Tag Archives: education

Aug 31 2012
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Student Motivation

Classroom Management & Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

I read Rafe Esquith’s There Are No Shortcuts and, after getting over my feelings of crushing inadequacy, came away compelled with the need to teach character in my classroom. Rafe uses Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development to help children self-identify their current behavioral standards and then seek to grow from that point.

This blew my mind. We differentiate for things like reading levels, learning differences, and the ability to speak English – why not differentiate for students’ level of moral development? I began teaching these stages to my students through content lessons (ex. read historical sources and identify the level of Kohlbergs for each author) and posting them in my class along with the question “Are you moving up?”

This was so helpful for having discipline discussions with students: “So what level were you operating on when you foraged your parents signature on this grade report?” Below are the more student-friendly stage names I used in my classroom (in descending, rather than ascending order like the chart above):

I found it helpful to actually go through my lists of students after about the third or fourth week of school and identify where I though each student was operating. This was really helpful in knowing how to respond to students in terms of motivating them not only to behave but to do their homework, participate and achieve all-around in my classroom. A student who is operating at the Premoral Level (punishments and rewards) is simply not going to be compelled by my Don’t-You-Just-LOVE-History-And-Isn’t-It-Fascinating-And-Great tactics. I need to provide them with various, tangible incentives and, when those don’t work, consequences because that is what they need. It is what is appropriate for them at that moment.

The chart below describes a persons view of others as well as perspective on society at each level:

A word of caution: it is not enough to simply diagnose students’ moral development levels but we also need to help them grow. Key ways to do this are to help students self-identify, to frequently provide them with examples (historical, living and fictional) of people operating at various levels, and to show them the benefits of operating at higher levels (both personally and to our communities). Try bringing the language of Kohlberg in to your classroom and see how your students begin to conceptualize and think holistically about their behavior.

Anyone else use Kohlberg’s Level and have tips for helping students grow?

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Aug 23 2012
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Student Motivation

Creating the Conditions for Authentic Learning

Much has been written about the connection between authentic learning and self-actualization. A great way to ensure you are an effective teacher is to think about your classroom through the lens of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Here are some ideas for meeting your students’ needs at each level in order to ensure they are able to access self-actualization and, ultimately, long-lasting learning.

  • Physiological Needs: For those of us who teach in under-served schools, these needs can be pressing. Ideally teachers are working with Social Workers and/or school councilors to help students and their families access resources. Unfortunately, teachers often need to teach students who are operating at the basic survival level with some critical needs going unmet. Keeping food in the classroom, getting to know parents through home visits or phone calls, building relationships with students so you know when they have needs, and working with community partners (like clinics or food banks) can be ways to ensure these needs are met.
  • Safety: A critical component to safety is strong classroom management founded on a few principles (such as respect, responsibility and responsiveness). Hold students accountable to your rules and do not be afraid to give consequences with your expectations for behavior are breeched. It should be very clear what can and cannot happen in your classroom. When students know what to expect, they can relax and begin to access the more developed parts of their brain (which, lord knows, they find difficult enough).
  • Social Needs: The two key aspects here are student-teacher relationships and student-student relationships within the class. As the teacher our job is to make sure both types of relationships are strong. Get to know your students via one-on-one conferences, student surveys, home visits, and quick conversations in the hallway (I like to stand at my door and shake hands with every student as they enter). Likewise, students should know their teachers – show pictures of your family, play music you like, casually and quickly mention aspects from your life without going down a rabbit trail (“So Hamlet is clearly embarrassed here – just like I was when, in 10th grade, the guy I had a crush on read my diary. Yes, that happened. No, we are not going to talk about it. Let’s keep reading at line 342 . . .”). Also, help students to get to know each other by regularly providing opportunities for them to meet new people in the classroom (switch up seats, partners, etc.) and talk briefly about non-academic topics. I like to give students 1 minute to discuss the worst movie ever or their favorite song or TV show before they dive into the academic task when working with partners. In one of the most difficult classes I ever taught, I spent 5 minutes after the Do Now activity playing some kind of ice-breaker game every single day. The goal is to make the class feel like a special club with inside jokes and traditions and funny stories that cement it together.
  • Esteem: Celebrate not only academic achievement (the A grades) but also academic improvement. Have students track their progress either by objective mastery or skills acquisition (ex. improved performance on a writing rubric) and celebrate when there is growth. This could look like putting stickers on a chart, one-on-one conferences where you go over student’s tracking tool, or a weekly ceremony where you play “We are the champions” turn on a strobe light and have students who have improved soul train down the center of the class to celebrate. Another way to do this is to celebrate collective achievement. Track the average grades of your class and post them publicly. Celebrate when there is real improvement and growth from one assessment to the next.
  • Self-Actualization: This is the tier where learning happens. However, if you read the descriptors on the pyramid – creativity, problem-solving, authenticity, spontaneity – it doesn’t exactly describe the high stakes tests our students must take or the traditional everyone-in-rows-now-listen-to-me-talk model of teaching. It is so important to provide learner centered lessons as well as authentic assessments for our students even if we also have to get them ready for an exam.
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Aug 21 2012
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Student Motivation, Writing

Keeping it Civil: Tips for In-Class Discussions

 

One of my favorite quotes about the importance of education is:

“If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson envisioned that public schools would be the means of educating “common people” about issues and the mechanisms of our republic as the means of “safe-guarding democracy.” Despite his elitist tone, I think he was right. In addition to social studies and civics courses our students also need to learn the skill of civil discussion about any topic. Regardless of where you stand politically, I think we can agree our public discourse has taken a turn for the worse (Todd Akin or Joe Biden anyone?). Even if this is an election year slump in civility, most students would benefit from a little extra training on how to speak their opinions with grace as well as substance. Here are five tips for running discussion in your classroom:

  1. Show students an example of what you expect in a class conversation BEFORE your first conversation: Teach a mini-lesson classroom discussion that includes an actual example. A great way to do this is to call 4 – 6 students in after/before school or during lunch and prep them on the norms you’d like to see in class discussions. Then have them talk about a non-academic topic as they model the norms of discussion (ex. Team Jacob v. Team Edward, best movie of the summer, best olympic sport, etc.). It might even be helpful to script a few “breeches” where a student yells, or interrupts, or doesn’t use an I statement, or makes an unsubstantiated claim, etc. so you can point it out to the class. Keep their discussion under 4 minutes or so and then show the clip in class when you teach the procedure for in-class discussions.
  2. Post norms for discussion on your wall: These could include 3 – 5 statements like “Respectfully disagree” or “Use I-statements” or “Back up your opinions with evidence” or “Listen carefully to the speaker and do not interrupt.” Whatever norms you decide on make sure you explain what they mean to your students. Here are my Collegiate Discussion Guidelines
  3. Give students sentence stems to ease them into a discussion: I give my students a whole list of sentence stems like “I agree with __ and I’d like to add . . .” or “I disagree with _, I think . . .” or “If you look at the text on page _, it says __. This makes me think . . .” and have them either tape the sheet into their notebooks or directly on to the desk. This way students have a quick reference during a discussion.
  4. Have students prepare to speak before the discussion through writing: This seems obvious but I have found student participation soars if I have them come to a discussion with prepared statements. These could be questions they want to ask, quotes from our text they want to point out, or pre-written opinions they want to read. This gives students an automatic entry to the conversation.
  5. Hold students accountable for their contribution to the discussion: When I have a classroom discussion, I often use the Socratic Seminar format (where I do not speak at all) and have students grade each other (I use socratic seminar scoring guide). A great way to start this off is to do a “Fish Bowl” where 10 or so students who are more outspoken beginning the conversation. They sit in a circle of desks in the middle of the class while everyone else watches them. Let them talk for 10 minutes and then have them switch out with a new group. Letting the talkative crowd blaze the trail has the added advantage of removing them from the more reluctant speakers’ group later on. If there are no talkers in a smaller group eventually someone will speak up! Don’t be afraid to let silence hang in the air. Eventually, they will talk! Sometimes it takes a couple of attempts but it happens. My colleague Jenny Corroy has students who struggle with shyness work with a classmate. The classmate will ask the shy student a predetermined and practiced question in a way that allows them to naturally contribute to the discussion (what’s up college readiness?). You could also draw names to get students started or use a ball and have students throw from speaker to speaker (again, teach those norms!)

I have also incorporated silent signals into discussions (a hand-signal for questions, agreement and disagreement) which allows more participation from the class. What other ideas/resources do y’all have around class discussions?

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