1. Peter McDermott Jennifer Pankowski Elizabeth Smith
Conversations About Teaching
Peter McDermott Jennifer Pankowski Elizabeth Smith
School of Education
Pace University
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

2. Teaching Circles 2017-2018 Fall: Sept 19 and Oct 17th.
Spring: Feb 20th and Mar 20th.
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

3. Quick Write What role should lecture have in your current coursework?
What else might you try?
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

4. Engagement
Encourage students to participate in academic work with interest and thoughtfulness.
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

5. Why engagement? Linked to achievement
Distinguishes between high and low performing students.
Predictor of academic success
Improve student retention.
Neuroscience and learning
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

6. 3 Elements of Engagement
Behavioral (time on task)
Cognitive (meaningfulness and strategic)
Affective (interest and enthusiasm)
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

7. McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

8. Alternatives to Lecture
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

9. Features of Engaging classroom activities
Authentic
Collaborative
Challenging
Choice
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

10. Lesson structure Frontloading Guiding Unpacking
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

11. Warm-ups Think-pair-share Anticipation guides Questioning Quick writes
Frontloading
Warm-ups
Think-pair-share
Anticipation guides
Questioning
Quick writes
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

12. Guiding Questioning Pairs and small group discussion
Active note- taking
Book clubs/circles
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

13. Unpacking Writing – paraphrasing & summarizing
Exit cards – what was learned & questions
Partner and small groups – report out
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

14. Interactive technologies
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15. Padlet: https://tinyurl.com/y82zguw5
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

16. Why a Book Club? Small groups (4-5 students) reading the same book.
Students choose a book from the instructor’s suggested list or option to self-select with approval.
Students read the whole book or section by section and prepare discussion questions for the book club members.
“Meet” on discussion board or at a synchronized meet-up time online.
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

17. What are the Benefits of Book Clubs?
Fosters student collaboration.
Delve deeper into a topic vs. jumping from one concept to another.
Connect to content or author in a new way, “real world” connections.
Encourages ‘personalized learning’ and forming evidence-based arguments/opinions.
Exposed to other club members’ perspectives and experiences.
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

18. Learning Objectives for Book Clubs
Students will:
identify and discuss “big ideas” of the book.
articulate questions to lead to a deeper group discussion.
collaborate with other book club members to explore problems or challenges highlighted in the reading.
reflect on learning, application to course goals and content understanding.
R. Beach and S. Yussen. Practices of productive adult book clubs. Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy 55 (20)
Clubs.pdf
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

19. Great ways to use Poll Everywhere in the classroom

20. McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

21. How do instructors use Poll Everywhere?
Teachers use Poll Everywhere to find out where students stand in regards to important issues raised by, or related to, the subject matter.
Who do you think will become the next president of the United States? (for a US Government class)
In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein do you think the monster is born evil or good? (for an English Literature class)
If a substance is strongly acidic, what is the PH range on a scale of 1-14? (for a Chemistry class)
What is the correct way of saying, “Being alone is preferable to being in bad company”? (for a Spanish class)
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

22. How does Poll Everywhere improve the classroom experience?
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

23. My Polls https://www.polleverywhere.com/my/polls
McDermott, Pankowski, & Smith

24. Upgrade for free!!
learning/classroom-technologies/poll- everywhere

25. Work Informing Presentation
Doyle, W. (1982). Academic work. Review of Educational Research, 53(2), Guthrie, J.T., Wigfield, A., & You, W. (2012). Instructional contexts for engagement and achievement in reading. In S.L. Christenson, A.L. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 601–634). New York: Springer. Parsons, S.A., Nland, L.R., & Parsons, A.W. (2014). The ABCs of student engagement. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(8), Parsons, S.A. et al. (2015). Students’ engagement in literacy tasks. The Reading Teacher, 69(2),
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