The Cycle: Observation & Analysis

The initial step of engaging in the Cycle of Enactment & Investigation is for pre-service teachers to observe a desired instructional activity before implementing themselves. The goals of keeping IA’s accessible to pre-service teachers, being well-suited to disrupt deficit narratives, position pre-service teachers to learn from student thinking, and to support connections across content, guide the introduction of the IA’s. Observation whether through watching the enactment by a teacher educator/guiding teacher with students or through video example provide the pre-service teachers opportunity to experience the IA and pay attention to ways to engage students in the activity. This may include ways to open the activity, questions to pose to students, and closure of the activity. More particularly pre-service teachers are able to focus their attention on ways in which the individual facilitating the instructional activity is eliciting mathematical thinking, orienting participants to each other’s ideas, and representing participants ideas.

Ideas to Consider

Whether through video or in person enactment with students, the observable IA should be facilitated in a manner that allows novice teachers to see a range of teacher moves that supports the students to engage in the activity.

For example, in the What do you notice? instructional activity, a facilitator may particularly provide an opportunity to allow all students to share their thoughts about what they notice, with both partners/small groups and to the whole group. The facilitator may also be strategic in showing different ways to taking up different noticings from students and pose questions that engage the others around that idea.

Additionally, the introduction to an IA is video recorded if done with students, so that pre-service teachers are given the opportunity to watch the IA again before implementing themselves. This opportunity allows pre-service teachers to re-examine IA’s and notice varying aspects of the activity as they plan the IA that they will implement for the following week.

If facilitating the IA’s in a classroom, position pre-service teachers to be able to observe and take notes of the children’s thinking that is elicited, the teacher questions and moves to engage in the activity, and orienting the students to each other’s ideas.

This initial observation partnered with the next steps of analysis of the observation and planning details of implementation provide pre-service teachers an opportunity to access and begin preparation to facilitate the activity.

Teacher Educator Reflections

TE1: You know, the tension for me is more- what version of each activity do we teach? Because for example, close reading is so new in the field. Everybody seems to do it a little bit differently. The districts want it done a particular way. The literature likes it to be done a particular way. So what version of that do we teach our students? The same with small group reading instruction. So that's, that's more the tension for me. Like, am I giving them an IA that makes sense in all of the contexts they're going to be traveling in?

TE2: So how have you been dealing with that tension?

TE1: I'm picking the one that's the most flexible. So designing and really helping them understand in the content part of it, why we're doing what we're doing, and how we're doing it, so that if they see it a little bit differently, they still, it still seems recognizable.

Back to The Cycle.

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