My Instructional Conversation lesson went decently, although it could have been greatly improved by setting behavioral expectations. My students have never done an instructional conversation lesson and mentor teacher warned me that it would be difficult. She has been struggling to get them to talk to each other more often as well. As with most students, they have a tendency to talk and look to the teacher for approval or confirmation. I had them move so that they faced each other, hoping that would encourage discussion, but it did not accomplish much. Even though they were facing each other, they were talking to me more than one another. This was also due to the convergent nature of the questions. Convergent questions are not conducive towards
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Students still see the materials and get distracted by them, reaching for the pencils when I had only recently reminded them that our hands should be free. Additionally, they also fidget and look around, rather than focusing on what we are reading or what I am saying. I have been considering bringing a pencil tin with a cover to class, so when the students are not writing, they will not have access to their pencils. When the students lose focus, I will either provide the student(s) who are focusing with behavioral specific praise. An example would be “I like how _____ is following along with his finger, that really shows me that he is listening”. If I see no one in my group is focusing, I just go silent. The students tend notice quickly and stop their off-task behavior, at which point I try to re-establish expectations.
I attempted to integrate my instructional conversation lesson with the performing arts by having my students make snapshots for our different vocabulary words. I had previously been informed that the students in my class disliked performing arts, particularly my second graders –with whom I would be doing my lesson. I approached my lesson with some apprehension, fearing that getting them to move at all would be a struggle. Instead, the students moved far more than
Students still see the materials and get distracted by them, reaching for the pencils when I had only recently reminded them that our hands should be free. Additionally, they also fidget and look around, rather than focusing on what we are reading or what I am saying. I have been considering bringing a pencil tin with a cover to class, so when the students are not writing, they will not have access to their pencils. When the students lose focus, I will either provide the student(s) who are focusing with behavioral specific praise. An example would be “I like how _____ is following along with his finger, that really shows me that he is listening”. If I see no one in my group is focusing, I just go silent. The students tend notice quickly and stop their off-task behavior, at which point I try to re-establish expectations.
I attempted to integrate my instructional conversation lesson with the performing arts by having my students make snapshots for our different vocabulary words. I had previously been informed that the students in my class disliked performing arts, particularly my second graders –with whom I would be doing my lesson. I approached my lesson with some apprehension, fearing that getting them to move at all would be a struggle. Instead, the students moved far more than