Challenges – Any Grade Level
What problems have you encountered that have been difficult to overcome?
9 Comments
- Kathryn Tribendis replied:
I have found that I am still struggling with the wait time. I have discovered that it really depends on what you’re teaching at the time, because my kids have trouble sitting still for longer than ten minutes as it is. Then I also find myself getting frustrated when I do provide the correct amount of wait time especially for activities we do on a daily basis, such as calender time. Many times, the kids don’t say anything and I get uncomfortable and just move on to the next topic; therefore the wait time goes by the wayside. I think it also has a lot to do with my comfort level. I remember discussing that in our class this past summer. The silence is uncomfortable at times, and that’s what I think I need to try to get past! Any suggestions on how to do that??
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 am. Permalink.
- Gaynell replied:
This is a tough one! I’m curious to hear about the things that have worked for other teachers. One thing I learned somewhere is to relax your jaw and take your tongue off the roof of your mouth. I think it just makes you more relaxed so the silence doesn’t seem so uncomfortable. I like to look at the students eyes and try to figure out where they are in their thinking. It gives me something to do so I don’t notice the time. I wonder if there is a way to get the kids to explain to you what the silence means them.
September 29th, 2008 at 6:45 am. Permalink.
- Melissa Hines replied:
I try to give the students as much eye contact as I can and take slow deep (quiet) breaths through my nose and out my mouth. I also have the class (Kindergarten) practice a thinking pose. They point to their temples or scratch their chins while we are thinking before sharing. I am sure that some are not thinking about the task at hand…but it is a work in progress. I have gotten a lot more “thoughtful” answers using the thinking pose.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:04 pm. Permalink.
- Cindy Peake replied:
The thoughtful pose is good – tapping the chin as in the Eunice video. I find myself doing that too!
I told my students (8th grade math) that I might even count outloud (1..2..3) in order to pace myself. I do find that looking them in the eye will help to see if they are even thinking about something or off-task. I may even repeat the question (the same one) another time or two.
My challenge is that if NO ONE is responding, I have a tendency to ask another question and then they get even more confused. I need to work on sticking with the original question and doing more meaningful prompting and probing.
September 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm. Permalink.
- Caryn Boehm replied:
At the beginning of the year we went over the norms. I have experienced students being more sensitive to the wait time of others this year. Perhaps it was the norms, perhaps their elementary teachers have groomed them already to be sensitive to wait time, perhaps a little of both. I see their willingness to wait for others to develop their responses beginning to fade and think that I will review the norms at the beginning of each marking period. Sometimes, no one knows the answer and I have also found myself confusing them by asking leading questions. For the most part though, the leading questions have been successful and I have been able to get more answers out of students whose 1st response is “I don’t know” than I have in the past.
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 am. Permalink.
- mickey peters replied:
I don’t find the wait time difficult, I had been practicing something like it before, it’s the change in questioning. To create quality questions takes lots of time to GRADE. On tests they are longer and deeper and it takes way more time to sift through them, although they are very interesting.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm. Permalink.
- Todd Rigler replied:
The most difficult part for me is the wait time II. I think we can all get wait time I or at least understand it but the wait time II is tough. I have almost had to rewire my thinking in order to slow down my enthusiasm to reward the student’s response. After the follow up session I feel much better in that the wait time II can be better in some instances than others. When just getting a quick feel for the learning it really in not applicable. For instance if I ask a kid what is the supreme law of the United States and I get Constitution I can slack off on the wait time II. If the question is more detailed like, How does the Constitution affect your daily life and I get a response of “it has laws” I should use the wait time to allow the student and other students time to put forth a better aimed response.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm. Permalink.
- Terri Vernon replied:
I agree that Wait Time 2 is the hardest for me. I had to tell the students what I was going to do ahead of time to cut down on disappointment, or blurting out. It is still so hard, especially when someone who rarely participates finally chimes in. I want to immediately jump in with positive feedback, but I try to remember to do it as often as possible.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:16 pm. Permalink.
- Amanda Lilley replied:
I also find wait time II very difficult. Students want to have immediate feedback about their answers. Also, wait time II allows other students to want to jump in and help, which can lead to mayhem. I tend to skip wait time II.
Also, I’ve found that as we get more pressed for time, as the week and class time goes on, I’ve fallen back into the routine of calling on students who have their hands raised, instead of calling on students randomly. Last week, as well as the beginning of this week, I would call on all students, trying to ask each student a question. Today, I wanted to get through X amount of material, so to save time, I called on the same 5 students many times. I need to either be more conscious about this or find a new procedure for calling on students.
September 19th, 2009 at 12:16 am. Permalink.