Starting the year in a classroom

August 2005, Draft for review and revision

Our practical problem:

1. Starting the year in a classroom is a complex and important teaching task that extends across the first few weeks of school and tends to shape the whole year.

2. Ideally, interns would learn so much from observing and participating in the mentor teacher’s class that they would be able to start the year well in their own classroom next year. But we have good reasons to think that’s a very ambitious goal. Just doesn’t happen that fast.

3. We are not sure what or how much interns’ can learn, using their experience and studies to date. This is a matter to be explored. ECM chapters 3, 4, 5 do provide them a lot of language and options for thought and action that could help them to interpret what they see/hear and to act reasonably.

4. We are not sure what or how much interns can learn when playing the roles of observer or assistant teacher. This is a matter to be explored. At a guess, an assistant will be unaware of much that is going on.

5. In the first weeks, some or many mentor teachers will be so heavily engaged in getting the class started that they will be unable to talk much with the intern about what’s going on. So, many interns will have limited access to the mentor teacher’s thinking as they observe or try to help the teacher.

6. We are inclined to think that, unless we cue interns how to use their studies so far to interpret what they see/hear, and unless we help them to make sense of what they see/here, they are likely to learn far less from observing and participating than we would hope.

So, our problem is described. What can/could we do?

Project outline

1. Promote the assistant teacher role?

We are inclined to think that interns are likely to learn more when they are on their feet in the classroom, in all phases of instruction, actively trying to help the mentor teacher do what the mentor teacher is attempting to do. We could state that as a firm expectation to interns. This implies that we would be trying to teach them to be good assistant teachers at this stage. (We could tell interns to blame us if their initiative rubs the mentor teacher the wrong way: “My cluster leader and field instructor told me to do it.” It’s a good bet that most mentors are far more likely to be pleased than irritated by the interns’ “initiative,” so we should take the bet and run the risk.)

2. “Co-observation” as a wide range of events.

We are inclined to think that we could make important contributions by “co-observation” with interns. At the most extensive, co-observation would mean that the intern and field instructor would independently take notes for 30 minutes while the mentor teaches. Then field instructor, intern, (and perhaps mentor, on some occasions) would go and talk about what’s in the notes and why. In that exchange, the intern would get to hear what the field instructor thought important to record, and why.

The idea or tactic of co-observation can extend even to small events like standing together watching for two minutes and then exchanging four sentences. What matters is (1) looking/listening together, and (2) field instructor helping the intern to perceive, interpret, etc., partly by asking what the intern “saw” and partly by sharing what the field instructor “saw.”

3. Our questions

For use in the wide range of events we could call “co-observation,” we already have a stock of questions that tend to be fruitful. [Bracketed statements attempt to express the aims or strategies behind the repeated use of these questions.]

Tell me about; tell me more about... [We are giving open-ended cue to remember and describe, not everything, but something the field instructor generally points toward as being fruitful to talk about. That is, the field instructor is using her judgment to say “there’s something important over in that direction,” and asking the intern to get in the game.]
How would you describe or explain that to someone who wasn’t watching...? [We are making another request to recall and describe “just the facts, ma’am,” and then to go on to interpret.]
How did you feel when....? [We are cueing the intern to notice her/his own thoughts and feelings, and how they might affect her or his own learning. Also, possibly, a way to cue an intuition.]
Did you see how (the teacher just did something?) [We are labeling an event or pattern as move or practice, so that it can be perceived.]
How many times...(did something or other happen)? [We are giving a cue to notice repetition, as a way to detect patterns of classroom activity, or to detect what’s important, or to detect what might be going wrong.]
Did you see that (the teacher has just made some move that makes sense in relation to her last move or in relation to something that a kid did or said)? [We’re pointing to teacher-student interaction playing out in some way, pointing to something that a teacher probably would or ought to notice.]
Did you notice the student who....that group of students which...? [We are pulling the intern’s attention away from the teacher’s actions and toward the students’ activities, statements, etc. Promoting the habit of watching and listening to kids. Introducing the idea that a teacher figures out what to do largely by observing students.]
What other ways could a teacher have....? [We are promoting the habit of generating and comparing alternative options for thought and for action, because that’s how we increase our wealth as teachers.]
What did you see or hear that made you think that? [As teachers we have a duty not to fool ourselves about what’s going on in our classrooms, a duty not to make up nice stories about what’s going on because those stories make us feel better. We avoid fooling or misleading ourselves, and we avoid abusing our students, by constantly asking, “What did I actually see and hear?”]
How could we discover who learned and who didn’t? [We are declaring that we cannot just “see” that kids learned, and that we cannot assume they learned because we told or taught. A constant invitation to build curiosity and assessment skill.
I was wondering what you were thinking when.... [A cue that thought process is important, and away to get into the intern’s mental game, in order to help.]

4. Teaching interns how to ask questions

There is reason to think that interns often refrain from asking questions of their mentor teachers because the interns know that they will be unable to keep their biases and judgments out of the question. For example, “Why did you get down on Johnny so hard about that little thing?”

There is a teachable question pattern that seems to be pretty safe in lots of situations. It seemed to meet approval from some field instructors. Example:

“(a) A few minutes ago you went over to Johnny’s desk, leaned over close to him, and said something I couldn’t hear, but it sounded firm. (b) I think it might help me learn if you would (c) tell me what you thinking about just then and what you said to him.”

The pattern of the question is: (a) Brief, dead-pan description of what was seen and heard. (b) Invocation of one’s role as novice teacher and therefore mentor’s obligation as teacher educator. (c) Brief indication of the information that the intern would like to have.

Ordinarily, when the mentor teacher has responded, the intern would just smile and say “Thanks.” What was asked for has been provided.

5. Explaining to interns why we ask questions

Our constant asking questions could be unpleasant to interns for a couple of reasons. One is that it constantly shows them that that they didn’t know, hadn’t thought about, etc., and that attacks their idea that they are suited to teaching. Some interns seem to think that becoming a teacher means they will stop answering questions and start asking them. So, our constantly asking them questions might feel like pushing them back into studenthood, when our intention is to push them forward into thoughtful teaching. Perhaps we should explain ourselves:

My job is to help you learn to teach. Learning to teach is at least as much a game of thought as a game of action. To help you learn to teach, and to help you with the mental game, I have to ask you a lot of questions. I don’t ask you questions to find out if you have all the answers. I ask you questions to help you build the answers.

I am responsible for evaluating your progress and performance as an intern, and evaluating how you are thinking is at least as important as evaluating how you are acting. [Since interns tend to think a better game than they are yet able to play, this is a good deal for them.]

6. Explaining co-observation to mentor teachers

Mentors might wonder why the field instructor and intern would take notes in the back of class and then go off to discuss them. To take the small forms of co-observation, mentor teachers might even wonder what field instructors and interns whisper to each other briefly as they watch class activity. By tradition, “evaluation” is a likely reason for such activity. That is not a pleasant association for the mentor teacher, and not an accurate description of what the intern and field instructor intend to be doing. So, it will be desirable to explain to mentor teachers, in advance, what will be going on.

In Spring, 2005, the Teacher Preparation Policy Committee noted that many questions of this type arise throughout the teacher preparation program, and adopted a policy on “How course and field instructors should handle discussion of activities in mentor teachers’ classrooms.” Examples of practice are provided with the policy.

For the case of co-observation by interns and field instructors, the policy seems to say that we should tell mentor teachers, in advance, what we hope to achieve by co-observation, and also tell how we will go about it in a manner that carefully respects the mentor teacher and the teacher’s students. These principles stated in the policy may be particularly important to the mentor:

1. Establish ethical ground rules. Early in the course, establish and maintain ethical ground rules for all discussion, oral or written, of activity in mentor teachers’ classrooms...

2. Explore [interns’] ideas about learning to teach.... Their ideas about that can make large differences in the soundness and fairness of their thinking about activity in mentor teacher’s classrooms.

3. Always start with careful descriptions. Require that the first step of all such discussions is to produce careful, specific, dispassionate descriptions of the activity in mentor teachers’ classrooms...

4. Consider alternative hypotheses. Consistently require teacher candidates or interns to construct and compare alternative hypotheses about the activity they have described...

5. Then proceed to assessments. If the preceding principles have been well honored, it is then reasonable to attempt to make assessments. These should be clearly based in careful description, carefully reasoned, and generous to the persons—teachers and students--who produced the activity being discussed....

6. Recall the network of duties. Throughout, keep in mind the program’s duties to school pupils, to their teachers as colleagues in teacher preparation, to the teachers’ schools, and to the teacher candidates or interns involved...

The policy recognizes that there is no way to learn from observing and participating in classroom activity without assessing practices and their consequences. But that is not the same as evaluating persons and their competence. The stated principles help us to make that distinction in our practice.

Elementary Teams - 116 Erickson Hall
Home Related pages: Angel log-in page Elem Ed requirements TE Department policies TE Forms MSU Library MSU policies MSU Registrar MSU student services Professional links	Starting the year in a classroom August 2005, Draft for review and revision Our practical problem: 1. Starting the year in a classroom is a complex and important teaching task that extends across the first few weeks of school and tends to shape the whole year. 2. Ideally, interns would learn so much from observing and participating in the mentor teacher’s class that they would be able to start the year well in their own classroom next year. But we have good reasons to think that’s a very ambitious goal. Just doesn’t happen that fast. 3. We are not sure what or how much interns’ can learn, using their experience and studies to date. This is a matter to be explored. ECM chapters 3, 4, 5 do provide them a lot of language and options for thought and action that could help them to interpret what they see/hear and to act reasonably. 4. We are not sure what or how much interns can learn when playing the roles of observer or assistant teacher. This is a matter to be explored. At a guess, an assistant will be unaware of much that is going on. 5. In the first weeks, some or many mentor teachers will be so heavily engaged in getting the class started that they will be unable to talk much with the intern about what’s going on. So, many interns will have limited access to the mentor teacher’s thinking as they observe or try to help the teacher. 6. We are inclined to think that, unless we cue interns how to use their studies so far to interpret what they see/hear, and unless we help them to make sense of what they see/here, they are likely to learn far less from observing and participating than we would hope. So, our problem is described. What can/could we do? Project outline 1. Promote the assistant teacher role? We are inclined to think that interns are likely to learn more when they are on their feet in the classroom, in all phases of instruction, actively trying to help the mentor teacher do what the mentor teacher is attempting to do. We could state that as a firm expectation to interns. This implies that we would be trying to teach them to be good assistant teachers at this stage. (We could tell interns to blame us if their initiative rubs the mentor teacher the wrong way: “My cluster leader and field instructor told me to do it.” It’s a good bet that most mentors are far more likely to be pleased than irritated by the interns’ “initiative,” so we should take the bet and run the risk.) 2. “Co-observation” as a wide range of events. We are inclined to think that we could make important contributions by “co-observation” with interns. At the most extensive, co-observation would mean that the intern and field instructor would independently take notes for 30 minutes while the mentor teaches. Then field instructor, intern, (and perhaps mentor, on some occasions) would go and talk about what’s in the notes and why. In that exchange, the intern would get to hear what the field instructor thought important to record, and why. The idea or tactic of co-observation can extend even to small events like standing together watching for two minutes and then exchanging four sentences. What matters is (1) looking/listening together, and (2) field instructor helping the intern to perceive, interpret, etc., partly by asking what the intern “saw” and partly by sharing what the field instructor “saw.” 3. Our questions For use in the wide range of events we could call “co-observation,” we already have a stock of questions that tend to be fruitful. [Bracketed statements attempt to express the aims or strategies behind the repeated use of these questions.] Tell me about; tell me more about... [We are giving open-ended cue to remember and describe, not everything, but something the field instructor generally points toward as being fruitful to talk about. That is, the field instructor is using her judgment to say “there’s something important over in that direction,” and asking the intern to get in the game.] How would you describe or explain that to someone who wasn’t watching...? [We are making another request to recall and describe “just the facts, ma’am,” and then to go on to interpret.] How did you feel when....? [We are cueing the intern to notice her/his own thoughts and feelings, and how they might affect her or his own learning. Also, possibly, a way to cue an intuition.] Did you see how (the teacher just did something?) [We are labeling an event or pattern as move or practice, so that it can be perceived.] How many times...(did something or other happen)? [We are giving a cue to notice repetition, as a way to detect patterns of classroom activity, or to detect what’s important, or to detect what might be going wrong.] Did you see that (the teacher has just made some move that makes sense in relation to her last move or in relation to something that a kid did or said)? [We’re pointing to teacher-student interaction playing out in some way, pointing to something that a teacher probably would or ought to notice.] Did you notice the student who....that group of students which...? [We are pulling the intern’s attention away from the teacher’s actions and toward the students’ activities, statements, etc. Promoting the habit of watching and listening to kids. Introducing the idea that a teacher figures out what to do largely by observing students.] What other ways could a teacher have....? [We are promoting the habit of generating and comparing alternative options for thought and for action, because that’s how we increase our wealth as teachers.] What did you see or hear that made you think that? [As teachers we have a duty not to fool ourselves about what’s going on in our classrooms, a duty not to make up nice stories about what’s going on because those stories make us feel better. We avoid fooling or misleading ourselves, and we avoid abusing our students, by constantly asking, “What did I actually see and hear?”] How could we discover who learned and who didn’t? [We are declaring that we cannot just “see” that kids learned, and that we cannot assume they learned because we told or taught. A constant invitation to build curiosity and assessment skill. I was wondering what you were thinking when.... [A cue that thought process is important, and away to get into the intern’s mental game, in order to help.] 4. Teaching interns how to ask questions There is reason to think that interns often refrain from asking questions of their mentor teachers because the interns know that they will be unable to keep their biases and judgments out of the question. For example, “Why did you get down on Johnny so hard about that little thing?” There is a teachable question pattern that seems to be pretty safe in lots of situations. It seemed to meet approval from some field instructors. Example: “(a) A few minutes ago you went over to Johnny’s desk, leaned over close to him, and said something I couldn’t hear, but it sounded firm. (b) I think it might help me learn if you would (c) tell me what you thinking about just then and what you said to him.” The pattern of the question is: (a) Brief, dead-pan description of what was seen and heard. (b) Invocation of one’s role as novice teacher and therefore mentor’s obligation as teacher educator. (c) Brief indication of the information that the intern would like to have. Ordinarily, when the mentor teacher has responded, the intern would just smile and say “Thanks.” What was asked for has been provided. 5. Explaining to interns why we ask questions Our constant asking questions could be unpleasant to interns for a couple of reasons. One is that it constantly shows them that that they didn’t know, hadn’t thought about, etc., and that attacks their idea that they are suited to teaching. Some interns seem to think that becoming a teacher means they will stop answering questions and start asking them. So, our constantly asking them questions might feel like pushing them back into studenthood, when our intention is to push them forward into thoughtful teaching. Perhaps we should explain ourselves: My job is to help you learn to teach. Learning to teach is at least as much a game of thought as a game of action. To help you learn to teach, and to help you with the mental game, I have to ask you a lot of questions. I don’t ask you questions to find out if you have all the answers. I ask you questions to help you build the answers. I am responsible for evaluating your progress and performance as an intern, and evaluating how you are thinking is at least as important as evaluating how you are acting. [Since interns tend to think a better game than they are yet able to play, this is a good deal for them.] 6. Explaining co-observation to mentor teachers Mentors might wonder why the field instructor and intern would take notes in the back of class and then go off to discuss them. To take the small forms of co-observation, mentor teachers might even wonder what field instructors and interns whisper to each other briefly as they watch class activity. By tradition, “evaluation” is a likely reason for such activity. That is not a pleasant association for the mentor teacher, and not an accurate description of what the intern and field instructor intend to be doing. So, it will be desirable to explain to mentor teachers, in advance, what will be going on. In Spring, 2005, the Teacher Preparation Policy Committee noted that many questions of this type arise throughout the teacher preparation program, and adopted a policy on “How course and field instructors should handle discussion of activities in mentor teachers’ classrooms.” Examples of practice are provided with the policy. For the case of co-observation by interns and field instructors, the policy seems to say that we should tell mentor teachers, in advance, what we hope to achieve by co-observation, and also tell how we will go about it in a manner that carefully respects the mentor teacher and the teacher’s students. These principles stated in the policy may be particularly important to the mentor: 1. Establish ethical ground rules. Early in the course, establish and maintain ethical ground rules for all discussion, oral or written, of activity in mentor teachers’ classrooms... 2. Explore [interns’] ideas about learning to teach.... Their ideas about that can make large differences in the soundness and fairness of their thinking about activity in mentor teacher’s classrooms. 3. Always start with careful descriptions. Require that the first step of all such discussions is to produce careful, specific, dispassionate descriptions of the activity in mentor teachers’ classrooms... 4. Consider alternative hypotheses. Consistently require teacher candidates or interns to construct and compare alternative hypotheses about the activity they have described... 5. Then proceed to assessments. If the preceding principles have been well honored, it is then reasonable to attempt to make assessments. These should be clearly based in careful description, carefully reasoned, and generous to the persons—teachers and students--who produced the activity being discussed.... 6. Recall the network of duties. Throughout, keep in mind the program’s duties to school pupils, to their teachers as colleagues in teacher preparation, to the teachers’ schools, and to the teacher candidates or interns involved... The policy recognizes that there is no way to learn from observing and participating in classroom activity without *assessing practices and their consequences.* But that is not the same *as evaluating persons and their competence*. The stated principles help us to make that distinction in our practice.
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