Last week we wrapped up the workshop series with a session about classroom management. Many graduate students are concerned about how to strike a balance between authority and approachability in their classrooms, so we felt it would be worthwhile to devote a workshop to issues in this topic.
We kicked off the workshop with a fun Bingo-style activity.
We’ve come to notice over the years that participants, like our students, tend to groan when they here the word “Ice Breaker.” There’s something about those two words, right? But a “Warm Up” invokes a sense of play, of athleticism, of team work. When we began with the Bingo game we had our participants play to get their minds and bodies moving. The Bingo card was a 4 by 5 square grid. Each square contained a classroom management approach or a classroom experience. They were all different. They said things like “I allow my students to use cellphones in class”, “I have sent a student to Judicial Affairs”, “I respond to my students’ emails in 24 hours”, etc. The idea was to walk around the room and ask people which approach or style they had used, and get them to sign that square. The objective was to get a different signature for each square for total “Blackout Bingo”. This activity could be modified for any class where you want students to get to know one another, and the topics in the squares could be related to the subject of the class.*
*Note: often students will walk up to each other and just exchange sheets, without talking. The job of the instructor is to prompt students to talk to one another!
Once people had gotten their blood moving and learned a little about their peers’ classroom management styles, we moved on to an exercise in identifying qualities of effective instructors.
As a group, Jamiella led us into a discussion of two questions: What are the qualities in an effective instructor you have had that you admire? How do these qualities positively affect student learning? At the surface these questions may not seem directly related to classroom management, but they point to an important issue: the characteristics we embody as instructors affects our classroom environment. By serving as examples of how our students should also conduct themselves, we make our classroom expectations known and we improve learning for our students.
After identifying qualities we liked in instructors, Heather conducted an interactive exercise that involved brainstorming specific techniques we can use in the classroom. The exercise revolved around four questions:
1. How do you model respectful behavior?
2. How do you reward productive behavior?
3. How do you set and enforce ground rules/expectations?
4. How do you show that you care?
We conducted this activity in a “round-robin” style (feel free to mimic in your classroom!): Each question was written on a large sheet of paper. The workshop participants broke into groups of 5-6 and spent three minutes brainstorming and writing answers on one of the sheets. Once the three minutes were up, each group rotated to a new paper and continued the list that had been started by the previous group. Participants were asked to avoid repeating what had already been written. After four rotations, each group had had a chance to answer each of the four questions. We then spent time discussing some of the ideas people came up with. Here are the products of our discussion:
1. How do you model respectful behavior?
- Be respectful towards students: don’t interrupt, be consistent w/ expectations, don’t be snide, don’t point out stupidity, don’t call anyone “stupid”
-Try to demonstrate a positive attitude towards others and the materials
- treat all students equally (don’t favor certain students)
- be constructive with incorrect answers given in class
-attention to students presenting or answering questions
-turn off your cellphone
- don’t be personal when giving (negative) feedback!
- don’t discuss student grades in class
- learn names, have them do the same
- emphasize how rules are for benefit of the entire class
- “golden rule” for students leading discussion
- say “Huh, I hadn’t thought of that” or “thanks” when students share in discussion
- keep a professional tone in class
- show up at appointed hour or before
-promptly return students work
- discourage teasing, cursing
- be humble/be willing to say if you don’t have the answer
2. How do you reward productive behavior from your students?
- verbal praise
- good grades
- stickers/trophies
-written comments/feedback
- giving option to present their work or read/show their work for them
- ask to keep their work as an example
- when a student gives an exceptionally good presentation, ask the class what worked about it
- when students correct us, we fully acknowledge and praise them for it
- give points for participation in open debates for bringing up new ideas
-leave early if efficient at finishing tasks
-”improvement” grade
- point them towards opportunities (volunteer work, lab work, jobs)
- write them good letters of recommendation
- smile
- compliments, thank you’s, yes!!
- good grade(s) (esp. participation)
- connecting it to marketable skills
- refer back to excellent comments/answers
- recognize/affirm improvement(s)
- use their work as an example
- (for labs) let them leave early
-Extra credit points
- candy, gold stars, stickers
3. How do you set and enforce ground rules/expectations?
- Include them in the syllabus, refer to syllabus
- verbal explanation on day 1-5
- go over them on the first day in detail
- reminders and follow through
- no backsliding
- whistle loudly
- enforce consistently
- participation as part of grade
- hold myself accountable for following own rules
- if students are being disruptive, stop talking
- or cold call them to get their attention
- or ask them “can you hear me?”
- or ask them to leave
- peer reviewing, so students self-police and enforce rules
- friendly corrections
- emails
- self-evaluations, midway and after every paper
- make an example of someone who is a repeat offender
- brainstorming the rules with students and/or posting written copy of rules in class
- one on one discussion with offender after class or during office hours
- follow through and be consistent
- quiet stare to get attention (especially with phones)
- explain again the reasons for or logic behind the rules
- give examples of consequences
4. How do you show your students that you care?
- Take an interest in their academic life and being interested in non-academic interests/events
- show that I am approachable and available when required
- ask them about their expectations from the course and the instructor. Ask them if they are satisfied with what is being offered.
- learn their names and use them
- be supportive of effort, even if grades are low
- show up prepared
- Avoid “don’t” and focus on “do” Say they are better than bad behavior
-respond quickly to emails.
- survey students for feedback on the course partway through
- extra office hours before a big test or written assignment is due
- tell them you care. “we’re all in it together” “we’re all on the same team” etc. Positive speech
- Stickers!
- Keep open communication during and after class hours
- encouragement
- feedback on papers/written comments/encouragement
- individual conferences mandatory at least once a term
- constant encouragement to come to office hours
- bringing up personal information about students in class
- midterm course evaluations, students evaluate teacher/course
- come early to class and talk with early arrivers, talk to people even if they don’t move to talk to you
- prompt turnaround of graded work
-respecting students’ time by having good time management
- prioritize their humanity before/ while enforcing policy (“I hope you get well soon...”)
-emphasize that our support of them does not end with the quarter
We also had an interesting discussion about the wording of the second question. One participant felt that college-age students are by default expected to behave productively, which shouldn’t have to require “rewards,” which feel elementary. Another participant responded by saying that he “rewards” his own advisor’s productive behavior (for example, thanking his advisor for advice via email). In this case, the “reward” is acknowledgement of one’s appreciation. Do you feel it’s necessary to reward students for productive behavior?
Now that we had generated lists of techniques, Jamiella led a quickwrite: “Describe a situation where you’ve had a challenging situation with a student. How did you deal with it? Did you make your class expectations clear in the beginning? If not, do you think that would have helped?”
This activity helped us brainstorm our personal situations before we were led into our final actvity, led by Mara.
TAs working in partners had to decide how they would proactivey and reactively deal with a given classroom scenario. The objective of this activity was to have the participants think about how they might prevent such a scenario from happening (proactive) and how they would deal with such a situation once it occurred (reactive). In a list of eight scenarios the participants were responsible for looking at four. They were:
Scene A
You have a student from China who is very enthusiastic and participates often, although she is sometimes difficult to understand. When she turns in her first written assignment, you find it riddled with spelling and grammar errors, some even impeding your understanding of the sentence. You give her a C and encourage her to visit the Writing Center on campus. When she turns in the class’s midterm, this time a full length essay, the grammar is perfect and there isn’t a single spelling error. The language of the essay doesn’t seem similar to what you’ve encountered in class or on her previous assignment, but when you search phrases on Google nothing turns up.
Scene B
Two students in your class are obviously dating: they show up together holding hands, sit together and talk throughout class. It takes them several minutes to notice changes in class routine and they will often repeat a question right after you have finished answering it.
Scene C
Your syllabus allows laptops to be used in the classroom for notetaking, an offer which some of your students take up. About two weeks into the course, you get an e-mail from a student complaining that several students in the class are surfing facebook, shopping, or going to other sites, which she finds distracting and is keeping her from engaging in your class.
Scene D
A student routinely does not come to class and risks to fail based on her participation points. At the end of the quarter, although you have daily participation sheets turned in by each student, she tries to argue that she was in class and should get the points. She becomes aggressive, insisting she was in class.
Consider how you would address each of these scenarios in your own classroom!
We finished up our workshop with a quick list of useful resources for instructors on campus:
Student Judicial Affairs (SJA)
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Teaching Assistant Consultants (TAC)
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Graduate Teaching Community (GTC)
Student Academic Success Center (on-campus tutoring)
Book: What the best college teachers do by Ken Bain
Excerpt from Teaching At Its Best by Linda Nilson: “Preventing Incivility: Your Classroom Persona” (available on SmartSite)
Thanks to all our participants for attending these workshops. You all had valuable input and we appreciate that you are taking the time to learn more about teaching!
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