Student confidence

I have had the opportunity to observe the same three classes twice a week since the school year started. I have also had the opportunity to be a substitute for these same classes and get two different perspectives. For this blog I wanted to talk about something I have noticed when I was observing and also something I observed when I was a substitute because it left me with a lot of questions.

When I was observing a few weeks ago, two of the classes were learning about matrices. This was I think the first time students learn about matrices so everything that was said was new to them. Normally the teacher I observe will give students notes to write down and will go through the first example of each type of problem with them. Then she will give them another problem to try on their own. For matrices, the first things students learn is about how to write the dimensions of the matrix. Students wrote down that when you write the dimensions you write the number of rows x number of columns. Because this was such a simple type of problem, the teacher did not go through an example, instead she just gave them some to try on their own. When students were just given problems they looked at the teacher as if they were waiting for her to show them how to do it. They had literally just written down that to write the dimensions you put the number of rows x number of columns and it was even still up on the screen. This confused me and I started getting all these questions about why they did not have the confidence to try this problem on their own. Then I came up with more questions. Did they not want to try it because they were so used to the teacher going through a problem first? Did they not read what they wrote down which told them how to do it? Did they think they couldn't possibly be doing the question right because it should not be that easy? I was surprised at what was happening and I was baffled that they did not want to try it on their own. The teacher reassured them that they could do it and told them how to do the problem without actually going through one.

A couple weeks later I was able to be a substitute for this teacher again. I was a sub for a full day on Thursday and then half day the next day. On Thursday the teacher gave me the note for the classes and told me that I could decide how I wanted to do the notes that day. She said I could go through the notes like normal, where I go through the first example and then give them some to try, or I could just let them copy them. Over the last couple weeks of observing I noticed that a lot of students were not getting their homework done. This teacher was giving students a lot more time in class to do their assignment because they said they did not have time outside of class to do it. She would plan work days for students so that they could get it done. I kept this in mind that morning while I tried to decide what I wanted to do during class. While students corrected their assignment from the night before I decided that instead of making the decision myself about how to go through the lesson, I would let each class decide what they wanted to do. I did not make this decision lightly since the last time students had a work day when I was a sub they did not get their work done. After they finished correcting their assignment and I took attendance, I gave the class two options. I told them that we could either go through the notes like they normally do or they could just copy them and have the rest of the class time to work on their assignment. If I went over the notes like they normally did I would go through the first example with them, give them some to try on their own, then give them the rest of the time to work on their assignment which would probably end up only being about 10 minutes. If they decided to just copy the notes they would have 30 or more minutes to work on their assignment. Not surprisingly all of the classes decided to do the second option. I made it very clear though before they decided that if they chose the second option that they needed to get their work done and ask me any questions they had while working on it. I also told them not to make me regret letting them decide how the hour would go. When I told the teacher what I had done, she said it was a great idea and a great teaching/learning moment for me.

As the hour went by there were quite a few students who did get work done and asked me questions. I did my best to keep everyone on track and make sure everyone was working on their assignment.
 I could see where students were struggling by the questions students asked and I made sure to leave a note to the teacher so she knew as well.  Since I was going to sub in the afternoon again the next day, I tried to pay close attention to what afternoon classes were struggling with so that I could try to clear things up the next day. I knew that 4th and 5th hour were taking a quiz the next day so I tried to review everything that would be on their quiz so I could answer any last minute questions. 6th hour seemed to be struggling with the difference between a least common multiple and GCF. That night I tried to figure out the best way to help each class. 

On Friday I made sure to ask the teacher if students in her first two classes did their homework. I knew that if they didn't get the assignment done then I would not give her classes the option next time on how they wanted the hour to go. It seemed like most of the class did get it done so I was happy with my decision. I still had three hours to check to see who did and did not do their homework but I was hoping the rest of the hours would go well. 4th and 5th hour had their quiz so I tried to answer and last minute questions before giving them their quiz. After their quiz they had an assignment to work on which was unusual for a quiz day. I made sure to read them the note the teacher had left me so they knew why they were getting an assignment. This assignment was the start of a test review because the test was going to be after Thanksgiving break. There was a lot of information they needed to remember before they took their test so she wanted them to start reviewing now. I told them to ask me any questions and that I would do my best to help. Both classes finished their quizzes quickly and had about 15 to 20 minutes to work on their review. Again I tried to keep students on task and make sure they were working on their assignment. During 5th hour I was really struggling to keep these two students on task. They wants to play pool on their phone rather then do their assignment. When I asked why they were not getting the assignment done one student told me that it was so easy and did not see the point to doing it. My response to this was that if it was so easy then why not take the 5 to 10 minutes it should take to get it done and then they won't have any homework over the weekend.

When 6th hour started the teacher had me go around the room and record how many problems the students did from the night before. The assignment was only 8 problems and I had given them plenty of time to do it the day before. I was not surprised when students said they did none of it but I was surprised at how many didn't get all of the problems done. There was a lot of question on the assignment so I tried to clear up anything they were struggling with. We had some review problems to do and then I gave them their assignment. Again I told them to ask me questions and tried to make sure everyone was working on something.

There were a few things that I noticed regarding both of these situations. When I was just observing I thought the reason students didn't want to try a problem was because they lacked the confidence to try it. However, when I gave them the option to just copy notes rather then going through an example, they seemed very eager to just copy. The second thing I noticed is that students say they can't get their homework done outside of class because they don't have time to do it. However, when given the time during class, some still don't take advantage of this time to get it done.

Like the rest of my blogs I end with questions for those of you who are brave enough to read this. What do you think about both situations I encountered? Would you have let the students decide how class would go? In the future I think I will let students decide how class will go (not every time though). Would you let students decide how class will go again? And finally, what questions come to your mind while reading this blog?

Thank you again to those who read this.