The student rated their journal at component 4 (reasoning). However, we feel that the majority of the journal has been written at the level of description and observation (components 1 and 2). There are some elements of component 3 (relating) in the rationale for each strategy described. In order to move to component 4 (reasoning) we would encourage the student to explore the issue at greater depth, pose questions to themself, consider some alternatives, the positives and negatives of the strategies they describe, the limitations of the strategies etc. From this more detailed exploration the student could begin to try to extract certain principles or conclusions that would be useful in their future teaching.
We will try to model what we mean using the student's journal as a starting point. As you read it try to concentrate on the elements of reflective writing rather than on the content which may not be directly relevant to your situation.
In this section the student teacher is reporting (component 1) on her activity during the week. The description, at this stage, is fairly limited in that it does not provide any background information about the school, the class, nor the general approach to teaching of the supervising teacher. Further information is provided in this section adding to the description (reporting, level 2).
The student teacher expresses feelings and in this way is responding to the situation, but she also identifies a problem (responding, level 2). She then reports on her actions, stating what she did (reporting, level 1).
For the last few Thursdays I have been basically observing the teaching styles and classroom strategies that my supervising teacher has been using. It's been from this that I have seen a variety of ways in which you can get the attention of the children in often small and subtle ways (I mean without yelling and screaming threats at the children to be quiet) during activities and or between activities.
I'm in a lower grade and I find it can be very frustrating trying to get the children to either listen to your instructions or to get their full attention. It was from this frustration that I looked more closely at the techniques my supervising teacher used.
In this section the student teacher provides a detailed description of the strategies that she put into action (reporting, level 3). She also provides a limited rationale for some of the strategies - an indication of relating - but she does not develop this aspect. The student teacher responds to the strategies by making a judgment about their efficacy (responding, level 2).
During a lesson of mine I put into practice a few strategies that I had seen. The following are some examples of how I have been using a variety of classroom strategies to get and keep the attention of students:
- By clapping a particular beat, the children have to repeat it. Thus an attention seeker
- By lowering my voice the children have to quieten down to hear my instructions
- By using a firmer (slightly louder tone) when someone may be doing something really wrong or dangerous. Or
- By saying "do this" — start doing an action e.g. touching your shoulders which the children then follow, continue this and then say 'Do that'
I followed by an action the children are not meant to follow, if they do they're out. This is an excellent way to get the children's attention as they all want to join in.