Today
I was witness to one of those magical moments teacher live for – when learning
erupts like spontaneous combustion, burning new ideas forever into students’
minds.
In
our PLC we’ve been working on discussion strategies – ways to support genuine
conversation among students, where students initiate topics and make
unsolicited contributions. We’ve been leading up to grand conversations, supporting students as
they take ownership for their own learning and consider, extend, and sometimes
refute one another’s ideas.
Amy’s
fourth-grade class has been studying Native American folktales. They had read Coyote
Places the Stars and How
the Stars Fell into the Sky, and today they were ready for a grand
conversation. Amy invited me in to observe so that we could reflect together on
the experience. As the lesson began, I
heard Amy launch the discussion with an open-ended question: “What were some of
the similarities and differences between these two book?” Students jumped in
with comments about the different tribes, their settings, and the characters in
the stories. One student, Ashley, made an astute comment revealing the
character trait of patience, “She said she would like to do it for the rest of
her life,” she said. Amy jumped on this opportunity to support students’
understanding of an important theme in the story. “Did
you guys hear what Ashley said?” she queried.
Ashley, say it again.” As Ashley
repeated her answer, students physically leaned in to attend to her comment.
The discussion continued with students stating their observations and ideas and
often asking their peers, “What do you think?” It was clear Amy had laid the
groundwork for this discussion.
As
the conversation turned to the ending of How
the Stars Fell, one of the students asked, “But what’s the lesson? There
isn’t a lesson!” “There is a lesson,” another responded.
Students batted around a few ideas, then one said, “I think that it’s about
patience, because in one story, the coyote just got impatient and threw the
stars into the sky, but in the other one he took his time.” (Wow!) Another added, “I agree with what
Vicki said, because it took many moons to put the stars in a nice way, but in
this one, he just threw all the stars and made a mess.”
At
this point, the students’ ideas were really jelling. Amy jumped in. “I agree,” she said. “I think Coyote’s character in this
book was impatient, didn’t care about what First Woman thought, but in the
other book, Coyote wanted to make his friends happy and honor his friends.” The
discussion continued, with students bringing in other important ideas, and the
lesson ended with an opportunity for students to write about their new
understandings. So much thinking and learning had occurred!
As
I prepare to talk with Amy about this lesson, there is much to celebrate!
Students’ engagement in and ownership of the discussion was palpable. They
actively encouraged each other to participate and they came on their own to key
ideas. The thoughtful, open-ended questions that Amy had prepared in advance
and the occasional follow-up prompts and probes she asked bore fruit as the students
commented and queried one another.
One
of my favorite points in the lesson was when Amy asked Ashley to restate her
comment because it illustrated an important theme. This was powerful, because
it kept the learning in students’ hands, which heightened their engagement. I wondered why Amy took a different tack later,
as this theme solidified through discussion. Instead of asking students to
restate or rephrase, instead of asking a follow-up question to get students to
synthesize, Amy did the heavy lifting and summarized their discussion.
I’m
hoping that a take-away from our debrief will be Amy’s recognition of the power
of students’ self-discovery. Initially, Amy guided the learning by drawing
attention to an astute comment, and students built on that comment. This approach could have served equally well
to summarize the learning.
With
this in mind, here’s what I’m planning for the coaching conversation with this
talented teacher who has accomplished so much in supporting students’
discussion skills. I plan to lead with a comment about how amazing it was to
watch the conversation unfold and then ask, “Why do you think this
discussion worked so well?” I’m sure I’ll learn a thing or two about how to
support rich discussion as our own conversation unfolds. I hope she’ll mention Ashley’s early comment
that lead to the patience theme, and I’ll again have the chance to affirm
her teacher moves, emphasizing the learning that occurred when she gave the
teaching power to Ashley. I might ask,
“Were there other times in the lesson when you did this?” and later, “Were
there other times in the lesson when you could
have done this?”
The
coaching conversation is playing out in my mind. I hope it unfolds in a way that will ignite Amy’s
desire to routinely give the teaching power to students during discussions. As
I affirm
and question, I think Amy will become more aware of the effects of
the moves she makes as she actively guides, rather than leads, discussions.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Coaching for equity:
Mentor texts for teaching endings (plus
a chance to reminisce about your favorites):
Ideas for media literacy:
Dear Parents (or teachers):
Who are the quiet powerhouses in your
classroom? Check out this Ted talk about the power of introverts for ideas:
That’s it for this week.
Happy Coaching!
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