REFLECTION: 5 Common Teaching Practices I’m Kicking to the Curb
3It is Summer vacation so I decided to go on Pinterest and just search. Just search. Then I came across this Cult of Pedagogy post from 2015 and took a listen. She reviews 5 common teaching practices that she, as a teacher, decided to kick to the curb.
This made me think, should I do the same?
1. POPCORN READING (A.K.A.: Round-Robin Reading, Volunteer Reading)
I used to do this even as a high school teacher mainly because the students asked for it and I thought Well, if this what gets the students interested. And then I stopped because, as the blog relates, it was more of a distraction than engaged reading.
2. GIVING STUDENTS PREPARED NOTES
When she began talking about this (I decided to listen to this post rather than read as I cleaned my kitchen), I thought this would be a great idea! Provide these notes and the students can follow along. But wait, this was one of 5 teaching practices she wanted to abandon. I continued to listen and then she said, “...when no effort is required in the learning process, learning doesn’t last very long.” This 2017-2018 school I realized, I made learning way too easy for my students. This section of the article talked about the use of Powerpoints and then I realized, Oh crap, I did so many online presentations! So, personally, I will abandon (or at least rely less) on presenting Google Presentations.
3. WHOLE-CLASS PUNISHMENTS
This effected me this year. I did not do whole-class punishments, but I this do whole-class judgement. THIS is what I need to abandon. I do not do whole-class punishments, but I do say things like, Ugh, Period # is such a pain or Period # hates me or Period # is so annoying. This needs to stop. For my own sanity’s sake.
In the post what she does instead of punishments is, “The best way to deal with a rowdy class is prevention: If you have a lot of days when your whole class feels chaotic, this is symptomatic of a larger problem. It may be that your directions aren’t clear. Your students might be bored. You might need to build more opportunities for interaction and movement into your lessons. Or it might be time to re-establish clear behavior guidelines and consequences.“
In my case, I have to find what is symptomatic of a larger problem. This year, it was one student and I let his behavior determine the detriment of the class. But I also think, as she stated, this student might have been bored. This student might have needed more opportunities for interaction and movement into my lessons. He needed me to re-establish clear behavior guidelines and consequences.
4. USING LEARNING STYLES TO PLAN INSTRUCTION
Not gonna lie, I used to do this. Instead I have been practicing more of what she had suggested to do instead: “Provide a variety of learning experiences to all students.” Variety helps, but I also found high schools can manipulate a situation and not know it. For example, I had students select a role they feel is their strongest and a group of kids assumed that if they all took the same role they would work in the same group. Only one student flourished in that role.
5. “DIFFERENTIATING” BY HAVING ADVANCED STUDENTS HELP STRUGGLING STUDENTS A.K.A. Peer Tutoring
This is an oldie but goodie teaching strategy and I abandoned this one a long time ago. I think this is good for that go-getting elementary school student, but in my high school classroom I have learned that my more advanced students simply preferred to be around those who were like them. They liked to be in a group that matched their intelligence, and they would not mind helping if a student actually wanted to the help. But some of my Advanced students have told me that in middle school they would get bullied to do all the work or do the assignment for them. Instead, if I see a student struggling I ask a student Hey [student’s name] mind helping [student’s name 2] with this? Sometimes this is followed with Do I get extra points? in which I respond, regardless of who the student is, You get a thank you and you are amazing.
So that is that, my reflection on listening in (and reading through) the Cult of Pedagogy blog post on ineffective teaching practices.
I know what I can do for next year, but as a teacher, we can always evolve to be a better 1% of ourselves the next day.
