The following is adapted from my Mid-Year Reflection:
I believe that too often teachers (myself included) think we’re pretty good at our jobs—or good enough. This attitude is a matter of self-preservation. After all, who wants to end each day thinking we’re not good at our jobs? No one. Therefore, we’re quick to forgive our sloppy teaching, negligent in scrutinizing our students’ true level of learning, and inflated in our sense of our success. AIW (Authentic Intellectual Work) asks us to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I appreciate how AIW has pushed me to prioritize what I know in my gut is good teaching.
An example of AIW awareness impacting my teaching happened last week. I am not a teacher who lectures often, or for long stretches of class. But when I do lecture, I like to think I’m pretty good at it. I’m an energized speaker, I know how to use examples, I interject questions, I incorporate good visual and audio aids. So it is tempting for me to think my students are “getting” what I’m lecturing about—especially if they are looking alert, nodding at appropriate times, and taking notes.
My class, in an unspoken alliance to play the school game, seems to know that when I ask a question, someone should pipe up with an answer, to reinforce my feeling that the whole class is following along.
But thanks to AIW, I was aware that my students’ answers were not building on each other. I knew that my teaching would be better if I paused for “Turn to your neighbor and explain…” to get a higher level of sustained conversation.
What happened surprised me: My students turned to each other and said, “Beats me…” “No idea…” “Guess I wasn’t paying attention…” What a wallop! My perception had been that they were learning; the reality was that they were not. How often does this “teaching” go on in classrooms?
I made immediate adjustments. I said, “After this next slide, I’ll ask you to talk about why this event matters in the history of journalism.” Simply prepping my students in that way improved their absorption of the content. This is such a small thing—yet it greatly improved the lesson.
I also put another check mark in the Don’t-Resort-to-Lecture column.
Actively learning,
Allison
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