Self-Reflection: InTASC Standards 6, 7 & 8

standard 6

Standard 6 : Assessment The candidate understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the candidate's and learner’s decision making.

To teach the strategies that support active listening, I built in three practice listening passages that allowed me to assess listening comprehension skills. While the assessments all involved listening, they varied in type. 

I set the bellwork to pre-assess how well they actively listen and I think it worked well. It was my hope that the bellwork would get them in the mindset of active listening. Using quotes from their Freak the Mighty book, provided a relevant topic to build from. Incorporating pair work, I provided an opportunity for student agency in which they peer assessed using fist to five. 

With the ‘listen and draw’ activity, I wanted to bring a fun element to their learning while it is still useful for assessing listening comprehension. The students enjoyed it and were engaged. My hope with this was that by comparing and reflecting, they informally self-assess. I also created a criteria list of what should appear on the whiteboard and as I circulated the room and when students shared their boards with me, I quickly gauged their understanding. Aside from a couple of the whiteboards missing fireworks from the two of the weaker students, all details were included. 

Successful comprehension relies on the students' motivation to make sense of the text they listen to and so by providing a familiar topic (i.e. social media) for their ‘mock listening comprehension’ students can connect to their prior knowledge and be confident going into the task, answering all questions correctly, of which they did. 

I ended the lesson with an exit ticket that had a straightforward focus on the objective which let me check for their understanding.

Accommodations

I think I did well to ensure that student needs were met. I introduced homogeneous pair work for the bellwork except for Lya, the weakest student, whom I chose to pair with me so I could offer her additional support. Actually, when I handed out the stickers for the students to find their matching pair, I presented it as though it was random but it was actually intentional. I did this because I didn’t want Lya to be signaled out. I wonder, should I have been more explicit with how I paired students? The quotes students referenced were from their unit book to encourage success. I provided the stronger students with vague quotes while the weaker students received clearer quotes. 

I further met student needs by repeating the ‘listen and draw’ and ‘mock listening comprehension’ passages twice to support their success. Some students need to use language creatively and this activity appeals to them and ensures more than one learning style is taken into consideration. Knowing I wanted to have a ‘mock listening comprehension’ activity, I was so happy to have found Listenwise. I was able to choose ELA content at grade-level. Students were instructed to use point form instead of full sentences.

All the assessments aligned with the lesson’s objective to identify, explain and apply three main listening comprehension strategies.

standard 7

Standard 7: Planning for Instruction The candidate plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross/disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.

Standard 8: Instructional Strategies The understands and uses a variety of instructional strays to encourage learning to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connection, and to use skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

This lesson came about when the classroom teacher asked me to prepare the students for their listening comprehension summative assessment: to listen to an audio recording of chapters 2 and 3 of their unit book, Freak the Mighty, and answer explicit questions about the chapters. With suggestions from the classroom teacher (Hattie 1.57), I planned the lesson ensuring students work with Bloom’s Taxonomy objectives (identifying, explaining, and applying) with a clear understanding of the different active listening/comprehension strategies taught.

I tried to use a variety of approaches such as direct content instruction (Hattie .79) with slides to visually complement the verbal instruction. During the content instruction, I highlighted the importance of each listening comprehension strategy to encourage buy-in and explained the strategies before providing students the opportunity to practice (Hattie .79) the strategies. I also engaged students in discussion, instigated by probing questions (Hattie .48) in an effort to get students participating and thinking critically about the strategies in more detail. The discussion allowed me to check for understanding. 

Of course, I used ‘audio’ as another approach but I varied it so that students were listening to different voices - peer, teacher, podcast. Students showed their learning differently with each activity - verbal, then drawing and finally writing. I think I sequenced these activities appropriately. Practicing active listening via the scaffolded listening passages (Hattie .82) that increase in length (Vygotsky would be pleased), I thought would be a good way for students to build confidence in their listening comprehension skills. Providing multiple exposures and opportunities (Hattie .79) to apply their learning are strategies advocated by Marzano.

For the bellwork, I think the biggest benefit of peer feedback (Hattie .53) is that the students who are giving the feedback have to be aware and think critically about the lesson topic. It also ensures students are motivated to do their best knowing that their peers will be assessing them. 

I think I did well in creating motivating activities (Hattie .42). In particular, the ‘listen and draw’ technique works well as it can make students more focused and interested since an oral or written response is not required. Increasing student engagement is another approved Marzano strategy.

During the ‘mock listening comprehension’ activity (Hattie .54), I engaged in pre-listening strategies such as previewing vocabulary words, reviewing questions and ‘thinking aloud’ to discern what is important. During first listening, I encouraged students to highlight, take notes of key words and visualize. Post-listening, per student request, we reviewed the questions for comprehension.

standard 8

What went well:

• The scaffolded listening passages that increase in length and sequenced appropriately

• Setting up the mock listening comprehension with a few easier questions to start, a few multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions… and providing ‘think alouds’ 

• Homogeneous pairing and differentiated quotes for bellwork

• Ensuring students accessed their background knowledge during the listening passages 

• Using Listenwise!

• Pre-listening strategies 

What I could improve on if I could do it over:

• The post-listening review of the questions could have been a deeper discussion engaging students in synthesizing what they heard on the podcast, connecting to their prior knowledge and making inferences. In this way, they’re not just retelling the text but instead they evaluate it and reflect, becoming stronger thinkers because of what they heard. 

• Listen to my gut when it comes to the seating plan as this would have prevented me from redirecting Lya to focus multiple times before I finally moved her to a new seat

• Incorporate more use of technology, for example, to have students sign-up to the Listenwise website and assign the listening comprehension questions online

• Post objectives on the board and/or slides so that students are aware of expectations, one of the top strategies that Marzano advocates

• For bellwork, instead of pairing myself with Lya, make a group of three so that I could then circulate and monitor the others

• During ‘listen and draw’ I missed an opportunity for think-pair-share; after students sketched then compared with their peer, I should have had them share their sketches to the whole class to know more about their thinking process (Hattie .60)

If I had more time:

• Have students explore the definitions of hearing and listening to compare and contrast

• Provide focus on note-taking (Hattie .50)

• Extend the lesson to bring a real world element by conducting an experiment to measure the impact distractions have on listening comprehension (i.e. mobile phone use during a conversation, daydream, loud rooms, etc.) or study the attitudes of good listeners

images from here.