More on teaching tactics: roll call, do now

We already talked about Roll Call– simply calling people’s names from the attendance sheet before class and marking them in or absent, whether or not you use that information.  The book Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov talks about threshold techniques, which is the way you greet students as they enter, and DH has picked roll call to be his threshold technique.

Do Now is another technique that can be useful in technical classes.  Basically you have a little problem for them to solve that they should be able to solve in a short amount of time at the beginning of class.  It’s either written on the board or given in a handout that they pick up as they enter.  It’s a way to check for understanding and to get the ball rolling and the brain activated for class.

DH has been talking about the interaction between the two.

Roll call (effectively his threshold technique), strengthens the utility of the Do Now. People show up early for the roll call, and so they’re there to start on the do-now before class. It’s gaining him probably 5 minutes of time on 3/4 of the students.  And he can use the time since he’s going right up to the bell every session.

Do Nows and quizzes are pedagogically essentially the same thing– quick checks for student understanding and an incentive to keep up with the material.  However, the Do Now has many psychological and mechanical advantages over the quiz.  Students like the Do Now better than the quiz.   They feel a lot different.  They’re less intimidating. And he doesn’t have to grade them.  They feel more like they’re for the student learning than the end result of a grade.

He was using quizzes for attendance, feedback to the professor, and an incentive for them to keep up with the material. Now roll-call and cold-calling are filling those needs.

me: I’ve definitely been doing more cold calling.  I’ve been trying to learn a new student name or two every class period  so that kid gets picked on.  Once I’ve picked on them, they’re more likely to ask questions.

DH: I’ve realized that cold calling can be a learning tool, and hopefully that comes through when I walk them through anything they’re struggling with, and the way there’s no judgement on wrong answers.  Anyway, off to class.

I hope it went well!  Do you think we should allow students to sink or swim on their own, or is nudging them ok?

Ask the Grumpies: Video in class

Leah asks:

What is your preferred way to use a video in your class?

#1 says:  I love them, I use them as much as possible, students love them.  I show them whenever I can think of an excuse or find a good video.

#2 says:  I generally only use video in my electives, and generally Daily Show or Colbert Report clips on current events that just happen to fit with a topic we’re discussing.  Occasionally I’ll dig up a Youtube video of an old commercial or something to explain what things were like before they were born.  I tend to use NPR a bit more, either having them listen in class or as a homework assignment that we’ll then discuss in class.  For one of my electives, I have a video of a talk that an architect of an important piece of legislation gave that I just show instead of lecturing because he just does a great job of explaining what and why and what are the problems.  I also have a video on another topic that I play sometimes because it has a nice overview of all the scholarly articles we’ll be reading on the topic.  One year I had my students watch a Michael Moore video for the final exam and use what they’d learned in the class to critique it.

Ask the grumpies: What makes an ideal student?

Femme Frugality asks:

What are the qualities in your ideal student? Where’s the line between being a good student and being a kiss-ass?

There’s no such thing as a kiss-ass in the grumpy nation.   A good student is excited about the material and about learning and isn’t concerned about grades, just doing a good job, being responsible, polite, and understanding the material in the class.  Enthusiastic students are often labeled kiss-asses as if it is a bad thing, but we’re here to tell you that enthusiasm for learning is never a bad thing, even if it forces you to go to graduate school and perhaps even become a professor.  So stay bright-eyed and respectful, we will not think less of you, even if your classmates are secretly jealous and try to pull you down.

#2 adds:

Come to class, look attentive, don’t sleep or text.  Make some reasonable effort on all assignments.  Don’t ask for exceptions to the rules.  Don’t give me presents or try to be friends, it’s weird.  (#1 says:  I do not mind presents from my international students whose cultures suggest gifts for all professors after the holiday break, but only *after* the class is over.  I have a nice collection of New Years red ribbons, which are entirely appropriate, especially when all your first semester professors have one.)

The students that stand out in my mind were really interested in the topic of the class and found something to fascinate them.  Also, intelligence.  Smart ones are better.  (#1 notes:  even if you’re not smart, hard work will *make* you smarter, at least in my classes.)  Respectfulness (not obsequiousness) and good writing will help.  I will have a soft spot for you if you volunteer for an in-class demo, but you don’t have to.

Grumpy academic readers, what makes your ideal student?

Getting kids to behave in a teaching setting

It’s all about tactics…

We’re reading this book by Doug Lemov on how to improve K-12 teaching, figuring it should help us with college and graduate students too, even if not everything transfers over.  This book is really awesome because it’s about tactics.  What are techniques that you can actually use to get students to pay attention, keep listening, behave themselves and learn (mostly remember) the material.  It’s a great book with lots of great tips in a classroom setting.  Little nitty-gritty details.

We’ve had it in mind as we go through the summer, applying it more to a pre-K setting.

Example.  So DC says to me the other morning, “Ms B said if I flipped my flip flops one more time, she was going to wear them.”
“I think that means she wanted you to stop.”
“Why?”
“You were probably disturbing her or other kids.”
“Really?”  DC asked incredulously.
“Did you stop?” I asked.
“No, I flipped them two more times.  But Ms B didn’t put them on,” ze replied, disappointed.

I think what we have there is a failure of Ms B to communicate.  DC honestly had no idea that she wanted hir to stop flipping or why on earth she would have wanted that.  With kids a certain age, it’s best just to be direct.  “DC, please stop flipping your flipflops.  It is bothering me.”

Also while we’ve been reading this book, DC has started swimming lessons. The first session ze had an experienced and short woman teacher.  DC behaved like an angel and progressed marvelously.  Second session, DC had a tall inexperienced male teacher.  DC acted up in ways that we rarely see hir act up.  And so did most of the other kids in that group.  We were constantly reminding DC to listen to the teacher because swimming pools are dangerous and it is important to listen.  (Indeed, on the last day of class, DC fell into four feet of water and took a while to fish out, but was oddly unfazed.  DH, otoh, almost had a heart attack.)  DC claimed ze just didn’t hear when the teacher said to stop splashing or to stay away from the slides.  He would also give up on kids doing the right thing too soon, and would make idle threats that he never followed through on.

DH spent some time over these sessions comparing what it was that the first teacher and the second teacher were doing differently, especially on occasions with the tall male teacher when the students actually behaved.  Specifically, the kids behaved on the days when they were in the big pool instead of the smaller one where they could stand on their own without life jackets.  In the big pool, they had to sit on a mat for safety reasons when it wasn’t their turn with the teacher.  And, importantly, in the big pool, the tall teacher was the same height as the kids, not towering over them.  It was easier for them to listen to him.

Supernanny was right.  It is important to get down to the child’s level when you’re trying to get them to behave, listen, or obey a command.  Second, when they’re bored, they’re going to act up.  Give them something to do and limit their possible actions.  Too much freedom can lead to pushing that freedom too far, and not being in a position to pay attention to the teacher.  Finally, as before, follow through with commands and threats.  If you give up too early, then they have more reason to ignore your commands and threats.

These are all tactics.  Not high flung philosophies and so on, but concrete small things that improve the experience for everyone and help increase learning because of that.  It is easier to learn when kids are not distracted and it’s easier to teach when kids are well-behaved.

So that’s our recent experiences in getting pre-K and K-12 folks to pay attention and learn stuff.  We wonder what bleeds over to college students…