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In Mrs. Alden's class, her students try out Mr. Slaby’s iNotice strategy
and consider how “levels” of poetry work together.
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Last Monday morning, Poet-In-Residence Scot Slaby did a lesson with Tessa Alden's Grade 9s on how the different levels of poetry interact, like levels of audio in a piece of music, to create an effect. He had them use crayons to visually represent the different levels (sensory, sonic, and ideational) and then they worked in groups to consider how these layers work together in other poems. This led to some excellent observations about how poems work and why we read (and write) them.
The next day, Tessa went in to Scot's classroom to do Part Two of a lesson she started on Friday about how to generate inquiry-based questions using any media as a jumping off point. Using images and excerpts from a novel that the 10s are studying, they looked at two frameworks for question generation. The students created a pool of questions that are broad in scope and interdisciplinary, and (most importantly) interesting to research and learn about.
Here are Tessa's and Scot's Thoughts About Why Class Swaps Should Happen More Often:
It gets students out of their comfort zone.
Tessa's take: Let’s face it, we spend a lot of time with our students. It’s nice to swap it up – and it benefits their learning, too. Scot’s lesson covered a concept that shouldn’t be new to my students – but hearing it the way he explained it made it fresh. I reminded his students of a different way of thinking, too – instead of being handed an essay question, they were being handed a mess and a tool for constructing their own.
Scot's take: For me, Tessa's lesson was just what my senior Contemporary Fiction students needed at this time of the year after we slogged through winter. Students were actively engaged in making original, open-ended questions inspired by a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel but that would require research to fully explore. Tessa's scaffolded approach allowed students to further value the questions themselves.
It gets teachers out of their comfort zone.
Tessa's take: At this point in the semester, I tend to lean on the tried and tested, and if something doesn’t work as well as it should, I probably don’t take the time to fix it. Delivering to a class other than my own made me reflect on my lesson and clean up the rough edges. Swapping made me reconsider alternatives for effective grouping, making thinking visual, anticipatory activities, and modeling. Also, after watching Scot’s lesson, I see ways that I can use his techniques for other classes that I teach. Seeing it in action is a better way to learn about a good idea than just reading about it or sharing it with a colleague.
Scot's take: Like Tessa, I, too was focused on refining the lesson. Actually, it was seeing Tessa's use of the Jigsaw method in relation to making authentic questions which led me to add in that component to my own lesson. It turned out that while my original lesson was good, it was made far better by the addition of the Jigsaw. Without seeing how Tessa had done it just a few days before my own lesson in her class, I don't think my lesson would have been as successful.
It makes you focus on the “whys,” not just the “hows.”
Tessa's take: My lesson with Scot’s group began like any of my lessons, with a “this is what we are going to learn today,” but then I was like, wait, so what? Why is this lesson important enough that I would trek all the way down the hall to teach it? Scot seemed to be thinking the same thing with my group: why do we (or should we even) care about imagery or sound in a poem? Is enjoyment enough? This question is obviously super important, but one I often overlook in day-to-day teaching.
Scot's take: Like many of my colleagues, I really want my students to have the skills and to see the big picture. I try to take the long view: will my teaching kill the enjoyment of poetry or language itself for these kids? If the answer is ever "yes," I try to ask how necessary my method of instruction is, since students are much more likely to meet with success if they are engaged in and enjoying the activity itself.
It gives you the chance to be a student in your own class!
Tessa's take: Remember what it was like to be a high school student? Neither do I. I was reminded of what it's like to be on the receiving end of a lesson – what it feels like to be confused by a concept, what it’s like to follow someone else’s directions, what it's like to work with people you don’t know. I took away from this that our students are actually trying to process about a billion more things at a single point in time than we give them credit. Scot actually participated as a student in the class that I taught, and had insight about how the lesson was being understood in a way that I (the teacher) couldn’t immediately see.
Scot's take: Being a student in Tessa's class was a real treat; I rarely get a chance to be a student with my students. Every teacher should experience this for a while. Our students work hard here, and to truly understand another teacher's pedagogy, it helps to actually do the work. Dear Mrs. Alden, I hope I did okay on my assignment.
