What Great Teachers Do Differently (Study Guide), page 3
♦ I show sincere enthusiasm for the subjects I teach.
♦ I provide a neat classroom that gives students the idea of orderliness.
♦ I present a professional appearance in the classroom.
♦ I insist that my students maintain high standards in their work and behavior. In both areas, my standards are realistic and attainable.
Application
Complete the survey below as a way to self-reflect on your individual discipline practices. Respond to each statement with the following 1–4 ranking. You will be asked at the next session to share what you learned about yourself as a professional educator in completing this survey.
DISCIPLINE PRACTICES SELF-ASSESSMENT
4 = Almost always; 3 = Frequently; 2 = Occasionally; 1 = Almost never
_____ 1. I am friendly but firm with my students.
_____ 2. I treat each student with kindness and respect.
_____ 3. When a student acts inappropriately, I remain calm and composed.
_____ 4. I display enthusiasm and a sense of humor with my students.
_____ 5. During each passing period between classes, I am at the doorway to greet and chat with students.
_____ 6. I interact with all students, not just a few.
_____ 7. I give my students a pleasing greeting each day and wish them a pleasant weekend.
_____ 8. During each passing period between classes, I am at the doorway
so I can supervise both the hallway and my classroom.
_____ 9. In order to know what is going on in my classroom, I generally spend my class time on my feet.
_____ 10. I expect students to listen attentively when another student or I am talking.
_____ 11. When I correct student misbehavior, I communicate in a private, positive, respectful manner.
_____ 12. I admit that at times student misbehavior is a result of something that was my fault.
_____ 13. I am able to motivate my students, including the reluctant learner.
_____ 14. I carefully plan each lesson so there is no “dead time.”
_____ 15. I provide guided or independent practice during which I move about the room offering individual or small-group assistance.
_____ 16. During each class period, I provide a variety of learning activities. Rarely do I use an entire period for a single activity, as students need a change of pace.
_____ 17. I adjust my daily lesson planning to take into account my students’ span of attention.
_____ 18. I think through discipline decisions before acting.
_____ 19. I make only those discipline decisions that I can enforce.
_____ 20. I make discipline decisions after the “heat of the moment” has passed.
_____ 21. When a student misbehaves in class, I find a way to correct the behavior privately, perhaps by moving near the student and whispering a correction.
_____ 22. While I take attendance or perform other necessary tasks, often at the outset of each class session, my students are working independently, perhaps on a brief assignment or problem on the overhead or board.
_____ 23. I establish time-saving routines for collecting papers and distributing materials or supplies.
_____ 24. My directions for a learning activity are brief and concise.
_____ 25. I give directions one step at a time. I avoid long and detailed directions.
_____ 26. I show sincere enthusiasm for the subjects I teach.
_____ 27. I provide a neat classroom that gives students the idea of orderliness.
_____ 28. I present a professional appearance in the classroom.
_____ 29. I insist that my students maintain high standards in their work and behavior. In both areas, my standards are realistic and attainable.
_____ 30. Because there is no “best” teaching method, my methods and learning activities are many and varied.
_____ 31. My homework assignments have a purpose, are instructional, and are regulated as to the time it will take a student to complete them.
_____ 32. I make my classroom attractive by designing effective bulletin boards related to the topics that the class is studying at the time.
_____ 33. During each class session, I summarize, or have students summarize, the day’s learning.
_____ 34. I use pretests or other procedures to ascertain what students already know.
Part Five
Chapter 6: High Expectations—for Whom?
Chapter 7: Who Is the Variable?
Key Concepts
♦ All teachers, even ineffective teachers, have high expectations for students. The difference is that great teachers also have very high expectations of themselves.
♦ When students are not focused and engaged in the classroom, great teachers ask themselves what they can do differently to improve student engagement.
♦ The main variable in any classroom is not the students, but the teacher.
♦ Effective teachers always strive to improve and they focus on something they can control: their own behavior.
♦ Just as successful students and parents accept responsibility, the most effective teachers accept responsibility for their performance in the classroom.
Discussion Questions
1. What is the variable in terms of teacher expectations?
2. Do you feel that it is accurate to state that most principals can predict which teachers will send the most students to the office each year? Explain.
3. How do ineffective teachers and effective teachers react when their students do poorly on an assessment? Is there a difference? If so, why?
4. Why do successful teachers insist on focusing on their own behavior rather than the behavior of others (parents, administrators, students, etc.)?
5. How are effective teachers similar to the effective business managers that the text mentions?
Notes
Journal Prompt
Throughout these two chapters, the book stresses the belief that teachers should take responsibility for what happens in their classrooms. It is suggested that if teachers all look in the mirror each time they ask, “Who is the variable?” they will have made great strides toward school improvement. Take a few moments to write about your thoughts on this concept. Next, reflect in writing about the role of student, parent, and teacher responsibility in ensuring academic success for each student you teach.
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Group Activities
Expectations—For Everyone
In the journal entry for Part 2 of this Study Guide, participants were asked to list three to five expectations for student behavior that they deemed of vital importance. Working in groups of two to five, have them reexamine the issue of expectations from the perspectives of students and parents. What are a few expectations for which all stakeholders should hold all teachers accountable? Ask participants to list these as “We will” statements, such as “We (as teachers) will treat all members of our school community with dignity and respect.” Have them write five “We will” statements to which they would expect teachers to adhere. Then have them share their lists, recording answers on the board, overhead, chart paper, or computer screen. After each group has shared, ask participants to decide which of these statements are the five most important.
Mission, Vision, Values
Provide a number of mission, vision, and value statements from schools, businesses, and other organizations. Discuss, as a group, the definitions and differences among these three commonly used terms (mission: what your purpose is; vision: what you hope to become; values: what commitments you are willing to adopt in order to make your vision a reality). Divide participants into three groups, a “mission” group, a “vision” group, and a “values” group. Each group will create a mission, vision, or value statement for a great teacher. After sharing these group statements, ask participants to create their own individual mission, vision, and value statements for themselves as a classroom teacher.
Notes
Application
Upon returning to your classroom, engage in instructional self-reflection for a full week. At the end of each day, identify one teaching activity that did not go as well as you had envisioned. List three adjustments you will try the next time you teach that lesson in order to make the lesson successful for the learners. Looking at yourself should always be the first reflective step of a great teacher. In the next session, you will have the opportunity to discuss your progress during this instructional reflection activity.
Notes
Part Six
Chapter 8: Focus on Students First
Key Concepts
♦ Although it is easy to say “Put students first” and “Make every decision based on what is best for students,” not all teachers manage to do so, yet some do so more consistently than others.
♦ “Superstar” teachers have a broad vision, taking into account the whole school setting in everything they do and every decision they make. They consider how their actions impact the entire school.
♦ “Backbone” teachers—although caring and solid educators—typically have a vision that is limited to their own classroom walls.
♦ The least effective teachers in the school typically have a more narrow vision still—a vision only as wide as the mirror on the wall. They make decisions and respond to change by asking, “What does this mean for me?”
♦ Great teachers resist the temptation to socialize when they should be supervising. They know the value of interacting with other teachers—and so they treat their colleagues as the second most important group of people in the school.
♦ Teaching is hard. Complaining about school-related problems may feel good momentarily, but it does not make the job of teaching any easier. In fact, when negativity spreads—as it easily can—it actually makes the job much harder. Great teachers avoid falling into the trap of complaining.
♦ One of the best things about being a teacher is that teaching matters—especially to students. What teachers do makes a profound impact in the lives of students. Great teachers, therefore, make it a point to put students first every day, which helps them make a difference all the way to the end of the school year.
Discussion Questions
1. What are the three different types of teachers at any school? What are their corresponding visions?
2. Describe how the three different teachers react to the Tuesday morning announcement of the principal at “Riverdale High” and the same situation with two weeks’ advance notice. Whom was the best teacher most concerned about in the scenarios?
3. Name two ways that complaining about your job as a teacher is analogous to the well-known song “Hotel California” by the Eagles. What is Whita-ker’s point in sharing this analogy?
4. How can focusing on “students first” help you maintain a positive attitude about your role as a teacher?
5. Why does Whitaker include a reference to the musical The King and I? Why does he say that Anna is a “great teacher”? How does this reference relate to great teachers who focus on students first?
Notes
Journal Prompt
Teaching is a very demanding profession and teachers are often faced with stressful, even unfair situations. Yet, as Whitaker suggests, although complaining about such situations can be tempting, in the long run it only serves to make the job even more difficult. Anyone who has worked in education—or, for that matter, in any profession—for even a few years has probably worked with colleagues who were chronic complainers. Think of three teachers at your school whom you perceive as chronic complainers. Next, think of three teachers at your school whom you have rarely, if ever, heard complain. Is there a difference between these two groups in terms of their job performance? Do you enjoy being in the company of one group more than the other? Which group seems to be having the most fun at school? Is there a difference in the attendance pattern between the two groups? Do the chronic complainers ever subtly encourage you and others to join in the “gripe fest”? Why is it vitally important that educators remain positive about their jobs and their profession?
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Group Activities
“Students First” Teachers
Have participants identify the characteristics of “students first” teachers and teaching by completing the following activity (have participants begin in table groups):
♦ Step 1: Have each person take four index cards from the table stack, writing one characteristic of “students first” teachers or teaching on each card.
♦ Step 2: Collect and shuffle the cards and deal out three to each participant. Arrange the remaining cards on a table.
♦ Step 3: Ask participants to silently arrange their three cards from “most important” to “least important.”
♦ Step 4: Each participant may pick up better replacement cards from the table, but must discard a card for each one picked up.
♦ Step 5: Participants may now talk and swap cards with one another. Everyone must exchange at least one card.
♦ Step 6: Participants should compare cards and form teams of three to six people who hold similar cards.
♦ Step 7: Have teams reduce the number of cards to no more than three per team.
♦ Step 9: Have each team use flip-chart paper and markers to prepare a graphic poster that reflects the three final cards. This poster should not include any text. (Allow six to eight minutes.)
♦ Step 9: Have each team, in turn, display their poster silently. Members of other teams will guess aloud the characteristics of “students first” teachers and teaching depicted in the poster. After fifteen seconds, ask members of the display team to read the characteristics listed on their cards.
Believing in Students
Write each of the following ten statements on an index card (if there are more than twenty participants, create additional statements that probe teacher beliefs about “students first” teachers and teaching):
1. Most students in our school are capable of mastering grade-level learning objectives.
2. Students at our school consistently behave appropriately.
3. Teachers at our school believe that most students are able to master core content standards.
4. My expectations for students influence how well they will perform academically.
5. My expectations for students will influence how well they behave at school.
6. Nearly all of my students will be at or above grade level by the end of the school year.
7. Some of our students are destined to fail classes or fail to meet learning expectations.
8. Teachers at our school consistently base their decisions on what is best for students.
9. Teachers should treat all students with dignity and respect at all times. 10. Complaining about students or their parents is never appropriate.
Ask participants to stand in two concentric circles, facing a partner. Give each participant in the inner circle one of the index cards. Have them ask their partners in the outer circle to discuss their level of agreement with the statement on the index card, based on a scale of 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 4 (“strongly agree”).
After two minutes, have partners in the outer or inner circle rotate to the next partner. (The group leader may call rotation numbers: “Rotate three ahead.”) Continue for three or four rotations.
Collect the index cards and give them to the participants in the outer circle. Repeat the process three or four more times with the roles of speaker and listener reversed. Debrief the process by asking participants to share their thoughts on how these statements may or may not define “students first” teachers and teaching.
