Missing the Leap: Removing Scaffolding too Quickly

For our first assignment in my freshman composition course, I wanted them to select an article of their interest and choosing to use for their discourse analysis.  After reading and discussing The Declaration of Independence the previous class, last week (our fourth class meeting together) students wrote a response to "What do you think the founding fathers intended the American Creed to be?" After a brief discussion and a too brief introduction to Padlet where we could capture our ideas, I asked my students to search for an article that connects to the themes we had identified in the historic document (e.g. equality, liberty, pursuit of happiness).

And the plan collapsed.

I watched my students attempt their (figurative) leap from incomplete scaffolding to grasp a crumbling ledge.  Students' hands popped up with questions in some parts of the room while elsewhere they sat gazing into their computers for answers.  The supplemental instructor and I visited students one on one, working our way around the room to coax students in the directions we had begun to travel the previous class period: topics such as free trade and the collapse of agreements, equality and the current questions about equal pay or discrimination, and freedom and the discussion of immigration and DACA. 

After bailing water the second half of class, I asked students to complete an exit slip with their topic of interest and the questions they had at that point. 

It was obvious to me that I needed to repair the scaffolding for this new group of students, but I was so stuck in what went wrong that I had difficulty focusing beyond the stack of slips with students' topics and questions.  Fortunately, chapter 7 of The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros (@gcouros) gave substance to my work.  His description of the eight things to look for in today's classroom gave me pause as I considered how I was creating opportunities for voice, choice, time for reflection, opportunities for innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, self-assessment, and connected learning. 

I wanted these characteristics in my classroom, but having already planned the end of the semester, I was missing the incremental steps of establishing the classroom culture that warmly invited students into these conversations and periods of reflection.  My intentions steamed ahead of community.  I attempted choice and critical thinking without building solid foundations that would make students' voices and connected learning meaningful.  Though it was mid-year for K-12 students and teachers, and a second semester continuation for my pre-service candidates, it was a new course and a fresh start for me and these freshman composition students.  I needed to know where they were so I could meet them there, something at this point in the year in my previous teaching positions I have not had to do.

The exit slips indicated that students needed much more assistance with finding articles.  I located ten articles that I hoped would honor students' interests while providing for rich analysis.  Categorized into general themes of liberty, equality, and pursuit of happiness with topics ranging from discrimination of people with disabilities to wage gaps to DACA to opportunities for happiness, articles would provide choice but in a way that kept this first assignment manageable.

This teaching mis-experience sank my spirits and no amount of positive interactions that day changed this feeling until I worked on a solution.  The bigger lesson from that day was this:  In the deepest part of me I want to be a good teacher, but more importantly I need to really see and know my students in order to do so.  Only then can we build a classroom in which we can solve these problems together.

Leadership of Reflective Inquiry

As I viewed the responses this morning for my Advanced Reading Methods course, I felt my heart getting fuller with the depth of thinking and connections I found on the discussion board.  The graduate students wrote at length about classroom experiences and contexts that pushed them to dig deeper into studying what might work for their own students.  They highlighted excerpts from the Best Practices text, as would be expected in a reading response, but also shared their struggles with rising to the expectations teachers should have for themselves when using "best practices" in their classrooms. While the posts shared elements of "still trying" and "not there yet," the writings carried with them a sense of reflecting for the purpose of inquiring forward, of unmasking weaknesses in order to find strength in the community and the texts.  Peers have begun sharing resources and posing questions of each other, probing for more context so they can both understand and prompt for internally persuasive dialogue. 

My friend in the National Writing Project said she has witnessed teachers all over the country get together to figure things out.  Teachers in different content areas, grade levels, and departments have the capacity to think through issues and work towards solutions.  We see this in groups of teachers who know individually they do not have the answers, who see the group as being smarter than any one entity.

This brings me to the role a leader has in a class, organization, or small group.  A leader, whether he/she is a teacher leader, an administrator, or PD provider must understand the situation of the inquiry or problem, the interaction among the group members, and the continuity or time line for action.  A leader knows how these three elements intersect to create the dynamics of reflective inquiry.  If a leader is responsible for managing the moving parts, how can the leader also solve the problem?  In knowing the terrain, the leader within a school setting can make clear the path for teachers to do the hard work of reflecting, inquiring, testing, and analyzing.

My role in this course was assigning a text, setting up a discussion board, and designing a calendar of assignments.  Much of my syllabus is a credit to my friend and newly-graduated PhD.  My adjustments made the course more accessible to online learning but did not change the content or focus. But I must pause here to acknowledge a leader's role in a course.  The leader's preparation before the course begins builds the foundation for students to be participatory in the work of each class.  I believe the group is smarter than the individual. I especially believe any group I teach will be smarter in many ways than I will be as its instructor.

As a leader in the sense that I instruct classes, I need to acknowledge that it's okay to be the leader and not in charge of the learning. Sheridan Blau, a keynote speaker for a National Writing Project annual meeting spoke of research surrounding the proficiency of professionals in different fields.  What I need to remember is that research says having questions and feeling inadequate signals proficiency or at least the desire to get there.  If we think we are proficient, we probably aren't.  It makes me chuckle to think about my friend in the Writing Project who says she hopes feeling dumb is actually a sign of how smart she is--I laugh at this because she really is one of the smartest people I know.

My dissertation research into reflective inquiry has me questioning how group members work together with and as leaders to plan professional development.  I want to know what fosters or hinders reflective inquiry in our professional development planning.  At first, I thought the backtalk of authoritative discourse and internally persuasive discourse would be the static I would need to tune into.  Then I realized the backtalk of these discourses pushes thinking but does not necessarily hinder or foster inquiry.  I paused then to consider the leadership roles within our group and discovered the growth of reflective inquiry when clear leadership is present.  A leader who defines the context, poses questions, and trusts the members with the thinking process encourages and fosters reflective inquiry.  What happens sometimes, though, is people may enter the discussion without having hold of all the necessary intersecting elements in reflective inquiry.

To engage in reflective inquiry, one must look backward to dissect favorable and unfavorable events and experiences so that some may be repeated and others may (hopefully) never be seen again.  At the same time, a reflective inquirer must see enough value in the present work to want to see its positive effects in a different, future context.  If a future value cannot be determined or cannot be seen, whether personally, professionally, in part, or in whole, the inquiry can die before taking root.  A reflective inquirer recognizes adaptability in the problem, solution, and him/herself. Reflective inquiry is about seeking answers to future questions while solving present problems.

I do not know all the answers.  I ask questions, think deeply, ponder inadequacies, and learn constantly.  Am I a reflective inquirer?  I hope so.  My future in teaching will be bleak if I cannot re-envision past lessons and learn from all my previous experiences.  But once I know all the answers, I think I can retire from teaching and leading.