Filming and viewing myself teaching was an extremely terrifying, but rewarding experience. I did find it difficult at first to not focus on those insignificant aspects of my teaching or my classroom. Once I was able to look past those distractions I really did learn some valuable things about my teaching and my interactions with the students.
I finished my PBL activities two weeks ago, so I chose a separate inquiry-based assessment to film for my video selfie. During my PBL, I felt like I did not do a great job explaining and prepping my students during the gallery walk protocol. To replicate that, I filmed the part of my lesson where I had students turn and present their mini-research project to their student groups. To encourage them to be active listeners when other students were presenting, I created a guided listening sheet where students had to fill in pertinent pieces of information from other presentations.
As I watched my video, the biggest thing that stood out to me was how students responded to my instructions for the presentations. Most of the students were so focused on skimming through the sheet themselves, they missed a lot of the instructions I was giving. This came to light when I told the students to get started and I was immediately bombarded with questions of "What are we doing?" and "Where am I supposed to write this?" I started thinking back to the various learning styles in my classroom. Not every student is an auditory learner so I can't expect everyone to respond to just auditory instructions. Next time I will provide some visual on the Promethean board to help guide my instructions.
I also noticed in my video selfie that I float from group to group extremely fast. I don't think I stayed at one group longer than 10-15 seconds. The main reason I move so quickly is because I'm overly concerned that my 7th graders will quickly stray off-task or simply do anything other than complete the presentations. Part of this reminds me of the student "buy-in" of a PBL. If I can create enough engagement and interest in the activities they are completing then students will want to present and share their ideas. It is also important that I stay at one group long enough to hear their ideas and coach them in the correct ways to present, if a problem should arise.
At the end of my video, I had students switch groups and present their mini-project to students who were not in their original group. While students moved quickly to their new groups, it did feel a little chaotic as certain students were confused about where to go. This confusion could lead to frustration with my students. And frustration could be a mechanism for them to shut down or not put their best effort into the presentations. I will be more mindful of how students will move to eliminate anything that could be a distraction during the process.
I finished my PBL activities two weeks ago, so I chose a separate inquiry-based assessment to film for my video selfie. During my PBL, I felt like I did not do a great job explaining and prepping my students during the gallery walk protocol. To replicate that, I filmed the part of my lesson where I had students turn and present their mini-research project to their student groups. To encourage them to be active listeners when other students were presenting, I created a guided listening sheet where students had to fill in pertinent pieces of information from other presentations.
As I watched my video, the biggest thing that stood out to me was how students responded to my instructions for the presentations. Most of the students were so focused on skimming through the sheet themselves, they missed a lot of the instructions I was giving. This came to light when I told the students to get started and I was immediately bombarded with questions of "What are we doing?" and "Where am I supposed to write this?" I started thinking back to the various learning styles in my classroom. Not every student is an auditory learner so I can't expect everyone to respond to just auditory instructions. Next time I will provide some visual on the Promethean board to help guide my instructions.
I also noticed in my video selfie that I float from group to group extremely fast. I don't think I stayed at one group longer than 10-15 seconds. The main reason I move so quickly is because I'm overly concerned that my 7th graders will quickly stray off-task or simply do anything other than complete the presentations. Part of this reminds me of the student "buy-in" of a PBL. If I can create enough engagement and interest in the activities they are completing then students will want to present and share their ideas. It is also important that I stay at one group long enough to hear their ideas and coach them in the correct ways to present, if a problem should arise.
At the end of my video, I had students switch groups and present their mini-project to students who were not in their original group. While students moved quickly to their new groups, it did feel a little chaotic as certain students were confused about where to go. This confusion could lead to frustration with my students. And frustration could be a mechanism for them to shut down or not put their best effort into the presentations. I will be more mindful of how students will move to eliminate anything that could be a distraction during the process.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you taking time to reflect on your video analysis and to share that process with us. I know the idea of videoing our instruction can be intimidating to say the least, but I am glad that you found the outcome to be rewarding.
Having the anonymity to review the video and to analyze it independently and to really consider what the tape showed can be very informative to us as teachers. You shared how you noticed that students could benefit from a visual during your instructional delivery to help them focus on your words instead of their handout. You also shared how you want to continue to create buy in with your students for the pbl process and the product to help sustain their attention and to build stamina and focus. I agree 100% with your point that if you create enough engagement and interest in their activities then they will want to present and share ideas. I am glad that this process validated many of the concepts of pbl and you were able to apply this pedagogical knowledge to your analysis in order to target areas of growth! That is what it was intended to do.
Sincerely,
Dawn