Establishing a positive class environment

I'm currently earning my licensure through the Teach Now program, and this week's theme is "classroom climate."  I've been teaching in one form or another for 13 years, so I'm no stranger to trying to establish a positive learning environment.  However, just because you've done something a lot doesn't mean you've got it all figured out.  While I'm proud of certain aspects of my efforts in this area (I try to stay positive and am good at making small talk and jokes; I always talk over behavior issues with students rather than merely issuing consequences), this week's unit has shown me there is so much more I could be doing, for the sake of my students' wellbeing.

Earlier this week, I got up at 4 in the morning to do a Skype interview with a school in Kuwait.  I have a friend who works there and really enjoys the school, so I was excited to get the chance to interview.  Of course, I don't know yet whether I will get the job, but I'd like to have some fun with this assignment and imagine what it would be like if I did.  I've learned a few things about the school context and demographics, and based on this information, I'll write out some strategies I could implement to establish a positive class climate from the beginning of the year.  If it turns out that I don't get hired and end up working someplace else, I'm confident that with some adjustments, these strategies could work in any school.

At the school where I interviewed, I would be teaching 5th grade.  Students come from 35 countries  from all around the world.  There's a big focus on integrating technology.  Class sizes are generally small, and the classrooms themselves are spacious.  The school's promotional materials emphasize an appreciation of students' diverse cultures and the development of 21st century skills, including social and emotional well being.

One of the first things I plan to do is involve students in the writing of their own class contract, which will include a vision for what we want our learning environment to be like and a statement of the specific behaviors we expect from each other.  The organization Teaching Tolerance, in its "Critical practices for anti-bias education," says, "Involving students in the design of classroom discipline policies can go a long way toward establishing buy-in and shared ownership of classroom culture" (p. 13).  They recommend drawing students' attention to issues of identify, difference, and power as they draft the contract.  An added benefit of this process is that it will give us a chance to discover how our various cultural backgrounds shape our sense of what it means to be respectful.  For example, in some cultures, active listening means complete silence.  In others, a constant murmur of side conversations shows that people are engaged with what the speaker is saying.  I've seen this cultural difference in my teaching experience in Mexico City.  As a U.S. teacher, I expect more silence in my classroom than my Mexican colleagues do.  These are the kinds of issues we will need to negotiate as a class.

Another key consideration from before the school year even starts is the classroom arrangement.  I do not know if the classroom would have desks or tables, but in either case the positioning of the furniture sends a message right from the start (Teaching Tolerance, 2014, pp. 9-10).  If the teacher's desk is front and center, and the students' seating is arranged so that they focus on the teacher, then the teacher's voice is implicitly prioritized over the students'.  If, on the other hand, desks or tables are arranged so that students can collaborate easily, and the teacher's desk is tucked away in a corner, the classroom sends the message that students' work is central.  I will also need to consider what kinds of messages I send by what gets placed on the walls.  My students come from 35 countries and every inhabited continent, so I will want to make sure I choose pictures, inspirational quotes, and so forth that recognize and honor that diversity.  Another great strategy would be to take students' pictures and post them in a prominent place, along with a quote from them on how they're feeling starting out the year (Marzano, 2007) and/or examples of their best work.  The class contract will also be prominently displayed, to be revisited on a regular basis.  I want students to understand that group agreements only work if we work together to keep them alive.

Students' cultures are honored in this classroom through the display of traditional Mexican decoration.  For my classroom, I would choose displays that match my students' backgrounds (Cultural-classroom, 2012).

In this Montessori classroom, work spaces are arranged to be student centered and flexible.  The teacher is positioned as mentor and coach rather than sole authority (Montessori-classroom, 2016).

I'm planning to invite students to take on roles in the classroom.  I want each student to understand at at a deep level that our community could not function the same without them.  They are needed, and they belong.  I also want students to take ownership and leadership in their own classroom space (Teaching Tolerance, 2007, pp. 9-10).  An early class activity will be introducing the various jobs (e.g. distributing learning materials, managing the class library, assisting with technology, addressing student concerns during workstation time, advising the teacher on decisions that affect the whole class, helping classmates resolve conflicts, reporting on fascinating world news, organizing fun activities to promote class community) and giving students the opportunity to apply for the position that most interests them.  I want the class job experience to feel a little bit like having a real job, with similar rewards, responsibilities, and professional feedback.  If class jobs are embraced by the teacher and students, they can foster a learning environment that is truly student centered.  When the teacher does too much for students, he or she is robbing them of the opportunity to learn crucial life skills.

There are tons of resources online with class job ideas, and I plan to borrow a few roles from there while also coming up with some of my own (Help wanted, n.d.).

An ongoing job for me as the teacher will be to build connections with my students and get to know more about their personal and cultural backgrounds.  I can start building connections by making the theme of difference (and honoring differences) central to our dialogue.  That starts when I introduce myself and let the kids know where I come from, and point out some of the many differences between the cultures and natural environments of Iowa and Kuwait.  In talking about these differences in an open and celebratory way, I am setting the tone for the year: in this classroom, we acknowledge differences.  We are not afraid of them- rather, we seek to learn from difference.  I will seek out ways to connect to students and get to know them, for example by greeting each student at the door at the start of each day.  Once I know the particular cultural backgrounds of my students, it would be good to learn a little bit about each culture, including behavioral norms that will help me to know how to relate, and cultural aspects that we as a whole class can admire and learn more about.  Of course, I will also be interested in getting to know my students as individuals, what they like to do and their personality traits.

If I taught in Kuwait, I would definitely make a few observations for my students about the differences between Kuwait City and the country outside Madrid, Iowa, where I'm from (Kuwait City - Aerial footage, 2016).

Knowing something about each of my student's cultures and interests will enable me to develop personalized learning activities, as suggested by educational experts such as Marzano (2007) and Tomlinson & Moon (2013).  Studies have shown that students perform better when the learning materials are based on their interests.  For example, when I write math questions, I can incorporate topics that students enjoy learning about.  I can also ask students to draw connections between new concepts and their personal interests.  When learning about the rock cycle (the process by which rock transforms from igneous to sedimentary to metamorphic), students can be challenged to think of a similar process in an activity they enjoy.  A student who likes baking might talk about how foods are harvested, processed into raw ingredients, and then combined and put in the oven to eventually form a chocolate cake.  It's been my experience that students feel honored and valued when the teacher pays attention to what they like and appeals to those interests to help them learn.

It's my hope that by establishing a positive and student-centered learning environment from the beginning of the year, I can avoid some typical behavior issues.  However, it would be naive to suggest that behavior issues will not arise.  When they do, we'll need procedures in place that are at the same time serious and sensitive to students' perspectives and needs.  Above all, our procedures need to be designed to seek solutions and integrate students back into our class community.  I hope to have peace makers as one of my class jobs.  These students will be charged with the role of helping classmates to resolve relational issues such as bullying.  At the start of the year and for more serious relationship conflicts, I will be present to moderate the discussion, and I will determine if one or more peace makers are too involved with the particular conflict to be impartial moderators, but as the peace makers gain confidence in their work, and especially for less severe issues, they may be able to carry out the role on their own, if the students involved agree to that.  For other behavior issues, I will discretely caution the student.  If the behavior doesn't change, I will request that the student meet with me one-on-one, maybe after class or in a break, and we'll discuss the issue.  I'll share my concerns and give the student a chance to talk about his or her feelings and perspectives as well.  I don't know what the school's discipline procedures will look like, but a natural first response might be to email parents a neutral description of what happened and what the student(s) and I discussed afterward, including the solution that we decided upon.  The solution should go beyond a promise from the student to change his or her behavior to concrete action steps.  It should also address any underlying issues that are making it hard for the student to follow class expectations.  As our class develops the peace maker role, we could draw on the growing body of work around restorative justice in schools (see video below).

Chicago public school teacher Jean Klasovsky describes her experience with restorative justice activities and the positive impact they've had on student wellbeing (2013).

In order to have a real impact on bullying and other behavioral concerns; in order to truly nurture students' wellbeing; and in order to build a healthy class community, we will need to engage in social and emotional learning on a daily basis.  This learning will take the form of a morning meeting, at which students share how they are feeling, the class engages in team-building activities, there is a preview of the day's schedule, and any community issues are addressed.  It will also take the form of student discussions of relevant themes such as culture, race, and gender.  These discussions will work best if we use a provocative opener.  For example, in a lesson I observed from School 21 in Stratford, London, the teacher showed her upper elementary students a picture of a man whose arms were covered in tattoos, and she asked for their impressions.  "Bad," one student said.  "Tough," another said.  "Dangerous."  Then she showed a picture of another man in a doctor's coat, with a stethoscope around his neck.  About this man, students responded with "Good," "Smart," and "Helping the community."  The teacher then displayed the images side by side and revealed that it was the same man.  This provocative opener led to a lively student discussion on the theme, "You can't judge a book by its cover."  Social and emotional learning will be more focused and effective if it is based on a curricular framework.  I would need to wait and see if the school in Kuwait already has such a program.  If not, I might base my work on the wellbeing curriculum from School 21 and/or the anti-bias Perspectives curriculum from Teaching Tolerance.  The most important thing is to implement the curriculum from the start of the year and continually draw students' attention to its main themes.  For example, School 21 organizes social and emotional learning around the themes of strengths, kindness, self control, optimism, learning, purpose, humor, mindfulness, and giving.  There are key questions to guide the community's work with each theme (School 21, 2016).  

Students talk in small groups at a cultural assembly.  At School 21 in London, these assemblies happen at the start of each week and are the touchstone of their wellness curriculum  (Edutopia, 2016).

A final key for establishing a positive class climate is making sure that all students get an equal chance to participate.  Without really meaning to, teachers can make students feel they don't belong and don't have anything meaningful to contribute, simply by the way they handle class discussions.  Boynton & Boynton (2005) point out that teachers often call on the same students again and again.  Students who are eager to share, who are the first ones to raise their hands whenever the teacher asks a question, tend to get most of the teacher's attention.  It's just easiest to call on students who are first to volunteer.  However, by going with the flow in facilitating class discussions, teachers are failing to invite contributions from quieter students, students who may feel less confident in the learning environment, and students who simply need more think time before responding.  A better approach is to use some mechanism (e.g. popsicle sticks with each student's name on them, that can be drawn at random) in order to ensure that all students get the chance to speak.  Once a student is called upon, it's important to allow sufficient time for the student to formulate an answer.  Teachers often rush on to the next student if the first seems to struggle, and again this sends the unintended message that we don't have confidence in the student.  A better approach is to allow sufficient time, and then offer little hints if the student still seems to be struggling.  That way, we show confidence that the student can reach an answer, and we don't let students off the hook- we expect them to respond, for the sake of their own learning and because we're interested in hearing what they have to say. 

This unit on students' social and emotional wellbeing has got me thinking about my own teaching practice.  As I said at the outset, just because you've done something for a long time doesn't mean you've got it all figured out.  In terms of my time management, I have tended to devote much more time to academic work than to social and emotional learning.  Perhaps that was because I felt pressed for time and was anxious that students mastered all of the academic standards.  However, in my study for this unit, I heard educators say again and again that students' academic performance is enhanced when social and emotional learning is prioritized.  If students feel good within themselves and feel safe in their environment, they are ready to learn.  This is a lesson I am going to take to heart when I return to the classroom next year, whether as a 5th grade teacher in Kuwait, or at any school where I might teach.   

Reference list

Boynton, M. & Boynton, C. (2005, Nov.). Educator’s guide to preventing and solving discipline problems. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105124/chapters/Developing_Positive_Teacher-Student_Relations.aspx

["Cultural-classroom" image]. (2012, Aug. 22). Retrieved Oct. 29, 2016, from https://blog.nationalequityproject.org/2012/08/22/5-ways-to-create-a-culturally-responsive-classroom/

Edutopia. (2016, Sept. 15). Wellbeing: developing empathy, emotional awareness, and agency. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/practice/wellbeing-developing-empathy-emotional-awareness-and-agency

["Help wanted" image]. (n.d.). Retrieved Oct. 29, 2016, from http://www.teachhub.com/put-em-work-classroom-jobs

Klasovsky, J. (2013, Nov. 13). Repairing our schools through restorative justice: Jean Klasovsky at TEDxWellsStreetED. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqktOiYG5NM

[Kuwait City - aerial footage]. (2016, Jan. 4). Retrieved Oct. 29, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw4NTZ0wAIE

Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: a comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2016, from https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/platform-user-content/prod-copy/get_help_resources/activity_resources/module4/The_Art_and_Science_of_Teaching.pdf

["Montessori-classroom" image]. (2016, Sept. 13). Retrieved Oct. 29, 2016, from http://www.vln.school.nz/discussion/view/964186

School 21. (2016). 21st century approach: wellbeing. Retrieved Oct. 29, 2016, from https://school21.org.uk/21st-century-approach/wellbeing

Teaching Tolerance. (2014). Critical practices for anti-bias education. Retrieved Oct. 29, 2016, from http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/PDA%20Critical%20Practices_0.pdf

Tomlinson, C. A. & Moon, T. R. (2013). Assessment and student success in a differentiated classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

 

Accommodating ELLs in project-based learning

This bimester, our school’s 5th grade students will be doing a STEM project in which they look at the nutritional value of sports drinks and design, make, and market a healthier alternative.  

What follows is a brief plan for accommodating our sports drink project for our ELLs at four language phases.

Pre-production

Students at this stage are in what is called the "silent period."  They rarely speak except to repeat what they hear, although they have a working vocabulary of around 500 words.  What's key at this stage are listening comprehension activities and other strategies for vocabulary building.  

Since students will be working in teams for the project, we might group ELLs at the pre-production stage with another student who speaks their L1.  For whole-class lessons, our teachers need to speak slowly and clearly, provide lots of visual support, and check in with ELLs afterward.  ELLs could be given roles that allow them to participate actively even with their limited language proficiency.  For example, in this project, students will design a marketing presentation for their new drink.  The ELL could be put in charge of preparing the visual media for the presentation.

Early production

Students may be in this stage for around 6 months.  They have a vocabulary of around 1000 words.  They are able to use short phrases that they have overheard and memorized, but they might not use the phrases correctly.  

To help these students, teachers can provide simplified readings related to the project, since the student will now understand simple texts.  These students can use pictures to build vocabulary, for example by keeping a picture dictionary.

Speech emergence

Students at this phase have a vocabulary of about 3000 words.  They can communicate with simple phrases and sentences.  They also begin to ask basic questions, although they may not be grammatically correct.  They can understand instructions and basic readings and start up a conversation.

These students are able to understand and ask questions about charts and graphs, so they could help their group with the data component of the project, looking at the percentages of nutrients that are found in a variety of foods.  Even more than students in the early production stage, these students will benefit from simplified texts and subject-area vocabulary lists (e.g. sports and nutrition terms).

Intermediate fluency

Students now have a vocabulary of about 6000 words.  They begin to have more confidence to speak and ask questions in class.

A student at this phase would probably be able to take a speaking role in the presentation.  He or she might be able to do some of the writing for the group as well, likely writing first in L1 and then transferring his or her thoughts to English.  The writing should not be evaluated for grammatical accuracy, however, because students at this stage are still early in the process of mastering grammatical feature.  It is especially helpful for teachers to offer these students language-learning strategies, because they are becoming more independent in their language acquisition.

    

Reference list

Haynes, J. (n.d.). Stages of second language acquisition. Retrieved Oct. 22, 2016, from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php

The coffee cart (or what I'm learning about special education)

Sadie Guthrie, special education teacher at Lawton Alternative School in San Francisco, who started a "coffee cart" to get her students out into the school community and contributing in meaningful ways.

As part of my teacher's licensure program, Teach Now, I've been learning more about special education.  Before this module, I didn't know much.  In my schools growing up, special education students would leave class for a few hours a day to work in a smaller group with the special ed teacher.  I knew this support was being provided, but I didn't think much about it.  Then when I started teaching I was working at universities and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, Africa, and neither educational setting really offered special support for students with learning disabilities.  When I thought of special education, I certainly didn't think about progressive initiatives like the one started by special education teacher Sadie Guthrie at Lawton Alternative School in San Francisco.

She started a project called “coffee cart” at her school.  Guthrie and her students planned and carried out a coffee and snack service for teachers.  They arranged with a local bakery to receive baked goods donations.  Each student has a role in the operation, from taking teachers’ orders to being a barista or cashier.  Every day, students go to pick up the baked goods, make the coffee, and then go through the school delivering teachers’ orders.  The daily coffee service provides teachers a chance to get to know the students Guthrie works with, and the students themselves feel a sense of pride and accomplishment because they have a legitimate and appreciated role in the school community.  Only these particular students get to run the coffee cart, so it’s really cool for them.  Through the experience, they’re also learning life skills like navigating public transportation in their visits to the bakery and handling the logistical concerns of running a business.  The project meets these students’ particular needs in a creative and effective way.  It also enhances the entire school community.

Lawton school principal Gina Ferrante recognizes the potential of such activities to enhance special education and schools. "Any school in this country could take this example to help transform their own school community, to help make sure that every child feels accepted, that every child feels that they belong, that they have a place," she said. I truly hope that the future of special education, and education in general, will include lots more projects like Sadie's, that break down barriers between the classroom and the wider world and give students a meaningful role to play in their learning communities.

The future of special education will also need to reckon with several challenges that teachers and school counselors face today. As part of my exploration of this topic, I interviewed my current school’s pedagogical psychologist, Angie Renolds, and a 7th grade math teacher, Patty Baker, from the school in Iowa where I grew up.  From Angie, I got a sense of some of the limitations we face at our school when working with special-needs students.  From Patty, I got a detailed look at the strategies a classroom teacher implements to aid special-needs students, as well as the pressures teachers are under in the public school setting.

Angie’s overall theme was the importance of administrative initiative in meeting the needs of special education students. Currently, we have students with diagnosed learning disabilities in every grade and almost every class.  Our school has several students with ADHD, and other learning disabilities include dyslexia and visual and spatial deficit.  Potential learning disabilities are detected based on teacher observation and/or assessment results, and sometimes parent concern.  Students suspected of having a learning disability are given a psycho-pedagogical evaluation, which indicates student IQ in cognitive and academic abilities.  The evaluation also assesses visual and motor skills, attention, and emotional dynamics.  Because the school has no special education department, learning support is coordinated by the psychologists.  They offer targeted instructional strategies to teachers, and it depends on teachers to take the initiative to follow these recommendations.  After school, therapists are often involved in providing additional academic and/or emotional support, and parents take an active role.

One plus for students with special learning needs in our community is parent openness.  Angie explained that almost all parents of special-needs students are open to the interventions the school proposes, and in some cases parents even request the psycho-pedagogical evaluation themselves.  This parent support extends to hiring therapists and tutors, resulting in improved learning gains and comfort level at school for their children.  However, in Angie’s view what is really needed is clearer policies and a much more significant investment by our school’s administration in addressing learning disabilities.

Patty spoke at length about the process for referring and teaching special education students at her middle school.  Students with special needs are most often diagnosed in elementary, so she has rarely been involved in the referral process herself.  Still, she was able to offer several details on how the process works.  Students being considered for special education services are given computational and problem solving evaluations to determine if there is a significant discrepancy between their performance and the grade level norm.  There are also observations of the student in class, done by special education staff and the AEA (Area Education Agency).  If it becomes clear that a student is quite discrepant from his or her peers academically or emotionally, he or she will qualify for special education services.  Then the IEP (Individualized Education Program) is drafted, with specific goals, accommodations, and time frames for completion or re-evaluation.  

Before a student is referred for special education services, a teacher needs to try (and document) several interventions.  In the case of math, interventions can include cutting down on the number of problems in practice activities, seating students near the teacher during direct instruction, seating a student next to a specific classmate for peer help, providing partial notes for lessons, working one-on-one with the student for reteaching during study hall, assigning the student for computer-based remediation, or assigning the student to the “success” study hall, where they will receive homework monitoring and targeted support.

Once a student has been referred and an IEP has been written, Patty’s classroom accommodations include slowing down the overall instructional pace to make sure that all students are able to be successful, at the same time adding extension activities for students who are more comfortable with the content and may finish early.  She also pays careful attention to student grouping dynamics and tries to maintain firm class control, nurturing an environment in which all students feel comfortable to learn and try, without always being successful the first time. She also encourages students to show patience toward classmates who may need more time to achieve the learning objectives.

Patty’s response was quite honest, in the sense that she admitted that these accommodations take an enormous amount of time.  Creating adapted notes, increasing copied notes or assignments to a size of 150%, making sure that certain students are placed strategically in the classroom is “just simply overwhelming,” she confessed.  She lamented that some other students receive less attention because of the time and attention she needs to dedicate to students with special needs.

The article "The special education referral process," from Project Idea, adds a few more details to Patty's description. According to this article, when a teacher, counselor, parent, or other concerned party has reason to suspect that a student has a learning disability, the first step is for the teacher and parent/guardian to meet and discuss the issue. If, after meetings and follow-ups, it is suspected that the student may need more support than can be offered in the regular classroom alone, the teacher informs the parents that he or she will be requesting help from the school-based pre-referral team. The pre-referral team suggests interventions to try with the student before referring him or her for special education services. If these interventions are not fully effective, the child is referred for special education and an evaluation is completed. If the evaluation demonstrates that the child does in fact need special education, then an IEP is written. The IEP team includes parents/guardians, at least one classroom teacher, at least one special education teacher, a representative of the local education agency, an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of the evaluation, and, when appropriate, the student him or herself. Once the IEP is implemented, student progress is monitored and the IEP re-evaluated on an ongoing basis.

In comparing my two interviewee’s responses, I can see that in our Mexico City private school, infrastructure and clear policy is lacking.  Students tend to receive the special support they need outside of school hours.  At Patty's middle school in rural Iowa, the policy is clearly defined. Patty knows exactly what the expectations are and how she should fulfill them.  As a result, special education students receive significant support within the regular education classroom.  However, the requirements sometimes put an untenable burden on the classroom teacher.  Neither setting is ideal.  In both cases, it would seem that policy leaders underestimate the demands of meeting the needs of all students, and do not provide the resources necessary for the task.  Still, caring individuals step in to fill the gap and make the system work for students.

Soon, I will be one of those teachers working with special education students. I'm not planning to go into special education, but, as Patty's interview made clear, all K-12 teachers are responsible for providing accommodated instruction for special education students in their classes. In the case of Patty's work in middle school math, the required accommodations (pre-written notes, extra large text, strategic placement in classroom, one-on-one tutoring, slowing class instruction and offering extension activities to students who finish early) are incredibly time consuming. However, having taught for several years and developed a passion for seeing all my students succeed, I'm willing to put in the extra work required. I harbor no illusions that teaching is or ever will be easy.

Still, I do harbor hope that our approaches to education will become more progressive on a large scale, not just in trend-setting schools like the School of One in New York, where students work in smaller groups with open and collaborative classroom design features and a personalized, largely computer-based curriculum. What seems to be required to make education in general as effective as it is at places like the School of One is a sense of vision for what is truly best for students, rather than a dogmatic adherence to the status quo. Along with this sense of vision, we need increased investment. What if we treated special education services in the U.S. as they do in Finland, where the majority of students participate in special education at some point during their K-12 journey? What if the referral process encompassed a wider range of learning difficulties, so that most students could quality for some kind of support? We would need more robust special education investment nationally, but if we are serious about matching the educational quality of countries like Finland, we should be willing to increase our investment.

In the meantime, I will keep seeking out creative ideas for supporting special education students, and all students, like the idea that Sadie Guthrie came up with at Lawton School. If more teachers look for ways to shake up the status quo, maybe we can transform teaching from within the classroom, rather than waiting for the magic solution to come down from national policy makers.