Many teachers want their students to learn with CI, but without explaining to them what it is. Though it can be a challenge to explain the research and the Communication Standard, it’s essential that you do so. Why? It's because you need the student buy-in. When your students know why you are teaching them in the way you are, they become better students.
Just read from the scripted notes in this course. The students read the projected posters while you read from the scripts. Your students appreciate learning how and why you teach, what your expectations are, and how they will be graded in your class, etc. The time spent doing this in the first few months of the year is well worth the investment.
Even the students who “don’t care” benefit. Why? It's because once you’ve explained how the class works they don’t have any excuses for behaving in ways that don’t reflect what is said in the posters. The truth is that all students care, and want to be included in the class. And when they read the posters, they will understand that your goal is to include them in class, suddenly they will start caring. They just needed a sign from you that you want to reach them, and the posters are that sign.
The posters provide you with a win-win for not only your students but also for your school administrators. Because of the posters, they will be able to talk intelligently with parents about why one of their teachers is using CI, which awareness is not always the case in most schools.
Putting the posters on your class website also provides you with a good reference point when talking to parents. You can mention in an email, for example, to the parents of a disengaged or misbehaving student that the expectations are clearly there on your website in poster form. Parents need to know how and why - in clear terms - their students will be held accountable in your class. The posters provide that.
For example, Poster #3 clearly explains how your students are graded - there won’t be a need for you to explain all that to them from scratch. You will have shared phone or in-person talking points for your discussions.
When you make your students think metacognitively about the posters, things change in your classroom.
Course Curriculum
-
PreviewIntroduction (4:25)
-
PreviewLesson 1: How to Get and Use the Posters
-
PreviewLesson 2: Introducing the Posters to Your Students
-
PreviewLesson 3: Poster 1 - The Classroom Rules
-
PreviewLesson 4: Poster 2 - How to Earn an A or B in This Class
-
PreviewPoster 3: Do Your 50%
-
PreviewPoster 4: You Know You Are Learning When...
-
PreviewPoster 5: When You Read in a Foreign Language
-
PreviewPoster 6: Our Communication in Class
-
PreviewPoster 7: Rigor
-
PreviewPoster 8: Seating Chart
-
PreviewOverall Conclusions: CI Works Better When Our Students Know How it Works