher Corps and teachers like the ones I've met these here these past two weeks that are trying to make that wait a little bit shorter...