Marzano - week 2

Disclaimer: I wish the Teacher Scale for Reflective Practice came in different versions for different teaching situations. Specifically, one for teachers that have 600 students between two different campuses.

It seems that this rating scale seems more appropriate for teachers who see the same students multiple times during a given week.

That being said, taking this inventory was a real eye opener. I have heard of Marzano before, but never investigated his writings. I can see how a "regular" classroom teacher would want to use the outlined practices to create a student centered and reflective atmosphere. I saw some practices that piqued my interest and would like to investigate because they seemed relevant to the goals I have for my students. However, the collective of the 41 goals seems overwhelming.  Some goals I have for my students is to their own self-assessors, to be dialogical, and to have essential understandings that tie to their out of school lives. I also have to temper that with the fact that students come to the art room to "do."

I tend to be my own devil's advocate, and know that if I instituted new practices with my Ks and 1s, hopefully the new rules and procedures would, over time, become comprehensive for all the art classes.

My self-identified strengths from the Maranzo teacher scale were:

• Identifying critical information
• Previewing new content
• Chunking new information into digestible bites
• Helping students elaborate on new information
• Helping students practice skills, strategies, and processes
• Provide resources and guidance
• Maintain a lively pace
• Demonstrate intensity and enthusiasm
• Provide opportunities for students to talk about themselves
• Acknowledge adherence to rules and procedures
• Verbal and nonverbal behaviors that demonstrate affection for students

The self-identified weaknesses that bothered me were:

• Routinely providing students with rubrics
• Having students track their own progress
• Letting my classroom rules and procedures go lax mid-year
• Student review of new information in small groups
• Students verbally summarizing new learning
• Reviewing content consistently
• Explicitly using groups to support learning
• Asking students to verbalize their insight into how they revise knowledge
• Have the same expectations for low students as I do for the high ones

When I compare my self-assessment using Lehmann's 12 Great Qualities with Marzano's Teacher's Scale, I can see how my higher rankings in the love of subject matter and the kids can lend toward a strong student centered art-making practice in my classroom. I can also see how my lack of organizational skills and desire to do it all by myself leads to deficits in record keeping and loss of time to devote to student reflection. Very interesting!