What Do Teachers Say? Brandon Allwood

Homer Community Schools I spent my student teaching experience at Homer High School (HHS) in Homer, Michigan. I taught 9 th and 10 th grade U.S. History and Civics with Mr. Charles Finch; 9 th grade English Language Arts with Mrs. Libbi Dodd; and, 12 th grade World History with Mr. Joe Brya. HHS is what I consider to be a small school. It has around 400 students in 9 th through 12 th grade. The student body consists of a large number of students from the Albion School District. The majority of the student body at Homer is still the students from the rural community surrounding the school.

My Classroom

Round 1: Description & Question I noticed as a beginning student teacher, I had to ask students to be quiet or pay attention multiple times, but I could not explain exactly why. So, I decided to explore this question: What am I saying that my students don’t respond to?

Round 1: Data Collection & Analysis To collect the data, I noted who was talking and how I chose to address the talking, as well as the amount of time between responding to my prompt and giving another one. Calling out a group: on average, after a little less than 3 minutes a group would start to talk again; only two groups did not resume talking or need re- direction following this prompt. Calling out the class: on average, after a little less than 3 minutes a group would start to talk again; only one group did not resume talking or need re- direction following this prompt.

Round 2: Description & Question Students responded only very briefly when I called out a group and/or told the whole class to stop talking or change behavior. In addition, I realized I was also using another strategy: remaining quiet and looking directly at a student or group. And, I wondered whether student responses were different to this prompt as well as any others. So, for round 2, I decided to change my question: What am I doing that my students do respond to?

Round 2: Data Collection & Analysis To collect data for this round, I did the same thing as I did in round 1: I noted who was talking and how I chose to address the talking, as well as the amount of time between responding to my prompt and giving another one. Calling out a group: on average, after a little less than 4 minutes a group would start to talk again; only one group did not resume talking or need re- direction following this prompt. Calling out the class: on average, after a little less than 9 minutes a group would start to talk again; all groups prompted this way resumed talking and needed re-direction. Remaining quiet and looking directly at a student or group: on average, after a little more than 7 minutes an individual or group would start talking again; 5 groups did not resume talking or need re-direction.

Round 3: Description & Question At the conclusion of round 2, I realized that when I remain quiet and look directly at the student(s), they will all slowly start to get quite. My silence causes other students to speak up and ask their fellow classmate(s) to quit talking and remain quite. So, for round 3, I decided to work with the same question again because I thought it would be beneficial to collect another round of data on the same question. This extra set of data would make the results more concrete. So, for round 3, I kept my question: What am I doing that my students do respond to?

Round 3: Data Collection & Analysis To collect data for this round, I did the same thing as I did in round 2: I noted who was talking and how I chose to address the talking, as well as the amount of time between responding to my prompt and giving another one. Calling out a group: on average, after a little less than 5 minutes a group would start to talk again; all groups prompted this way resumed talking and needed re-direction. Calling out the class : on average, after a little less than 5 minutes a group would start to talk again; all groups prompted this way resumed talking and needed re-direction. Remaining quiet and looking directly at a student or group: on average, after a little less than 7 minutes a group would start to talk again 5 groups did not resume talking or need re-direction.

Conclusions No student likes to be yelled at or shamed—it places the student in opposition to the teacher or signals a potentially adversarial relationship. Pausing and waiting—in order to let students notice the situation for themselves or prompt each other, figure out for themselves and as a group—achieved quicker and longer lasting results. Pausing and waiting allows the student(s) to correct themselves so they do not have to be called out by the teacher. Students will sometimes respond better to a peer—over an adult or teacher — because they are part of the same general social group.

Professional Literature In Harry and Rosemary Wong’s book, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher: “Effective teachers manage their classroom. Ineffective Teachers discipline their classroom.” (82) These lines fit my teaching style very well. To me, calling out a student in front of the class is a form of discipline. So, when I used my silent method to get my students’ attention I am not actually disciplining them but rather managing the classroom. In Sonia Nieto and Patty Bode’s book, Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education: “…disciplinary policies [may be] perceived to be unfair and ineffective, especially those that may be imposed rather than negotiated.” (139) So rather than holding power over my students, I can see that it is important, and useful to call students to use their power to be responsible and contribute to the teaching and learning process.”

References Nieto, S. and Bode, P. (2011). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical text of multicultural education. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2009). The first days of school: how to be an effective teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.

Acknowledgments Mr. Chuck Finch, Mr. Joe Brya and Mrs. Libby Dodd at Homer High School, Homer Community Schools Albion College Education, English and History Departments My parents, the Schaff family, Sigma Chi Fraternity, and all other people who supported me through this adventure