Taking the Time to Ask and Listen

 

Walking into Gentrie's room exhausts me as she always finds a way to make a much larger mess than what one would expect possible in such a short amount of time! Today I came into a view even worse than the usual situation; I saw every blanket we have in the entire house covering every inch of her bedroom floor. On top, more play kitchen utensils then you have seen in your life! Although, "AHHH! Why do you always have to make such a mess, Gentrie?!" is what first came into my mind, I paused to breathe. Instead of yelling, getting upset, being annoyed or even asking her to start cleaning up that instant (these would be my gut reactions)...I decided to ask her a question, calmly. "Gentrie, what are you doing?" That's when her precious blue eyes, and jelly covered face looked up at me and said "Surprise!!! I made a picnic for you mommy! I love you!" Boy was I glad I didn't scream because I would have ruined it, while crushing the sweet heart of my baby girl. This was such a precious moment that I would have missed out on if I wouldn't have taken the time to ask and listen.

  It's SO hard to make the time to ask questions and really listen to kids, both at home and at school. At school, we feel pressured to "teach" them everything on the IFD, get grades, develop relationships, fill holes and gaps they have, prepare them for tests, and the list goes on and on. These things are like the "mess" that is so hard to look past!
    Many educators and administrators have been talking about the importance of higher-level questions. This got me thinking about how questioning correlates to formative assessment, specifically during the learning application. I had read an article last year that gave some really great open-ended questions to ask students. I wrote them on a little piece of paper and stuck them in my badge. This little "cheat sheet" has come in handy as I am discussing things with kids (any grade, any subject), particularly during the learning application. So often we talk about the "closure" as formative, which is a huge piece and highly important. But, I have come to realize that using these questions during the "we do" (learning application) part and really listening to the kids thinking is also a very important type of formative assessment. It often allows us to address misconceptions, teach it a different way and sometimes even extend it based upon their level of understanding. It's a BIG piece that helps us see why it's so important to have that part of the lesson be the longest (which is always a challenge for me!). And as an added bonus, we get to create those moments with our kids that help us develop relationships that truly make a difference in their lives. I hope I can make a habit of looking past the mess to ask and listen more often!

Here are the questions I wrote that day, along with a few more I "stole" from Ervin Knezek:

What do you think?

Why do you think that?

How do you know?

Can you tell me more?

How many ways can we…?

What if we…?

What happens if we change…?

I will stick a "cheat sheet" of these questions for you in your box!  I hope it's as helpful to you as it has been for me!
Happy Friday!

Forming with Formative

Why do we always forget what the first 2 weeks of school are like? Maybe it's like childbirth, the sleepless nights of having a newborn, and the joys of parenting a 2-3 year old...God blurs our memory so that we will be sure and do it again! The past two weeks have been a whirlwind!! Despite my best intentions and efforts, these weeks have been very far from my perfected plans! Forgetting about and then showing up 30 minutes late to football practice with a very upset 8 year old, arriving a week early to Awanas, and managing to make all 3 kids cry hysterically within the same 2 minutes: this is just a glimpse into my week.  One night as I rushed to the store for dinner groceries, I got a little ANXIOUS and thought..."I don't need to make a list. I'm sure I will remember everything I need!" Of course, I got home with only 5 of the 7 items I needed for supper! It got me thinking about formative assessment and the beginning of the year. As I helped a sweet friend get her brand new class up and going, I was reminded about how hard starting a classroom is each year. The pressure to dive straight into the curriculum is hanging over our heads, we are barely staying afloat, and the to-do list continues to grow with very few things being checked off. Not to mention, our bodies have reached complete EXHAUSTION!!! What happened to summer!?! As tempting as it was to cram in that next lesson, I had to stop and remind myself how important it is to "create my list before running to the store". Sure, at the time it seems like I'm saving time grabbing groceries, and skipping a step to have dinner on the table a little sooner. It's only when I notice the missing ingredients that I come to the realization that I have actually made the simple task of making dinner that much harder and more time-consuming! I wonder "Why didn't I just make the list so I could be in my pajamas cooking, and not dragging a fussy 2 year old, exhausted 5 year old and annoyed 8 year old BACK to Wal-Mart!?!?" All of that to say, we:

GO SLOW NOW, so we can GO FAST LATER

Those things that seem so simple but eat at your time, like:

• remembering to signal kids and WAIT until you have everyone's attention before starting
• thanking them for their undivided attention
• practicing, practicing, practicing over and over again until kids have it down completely
• taking time to create clear expectations and procedures
• overly noticing positive behaviors
• having them "try again" if it's not perfect, and then "trying again" and "again" until it meets highest expectations
• picking and mastering a few cooperative learning strategies that can be your "go to"
• ensuring every student knows their expectations throughout the day, including TRANSITIONS (in and out of the classroom)
• *****DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS!!!

These things are actually MORE important than any curriculum, especially right now. We all know that, so WHY is it so hard to STOP and formatively assess how they are doing with these behaviors and expectations? WHY does it feel like our clock is ticking away?!? WHY did we plan so much for this week?!?! I felt these struggles this week, as I am sure many of you did! After reflecting, I think we there is one word to describe it: ANXIOUS. So, as I was attempting to hone in on the above list, I had to breath and remind myself that if I didn't "make the list now", then it would be wasting time later going back to "get the ingredients" I forgot!
Therefore, as we focus on formative assessment this year at RH, let's start with
FORMING our classroom through FORMATIVE...

ASSESSING              REFLECTING               ADJUSTING

that is focused on making sure our classroom culture, environment and expectations are exactly where we want them! It will save you "a trip to the store" later!