Monday, January 12, 2009
Increasing time on task for success
If “time on task” is key to success, how can you increase that time? The best artists are those who have spent the most time practicing art. The best historians are those who have watched the most history channel, spent the most time pouring over primary documents, read the most historical fiction. The best writers are those who have written the most and gotten the best feedback on their writing. How can you help students put in more hours in your subject? And perhaps more importantly, how can you get them interested enough that they are willing to put in the time?
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I think it would be very hard to convince students to put more time into a practice when they have never practiced whatever "it" is before. After our class on Monday I worked on talking to a few individual students that obviously never had drawn before this art class...and had confirmed my suspicions. One individual in particular was complaining on how hard the assignment was and how pointless it was for him to care. I told him that for someone who had never drawn before he had a lot of potential and that if he practiced more the steps and observations drawing requires would become a lot easier for him. I then said that his current drawing looked a little like a few of my first drawings...but that I had been sketching for up to 8 years now...so of course someone who had "put in the hours" would have a more successful looking piece. He didn't understand that in my eyes his piece was already successful because he was trying. It seemed to make him more determined after that and he worked quietly on the project the rest of the day...and then seemed more accomplished when he showed me his finished superman drawing when the bell rang.
ReplyDeleteKids who have never put time into a certain task before just need the encouragement to work harder. Also, I was a talented artist in his eyes and when I brought myself down and told him I was once at his beginning level, it probably helped him to see that we all start somewhere. Of course, it would be hard to help a student realize their potential in a subject if they didn't have a desire or passion to excel in it in the first place.
I think the key to getting students to read more is to introduce them to as many types of reading materials as possible. However, introducing multiple types of reading materials is not enough, they must also be considered acceptable in the classroom. Is a comic book as valued as a classic novel? Traditionally, no, but a comic book could be more valuable if it helps a child love to read. Having meaningful conversations about the things students are reading would also be helpful. Maybe starting a Book Group that "meets" once a month that is focused on the books students are reading outside of class would show students that reading is valuable and interesting even if, and especially if, it isn't from a prescribed textbook.
ReplyDeleteGetting students interested is the biggest issue we as teachers will face. We need to be able to figure out how to present the material and gain the interest of students. Students I feel can become easily discouraged and interested when they are younger. Bad experiences as children often push students away from certain subjects and areas such as art as they grow. These bad experiences cause students to often not try in the areas any more. As an elementary teacher, I want to incite interest of different types of art. I want to teach my students in ways that will interest them and allow them to explore and create in there own forms. Art I think is all in interpretations and that is something that I will stress as a teacher, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Art is never perfect and by stressing this in my classroom I hope that this will open the eyes of students and spark interest in them. As for the extra hours, after school programs are always a great option and in after school programs supplies are offered and that is a problem for those students who wish to experience art. Art can be expensive and by giving students the opportunity for these hours to become "experts" is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI believe that once a student is truly interested in something, he or she will pursue it much further -especially with the guidance and encouragement from the teacher and/or their peers. As Christy has said, a good way to spark their interests is to start with an entry level book, study, painting or whatever. Did I become interested in English by reading Jane Austin? No, I read Goosebumps (man, those books were awesome). I don't know anything analogous in other fields, but I guess think about what enthralled you into your field of study and try to find an up-to-date version of that for the kids.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to surround yourself with people that love to do whatever you want the students to be interested in. Growing up, my sister had a library in her room. My parents had always encouraged us to read, but it was my sister's love of reading that drew me to it the majority of the time. She would say, "Chris, you have to read this book. It's awesome!" So, I would read the book, and I am by no means an English major, but I do know that my reading comprehension was much higher than most students in elementary school at a young age. Exposure is key to allowing students more hours to become interested in a subject. Focusing on the individual and changing lesson activities will keep the students on task and focused...in theory.
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ReplyDeleteI started thinking what makes me have more time on task... I think that if there are preliminary guidelines like a painting or sketch should show a specific element or several or that the type of pot you are to make has to be a slab pot and you must make 2 that are ascending in size... or set deadlines always help... and what if we work on several projects at once that feed off of each other creatively. I think that if we create environments that are bright and interesting and are filled with the facets and big ideas of our content that it would make it more easy to become encouraged to make, create, write, solve or whatever.
ReplyDeleteTime on task is time spent learning and making mistakes and as Cynthia says, "mucking around" and it is how we help our students through this that they become interested in creating quality work.
We also have to want to produce quality work ourselves. Our students notice if we are working as hard as we are asking them to work!
I like what Claire said about us as teachers needing to be wanting and willing to put in the time to produce quality works of our own. I think that would have a great impact on our students, and show them how they can become more successful by example. The more energy and excitement you have about your subject, the easier it is for the students to get excited about it.
ReplyDeleteI also think that it is important to expose them to as many different kinds of art forms as possible. Hopefully a student can find at least one piece of art work that they like, and it can hopefully spark their interest.
Even though art supplies tend to be expensive, an easy and cheap way to help students to get more “time on task” is to encourage them to keep a sketchbook. Assigning drawings for their sketchbook that they can work on at home will add a lot of “practice time” to their drawing abilities.
I think to get kids to put more time into a subject it has to be a combination of two things. First make the subject INTERESTING. Since I was a history major I never had a problem paying attention or enjoying my social studies classes growing up. However, there are different periods of history that I enjoy learning more about than others. But if I really think back to what originally sparked my interest in it it would always be because of a special teacher I had that made that period come alive for me.
ReplyDeleteThe next thing I would make sure and do would be to always encourage the students. They all learn at different speeds. Even if a student doesn't progress as fast as others, giving them encouragement can be the difference between having them succeed and keep trying or shutting themselves off completely to the subject at hand.
"Time on Task" means two things for me. The first is that students actually work in the time presented to them. The teacher I'm subbing for gave her students 2 weeks to create a project. So, what did the students do??? Nothing for a week 1/2. The way she does her work makes me nothing but annoyed and mad. I finally took the power she gave me and set a better deadline. I also gave a review activity so they would go over something I knew they had learned so they can incorporate it into their projects they were working on. The project I assigned today had a better deadline and now they know everyday late is 10 points off....this gives the kids more reason to be "on task" like Claire said.
ReplyDeleteThe other meaning is of course, the more time you spend on a task the more successful it will be. My students have been able to see this with the students who worked in class and the ones who "slacked off". Maybe this is why my host teacher gives such large deadlines....she wants students to have lots of time to work on a project so it can be the most successful. I agree with this...the deadlines are more for the students who are procrastinators (for my first meaning)...but I would never take off points to students who were obviously working hard every day in class and wanted more time. I think all teachers should encourage that...deadlines should be more guidelines for the ones who have to have them in order to succeed. Not all need them
I think that in order to increase "time on task" that students need to find whatever subject we teach interesting. The best way to get students to love (or at least maybe like) the subject you teach is to love that subject yourself. I always like history growing up but did not declare it as a major until the end of my sophmore year. Having a great professor who loved history brought out my passion for the subject. We have to come in fired up and excited about our class and our subject every single day and every class period. It is a tough thing to do, but if you are passionate about what you are teaching, you will make it that much more interesting for your students.
ReplyDeleteIn order for there to be more time on task, I think a classroom should have some structure. As we have been taught, students should have a warm-up exercise to do, so they know what is expected of them. Teacher expectations require students to follow certain guidelines or "consequences," for lack of a better term, are implemented.
ReplyDeleteI agree with CJ. I was not going to become a teacher until I realized that I could make a difference with students. I had a student ask me to wear his Nike Respect bracelet during each football game, and at the end of the season he gave me the bracelet, and he told me he respects me more than anyone he knows. It was then that I wanted to improve students' lives and that passion will show in my teaching, which will (hopefully) instill that same passion in the students.
I agree with everyone so far on this one. We as teachers need to be willing to put the effort and excitement in what we teach. Showing students that we love what we teach will benefit students and get them excited to learn. Also, Katey wonderful idea as art teachers I think we should show students our work and let them know that to be successful you need produce and practice. ----Jenn V
ReplyDeleteIt is important to take the time to really work with those students who have "never been very good at that subject" interested first. This is difficult, but if you can get those students interested early and often you may be able to change their opinion of your subject, maybe for good. The students who like your subject will already be excited so we have to pay speacial attention to those who dont and maybe try to find out when and why they began to dislike or have problems in that area of school.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen so far in a classroom, one of the best ways to increase "time on task" behavior is to listen to what the students are saying about the lessons they are being taught. Kids are drawn to some subjects in schools for a lot of reasons, but a teacher can make a subject students don't particularly like more enjoyable for them. I've noticed that when the kids make negative comments, the teacher I'm working with always asks them why. He takes their opinions into consideration. He probably wouldn't change the overall assignment, but he may change the course he's on or add something new to get them interested. If they are curious, they will usually try to figure out what the big deal is. It's difficult to listen to kids criticize something you've worked hard to construct for them, but if they are not spending time on learning, then all the work is wasted anyway.
ReplyDeleteI agree with CJ when he made the comment about having a teacher that really made him love history. I think we can all think back to a time when a teacher made us love a subject because they made it interesting and fun for us to be apart of.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Christy's comment about listening to what the kids think about your class. While teaching at EC I used to love getting feedback from my kids so I knew what they enjoyed or thought would be fun to do in class.
Like Christy said student feedback is key for teachers to know where to take the lesson next or what should follow. Even how we present the information can affect how much a student pays attention or how long they will spend on their assignments. In the art class I was part of teaching last semester student evaluations were given out several times and it really helped to give us a better idea of how we could better give them information and better ways to see if they are retaining the information.
ReplyDeleteAnother important thing to consider is that it needs to be what is important and interesting to the student and not to us...Too many of my teachers/professors have lectured all day about a subject which obviously fascinated them, but 95% of the class was zoning out. If nuclear chemistry is important and interesting to you -awesome. But when it comes time to teach you need to either find a way to make it interesting and relevant or keep it to a minimum.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Christy. It is more important to get kids reading and not be as concerned with the type of format it is (comic book verses novel). I have also thought about doing a book club of some sort, but I would be tempted to have multiple book clubs for those that are reading different things. It may be intimidating for a student to discuss their comic book in the same group as someone reading a classic novel. I would let the decsion be up to the students, but allow them the chance to feel as successful as I see them for reading and discussing their stories.
ReplyDeleteLike Claire said, the student evaluations were very helpful. They helped us to see that the students were not retaining much information when we used power point because they were bored out of their minds with it, and that was what we were mainly using to give our students new information!
ReplyDeletei think another very important way to help kids with "time on task" is to involve the parents. If the parents see your subject as important and beneficial, they will encourage their child to spend more time on it when they are not at school. The more people you have encouraging the child to spend time working on art, the more likely the child will actually work on art!
Frustration can be an early factor to disengage a student and totally take away their time on task. Jennifer G's art example is worth noting here. Building off that example, I'd have the frustrated, "this is pointless" student take a gander at his fellow peers artwork, and have him select which one he feels is really good. That's when the dialogue starts. Why do they feel it is really good? Talk to the kid artist. How long had they been drawing? Was their very first drawing as good as this? Traditionally I feel you'll find the same results mentioned in Jennifer's first post. The kid will realize that the artist of the "good" drawing has put far many more hours into it, which is a rational explanation and realization why it is "good." Also, the "good" artist might have a raised self-esteem since one of their fellow peers approved and appreciated it, helping to create a positive environment.
ReplyDeleteI probably shouldn't publish this, but I hope it doesn't prove to be too much of an anti-thesis of what we, as teachers, are trying to do. So, let me preface this by saying that on the less ideal/more business side of things, I do feel that beyond making connections and connecting with the students, the grades most often need to reflect those connections. That being said...
ReplyDelete...I sucked at English in high school. I was one of those individuals that did only decent in advanced classes, but I could've excelled really well had I regulated myself to the non-advanced classes. The reason I am bringing this up is because of the comments made about that teacher or two that does inspire you in some form or fashion. Mine did it with firm structure (which has all been mentioned in comments), an intelligent sense of humor, and high expectations. Obviously, my grade reflected that these expectations weren't met on a scholastic level. However, the teacher raised my expectations on a personal level for myself that cannot be measured.
In other words--just be that teacher. Do make the subject interesting. Have those high expectations, and if they aren't met, still do not lower them. Even though you may get discouraged that firm structure and high expectations while taking a "fun" approach may not get every grade exactly where you want it to be, it ultimately will pay off for itself in ways of engagement of the subject beyond your actual class. After all, it is what made me want to be an English teacher.
Mr. Carson strikes again when he discusses the expectations issue. These kids need to be assured that they are going to be challenged, but at the same time they will know that I will not give them any assignment that I don't believe them capable of doing. I'll do the assignment with them if they want me to; if that means that I write a research paper while they do, so be it. CJ's example of the fired up professor fits in well here. Doing a few assignments with them shows that you care and can be their model learner.
ReplyDeleteAs for the exercises themselves, they need to have a connection to real life (or at least the student's own pursuits). If this means writing a story incorporating research as opposed to a dry old paper, that's fine by me, as long as they can still document their research along the way. It will also test the English teacher's prompt-making ability if we are to make the responses to works in our anthologies personal. It's possible for many of them if we take the time to plan a bit. And, remember, we've got the degrees; let's show why we find our topics interesting and consider excising that which not even us find interesting. Austen will not come haunt us if we forswear Sense and Sensibility.
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