Communicate Knowledge

Last week, I wrote about making sure that students can understand and make connections to the daily objective.  Harry Wong, the interesting and entertaining educator says, “In an effective classroom, students should not only know what they are doing, they should also know why and how.”  I had the opportunity to hear Mr. Wong’s high energy performance some time back.  The most memorable part was when he talked about being tired.  He claims he isn’t tired at the end of the day because he makes the students do all the work.  “It’s no wonder teachers are tired,” he says.  “They are the ones doing all the work in the classroom.”

One way to think about Wong’s statement is through the use of an imaginary chess timer.  Think of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer.  As soon as a player makes a move, he punches the timer, which begins recording for the opponent.  If you ran one of these timers in your classroom, how would the time be split between teacher and students?  Who does the most talking?  Who does the most thinking?  Who does the hardest work?  There has to be a balance, but for Competency 2.2, the balance should tip to the side of the students.

Competency 2.2: “Demonstrate and clearly communicate content knowledge to students.” These are the indicators under this competency at the Effective (3) level:

·         The teacher demonstrates content knowledge and delivers content that is factually correct.

·         Content is clear, concise, and well-organized.

·         The teacher restates and rephrases instruction in multiple ways to increase understanding.

·         The teacher emphasizes key points or main ideas in content.

·         The teacher uses developmentally appropriate language and explanations.

·         The teacher implements relevant instructional strategies.

I think most of you would agree that these are, indeed, indicators of effective teaching.  We could—and probably should—spend lots of time talking about several of these bullets: The third one is about differentiation.  (Watch how many times this word comes up in different parts of this rubric.)  The fourth one is about focus and making the main thing the main thing, and you can read whole books about the last bullet.

What is really interesting, however, is to compare the Effective (3) indicators with the Highly Effective (4) Indicators.  To score at the level four (Highly Effective), the rubric includes these indicators:

·         The teacher effectively connects content to other content areas, students’ experiences and interests, or current events in order to make the content relevant and build interest.

·         Explanations spark student excitement and interest in the content.

·         Students participate in each other’s learning of content through collaboration during the lesson.

·         Students ask higher-order questions and make connections independently, demonstrating that they understand the content at a higher level.

·         Students perceive that the teacher has a deep knowledge of the subject area content.

Do you see why I included Mr. Wong and the chess timer in the introduction?  To get to Highly Effective, students must do much more of the work and the thinking.  The indicators in Effective often start with “The teacher…”  In Highly Effective, the last three indicators start with “Students…” and the other two require student participation.

Included in the statement of this competency is the phrase “communicate clearly.”  Communication, as clarified by the indicators, is a two-way street.  The teacher certainly has a big part, but the student must be engaged in the communication as well.

I’m hitting the timer.  It’s your turn to do the work.

Have a great week, HSE.

Phil