Balancing Act by Shawna Baker

[Shawna Baker]

Balancing Act

On any given day, you could walk through the doors of classroom B-3 at Agnes Risley Elementary school and NOT hear a pin drop. Why is that?  Not just because my classroom contains 32 busy little bodies, but also because my 2nd grade classroom is always buzzing with some kind of 7-year old, excited chatter.  While I pride myself on a tight level of classroom management, there are very rare moments where the classroom is actually quiet.  And if it is, someone's in trouble. "Bum bum bum". 

What I feel most proud about in my classroom is that my students really seem to enjoy learning and coming to school.  I put a lot of effort into making learning meaningful.  If I could sum up into one word what I believe makes a classroom conducive for meaningful learning, it would be, BALANCE. I’ve set a goal to run my classroom in a manner that attempts to develop a healthy affect for each child as well as the attainment of skills and knowledge in academic curricula.  Balance.  While in one moment you might see us engaged in a particular learning objective, the next-- we're all in full belly laughs at a silly something, a life connection or story someone just told.  The more my students work together, the more they learn about themselves. Whether it's through whole group discussions, cooperative group work, partner sharing, or "brain talk" time, we are always working towards balancing and building our interdependence with our independence. The allowance of the chatter is meant to promote their abilities to construct, to negotiate, to disagree, to rely on others, to develop autonomy, and to learn how to take each other’s perspectives. Balance. Since it is so rare that any of us go through life untouched by others, I like to think that our learning is a balance between how we impact each other’s lives and then, in turn, how we respond to the impact.  My greatest hope is that by working towards this level of balance in my teaching, it is helping my kids to make what they learn become part of who they are.  Not just because research might support that I’m helping them retain information,  but because for me, this isn't just a job, it's their lives.  I want their education to be fulfilling for them, yet also allow them to have a meaningful impact on the others they learn with.  Balance.

While writing this, I am coming to realize that my quest for balance in my teaching seems to be the foundation for my teaching philosophy. I plan is to develop this post into my writing piece that explains me better as a professional. 

          In my demonstration I plan to focus on how teachers of writing can balance evaluative feedback by using writing rubrics, with non-evaluative, reflective feedback during conferencing. For the last 3 years, my grade level team and my teaching partner and I have been developing skill, trait, and standards based rubrics in our classrooms to guide our writing instruction and objectively evaluate our students’ writing.  Even though I think we have come such a long way from just assigning writing and are well on our way to actually teaching writing, this year I had been feeling like something was missing.  It had felt like we relied more heavily on the objective, score-based evaluation, while we may not be giving enough support their egos and confidence as writers.  I want them to feel like writers, not just do writing.  I also want them to feel safe to see that there is not a right way and a wrong way, but that writing can be done their way. I am certain that using rubrics has tremendously helped guide and inform our writing instruction, but I also I feel like our students hear more emphasis put on the score numbers 1,3, or 5 and we may not put enough focus onto purposeful, reflective feedback that validates their skills and efforts and entices them to want to do better.  My eyes were first opened to the idea of reflective feedback during my counseling training, specific to play therapy.  My learning how to implement reflective feedback has changed how I talk to, respond, and discipline children.  It was very helpful to me in my 3 years of school counseling experience and seems to work well in my interactions with my friends and family too.  I think this might be a great opportunity for me to get to explore and share both ends of the spectrum on evaluation so that we may all feel like we can better attain balance in our instructional practices.

[Julianne Dillard]

Wow, Shawna-- Reading that I found myself thinking how nice it would be if all children had the gift of teachers who come from such a wholistic and respectful stance. Beyond that, the line where you said "we have come such a long way from just assigning writing and are well on our way to actually teaching writing" really resonated with me. My own presentation question about how to better prepare students to succeed in peer response groups is an effort to move in that same direction. I am looking forward to learning more about reflective feedback from you and love the idea that it's a concept with potential for even broader application!

Julie

[Kelly Hiatt]

Shawna,
What a great entry!! It is so nice to read other teachers intrests and ideas. There are so many things in your writing that I agree with and at the same time want to know more about. For example, my students are always talking in the classroom too. However, they are not doing this because they are being disrespectful. I have noticed over the years how much more productive my students are if they are allowed to communicate before they are required to show their knowledge of something we learned. I find this to be especially true when it comes to writing. Therefore before I require my students to write quietly, I allow them to discuss what it is that they want to share in their writing. Then when it is time to write I hear less chatter and all of the students are able to concentrate on their piece. After they are done I allow them to talk again by sharing their work of art. My students as well as myself are able to give feedback immediately to the students. this brings me to the wanting to know more part. Would this be considered reflective feedback? I am anxious to hear more about this so that I can try it in my classroom.

I also agree with you wanting your students to feel safe to write. Due to the fact that I am in fifth grade, we spend a lot on time on writing prompts. However I don't want my students to think that it is the only kind of writing there is. I was excited to read in our book that something I do to help my students feel comfortable with their writing is by pairing pictures with my writing activities. I'm sure that you use these in your classroom too. Do you have success with them as well?

[Ron Bonomo]

Shawna,

Your title struck a chord with me. I am trying to find that very "Balance" you speak of. My classroom is always a center of bell to bell activity. Focused attention with the "Attention" being the operative word. You sound like you are developing something along the lines of a great piece of music. In reflection my classroom is clear and simple tones. It seemed to me that you changed tempo with the following, more specifically you said,"It had felt like we relied more heavily on the objective, score-based evaluation, while we may not be giving enough support their egos and confidence as writers. I want them to feel like writers, not just do writing." I want to change tempo and tone during journal time to allow students to create moving writing.