Goal 2: Reducing Teacher Talking Time
Page overview:
This page includes details on my second goal for this semester, including the purpose, plan, and evidence.
Teaching Competency: Implementing Learning
SMART Goal
In order to make goals more attainable, a specific criteria must be followed, and this criteria uses the acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based) (University of California, 2016).
Justification
Reflecting on sessions I taught in the past, not each student got the maximum benefit of the lesson due to my inability to be conscious of the time I spent talking as opposed to students’ active participation. As believed by theorist Vygotsky, language is a psychological tool that must be put into practice (Ehrich, 2006). As an educator, I must strengthen my ability to facilitate productive communication in the classroom. Hosting activities and strategies that guide students’ learning can help achieve this goal.
Previous Mentoring College Teacher's (MCT) Comment
Semester 5
Semester 6
Teaching Philosophy
A part of my philosophy is to keep learners engaged throughout the lesson by having them be active with the use of a variety of activities. For example, I provide students with puzzles, brainstorming sessions, and sequencing activities.
Click below to view my teaching philosophy:
Goal Implementation Steps
Step 1: Search for online tools
I researched the tools that will help me create an active, student-centered environment.
Step 2: Base questions on Bloom's Taxonomy
Using questions from Bloom's taxonomy is important when we want to activate students' Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), which is what usually leads to active student discussions.
In my fifth semester, I spent a higher percentage of time on teacher talk, while the only time students were engaged was activity time.
During semester six, I began trying to involve more students, but did not take into consideration that not everyone will get a chance to participate and many children would sit idly.
Step 3: Receive feedback
I created a rating scale in which I asked my mentor to rate my performance and how well I was able to reduce my talking time in relation to students'.
Evidence of Progress
Strategy 1: Guided Discovery
As I prepared lesson plans, I included various questions from both lower and higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy.
Description
Rationale
According to Tankersley (2005), "Opportunities for students to develop critical thinking processes are not found in classrooms dominated by the regurgitation of short answers. They are found in classrooms where active learning is an essential component" (np.). Questions and discussions help elicit information from learners to guide them toward the lesson outcomes.
Strategy 2: Tell-backs
Description
Students were given chances to discuss the topic with their peers after it was explained to them. For example, one student would ask their peer a question, and the other would respond, as a form of letting students discuss freely.
Rationale
Vygotsky explains that communication is an innate feature in human beings in which they express themselves using speech (Ehrich, 2006). Therefore, students have the need to speak, but lack the opportunities to in a teacher-centered classroom.
Strategy 3: Targeted Activities
Description
One activity I did with students was have them watch videos that explain key concepts related to the lesson, and then they would do a matching activity to consolidate the information from the video.
Rationale
Students work best when they know there is a tangible product in the end (Fuentes, 2015). Thus, creating targeted activities encourages them to pay more attention.
Strategy 4: Gamification
Feedback
Mentoring School Teacher (MST)
Rationale
Gamification emphasizes digital tools as a part of learning, and it creates a student-centered learning environment (Abdul Rahman & Panessai & Noor & Salleh, 2018). I found that the most enjoyable activities were those that involved friendly competition.
Using the website Nearpod enabled me to lead a more student-centered classroom, where students were active. Based on my MST's feedback, I was able to give them opportunities to practice their speaking skills and become leaders of their own learning.
Rating Scale
Some activities I presented to students were games on the website Wordwall, and other tools such as online quizzes as a part of the gamification strategy that places an emphasis on incorporating games into the lesson.
Description
Based on the rating scale I had my MST rate me with, I should still continue to work on having students more active, particularly during the main activities. Additionally, I should find more ways to have students talk more.
Mentoring College Teacher (MCT)
When my MCT observed during one of the lessons, I had been teaching a lesson which contained a lot of content. I was not able to deliver it effectively in a way where students were very active. However, I took my mentor's advice and started having more pair work.
Reflection
At the start of the teaching practice period, I found that my inability to get students to be as interactive as I would have liked lead me to becoming more talkative. However, after receiving feedback from both my MST and MCT, I began to reflect on my practices and incorporated a variety of tools that assisted me along the way. Using interactive tools is key to encouraging students to collaborate and speak up, especially those who are particularly shy. I was able to learn how to be improve my strategies in implementing learning.
I reflected on this goal in journals 3 and 5, where I noticed an improvement in the latter.
References
After I had implemented my MCT's feedback and improved upon my teaching, the final report highlighted that I made use of the proper strategies to engage learners in discussions and keep them motivated.
Abdul Rahman, M. H., Panessai, I. Y., Noor, N. A., & Salleh, N. S. (2018).
Gamification elements and their impacts on teaching and learning - A
review. The International Journal of Multimedia & Its Applications,
10(6). https://doi.org/10.5121/ijma.2018.10604
Ehrich, J. F. (2006). Vygotskian inner speech and the reading process. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 6, 12-25.
Fuentes, B. (2015, April 26). Ways to reduce teacher talk time. Teach Middle
East. Retrieved August 28, 2020, from https://teachmiddleeastmag.com/
ways-to-reduce-teacher-talk-time/
Tankersley, K. (2005). Literacy strategies for grades 4-12. ASCD.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104428/chapters/
Higher-Order_Thinking.aspx
University of California. (2016). SMART goals: A how to guide. Retrieved April
29, 2020, from https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/
performance-appraisal/How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf