Answer to Question #208820 in English for Innocencia Dyondzo

Question

1. What are four important factors in preparing resources that are classroom ready.

2. Identify three that you should not do when preparing resources.

Answer 1

1.  STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT GOALS

Your school improvement plan is fundamental to the selection of classroom technology. There are some great solutions for improving performance and achieving outcomes. For example, graphing calculators and probeware can visually enrich lessons and provide immediate feedback in math and science courses, and teachers of reading can use document cameras, interactive whiteboards, software, and websites for improving literacy skills.

 BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS

Consider your funding sources and their availability. A one-time allocation of funds requires the selection of technology with a long lifespan. But technology can be replaced more often if funds are available on a recurring basis. Don’t forget to budget for professional development, technology support, infrastructure, retrofitting classrooms, and installations.

EQUITABLE ACCESS

All students, staff, and leaders must have “robust and reliable access to current and emerging technologies and digital resources.” Universal access can be achieved with an infrastructure that brings connectivity to all learning spaces, or by equipping all learning spaces with document cameras and projectors.

 CLASSROOM CONDITIONS

Consider the technology capacity of your classrooms. For a 1-to-4 computer-student ratio or a notebook initiative, make sure there is enough real estate and electrical capacity in the classroom. Also, check the location of electrical outlets; if computers are crowded along a single wall, students won’t have room to work in small groups.

If you are considering projectors and document cameras or interactive whiteboards, how will you arrange the cables so students don’t trip? Is there room on the front wall for an interactive whiteboard? These issues require that thought be given to the impact on instructional classroom best practices, varied teaching styles, traffic patterns, and safety — in addition to budgetary considerations.

2.

Preparing For Class

What does it mean to be prepared for class? Lecturers have an easier time answering this question because the standard for a good lecture, while difficult to achieve, is easy to identify. Preparing a section, or any class, in which you want students to act on, think about, scrutinize, or practice using material requires a different form of preparation. The most obvious and important difference is that class can truly succeed only if everyone—not just you—is prepared. You, therefore, need to focus your preparation around the preparation and the learning of your students.

You may find that the section you are teaching is “optional.” In our experience, the more you treat this section as a real (required) section — following the advice below — the more your students will take your section seriously.

Where to Start: A Five-Stage Game Plan for Sections

In general, be prepared for the class has less to do with how much or how little time you spend preparing, and more to do with how well and how wisely you use that time. In this way, preparing for class is a lot like writing a paper or preparing to take an exam. That little analogy may or may not be reassuring.

So what do you actually do to prepare? Alas, there’s no simple way, nor any “best” way, to prepare for class. What is done in preparation for sections varies significantly among disciplines, courses, TFs, and sections. The best sections are those in which the point of the section is made clear, and this ties in with the pre-semester preparation discussed above. Once you’ve talked with your faculty member about the role section is going to play in the course and thought about how you envision your sections operating within that framework, you can think about what each individual section is meant to accomplish:

• Are you introducing students to a specific controversy?
• Getting them to contrast the views of two different authors?
• Teaching them a skill?
• Illustrating a problem?

If you know what a section is meant to accomplish, then you’ll have a good idea of how to prepare. Just doing the assigned reading usually isn’t sufficient.

Have an Itinerary

Once you’ve figured out the role of a specific section, you can move on to planning how that session will unfold. Many sections begin with the TF asking that most dreaded of questions, “So, what did you think of the reading?” Ugh. Unless the reading was really interesting or really controversial, you can almost guarantee that such an opener will be met with the sounds of paper being shuffled, gum being snapped, and brain functions shutting down.

College classes, after all, should be mental workouts. Would you go to the gym, walk over to a treadmill, and start sprinting right off? Probably not. Would you sprint non-stop for fifty minutes, then come to a screeching halt and leave immediately? Doubtful. Think of teaching in the same way. No matter what your subject, it’s helpful to conceive of each section meeting as following a basic five-stage scheme.

A Five-Stage Game Plan for Section

1. Prepare students to learn
2. Present new material
3. Nurture student engagement
4. Encourage metacognition and reflection
5. Provide guidance and feedback for the next section

Stage One: Prepare students to learn

Make it clear that class –- and, with luck, learning -– are about to begin. Your students are probably running in from lunch, or another class, or field hockey practice, or a work-study job. Their minds are probably not focused on the task at hand. You simply need to quiet the usual pre-class chatter, close the door, and take a minute or two to create that focus. You should make clear what the goals and expectations are for that particular meeting (or, early in the semester, for the section as a whole). This can also be a good time to make administrative announcements, comment on the previous week’s section, or whatever else makes a smooth but discernible transition from life-outside-section to section.

Stage Two: Present new material

Present any new material; this doesn’t necessarily mean a lecture or anything formal, but merely represents the stage when learning really kicks in. It might be no more than a few minutes in which you give some background on the authors or works the students read, watched, or listened to for that meeting. This is also the point when most students will take out their notebooks, laptops, or clay tablets and begin taking notes. Remember that real, deep learning rarely occurs when students are passive, so try to keep this stage as short as possible while still doing everything you need to do.

Stage Three: Nurture student engagement

This is the “discussion” part of the “discussion sections.” At this point, the learning process should shift from you to the students. That doesn’t mean that you relinquish control of the class—quite the contrary, in fact. You have to pull off an amazing stunt: you need to skillfully and gently guide the class discussion or activity where it needs to go while simultaneously letting the class momentum proceed without too much overt interference. Think of it like that most favorite of winter sports: curling. You set the stone a-coastin’ down the ice as best you can, then grab a broom and sweep furiously before and around it, guiding its path oh-so-gently to its intended target. Not an easy task.

Stage Four: Encourage metacognition and reflection

You need to reflect on what was done. This, too, need not take up a lot of time, but it does need to happen. If students have been engaged in discussion for forty minutes, they’re likely to have lost sight of the big picture: the point of the discussion, the point of the section, the point of the course. So take a minute or two — or ask a student — to sum up, what occurred in Stage 3. Then place that in the context of the Big Picture. All of a sudden, students know why they gave up their afternoon naps and came to section instead. Omigod–there’s a point to this!

Stage Five: Provide guidance and feedback for the next section

Give students an idea of what to expect at the next section and distribute any materials they might need. Since they’ll be completely stoked following the stellar section you just led, they’ll be all the more willing to return if they know what’s on the menu. This is also the time to return work to students.

Overall Notes

Each of the five stages requires a different amount of time, and you may find yourself moving back and forth among some of the stages (particularly the middle three) if you need to use a section to address more than one discrete topic or task. Nevertheless, conceiving of section as a fifty-minute block of time with a discernible “narrative” will not only make preparing for it easier but will also make the class more rewarding for your students.

After figuring out your plan, the bulk of the time you spend preparing will be directed towards Stages 2 and 3, which form the core of any section meeting. You should think about what you’ll say during Stages 1, 4, and 5, of course—though they’ll take up less time, they’re no less important—but it’s the presentation and discussion parts of the class that form the basis for learning.

What do Teaching Fellows often do to prepare for class? When have you finished preparing?

You’ll likely feel most comfortable in the classroom if you’ve over-prepared, especially if you’re a first-time teacher. For at least the first few weeks, you’ll probably find yourself preparing elaborately for each class, reading extra background material, creating handouts, working out a minute-by-minute schedule, and devising various means of fooling your students into thinking they’re being entertained when in fact they’re actually (gasp!) learning the material.

But beware! Not only can over-preparing for class become an easy way to kill hours and hours of your week, but it can also make students complacent by discouraging them from taking responsibility for preparing themselves for class. As always, you need to be perfectly explicit about what you expect from your students in terms of preparation and participation. In addition, you need to be perfectly explicit with yourself about how much preparation time is reasonable given what you want to accomplish in the section and what other tasks you have to attend to.

The Types of Things that TFs Often Do to Prepare for Class

• Do the reading and problem sets
• Take notes on the material
• Review lecture notes for the week
• Prepare an outline of issues to cover in class
• Make a list of questions to use in class or write on the board
• Make a handout of topics to discuss in class
• Make a study guide to hand out
• Design a homework assignment or question for students to prepare for a future class
• Compile bibliographies or other outside information related to the material
• Assemble visual material
• Prepare slides or videos
• Prepare supplemental reading
• Prepare handouts on writing tips, research methods, problem-solving, lab techniques, etc.
• Meet with the professor and/or other TFs to discuss the material and how to present it in section
• Review students’ questions to anticipate their concerns, problems, interests
• Makeup quizzes