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I As A Learner Project
Steven Romero
display critical thinking, I saw the need for developing students discursive practices to be
successful. They are expected to able to not only read and answer a question, but also make
arguments and provide reasoning that is expressed both verbally and in written text responses. I
began moving towards my goal of discourse improvement in the classroom the second semester
of my first year of teaching, by first having my students read aloud our content questions and
then make interpretations. I have assessed my students through formal and informal approaches,
sometimes a piece of technology and other times with more traditional methods
In the introduction of my lessons, I try to adhere to the common core standards for
which asks students to, “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (Teacher Step,
2015, para. 2)”. When we begin a lesson, I ask for a volunteer or cold call on a student to read a
question. Once that task was completed, I posed the questions, ‘from that question, what are we
being asked and how will we know we answered it’. I incorporated this procedure to initiate my
students engagement and movement towards discursive practices, which focused on having them
speak more in class and mark their text. In order for students to answer these question, I
integrated verbal discourse-oriented strategies in my lesson procedures that included: ‘turn and
talks, volleyball discussions, and rally coaches.’ Depending on if the lesson was review or
During the turn and talks, I would have them reread the question after this volunteer read
aloud and discuss their responses on what they would do and how they will know they have done
it. When the unit focused on topics that were completely unfamiliar to students, I would have
them, refer to T.A.G. strategy that they were taught in their English classes. This procedure
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involves: turning the prompt/question around and into a statement, answering the question, and
giving support for your answer. I tend to use this procedure in my day to day instruction in our
curriculum assignments that tend to involve depth of knowledge (DOK) level 2 and 3
questioning. For higher level DOK assignments like performance tasks, I trained my students to
use a C.U.B.E.S. procedure to emphasize student’s breaking down questions to answer them.
This stands for circle important numbers, stands for underline the question, box key words,
evaluate the problem, and solve the problem. This procedure is something that I have students go
over verbally as we solve part of a performance task together. I may ask, “if we follow our
C.U.B.E.S. procedure, what is our first step.” I have a student respond to the question and
express the first step of the procedure. This is how I try to set them up for making sense of math.
Volleyball discussions are another procedural strategy for use in the classroom to engage
students in mathematical discourse. I utilize volleyball discussions similarly to engage more than
one student at a time, when icy students often engaged in the routine of only letting one or a few
students lead the discourse in the classroom. In this strategy, I would call upon a volunteer
twiddle out the question, have another student interpret with that question may have been asking,
and then have the third student explain how we might perform that task. In instances where the
student may be confused may have a different linguistic skill set or needs more support in the
feeling one of these tasks I would come upon when it appears to help them out. Using these
instances the peers able to respond to an answer the question, in which case I have that initial
student repeat what was stated and explain why before moving on through this procedure.
In my attempts to create opportunities for student led learning, I use rally coach activities
whenever my students are reviewing for an upcoming assessment. With this activity, students are
given he shared one-page handout of mathematical problems. The handout is organized in two-
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sided columned boxes, for the purpose of each student taking turns and engaging in the review
and problem solving. There are two interchangeable roles in this activity, one is the Problem
Solver and the other is the Coach. The Problem Solvers job is to attempt to solve the problem
and explain their thinking, while showing to work. During which the Coach observes quietly and
interjects in an attempt to guide them towards understanding how to explain their reasoning if
they are falling of track or an unfamiliar method to reach their solution. I intentionally pair up
students according to their mathematical ability. In instances where I have ELL/CDL students, I
would follow ELL educational researcher Wayne Wright’s suggestions and pair them up with
former ELL or bilingual students were able to provide them support (Wright, Wayne, 2010).
This would enable students to utilize collaborative learning methods and providers for one
another in their learning. In these situations students have to take ownership of their learning and
Visual approaches are another strategy I use in the classroom. I use anchor charts in the
classroom to ensure that my students apprehension of the content vocabulary and procedures are
made accessible. I keep in mind standard 3 indicator 2, which requires a teacher to provide
,”opportunities for all students to create and interpret multiple representations,” when creating
these types of supports (Nevada Department of Education, 2017). I use visual scaffold for my
students that would explain the process to solve a particular problem, with step-by-step
examples. When I introduce a new topic or expand upon an idea, I would refer to a premade
anchor chart. I start a lesson through demonstration and use of an anchor chart. I guide my
students towards a solution by refer to the steps in the anchor charts. For example, ne of the units
we had gone over earlier this semester was adding into subtracting negative and positive
integers. I write explanations in the anchor chart that students could refer to when they began
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independent work and needed to process a question and decide on the steps they would take. As
we moved through a lesson to the “we do” portion of the activity, I ask them which step we
begin with and then have them work on it independently as we move towards answering the
question. I add to a wall of key vocabulary to support my students understanding and use of
mathematical terminology. When students are stuck on how to express their responses in
complete sentences, I asked him to refer to the word wall and anchor charts of the procedure I
have set up in the classroom. I have found that that these have been more effective in aiding my
students to complete their work and demonstrate and understanding of the material.
The types of assessments are used in the classroom include both formal and informal
assessments. To set up each unit, I had my students complete do now activities to assess their
use to see how their previous years of mathematical instruction aligns with our current unit. I
would this information to plan strategically pre-teach lessons for future segments of the unit.
Other informal formative assessments are utilized in the classroom included: fist to five and
thumbs ups and thumbs down. I use these to get an in the moment gauge of how much the
informally assessing my students. A technological application tool I use is Pear Deck, which
includes many assessment features: such as drag and drop, drawing, and written word responses.
The unique feature about this application is that it is interactive and highly engaging for students,
but also could be used to informally and formally assess students (Flanagan, 2015). I use
technology in my class to prepare my students for 21st century technology expectations and to
prepare them for assessments like the SBAC, where scholars like Lawton suggests are likely to
be tech-based and are expect to be familiar with technological tools (Lawton, 2014). As a lesson
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comes to a closure, I have my student complete a tickets so that I can formatively assess my
students understood the material or not. This is to get a gauge on weather a lesson was effective
or not. The type of summative assessments are from the Edulastic software that is part of the
tools in our school’s curriculum. With this software, I found that students are able to use many
tech-based features to provide responses to questions on an exam. I use this data from these
assessments to inform the next these lessons, as well as plan how I’m going provide supports of
As I reflect upon this past semester, I realize there are areas I could improve upon for
next year. Since I will be going into my second year of teaching next year, I plan on clearly and
concisely explaining and modeling procedures like T.A.G and C.U.B.E.S, and Rally Coaches. I
could first begin by setting up classroom procedures and expectations from the start and work
towards developing them into routines. Now that I have gained an arsenal of strategies to further
my student’s development and focus, making these strategies into routines would be my best
means of facilitating the literacy and development of mathematics. I plan on continuing to use
assessments to inform my lesson planning, but also make the classroom environment more
student-centered. This would follow assessment principals that Scholars like Rob Tierney
suggest should, “ emerge from the classroom rather than impose upon it” (Tierney, 1995, pp.
375). This would allow me to be the person who observes more and takes actions that are
appropriate for my students to be leading in their learning. I believe if I set up excitations and
procedures effectively, then student could be the orchestrators of their learning while I can be the
facilitator of their thinking. As an educator, I want to see my students not only learn the material
but grow as thinker and become problem solvers. It is my role to make higher level thinking
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accessible as possible through literacy, so that they can meet expectations of the 21st century
workforce.
Reference
Flanagan, T. (2015, 10 09). ILA's Blog. (Teaching with Tech) Retrieved 04 2019, from Literacy
Daily: https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2015/10/09/formative-
assessment-in-the-digital-age
Lawton, D. F. (2014). Beyond Bubble Sheets and Number Two Pencils- Assessment in the
Teacher Step. (2015, 03 15). Breaking down the Common Core’s 8 mathematical practice
the-common-cores-8-mathematical-practice-standards/
Wright, Wayne. (2010). Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and