Reflect after reading Chapters 5-7:
How do we answer questions in a thinking classroom? When and how do we give tasks?
Consider the following questions:
- What is resonating with you from the reading?
- What caused you to pause and think during this section?
Respond and Interact
After reading these chapters, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
As usual, these new chapters provided a lot to unpack. I literally laughed out loud when I read in chapter 5, "Instead of walking away when a proximity or stop-thinking question is asked, we would instead look at the student and smile as they asked their question. Then we would walk away." I pictured doing this in my third grade classroom, looking students in the eye, smiling, then walking away...and later, responding to the inevitable parent email asking for clarification. While I understand the thinking behind this practice, I just don't think I could do it with a straight face (or smile), unless I had a discussion with my students first. What seems to be effective with my 8-9 year olds is being deliberate about teaching & modeling "how" and "when" to ask questions, and practicing responses that encourage autonomy and deeper thinking. As the author states, it's important to read the situation and respond accordingly. Every child is unique. I actually had a student this year who prefaced every question with the question, "Ms. Fitz, can I ask you a question?" Eventually, he became more confident and self-managing, but it took consistent support.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 brought up some good questions about homework, which I still grapple with every year. I see benefits of establishing these routines in third grade but also recognize that in moving toward a thinking classroom, this practice should be thoughtful, intentional and purposeful. I like the idea of renaming it "check-your understanding" questions. This is a good conversation to have with our team when we return in the fall, especially as we rethink our SGG and dip our toes into the new curriculum.
What I have enjoyed most from these readings is that not only do they inform you of their results, but they also give great strategies to implement in your classroom. On of those that really resonated with me was giving the rich thinking task after giving verbal instruction. I have always just had the students read the text. It was so interesting to see actually how much time is lost and the time that students are actually doing very little mathematical thinking. This makes so much sense and will help save valuable class time! Another part of the reading that really resonated with me was the chapter on homework. It gave me a lot to think about. I have always given homework to my students, but give them plenty of class time to complete it. I use homework as a check for understanding, so it makes great sense to call it a check for understanding. I want the kids to realize that it is for them not me that they have homework. I also love the idea of having them check their answers that day, instead of have them wait till I correct it. That will allow for some more student ownership and also emphasize that it is for them to also check their understanding not just the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThese three chapters were definitely insightful. I found the first chapter quite interesting; especially about the different kinds of questions. As I was reading, I was thinking about how those proximity questions are definitely the most common in my classroom. That and, "Mrs. H, is this right?" I often turn it around and say, "I don't know, is it?" But I like the idea of looking directly at them, smiling, and then choosing to walk away. However, I agree with Kimberly, in that I believe there would definitely be a need to clarify this practice with parents. Kids seem to think that asking for help is supposed to lead them to the answer, and I believe a lot of parents think this way as well. My laugh out loud moment was when the author was describing the line of ducklings behind the primary teacher. After the last couple of odd years, my 8 and 9 year old third graders were very duckling-like this last year. I would even announce as I moved around the room that I was not a momma duck, and no-one needed to trail behind me.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest connection and takeaway was the chapter about homework. I am a firm no-homework giver. The author's notes about why homework isn't done or how it is done resonated deeply with me. Every year I have parents who ask for homework for their students, but I have never seen a benefit from it. Additionally, my belief is that students need to get out of the house more, not sit at a table and continue what they just left at school. However, with the real estate the way it is, these youth don't have the room to play outdoors. Therefore, they are on teams that are huge time commitments, and the majority of students don't end up with the time for homework. (ack... now I've written all that, and it's a bit soapboxy...but I think it's still a valid piece to the puzzle.) Instead of homework or practice, I really like the idea of calling it Check YOUR Understanding (putting the ownership on them). I am intrigued by the idea of giving them the answers immediately, but not the how-to. So many of my students fight the "I did it in my head" battle, that I'm not sure what my response would be in this case. Nonetheless, I can't wait to try it out!
YES! I love turning the ownership on students with the Check Your Understanding problems! I'm also wondering if this would increase the amount of students completing "homework" on a regular basis.
DeleteEach chapter that I've read either reaffirms what I already think or has me reevaluating my current practice to improve the oppoturnities for pushing student thinking in math. The first of these three chapters really got me thinking about the types of questions that I ask students - which up until now I thought was a strength of mine. I'm thinking I have more work in this area so that I am utilizing more responses that keep students thinking when they ask the stop-thinking and proximity questions. Thinking back to last year's students, there are some expert proximity and stop-thinking question askers moving into fifth grade!
ReplyDeleteI also have to admit, after reading about the tasks and keeping tasks totally random, I started creating and working things out. Then today as I was reading chapter six, I had a great big "DOH!" moment. I got so excited and was excited in the way things have been done, now I'm thinking I want to use more of the stand together and talk through each situation prior to sending kids off. Just like unfolding information through pictorials and different GLAD strategies, this make perfect sense. Kids can internalize more of the situation/information so that when it's time to go work with their team for the day, they already have the information they need, or know where to look to find it.
I am absolutey with Melissa H and the homework situation. It wasn't until I had my own fourth grader that I relized how challenging it can be for students to complete pages and packets of homework on a daily basis. Because of this, homework has been optional in my classroom. I have provided practice problems (the Homework & Remembering pages from EM) but there are always those few families that want loads of homework, who also often turn out to be the ones who are the first NOT to complete it. I think this year I want to go about it different and change my current (although they'll be differnent because of the switch to IM) Check For Understanding problems to Check YOUR Understanding problems. I also really support having kids look through and discuss which problem(s) are the most important to complete to check your understanding and having students work together to support each other after solving. I think it will take some modeling practice before we get to the same type of converstations that were shared in the book. I am excited to get in and try some of this out with kids!
I appreciate your thinking around homework, and it's encouraging me to rethink whether or not my own practice is as inclusive and effective as I think it is. I'm wondering about including an opportunity for families to share feedback during my initial survey that I ask them to respond to at the beginning of the year. I'm committed to making intentional decisions in my practice, so this is worth some reflection and thought.
DeleteAhh the all mighty struggle about homework! I really enjoyed reading the chapter about turning homeowk into check your understanding problems. Last year, I gave very little homework and definitely had some push back from parents. Additionally, only a select few students regularly did work outside of the classroom. These students were those that understood the material and were constantly in the meeting or exceeding range of understanding. Students who needed extra support were not doing school work outside of the school day, and understandably. My team and I have had many conversations about the point of homework and the extra stress load we did not want to put on these students who were busy or partaking in other interests. I think having the option of checking your understanding is still great for students who enjoy doing work (I did have students asking for more math projects, games, and problems to do after school) or continuing their learning at home!
ReplyDeleteI also really resonated with the chapter about questions and walking away with the proximity questions. As many others are saying, I think it would be important to explain this to the class before and the reasoning behind this! My most common question last year was, “Is this right?”. I would usually respond with “I don't know, you tell me!” This was usually with students who were more timid and anxious about being wrong. I think walking away shows them that you believe in their abilities and that it is okay to be confident about the way they solved the problem! I'm excited to try this or some version of this next year!!!
I love the idea of sending math games and puzzles home as a "homework" option for families that want it. I can see some of my former students loving a "puzzle" like the "Next Door Numbers" from chapter 6!
DeleteEach chapter in this book is so informative and really pushes my thinking in so many directions. In chapter 5, as Christel and Kimberly stated, smiling and walking away when students ask proximity or stop thinking questions is hard to imagine without some context for students and families. I can picture a bunch of pretty frustrated 8 year old kiddos in September during math! I appreciate the "list" of possible responses and will probably keep that close at first. I'm glad in the FAQ section Liljedahl shared that having a post-implementation discussion after a couple of weeks, had positive effects. I really love the idea of giving the task verbally. It seemed like there were SO MANY days in math when I gave a printed task/worksheet that resulted in so many questions, I would do that very thing he spoke of, which is to stop the entire class from working and give verbal directions. And just when my brain wondered about the students in ELL, he answered my concern! Finally - feeling very relieved about the homework section. I don't give out the normative type of math worksheet homework. I am on the fence about it every year. So much of what he said re; who does it, why and if they are independent is on point with my experiences. I used to give out huge packets, but haven't in the last 4 years. As others have stated, I often have parents asking for "practice" - when I tell them I won't be correcting or grading it, they often change their minds. The idea of rebranding to "Check your understanding" problems seems an easy shift. (fingers crossed.) I am just getting a little wound up about how to this is all going to fit together. I am less worried about the space and groupings of kids then how to get kids working on tasks in the first 5 minutes, still "teaching" the new curriculum, building number sense with our number routines and tracking understanding with constantly changing groups. Man, September will be so exciting.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought about it all fits together. I like the ideas and research presented, I'm trying to visualize the pacing and how it all comes together. I'm excited to talk to my team about it and put our heads together on ways we can reimagine our math block!
DeleteI can relate with the homework dilemma. I think it is so awesome that you stopped giving out homework. I always told my kids and families that it was optional because you always have those parents who want homework or no homework. I am so inspired since you have done this for 4 years. Love it! Can't wait to so the "check your understanding." I also agree with you that September is going to be exciting with so many things to try.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the homework dilemma. It made me stop and think about the past years and how I gave homework ( it was actually a choice for students/ families). It made me think about the kids who always did and turned in their assignment and students who never turned them in... Why do we do this to ourselves and to them? I love and am inspired by the "Check your Understanding" . I am also inspired by the thinking tasks at the beginning of the lesson. I really love this idea. I also like how it has Q's and A's from the author. However, where do these rich thinking tasks come from. I know last year, I used Problem Solvers as a group discussion but I guess I am a little confused. Is it materials that we learned the day before or can it be random but at their level? WOW! Lots of great information and things to try...
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to be a very big fan of the Q and A section of each chapter. I love the scenarios posed and see those happening in our classrooms, definitely mine. Chapter 5, with the posing of questions to students emphasizing not answering the questions. This reminds me so much of one of my favorite student thinking about math materials I have ever used put out by Teacher to Teacher out of Oregon. That curriculum specifically taught you how to not answer student questions but to redirect to deeper thinking. This is what Chapter 5 resonated with out of me. I can see telling students if you ask a question that is stopping thinking, I will walk away. I believe you should communicate that to students if you are going to do it, then model with them all watching so they can understand it isn't personal, but just you pushing them to think and work a bit more. They say in the chapter to do this afterwards, so I will have to think about that one. I would definitely communicate to families though so they knew what I was doing if there kid comes home and says I only smile. :) I think I will put up a notecard on a back wall with "keep-thinking" questions written on it to remind myself.
ReplyDeleteAs for homework, I haven't given it out for years. It is a hassle to grade or check. Students are very busy after school with extracurriculars. A few parents ask for it every year and I let them know that homework should be reading every night, preferably with someone for no more than 30 minutes. Math or other things can be work at home if is work that isn't completed from today, but I try real hard to get them through problems that day or give them more time later. I have always firmly believed that anything they do at home should be introduced in school and not be new learning.
While reading Chapter 5, I was surprised to find out that teachers, on average, answer 200-400 questions a day. That is a ton! Although not all questions need to be answered, no child likes to feel like their question was ignored. I liked the strategy the book gave of smiling at a child when they are asking their question and then walking away if it is not a keep-thinking question. When giving a thinking task, sometimes it is best to just hand the students the task and see what happens. This was new thinking for me as the idea of pre-teaching and activating prior knowledge has be engrained in my brain as the first step. The best way to give a task is through verbal and written directions. While explaining the task, you are laying the groundwork for what students will do that does not reduce the thinking the students will have to do. It is also important to not give the task until the groundwork has been presented.
ReplyDeleteQuestioning on all levels, whether it be teacher-student/student-teacher/student-student, has been an critical area of focus in my professional practice the last few years. At the start of the school year, I introduce the practice of "Great Questions" and encourage students to pose questions that may not have a definitive answer or something that could perhaps be answered by an expert. We record these questions on sticky notes, display them at the front of the room, and remove them as students independently research to seek out possible solutions. We celebrate our "Great Questions" as moments in which we think with greater depth and ignite our curiosity beyond the concepts and skills we address in our curriculum. I also teach several lessons on Costa's Levels of Questioning and integrate that practice into our Launch unit for ELA. I have found that attributing a numeric level to questions and prompting students to identify the levels they and others are using engages our minds and allows us to think more deliberately about the way in which we frame our questions and the intended form of response we seek. I have found that the number of "Stop Thinking" questions diminished and quality and rigor of questioning increased as a result of these lessons. Accordingly, I have found myself stumped more often by student questions and have allowed myself to show a higher degree of vulnerability by admitting that sometimes I do not know. This shatters the typical student-teacher archetypes by allowing students to see that teachers are not merely answer keys, but humans that are learning and growing each day as they are. As the Q&A section suggested in Chapter 5, a post-implementation discussion after a couple weeks of not answering proximity and stop-thinking questions would likely bring positive results and a bit of discomfort as my student population revels in being "right".
ReplyDeleteThe tax collector task in Chapter 6 is one I could see using VNPSs after laying the groundwork as a whole class standing together. I think the task may feel intimidating if done as a whole group, especially in a larger class, as it gives opportunities for timid learners to hide behind the boisterous ones. With regards to homework, it continues to be an area of contestation as many of us have noted already. I always imbed time for students to at least begin their math homework in class and try to pose them as "practice opportunities" rather than homework. I want students to feel confident and understand the purpose of the tasks I assign before attempting them at home so I allow them to ask as many questions as they want and even model a few problems if the lesson did not provide enough examples. I still have several students that do not return with their completed homework the next day, despite dedicated time in class. This is likely due to my leniency in allowing students to work on other academic projects during that homework time. Reframing these tasks as "check your understanding" and deliberately reviewing them as a whole class, rather than marking them on my own, will hopefully yield more positive results. I have much to think on as I plan for the upcoming school year and as we continue through the remainder of this book study.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading the Q/A at the end of the chapters, I find many of my own questions getting answered. So many ideas stood out to me, homework is tricky! There seems to be families that eagerly want it and others that don’t. It can be a hard balance but I appreciated the idea of changing homework to a genuine “Check your Understanding”. One thing I enjoy about this book and specifically these chapters are the suggestions seem realistic for me to try. For example, when reading about where to give a task, I thought I should absolutely try moving my students from the carpet to a standing position in the corner of the room to give them their task. Although it can be easy to think that all my students are at the carpet and have been listening to my lesson, I can see the benefit of moving students to a space where the task would be better received. It is a simple change I can make that could really benefit my students and the energy they are bringing to a thinking task.
Yes, about the Q & A part at the end of the chapter! It is amazing to me how many of the questions that I have while reading the chapter and answered a the end.
DeleteI really enjoyed these chapters! The learned helplessness after spending over a year in remote/hybrid was off the charts this year. It made me sad to see how little agency my students felt they had, so I was very intentional with answering questions this year. I'm looking forward to honing that skill. When it feels uncomfortable not answering students' questions, I will remind myself...."practices that could get students to think were being undone by teachers answering every question being asked of them." I laughed when the author wrote "As students began to realize that their questions weren't going to be answered, they stopped asking them....except in primary." HA! Chapter 6 made a lot of sense to me, particularly the 'when.' Tasks given at the beginning of the lesson when energy and engagement is high makes so much sense. The longer you talk = the less they'll think, is so important to remember and why I think I love our number routines so much. I haven't given homework in years and almost all families are grateful they don't have to battle their child each night. As a parent I watched my own children lose their love of learning each year as homework requirements increase in elementary. There was zero learning happening. Rather than homework I will send home math games, or encourage them to challenge their family with the math puzzle or open middle problem that we worked on that day. That way the pressure is off the student and they can be the 'teacher' at home and hopefully have some math conversations in a fun, engaging way. I always love it when a student comes back the next day and tells me "my dad took FOREVER to solve that problem!! I had to give him hints!!" The pride and joy they feel is priceless.
ReplyDeleteI underlined that part too, Ang..."just know that the longer you talk, and the longer they listen, the less likely you are going to be able to get them to think." We need our kids to be DOING math within the first few minutes of every lesson.
DeleteI paused to think about the ways I have supported student questioning in my practice, as there was an abundance of it this past school year, many days I went home feeling so “needed” by all of my students. My class was capable, they needed to build up their confidence as problem solvers. Proximity questions were one of our main challenges as a group, the types of questions where students need that bit of reassurance. I appreciated the questions to promote student thinking and perseverance, and usually use similar ones to dive deeper. The walking away strategy is a tough one, as we consider our students with high needs and autism, I thought that the addition of encouragement through a smile or remark would be an example of differentiation to work through.
ReplyDeleteI felt motivated by the engagement inherent in the method for presenting the thinking task to students. I worked hard this past school year to have a more kinesthetic classroom, and now thanks to our reading, have more practical tools under my belt. I really like the idea of standing as the task is given to create a more high-energy environment for active involvement. Students also benefit from receiving their thinking task within the first 3 to 5 minutes of a lesson. Verbal instructions, with only the essential information noted on the board, avoids tripping students up in decoding the task, freeing time up for problem solving.
The proximity questions were a huge challenge in my class, too. I can't wait to try standing in the middle of the room for the first few minutes to give them a chance to get started. I anticipate that it will take some adjusting (for both the students and myself), but I am curious to see how it will play out. I also wonder how the smile/walk away strategy will affect our neurodiverse students...like you said, we may need to add in some more words of encouragement at first or provide them with an alternate response.
DeleteI've read this book before but I am re-reading it again with all of you so that I can be reminded of the great teaching moves that are described in each chapter. I'm telling you...the book is just as insightful the second time around! One move that he described in the Q & A section of Chapter 5 has been a complete game changer for me. Liljedahl says that after a task is given (on VNPSs around the room), stand in the very center of your classroom and force yourself to stay there for the first 3-4 minutes. And just watch them. I've done this with a few different teachers at multiple grade levels and it is pretty incredible. First of all, 3-4 minutes feels like a *really* long time! But it's amazing how much thinking happens WITHOUT OUR HELP. As teachers, it is our instinct to immediately start circulating the room. When we do that we usually drop hints or "just get them started" and we are robbing them of their own great thinking. Standing in the center of the room allows us to quickly see how ALL groups are doing (huge benefit of the vertical surfaces!) and then you can differentiate which group(s) you should visit first. Small teaching move that makes big impact.
ReplyDeleteI love how all of these strategies for building a thinking classroom really pertain to any subject area, not just math. The strategies can easily be used in all subject areas!
DeleteSince I personally learn best when reading or writing, I struggle with the idea of giving tasks verbally. That being said, I am willing to try this strategy, as well as writing details on the board as I give them. I've experienced what happens when multiple students need to clarify instructions, and I (perceive that I) need to stop and re-explain to everyone. I'm hopeful that Liljedahl's assertion that "only about 20% of the students need to understand the task. Knowledge mobility takes care of the rest" is true; I plan to test this theory!
ReplyDeleteI felt I had good success with homework in the last two school years. I never used the word "optional," but families knew that homework was for checking understanding, not graded, and could be turned in late if needed. Everyday, students would check their own homework. I would very quickly look over self-graded homework at least weekly to see who needed re-teaching.
I'm excited to challenge myself further in not answering stop-thinking and proximity questions. Another strategy, in addition to smiling, that I use is just to say "Hmmm, interesting" and nod my head. I like the list of possible responses and will refer to that as I practice allowing students to answer their own questions.
Chapter 6 is my favorite so far. I tend to have my students close to me when I'm giving them a task to complete, but it's usually sitting in front of me (or in a circle) on the floor. I am excited to see what happens with their engagement by having them stand instead. I also appreciated that in the FAQ he noted that the "first 3-5 minutes" begins when the subject/activity begins. In my class, we always start our day with a Morning Meeting and then transition into math.
ReplyDeleteI also have a feeling my students will respond well to the verbal instructions for the math task, especially through the structure of storytelling. I remember my college mathematics professor actually did this with our class many times! I can definitely see how students' engagement and excitement about the task would increase and their focus on "What does this word mean?" or "What am I supposed to do next?" (like in textual problems) would diminish.
At the beginning of chapter 5 I marked the section where the author talked about teachers being asked up to 400 questions a day with WOW! No wonder we are so tired at the end of the day! The author made a great point in saying "For students there is a big difference between having their question heard and not answered and having their question not heard". There are so many ways to acknowledge a question, yet not answer it so that the students continue to think!
ReplyDeleteChapter 6 really make me think about how to set up the groundwork for a thinking task without diminishing the thinking! The actual dialog examples from a classroom that the author gives were so helpful for me to hear, they really make it clear how set up the needed prior knowledge without giving a model for the students to just mimic. The idea of giving a task verbally with just the necessary information written down is also something that gives me a lot to think about. I'm classic for being one of those students to reads ahead, then misses so much information!
The advice from the author to say words and write numbers and other information pertinent to the task was really helpful advice.
I loved chapter 7 about homework! Providing the students with a meaningful check your understanding task, rather than homework, makes the task about the student and gives them the intrinsic motivation to complete it for themselves. Then giving the students the opportunity to talk about and check their work in class is important.
In the past 2 years, there has been a lot of proximity and stop thinking questions asked in my class. One side effect of Covid that really isn’t talked about is how students have become reliant on their parents or others to do the thinking for them. I can relate to the teachers that states having little ducklings in her classroom following her around. I really like the responses the teachers came up with in response to proximity or stop thinking questions. As stated in the book, 2nd graders are not going to stop asking the question if the teacher doesn’t respond. They are just going to get louder.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 6, there were 2 things that really resonated with me. The idea that gathering students around you to verbally teacher/give directions will increase their thinking. I’ve never thought about asking students to meet in in the corner of the room and then verbally give them the directions to a task. I like the idea of having students come and stand around the white board while we talk about a task. This is something I will definitely do when school starts.
My biggest takeaways from these chapters were:
ReplyDelete1. Standing is better.
2. Verbal directions with the groundwork established is best practice.
3. Proximity questions are the number one reason I am exhausted every day and I can't wait to have fewer of them! I was energized and motivated as I was reading until I got to that part that said these don't work for primary teachers. I laughed. I agree with what Amy wrote above. COVID and remote school has definitely shown an increase of learned helplessness in my classroom and the constant need to affirm that they are on the right track. I'm eager to use some of these ideas to grow independent thinking.
A question that resonated with me from Chapter 6, When, Where, and How Tasks are Given in a Thinking Classroom, was “What is the minimum knowledge necessary to start a task?” As educators we inherently want everyone "to understand'' and as a result we can over explain. Liljedahl says only 20% of students need to understand a given task and knowledge mobility will take care of the rest and that sounds so scary! As teachers I think we so naturally want to make sure everyone knows what to do, we want to clear up confusion, and we want to feel confident that students can engage in a learning activity before we “send them off.” This thinking challenged me to be okay with a little uncertainty and it encouraged me to trust the process and to trust students, as I step back and watch them figure it out!
ReplyDeleteI was also challenged by Chapter 7 and the notion of homework. In my undergrad we were encouraged to stay away from homework due to the inequities it relies on and furthers. Thus, I never anticipated giving it, but then when I actually had my own classroom and was confronted with the decision, I ended up assigning homework. It felt like “everyone was doing it”, so despite these beliefs I was holding onto, I let the fear of doing something different, and the concern with what parents or colleagues would think dictate the decision. I so feel/felt the institutionalized norm of homework! But, this year I am going to try it, no homework!