Characteristics of Effective Classroom Practice
Classroom Culture

• Active participation of all is encouraged and valued.
  • Dale Smith
    Boundary Street Elementary
    As I think about the characteristic of classroom culture that states that active participation of all is encouraged and valued, I think of the climate in the classroom of one of my school’s veteran teachers. In her second grade class, students know the rule that they may not raise their hands except to ask questions. They know that the teacher will select a student or pull from a can a popsicle stick with a student’s name on it to decide who will explain a solution to a problem or read a journal entry. Students have learned to be ready to answer because they never know when their names may be called. All are engaged, all do their work, and all have opinions. This teacher knows that if every student has a chance to speak, she will learn something about what each student knows or something about what he doesn’t know. Each student understands that all answers are equally important to the teacher and that in this class everyone will listen when someone speaks. I have learned so much from this culture of mutual respect.

  When school report cards came out, I was devastated. I knew the scores were from last year and this is my first year in this school, but I have taken ownership. I have watched the teachers grow, and I have grown with them. It only strengthened my resolve to help each teacher and each student succeed. So that afternoon at the faculty meeting I talked about how proud I am to be a part of the school, how we are growing as a faculty and how each of us is important in helping our students succeed. I asked each teacher to take out her notebook and write the positive things she is doing in her class and in the school so that this time next year we can be celebrating. I thanked them for all they were teaching me and for all I will learn from them. I looked at the veteran second grade teacher. In my hand was a can of popsicle sticks, and on each popsicle stick was a teacher’s name.

• There is a climate of respect for students’ ideas, questions, and contributions.
  • Gina Stevenson
    Sandhills Elementary
    At Sandhills Elementary School the school theme for the 2005-2006 school year is Look Who’s Talking Now: Talking – Listening – Learning. This theme was chosen from our belief that talk is a critical factor in learning. It is through talk that children learn language, learn about language, and learn through language. In mathematics it is essential students experience mathematical ideas and concepts through the use of talk. From this talk students gain insights and learn from others by means of problem solving, communication, reasoning and proof, connections, and representation. Several school-wide instructional activities have been planned to promote the process standards in mathematics and student talk. One example is through a school-wide project called “Graph”-itti. Each month a question is posed to the students in which they must communicate with each other to decide upon a method for collecting the data to answer the question. Students use their ideas to come up with an appropriate way to organize and then display the data. Student talk, question, and ideas are the central elements that “Graph”-itti and the school-wide theme Look Who’s Talking Now is centered around.
• Interactions reflect collegial working relationships among students (e.g., students work together, talk with each other about the lesson).
  • Linda Barksdale
    Laurens Elementary
    Linda believes that Melissa Rush, one of her fourth grade teachers, is one excellent example of a teacher who has embedded student-teacher collaboration into her classroom.  Ms. Rush began this year by communicating to her students her high expectations for their success.  Her classroom climate portrays her love for her students and her students respond to her great sense of humor.

    Ms. Rush (who already teaches with a dramatic flair) is using Readers’ Theater published by Evan-Moor and authored by Martha Cheney and Hilva Firek as one tool to build her students’ success in mathematics.  Her class recently performed “The Chance of a Lifetime” from the above book for their parents, the administration, and other invited classes and guests.  Practicing and producing the play helped build the students’ oral fluency, promoted teamwork, helped develop confidence in the students, and strengthened the classroom community.

    It is very evident that Ms. Rush believes in letting her students do the work (and therefore the learning).  A recent example occurred as a result of her attendance at the SCCTM conference in Greenville and participation in a session there called “Chris-Math.” After hearing what she had done in that session, Ms. Rush’s students were anxious to make Christmas cookies for the custodial, office and cafeteria staff.  In the process of making these cookies, the students learned all about arrays (on the cookie trays), multiplication (doubling the recipe to have enough cookies for everyone), and division (deciding how many cookies each person would get.) And Ms. Rush’s dramatic rendition of “bringing down” in division got an A + from the class!

    In Ms. Rush’s classroom, the students routinely work together in groups to complete their mathematics.  Her grouping of desks is purposely designed to encourage talking together about the mathematics.  In addition, the students feel very comfortable with explaining their mathematical thinking to Ms. Rush and the rest of the class.  The atmosphere of trust which has been established between the teacher and the class and among all the members of the class allows for sharing of mathematical “a-has.”  Being able to say “I don’t understand.” and asking for help has never been easier or with less stigma than in Ms. Rush’s mathematics classroom.

• Interactions reflect collaborative working relationships between teacher and students.
  • Donna Gunderson
    Ninety-Six Elementary School
    At Ninety-Six Elementary, Donna Gunderson is in her third year as the school’s mathematics coach.  A major focus of her work has been to move her teachers from being deliverers of mathematics content information to facilitators of mathematics learning.  Piloting the Mathematics Out of the Box curriculum, the teachers have implemented the use of student groups (from two to four students in each group) in which the students talk together to develop strategies to solve mathematics problems.  In a recent lesson from the geometry kit, the students gathered around their tables, some standing, some sitting, as they sorted a collection of two-dimensional figures.  As they sorted, students argued either for or against certain figures to be placed in particular groups.  In addition, students sometimes pointed to a word on the mathematics word wall, citing the definition, to bolster their positions or choices. Each group had to justify their final selections and groupings, both to the teacher and to the remainder of the class.  These collegial student interactions seem to work.  Mathematical communication is heard throughout the school, while student achievement in mathematics at the school has improved, moving the students not only out of below basic but also into the proficient and advanced levels.
• The climate of the lesson encourages students to generate ideas, questions, conjectures, and/or propositions.
  • Libby Way
    Manning Elementary School
    Mrs. B, a fourth grade teacher at Manning Elementary School, has used tiles to help the students see the meaning of multiplication.  I one lesson that I saw the class was asked to build a fact of their choice.  Some used 2 x 3 while others used 3 x 2.  The students were able to see that the product was the same, but the way their rectangle looked was different.  Had she not let them explore with tiles, they might not have made this connection.  Later when her students were writing about their experiences, they were able to make generalizations about what they found.

    Mrs. C, another fourth grade teacher, has been allowing students to use different algorithms to find the product of 2-digit numbers by other 2-digit numbers.  They get to explore to see which way is the easiest for them to work the problems.  Before the coaching, most of our teachers were using only the standard algorithm.

    Mrs. D, a sixth grade teacher, has talked the entire sixth grade into using the decimal squares so that the students can investigate decimals and their operations with hands-on materials that will build understanding.  She herself works hard to understand these materials because she was never taught with models and has no prior experience with them.  It has been a learning experience for all.

• Students are engaged in reporting, expressing, clarifying, and justifying their ideas.
  • Julie Tindal
    Midland Park Elementary
    Throughout the year as Math Coach at Midland Park, I have worked with many teachers in a co-teaching capacity. In planning sessions we discussed ways that would engage students in reporting, expressing, clarifying, and justifying their mathematical thinking. When many students approach problem solving they have a degree of difficulty knowing where to begin. The teachers and I came up with an idea to help students structure their thinking in a logical way, so that there would be steps that will help them organize their thinking. We created a 5-Step procedure that has helped students structure their thinking.
    

  The 5-Step Method:

  • Read the problem carefully.
  • Think about what you are trying to find out. (Younger students usually just copy the question.)
  • Next think about key words and important information that will help you solve the problem.
  • Try a strategy. If that one doesn’t work try another.
  • Explain your thinking in logical steps and write your answer clearly in a sentence.

  During the planning sessions problems are carefully decided upon that match standards and are then written on task cards for student groups. Conversation among groups is highly encouraged as they work through the steps. Students fold large sheets of butcher paper in half and number the steps 1-5. They create 5 boxes on the paper and begin the process. After an extended amount of time, the students come up to the front of the room and share their work and thinking with the class. Content standards are addressed as well as process standards. The teachers and I have observed amazing results since the incorporation of the 5-Step method. Student thinking is more organized and they enjoy the problem solving experience more.

• Intellectual rigor, constructive criticism, and the challenging of ideas are evident.
  • Deborah Galli
    Holly Springs-Motlow Elementary
    I observed a 2nd grade classroom in which the intellectual rigor was quite evident.  The class began with the teacher making two lists of 5 on the board.  One list had a plus at the top and the other had a minus.  She then wrote the number of the day, 67.  A student was selected to record the math sentences as they were presented by peers.  Students were challenged to present 5 addition and 5 subtraction problems in which the answer was 67 and they were to do it mentally…no pencil…no paper. 

    When almost every hand in the room shot up as the number of the day was given, I expected these 2nd graders to volunteer problems such as 66 plus 1 equals 67, 68 minus 1 equals 67 or even 57 plus 10 equals 67.  I also expected students to fill in the 5 addition problems first and put off doing subtraction until forced to do so.  However, students bounced back and forth between volunteering addition and subtraction problems and the problems volunteered were very rigorous.  Some examples were 29 plus 38 equals 67 and 233 minus 166 equals 67.  Remember these are 2nd graders, 3 ½ months into school.  One child gave an incorrect example and was invited to “rethink” her answer.  While she was doing this the class waited patiently…no one shouted out the answer or waved their hands to try to give the answer.  Finally, the child came up with a correct example and hands went up again for other students to give their examples.  Finally, when there were 10 examples on the board, students were challenged to find patterns in their answers and asked by the teacher if previous examples had influenced their examples.  I was amazed as was a student teacher from a local college who was observing the lesson with me.  The teacher explained that she credited the research-based materials she was working with this year for the difference in rigor of her classroom to that of other 2nd grade classes. 

Adapted from Horizon Research, Inc. Inside the Classroom: Observation and Analytic Protocol