Last week I had a the opportunity to debrief with two 2nd grade co-teachers for whom I had done a model number talk the week before. Originally I had planned to use the guiding questions I provided for their observation as the guiding questions for our debrief. However, when the time came it just felt better to ask them for highlight, suggestions and questions. I had them bring their notes from the observation to support our conversation.
The teachers had a bunch of interesting observations but one of their reflective comments really stuck out to me as informing my coaching.
One teacher said she was surprised that I was able to get to all four problems in 10-12 minutes. She noticed that I would ask for only 2-3 students to share their strategies, maybe have the other girls comment or ask a question, and then move onto the next problem. She said that often they only get to 1 or 2 problems because they are trying really hard to make sure everyone understands. This conversation made me realize that, as their coach, I need to pay more attention to their pacing during number talks as well as mini lessons. As they are planning are they making predications about student's possible misconceptions? What questions do they ask when a student does not understand during a number talk or mini lesson? Does the student not understand or are they just having difficulty explaining their thinking? In addition we may need to dig further into the purpose of number talks. What do you think the benefits are of providing girls with a short amount of time each day to do mental math? Why is it important to get through each of the problems in the number talk? What do you need to understand in order to facilitate a purposeful 1-15 number talk?
Such mindful questions, Morgan. And I think your awareness of pacing issues is often at odds with teachers’ intentions of making sure everyone understands. There are things we can do to quickly and accurately to assess understanding—mostly, as you’ve stated, through open questions.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on the same thing with string lesson pacing! I get into this place when I'm doing whole class lessons where I just can't let some kids go, and I get so bogged down and stuck and it ruins the whole pace and flow of the lesson. This happens because by sticking with one or two, I'm losing the other 26! Such a challenge!
ReplyDeleteI think your pacing questions are spot on. Predicting student responses is really helpful to the pacing. I think also planning which questions you want to dig in on and why can be really helpful when planning. This requires teachers to have a really clear mathematical goal in mind, to negotiate what students are saying and facilitate the conversation towards that goal.
One thing (if teachers are willing) that helped me so much is watching video of my strings and then noticing when the pacing feels good, what is happening, what am I doing. I also notice when I get stuck and consider why I'm stuck there. It might be something for teachers to try, and it is a way for them to reflect themselves without you and continue practicing what you're working on together. It is also such a great way to see progress over time.