Artifact Three: Instructional Practice From the Woods to the Classroom
As a whitewater kayaking instructor I learned to be a teacher with very few materials. On the day of a trip in the field, all of my many hours of planning, curriculum materials, process, safety instruction, and logistics, all melted down into a business card sized set of three laminated 8-point font papers. And that was it. Everything I had and everything I needed was outlined in a few bullet points, a time schedule, and location notes. I could lead an entire week’s worth of material and twenty miles worth of paddling from those notes and from my memory. Every night I would sit down around the campfire with my headlamp and my moleskine notebook and scrawl out notes about the day, points about my instructors and students, and then usually write several pages of personal reflection on the experience until I was tired and ready to rest up for the morning. When I came into teaching in the classroom, I was really concerned that most of my prior experiences in the wilderness would not translate to the classroom and that I would find myself starting from scratch. Fortunately, I was wrong.
When I got into my first class about teaching called Curriculum Instruction and Assessment or CIA for short, I learned something very important. In the real world there are names for all the things that we do in the woods. In the woods we write evaluations, observations, we talk about hard and soft skills, we work on refining explanations, instruction, and skills, and we have “logistics” which is everything about a trip. In the professional teacher’s world and the classroom these things are called things like Assessment of Learning, Assessment of Achievement, Planning and Process, Effective Methodology, Instructional Strategies, and Learning Goals. When I made this connection and realized that my prior experiences were going to translate as soon as I learned the language, I realized that I was going to be able to develop my skills using paper and pen and through materials and resources and folders and that I would have an entire classroom to use and work in with my students. I was going to have consistency. This was an amazing feeling. Over the past year I have learned a lot about how to organize myself and my materials somewhere other than in a single notebook, on laminated cards, and in my cluttered head. (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
In the field I was trained as a facilitator, I was rarely in front of a large group, but more often working alongside my students in small groups of three or four. So the first time I got in front of my class, alone, with all the eyes on me, I knew that something was going to have to change, as the nauseation was something I knew I would not be able to handle for very long. I tried it out for a few days, you know the standard direct instruction, rows of students format, and I was sick, and aggravated, and felt like I was doing a bad job. My mentor teacher kept telling me that everything was fine and that I was doing a really good job, but it did not feel right. I felt like I was lying. I was being overwhelmed with my own lack of authenticity and I had to find the remedy. I decided to draw on my experiential education roots and break my classes down to small groups. (Evidence:Student Seating Charts) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
In nearly every class, I move through at least five different types of instructional strategies to facilitate the learning, processing, and synthesization of my students. When students enter the room they begin with indirect instruction through independent work. They start with a warm-up journal prompt which focuses on the development of the individual and writing about personal histories. Through this I am able to indirectly influence what they are thinking about and how they should apply it to the day’s lesson. Students then trade their writing with a friend while their classmates finish up. Students then share with their partner something about their writings and just have an opportunity to reflect on each other’s work as well as on their own. During this time, I journal and share too so that every class period everyone starts on the same level, we are a group learning together, no one is better than another. If students wish, they can ask me to read mine for the whole group or share their own to the whole group. Anytime an individual shares aloud, everyone claps for the student to show their appreciation. I love doing this because I am tricking them into using many skills and building their personal self-worth and self-confidence and they do not even know it. I learned that this is called interactive instruction using group facilitation. (Evidence: Lesson Plan) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
The next activity we do is usually to move to whole group direct instruction where I will teach a mini-lesson to build background knowledge for the day’s lessons. This will never last more than fifteen minutes. During this time I keep the instruction interactive by asking questions, prompting fill-in the blank responses to my speech, and asking the students what they think or how they feel about the focus of the instruction. Once we have built the background knowledge or reviewed the previous day’s work we move to Centers which are Task-Based and student driven. In the centers students are required to work in collaboration with their group to complete a set of tasks and produce a product of some sort. For example, I have used centers to explore the history of the Holocaust and other modern genocides while teaching a unit on The Diary of Anne Frank. In each center, students would be provided with an article, a set of artifacts or photographs, an online video, a worksheet to complete while reading, and then a product such as a timeline, illustration, presentation, summary, a dialogue or skit, which they will perform or provide as a resource for the rest of their classmates. Other center activities that I have used are for students while reading a text. Students receive a task sheet of instructions and the necessary materials to complete the task sheet. Students are directed to read in groups aloud and then to complete different fill-in-the-blank sentences that reference different aspects of the text on a bingo type chart with members of their group. These types of center activities engage students through the use of manipulatives, the opportunity for conversation, the opportunity to use the laptops, and a sense of independence and accountability. (Evidence: Centers Activities, Centers Student Work Samples, Centers Student Timeline Samples) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
For me, this type of instruction has allowed me to capitalize on my experience as a facilitator and has allowed me to create a more personal interactive experience with my students. Every class period, each of my students receives some amount of personal interaction and dialogue with me or another teacher to answer their questions and help them with their work. This has dramatically changed the attitude of my students in our classroom and has dramatically improved their retention and understanding of material, but that’s another artifact. I believe that for me and my students in our classroom this is the very best system for our community of learning. I no longer feel like I am being inauthentic, and that is everything to me. (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
In order to create this system of Centers and student driven independent group work activities, a lot of planning and organization was necessary. Instead of keeping everything in my head and on a few cards like I do in the field, I have a million resources and an entire classroom to work with. In creating this system I had to do a lot of backwards planning in order to make everything work out. I knew what I wanted the classroom to look like in the end, but I had to figure out how to get there. In general I start with the text for the unit, select three to five skill sets, such as characterization, plot development, or setting, identify the theme that the text is building up to, and then create three or four essential questions that focus on student connection to the text. From this I select the most appropriate standards for each skill set and then use those as my guiding principles for lesson development by week. This ensures that every week and every lesson students are meeting rigorous learning goals, while still giving us the freedom to work within our own system of execution. Additionally, the Centers system keeps me on my toes as well. Every center requires me to create my own materials and organize those materials and information into a form that is accessible to my students specifically and builds the knowledge that they need to know. I am always doing research and pulling information from a variety of resources, crossing the boundaries of the language arts into the realm of history and science to ensure that my students are being provided with everything they need to meet the learning goals in a standards sense as well as the developmental experiences that I believe are so important. (Evidence: Centers Activities Teacher Created Materials) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
If I had to identify one thing that translated from my experiential education background and the one thing that was not as easily translated, they are two sides of the same coin. Assessment. In the woods, we do not always have pen and paper to take notes about students on, thus I have an inconceivably powerful ability to memorize and make assessments about students through observation and interaction on the fly. At any moment you could ask me to explain how any one of my students are doing in class and I would be able to rattle off an extremely accurate assessment of their progress, where they are at, and what they are struggling with, in addition to how they are doing on a personal level. I have a very strong understanding of interpersonal and intrapersonal intuition. But it is the other side of the coin, the formal assessment that I struggled with when I entered the classroom. Thus, I have come to have what I consider an extremely standardized system of formal assessment that I use in my classroom to ensure that I am being fair to all students and assessing them in an accurate way with substantial evidence. For all projects I provide students with comprehensive rubrics, for all task-sheets I provide students with explicit expectations of completion and quality, and every week student comprehension is assessed using vocabulary and response tests. I also assess student application of knowledge through the use of short essays that require students to condense multiple pieces of information into new products. Each of these formal assessments are tied directly to the standards and skills that were focused on in the week’s lessons to accurately assess student learning and the effectiveness of my teaching. I use the formal assessments consistently to check myself as I continue to develop as a teacher, as I know that it is something that I will always have to work actively to improve. Fortunately through the assistance of my mentor teacher, the special educators, and the Title I teacher, I have had a great amount of assistance learning how to accommodate and adjust material for students with IEPs, students who are gifted, and students with 504 plans in an extremely comprehensive way. I am very fortunate to have such a strong team of educators educating me using best practices in my classroom. It is to them that I owe my success and my development in these areas. (Evidence: Vocabulary and Comprehension Test, Task Sheet Sample Jigsaw Activity, Task Sheet Sample Fill-In Comprehension Questions, Special Educator Teacher Evaluation, Final Internship Mentor Teacher Evaluation) (InTASC 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6j, 6k, 6o, 6p, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6u, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
The most important aspect of teaching that I have been able to translate from my development as an experiential educator in the field to my experience in the classroom was my commitment to obtaining student feedback and student evaluation of my work in order to make improvements. I fully understand that I am in service to the students. If I do not ask them for their opinions and do not give them an opportunity to evaluate my work then I do not believe that I have the right to evaluate theirs. If I do not ask them to pay attention to my work I do not have the right to demand that they pay attention to and evaluate their own. If a student has a comment I want to know. If they hate something I want to know. If they love something I want to know. Every two weeks or so I give my students an evaluation survey that can be anonymous or can be signed. I constantly ask them to share with me and over the year we have developed a relationship where we can have respectful and constructive conversations about what we do in the classroom. This is something that is done after every single whitewater kayaking trip. All instructors regardless of their level of leadership experience have the opportunity to critique and criticize, to praise and to demean. It reminds us where we came from and where we have grown, and most importantly where we still have to grow. By using this approach in my classroom, I have created a community of learners within our walls and an expectation of respect and honesty from everyone. And that is the most powerful thing of all, to trust, and to learn together in a rigorous environment of positive experience. (Evidence: Student Evaluations of Teacher) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
When I got into my first class about teaching called Curriculum Instruction and Assessment or CIA for short, I learned something very important. In the real world there are names for all the things that we do in the woods. In the woods we write evaluations, observations, we talk about hard and soft skills, we work on refining explanations, instruction, and skills, and we have “logistics” which is everything about a trip. In the professional teacher’s world and the classroom these things are called things like Assessment of Learning, Assessment of Achievement, Planning and Process, Effective Methodology, Instructional Strategies, and Learning Goals. When I made this connection and realized that my prior experiences were going to translate as soon as I learned the language, I realized that I was going to be able to develop my skills using paper and pen and through materials and resources and folders and that I would have an entire classroom to use and work in with my students. I was going to have consistency. This was an amazing feeling. Over the past year I have learned a lot about how to organize myself and my materials somewhere other than in a single notebook, on laminated cards, and in my cluttered head. (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
In the field I was trained as a facilitator, I was rarely in front of a large group, but more often working alongside my students in small groups of three or four. So the first time I got in front of my class, alone, with all the eyes on me, I knew that something was going to have to change, as the nauseation was something I knew I would not be able to handle for very long. I tried it out for a few days, you know the standard direct instruction, rows of students format, and I was sick, and aggravated, and felt like I was doing a bad job. My mentor teacher kept telling me that everything was fine and that I was doing a really good job, but it did not feel right. I felt like I was lying. I was being overwhelmed with my own lack of authenticity and I had to find the remedy. I decided to draw on my experiential education roots and break my classes down to small groups. (Evidence:Student Seating Charts) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
In nearly every class, I move through at least five different types of instructional strategies to facilitate the learning, processing, and synthesization of my students. When students enter the room they begin with indirect instruction through independent work. They start with a warm-up journal prompt which focuses on the development of the individual and writing about personal histories. Through this I am able to indirectly influence what they are thinking about and how they should apply it to the day’s lesson. Students then trade their writing with a friend while their classmates finish up. Students then share with their partner something about their writings and just have an opportunity to reflect on each other’s work as well as on their own. During this time, I journal and share too so that every class period everyone starts on the same level, we are a group learning together, no one is better than another. If students wish, they can ask me to read mine for the whole group or share their own to the whole group. Anytime an individual shares aloud, everyone claps for the student to show their appreciation. I love doing this because I am tricking them into using many skills and building their personal self-worth and self-confidence and they do not even know it. I learned that this is called interactive instruction using group facilitation. (Evidence: Lesson Plan) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
The next activity we do is usually to move to whole group direct instruction where I will teach a mini-lesson to build background knowledge for the day’s lessons. This will never last more than fifteen minutes. During this time I keep the instruction interactive by asking questions, prompting fill-in the blank responses to my speech, and asking the students what they think or how they feel about the focus of the instruction. Once we have built the background knowledge or reviewed the previous day’s work we move to Centers which are Task-Based and student driven. In the centers students are required to work in collaboration with their group to complete a set of tasks and produce a product of some sort. For example, I have used centers to explore the history of the Holocaust and other modern genocides while teaching a unit on The Diary of Anne Frank. In each center, students would be provided with an article, a set of artifacts or photographs, an online video, a worksheet to complete while reading, and then a product such as a timeline, illustration, presentation, summary, a dialogue or skit, which they will perform or provide as a resource for the rest of their classmates. Other center activities that I have used are for students while reading a text. Students receive a task sheet of instructions and the necessary materials to complete the task sheet. Students are directed to read in groups aloud and then to complete different fill-in-the-blank sentences that reference different aspects of the text on a bingo type chart with members of their group. These types of center activities engage students through the use of manipulatives, the opportunity for conversation, the opportunity to use the laptops, and a sense of independence and accountability. (Evidence: Centers Activities, Centers Student Work Samples, Centers Student Timeline Samples) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
For me, this type of instruction has allowed me to capitalize on my experience as a facilitator and has allowed me to create a more personal interactive experience with my students. Every class period, each of my students receives some amount of personal interaction and dialogue with me or another teacher to answer their questions and help them with their work. This has dramatically changed the attitude of my students in our classroom and has dramatically improved their retention and understanding of material, but that’s another artifact. I believe that for me and my students in our classroom this is the very best system for our community of learning. I no longer feel like I am being inauthentic, and that is everything to me. (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
In order to create this system of Centers and student driven independent group work activities, a lot of planning and organization was necessary. Instead of keeping everything in my head and on a few cards like I do in the field, I have a million resources and an entire classroom to work with. In creating this system I had to do a lot of backwards planning in order to make everything work out. I knew what I wanted the classroom to look like in the end, but I had to figure out how to get there. In general I start with the text for the unit, select three to five skill sets, such as characterization, plot development, or setting, identify the theme that the text is building up to, and then create three or four essential questions that focus on student connection to the text. From this I select the most appropriate standards for each skill set and then use those as my guiding principles for lesson development by week. This ensures that every week and every lesson students are meeting rigorous learning goals, while still giving us the freedom to work within our own system of execution. Additionally, the Centers system keeps me on my toes as well. Every center requires me to create my own materials and organize those materials and information into a form that is accessible to my students specifically and builds the knowledge that they need to know. I am always doing research and pulling information from a variety of resources, crossing the boundaries of the language arts into the realm of history and science to ensure that my students are being provided with everything they need to meet the learning goals in a standards sense as well as the developmental experiences that I believe are so important. (Evidence: Centers Activities Teacher Created Materials) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
If I had to identify one thing that translated from my experiential education background and the one thing that was not as easily translated, they are two sides of the same coin. Assessment. In the woods, we do not always have pen and paper to take notes about students on, thus I have an inconceivably powerful ability to memorize and make assessments about students through observation and interaction on the fly. At any moment you could ask me to explain how any one of my students are doing in class and I would be able to rattle off an extremely accurate assessment of their progress, where they are at, and what they are struggling with, in addition to how they are doing on a personal level. I have a very strong understanding of interpersonal and intrapersonal intuition. But it is the other side of the coin, the formal assessment that I struggled with when I entered the classroom. Thus, I have come to have what I consider an extremely standardized system of formal assessment that I use in my classroom to ensure that I am being fair to all students and assessing them in an accurate way with substantial evidence. For all projects I provide students with comprehensive rubrics, for all task-sheets I provide students with explicit expectations of completion and quality, and every week student comprehension is assessed using vocabulary and response tests. I also assess student application of knowledge through the use of short essays that require students to condense multiple pieces of information into new products. Each of these formal assessments are tied directly to the standards and skills that were focused on in the week’s lessons to accurately assess student learning and the effectiveness of my teaching. I use the formal assessments consistently to check myself as I continue to develop as a teacher, as I know that it is something that I will always have to work actively to improve. Fortunately through the assistance of my mentor teacher, the special educators, and the Title I teacher, I have had a great amount of assistance learning how to accommodate and adjust material for students with IEPs, students who are gifted, and students with 504 plans in an extremely comprehensive way. I am very fortunate to have such a strong team of educators educating me using best practices in my classroom. It is to them that I owe my success and my development in these areas. (Evidence: Vocabulary and Comprehension Test, Task Sheet Sample Jigsaw Activity, Task Sheet Sample Fill-In Comprehension Questions, Special Educator Teacher Evaluation, Final Internship Mentor Teacher Evaluation) (InTASC 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6j, 6k, 6o, 6p, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6u, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)
The most important aspect of teaching that I have been able to translate from my development as an experiential educator in the field to my experience in the classroom was my commitment to obtaining student feedback and student evaluation of my work in order to make improvements. I fully understand that I am in service to the students. If I do not ask them for their opinions and do not give them an opportunity to evaluate my work then I do not believe that I have the right to evaluate theirs. If I do not ask them to pay attention to my work I do not have the right to demand that they pay attention to and evaluate their own. If a student has a comment I want to know. If they hate something I want to know. If they love something I want to know. Every two weeks or so I give my students an evaluation survey that can be anonymous or can be signed. I constantly ask them to share with me and over the year we have developed a relationship where we can have respectful and constructive conversations about what we do in the classroom. This is something that is done after every single whitewater kayaking trip. All instructors regardless of their level of leadership experience have the opportunity to critique and criticize, to praise and to demean. It reminds us where we came from and where we have grown, and most importantly where we still have to grow. By using this approach in my classroom, I have created a community of learners within our walls and an expectation of respect and honesty from everyone. And that is the most powerful thing of all, to trust, and to learn together in a rigorous environment of positive experience. (Evidence: Student Evaluations of Teacher) (InTASC 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6o, 6q, 6r, 6t, 6v, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, 7j, 7k, 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7q, 8a, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8j, 8k, 8l, 8m, 8n, 8o, 8p, 8q, 8r, 8s)