Modified SATIC* Coding Sheet Teacher: Jessica Nordenson Lesson objectives: food chain Course: Education 125 Date:

October 2011

Students will identify the differences between a food web and a

Teacher Behaviors
Initiatory (talking) 1. Lectures or gives directions

1st five minutes

five minutes
2nd

five minutes
3rd

Total

1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14

20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 31, 32, 36

37, 38, 39, 40, 41

21

2. Makes statement or asks rhetorical question Initiatory (questioning) 3. a) yes/no question b) short-answer question

17 4, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16

33, 35 23, 28

49, 50, 51

6 8

c) thought-provoking short-answer question 4. Extended-answer question Responding (neutral or discourages student mental engagement) 5. Rejects student comment 6. Acknowledges student comment 7. Confirms student comment 8. Repeats student comment

43, 47, 49

3 0

0 0 0 6 5, 18, 19 24, 25, 29, 30 34 52 48 6 4 1

9. Clarifies or interprets what student said 10. Answers student question Responding (encourages student mental engagement) 11. Asks student to clarify or elaborate

46

12. Uses student question or idea Non-verbal Behaviors 13. a) Inappropriate wait-time I b) Inappropriate wait-time II 14. Passive non-verbal behaviors 15. Annoying mannerisms 16. Question that effectively scaffolds students to desired ends * A teacher behavior assessment devised by Dorothy M. Schlitt and Michael Abraham (modified by Michael P.

0 0 0 42, 44, 45 3 0

Clough)

The first time I was introduced to the SATIC Coding Sheet was in Science Methods class. Throughout the class we have talked about evaluating ones teaching in order to improve upon it. The SATIC Coding Sheet provided us with an orderly way to evaluate our teaching and see what areas we struggled in. As a class, we decided that there were certain aspects of the SATIC Coding method that we should attempt to incorporate into our lessons: asking short-answer, thought-provoking short-answer, and extended-answer questions, acknowledging student comments, asking students to clarify or elaborate on their comments, using student questions or ideas to elaborate, and asking questions that effectively scaffold students to the desired ends. We also agreed that there were certain aspects of the SATIC Coding method that we should attempt to avoid for many different reasons, such as confirming student comments, repeating student comments, clarifying or interpreting what the student has said, using inappropriate wait time, asking yes or no questions, and exhibiting passive non-verbal behaviors and annoying mannerisms. After filling out the coding sheet based on my fifteen minute video which extends from 17:00 to 32:00 I was able to see that while I did perform some of the behaviors my class deemed acceptable, I also performed some that we had agreed were better to avoid. Because of this, I am able to further work on changing my behaviors that are not beneficial to my students. A Rationale for the Desired State of Interaction Patterns A desired state of interaction patterns would involve many aspects of the SATIC Coding Sheet, including asking short-answer and thought-provoking questions, avoiding yes or no questions, only doing small amounts of lecturing or giving directions when necessary, and hindering any annoying mannerisms one finds themselves doing. Some of these aspects are negative and are easy behavioral habits to fall into due to our prior experiences within our classroomswe saw our teachers behave in a similar fashion, and therefore we believe it is the way teachers teach. However, after learning about the standards in our science methods class and

being taught about appropriate, research-based teaching behaviors and methods, I intend to use what I have learned to better my future instruction and to constantly be looking for ways to improve myself. When discussing short-answer and thought-provoking short-answer questions, it is important to touch on how beneficial they are in comparison to yes or no questions. Short-answer and thought-provoking questions are more beneficial to students because they raise levels of students active mental engagement by forcing them to think of an answer that is not simply yes or no. The level of active mental engagement involved in answering the question can change depending on the difficulty of the question being asked, and these questions should be appropriately scaffolded. Short-answer and thought-provoking questions also give teachers a better indication of what students are thinking. While yes or no questions give students an opportunity to guess on answers and dont provide teachers with a knowledge of the students thinking process, short-answer and thought-provoking questions better allow teachers to see how a student achieved the answer they did. This is important because a student may have the correct answer, but may have used the wrong process to get there. Another important component of short-answer and thought-provoking questions is wait timebecause the questions are more difficult than yes or no questions it may take more time for the students to put their thoughts into words. A teacher needs to give students enough time to answer the question in a way that the student feels clearly conveys their thoughts. Lecturing and giving directions is a component of the SATIC Coding Sheet that should be done in moderation. While it is understandable that lecturing and giving directions must be performed in teaching (especially in some aspects of classroom management), they need to be done appropriately and at the correct time. It can be easy for a teacher to fall into the habit of lecturing constantlyafter all, talking is typically our main form of communication. However, there are times when too much talking can lead students to lose active mental engagement, especially when students are in need of a concrete representation of the subject of the lecture. Giving directions should be done in moderation as well. There are definitely times when directions must be given, but they should be given in an effective way. Directions need to be communicated to students clearly and efficiently, and while directions vary depending on the situation they need to be given in accordance with scaffolding to ensure that students are learning the correct material at a pace that suits them. Annoying mannerisms is a part of the SATIC Coding Sheet that I had never given much prior thought to, but after thinking about it I realized just how distracting these behaviors can be. Annoying mannerisms can come in many formsthey can range from saying um every ten seconds to constantly tapping your fingers on your legs as you talk to the class. These behaviors can distract students, and if they are verbal behaviors they can get in the way of student learning by breaking up the sentences you are saying and making your point harder to

follow. Lastly, these mannerisms can make a teacher appear unprofessional and nervous, which is never something you want to convey to students or peers. If students think you to be nervous, they themselves may get nervous or may not respect your role as teacher in the classroom, which can lead to major issues with classroom management (which in turn leads to issues with student learning). Though sometimes difficult to detect on yourself, annoying mannerisms are something that every teacher needs to evaluate themselves on. A Description of My Interaction Patterns One of the behaviors that I believe I performed decently was asking shortanswer and thought-provoking questions. Much of the activity shown in my video was based on me asking students what animals (out of the ones present in the activity) they thought a certain animal ate. I asked questions such as: Jessica: What do you all think an octopus would eat? Student: Fish and crab That was the format for many of my questions What do you think.would eat? These questions prompted the students to analyze the options that they were given and to pick the ones that they felt made the most sense. By asking them these questions I was keeping them actively mentally engaged and allowing myself to see what their prior ideas were about the animals involved in the ocean food chain. This information allowed me to attempt to structure the rest of my questions according to what they knew beforehand. Eight of my increments in the SATIC Coding Sheet were related to short-answer questions and three were related to thought-provoking questions. I would like to have asked more, especially instead of asking yes/no questions, which were involved in six of my increments. I also should have used more complex short answer questions, because even though most of my questions werent yes or no questions they could have pushed the students to achieve a higher level of thinking had I made them more intensive. When I asked the students short-answer questions, they would usually respond with a short answer with the name of the animal they thought was being eaten. At times, however, I would ask more thought provoking questions, such as: (30:15) Jessica: Can someone else give me another kind of explanation of the difference between a food chain and a food web? (Student walks up to the whiteboard to assist his explanation) Student: Food chains gogo like straight down, but food webs can like scatter all over the place. These questions gave me a much better idea of how well the students were comprehending my lesson. They pushed the students to explain exactly what they thought the differences were between a food chain and a food web, not just to acknowledge the fact that they were different. It also showed me the processes the

students were using to come to their conclusions. When reflecting on this part of the video, I really saw the benefit in asking thought-provoking questions and wished I would have used more of them throughout my lesson. I also found I need more practice at using students answers to though-provoking questions to scaffold them to the next level of thinking there were times when students had obviously grasped a concept and needed to be pushed to a higher level of thinking, but I did not differentiate the lesson for them. There were also times after I had asked a thought-provoking question when students gave me incorrect answers that were large misconceptions and I regrettably did not address them. These are things I would like to work on in my future lessons. While looking at my SATIC Coding Sheet I saw that I had twenty-one increments where I had focused on lecturing or giving directions. While I understand that my lesson needed a lot of instruction due to the activity involved, I found that I could have given this instruction in a much more effective manner. Much of my lesson involved me asking for students to come forward and stand on their assigned note card, read, and hand their string to a fellow classmate involved in the activity. For example: Jessica: So will you please read your card? Student 1: I am a fish, I eat crabs and krill. Jessica: So can I have the crab and the krill come forward please? And stand on your designated spots. (Other students move to front). Okay, (motion to Student 1), since you eatcan I have it quiet please? Thank you. I need everyones eyes up on me. Okay. Since it saysWhat does it say you eat again? Student 1: I am a fish, I eat crabs and krill. Jessica: So will you take one of your strings and give them to the crab, and one of your strings and give it to the krill? (Motion to Student 2) You can just hold onto your strings for right now. You can just let it hang, its okay. (Students are struggling with the activity) Its okay, you can just let these hang for right now because this one will go to whatever the crab eats. This entire segment took place from 18:25 to 19:45, and though that may not seem like a long time I can easily say I saw this scenario take place multiple times throughout my video. In the end, I saw that much of my time had gone to lecturing and giving directions. I could have avoided wasting this time by making my general directions on the activity more explicit at the beginning. The students were confused on how to handle the strings attached to the animals. I did explain the general idea of the activity at the beginning, but I never went over how to handle the string. This activity involved a lot of movement and interaction between students, and I think I needed to be more direct with my instruction in order for the activity to run smoothly. I also could have asked questions that would have scaffolded them to understand how the strings were a representation of the connections made between the animals, and possibly had them decide where they wanted to send the strings and why.

I also found myself lecturing quite a bit throughout my video, mainly in the form of asking the students to be quiet or rambling when answering their questions. I was disappointed when I saw how much time this took out of my lesson when I could have used that time to teach the students, rather than quiet them down. Jessica: I need everyone back in their row seats please, not in your class seats but in your row seats over here. (Students begin to move). I need you silent. Everyone quickly and quietly in your row please. Everyones eyes up here, Im not going to start until I see everyones eyes please. I need to see everyones eyes looking at me. Every single person, their eyes need to be on me. Thank you. That segment alone took from 27:43 to 28:40, which is a long time to have students move from one spot on the floor to another. It was also preceeded by a lot of chatter in the classroom as I collected the activity materials, which meant I was asking the students to quiet down right before this segment started as well. What I dislike about this segment the most isnt jus the amount of time that it took, its the fact that I repeated what I was saying over and over again. Obviously what I was saying in hopes of quieting the students down wasnt working, but I kept saying it this bothers me because instead of attempting something new I stuck with what I had seen teachers do in the past, even though I knew at that moment it wasnt an effective way to quiet the students. I want to push myself to realize it when something Im doing as a teacher isnt working and to think of a way to change my behavior so that it will become effective, rather than simply falling back on old practices. A Comparison Between My Actual and Desired Interaction Patterns After watching the video and analyzing my behaviors within it using the SATIC Coding Sheet, I found that I believe classroom management was my biggest struggle throughout my lesson. My lack of classroom management led to me losing student focus, having to use time to lecture rather than teach the activity, and giving poor directions. I believe classroom management to be one of the utmost important parts of teachingafter all, if your class isnt paying attention to you, how will they learn anything? A main issue I had was getting the students to remain quiet and focused on me throughout the lesson. To solve this problem in the video I simply asked them to be quiet over and over again, which was disappointing because I know that isnt the best practice and yet I still performed it. This behavior is something I would like to change. When considering how to change it, I thought a lot about verbal and nonverbal behavior. I had not taken the time in planning my lesson to think much about my verbal and nonverbal behaviorI suppose I thought it would come naturally with talking to the students. However, I found out it needed much more thought than I had planned. Instead of simply asking the students to be quiet, I think it would be far more effective to stand in front of them and wait for their attention (of course, this method would involve some scaffolding of me asking them to quiet down beforehand). This way Im not talking over the students and

they can slowly learn that whenever I go to the front of the room and stand there with a certain body language that demonstrates I need them to be quiet (I feel as though a lot of this would deal with having a very expectant facial expression and posture) they need to wrap up their conversations and place their full attention on me. Using this nonverbal method would also help me gain their attention faster without exhausting my energy on constantly asking for them to be quiet. I would prefer this method over many of the other methods that teachers use to gain students attention, such as clapping, singing, or using musical instruments to quiet down the class. I also need to remember to not start talking until all of the students are quiet and focused on mein my formative assessment my teacher commented on how well I did this behavior, but during this lesson I found that there were plenty of times where I should have waited longer for the students to stop talking before I started. When I began talking too early the students were very apparently not focused on my conversation and missed most, if not all, of what I was saying. This verbal behavior is something that I know will get better as I keep reflecting on my teaching through videotaping. Videotaping has been the most beneficial way for me to see the problems teachers face with classroom management (and especially the problems they miss while teaching) and I fully understand the value in having a good, flexible classroom management plan that will make it easier for me to teach effectively. I believe my second biggest struggle throughout this lesson was my questioning. Although I stated before that I think I performed decently with my asking of short-answer and thought-provoking short-answer questions, that does not mean I do not think I am capable of doing better. I asked many yes or no questions when I could have been asking short-answer, thought-provoking, or extended-answer questions. An example of this can be found near the beginning of the video segment when I ask the students Do you guys know what a spider web looks like? I should have formatted the question to be an open-ended question that would lead them to decide that a food web resembles a spider web in how it looks I simply told them that by asking that yes or no question. I dont want to be the type of teacher that takes that thought process away from her students! This happened a few times throughout the video and it makes me realize just how important it is to have students demonstrate their learning process for me instead of me demonstrating what should be learned to them. That way I can see what their reasoning is behind their answers, which can in turn scaffold my instruction. Using short-answer, thought-provoking, and extended-answer questions instead of yes or no questions also allows me to let students explore science in a way that makes sense to them. We could discuss how there is no one right way to do science there is no scientific method, scientists can build off of each others ideas, and many times there is no one right answer. Asking short-answer questions can lead to discussions that yes or no questions block off. In order to ensure that I begin asking more short-answer questions I am going to be sure to write out questions for my lessons beforehand that I know will promote discussion and higher level thinking. I want to attempt to avoid as many yes or no questions as I can so my students can come to understand that by putting in the effort to think about why things are the

way they are they will learn more than just hearing about it. I also need to extend this skill to being able to think of deeper questions on the spot if I find that a student is ready to move on to a higher level of thinking. This is something I feel I can achieve if I understand that I need to be constantly evaluating the questions I ask and seeing how effective they were for my students. I need to be critical of myself when watching future videotapes of my teaching and make sure that I am asking students questions that involve why and how (3b and 3c questions). This behavior is something I see myself working hard to improve on, especially because when I asked those questions I found myself more interested in what the students had to say as well! My Written Transcript I decided to transcript from 25:23 of my video until approximately 31:10. It was during this segment that I saw numerous times where I had the opportunity to ask a higher-level question and did not do so. The following transcript includes the main questions I would like to change. Student: I am an orca whale. I eat fish, octopus, krill, and sharks. Jessica: Okay so will you give all those strings out? (3a) (Student hands out strings to partners) Jessica: Okay, can I have it all back here? Everyone back here. I know its get ting tangled but thats okay. Okay, can I have it quiet? Okay. Krill, will you please read your card since youre the last one? (3a/3b) Student: I am a krill. I am eaten by whales, crabs, and fish. Jessica: And it looks like that is what youre holding onto! Does anyone know, um, I know we talked about food chains last time, this whole mess right here all these strings that are connecting all these different animals to each other, does anyone know what thats called? (3a/3b) Student: A food chain. Jessica: A food chainits, its kind of like a food chain. A food chain is when we use one connecting path to talk about animals. In this one, theres animals all over the place! Student: A food web. Jessica: A food web! Do you guysyou know what a spider web looks like? Do you think it looks kind of like a spider web? (3a) I know everyones tangled, its okay. I need it quiet, I need everyone to be focused up here. Okay. Lets collect these. inaudible Jessica: Boys and girls, I need it quiet please. Shes almost untangled, its fine. And thank you all for volunteering, will you please go take your seats? I need everyone back in their row seats please, not in their class seats but in your row seats. And I need you silent. Everyone quickly and quietly in your row please. I need everyones eyes up here, Im not going to start until I see everyones eyes up here. I need to see everyones eyes looking at me. Every single person, your eyes need to be on me.

Thank you. Sowhat did we agree, all those pathways connecting all of those animals, what was that called? (3b) Student: A food web. Jessica: What are some of the differences you guys see between food chains and food webs? (3c) Student: That food chains, they, they actually do this (student goes to the whiteboard and uses it to show his thoughts in visual form) Jessica: So are you saying that food chains just go.I meanwhats the difference between that and a food web? (3c) Student: In a food web, one person is here (points to the whiteboard, the rest of what he says is inaudible) Jessica: Okay, can someone else give me another kind of explanation of the difference between a food chain and a food web? (3a/3c) Student: (goes up to the whiteboard to draw his explanation as he explains it) Food chains go, go like straight down, but food webs likescatter all over the place. Jessica: Food webs scatter all over the place. So then do you guys thinkyou know how we did a food chain last time? Over at your desks? Do you think if I gave you an animal, you could make it into a food web? (3a) Students: Yes. Jessica: Does anyone have any questions about food webs? (3a) A Re-write of My Questions While I think my thoughts were in the right place while asking some of these questions, I do believe that even though some of them are 3c and 3b questions I still could have worded them more effectively. I want to push myself to ensure that obtaining this skill is something I focus on daily in my future teaching. When reflecting on my questions, I decided that this was how I would change them: 1. Okay, so will you give all those strings out? Change to: What do you think you should do with those strings? I would like to have scaffolded the students to an understanding of the fact that the strings were a representation of the connection between the animals. Then I would hope that they would be able to understand that the strings should go to the animal(s) that their animal eats. I very literally gave them the answer to this question, when I should have been encouraging them to think of the answer on their own. 2. Krill, will you please read your card since youre the last one? No change I classified this question as a 3a and 3b because the question technically is short answer, but instead of thinking of an answer on their own the students were reading off of cards. The question was also phrased starting with will you which implies a yes or no answer. However, the student did have to know when it was time to read their card, so this question came in the form of a direction and was therefore necessary for the activity to continuethe student wouldnt have otherwise known

when they wanted me to have them read their card. The only possible change I would make in this situation would be to have given the directions more clearly at the start of the activity to possibly have made the activity run more smoothly and have the student already aware of the fact that they should read their card when the discussion about the previous one was over. 3. Does anyone know, um, I know we talked about food chains last time, this whole mess right here all these strings that are connecting all these different animals to each other, does anyone know what thats called? Change to: What could we call what you see right here? The first thing I would change about this question would be to stop rambling through itI needed to make the question more clear and concise. I also needed to not ask the question in a yes or no format. The students were able to come up with the answer, but it was only after I reviewed that a food chain was connected by one pathway. I still may have to scaffold the students by highlighting the fact that there are numerous pathways, but I do believe my changed question to be much more effective and thought-provoking than the initial one. 4. Do you guysyou know what a spider web looks like? Do you think it looks kind of like a spider web? Change to: What other webs have you seen that resemble this shape? Or Where else have you seen this shape? I asked two yes or no questions that could have easily been replaced by one shortanswer or thought-provoking one! By asking the students where they have seen this shape they can reflect on their prior knowledge to make connections with the fact that this is called a web, which will help them better understand the difference between a food chain with one pathway and a web with many. 5. Sowhat did we agree, all those pathways connecting all of those animals, what was that called? Change to: What did we call all of the pathways connecting the animals again? The main thing I would change about this question would be to reword it into a more concise format. Other than that, I simply wanted the students to reflect again quickly on what the name of the pathways was in order to see if they remembered it. 6. What are some of the differences you guys see between food chains and food webs? No change This question is a thought-provoking question that encouraged students to compare and contrast what they had just learned about. 7. So are you saying that food chains just go.I meanwhats the difference between that and a food web? Change to: How does that show the difference between a food web and a food chain?

In this scenario, I dont think the student was really understanding the content. Though this was a 3c question, I believe I could have asked a better one that would have motivated the student to achieve a higher level of thinking and possibly made my question clearer to him. 8. Okay, can someone else give me another kind of explanation of the difference between a food chain and a food web? Change to: What is another example of the difference between a food chain and a food web? Though this question is a 3c question, it is also a yes or no question in the fact that I am asking if someone can provide me with another explanation. In order to motivate the class to give me another answer I should have worded the question in a complete 3c format (another example of how verbal behavior can very much affect students active mental engagement). 9. So then do you guys thinkyou know how we did a food chain last time? Over at your desks? Do you think if I gave you an animal, you could make it into a food web? Change to: If I gave you an animal to add to your food chain, how could you make it into a food web? I should have asked this question in a thought-provoking format rather than a yes or no format. Though the students ended up going back to their desks and integrating the extra animal into their food chains, they could have started that thought process earlier had I clearly asked them a 3c question. 10. Does anyone have any questions about food webs? Change to: What questions do you have about food webs? In asking them this yes or no question I didnt encourage the students to think about any actual questions they might have, I just asked them if they had any at that moment. I didnt push them to wonder if they wanted to know anything else. I should have asked them what questions they had in order to show them that I wanted them to have questions (touching again on verbal behaviors). I have seen great benefits in videotaping myself while teaching. I will admit the thought of it made me nervous, and watching the video was a wake-up call for seeing how little mistakes or behaviors can make a world of difference while teaching. I think self-evaluation is an essential tool for teachers to use in order to better themselves, and I know I will consistently use it in order to better my teaching in the future. I recognize that it is important for teachers to connect their selfevaluations with different learning theories, teaching models and strategies, research-based ideas, etc., and I plan on doing so for the rest of my teaching career. I truly believe that in order to be a great teacher, I will need to push myself to keep learning for the rest of my life.