Recent Changes

Robert and Jana Marzano’s chapter 14 delves into the teacher’s psyche (interesting territory). It is stated that this chapter is designed to, “help teachers exert more control over their behavior as a consequence of their understanding and control of their thoughts and emotions” (346). Claiming responsibility for why I respond to situations they way I do and being committed to understanding my own responses so that I can make changes where they are needed is a huge undertaking, but a necessary one. As teachers, do we not expect the same from our students when we exercise our own brands of classroom management? I think the Marzanos have a great point. As teachers, we have the power to influence our students, for good or bad, even when we are not conscious of that influence. It is our duty to be metacognitively aware of how we behave in the classroom and respond to classroom situations because, as teachers, we are called to a higher standard—we are the example. When we walk into another teacher’s room, we immediately make connections between that one and our past experiences. Those past experiences are what set the stage for liking or disliking the teacher who belongs to that room. We have lasting effects upon our students, and our students have parents who have also known teachers. Our responsibilities do not end at the last pages of our texts and lesson plans. Whether we like it or not, once we choose to walk into a classroom as the teacher, we choose to partially mold our students into whatever our own shapes are. This is why we must always be striving to improve our minds and our perspectives. I like what my Art practicum instructor, Mr. Roark, has said, “There are students who come in here who have been through more in one night than I have in my whole life, we cannot judge them, and we cannot understand them until we have walked a mile in their shoes.” Cliché, a bit, but quite true. What I take away from this chapter is this: it is important to know myself and my students; and when I find myself in a new situation (good or bad) to take all the time I need to respond instead of react. These words of wisdom are not my own, but both my husband’s and my Great Uncle Whinny’s. They are smart men.
---Holly L. Tucker
Considering the Marzanos’ chapter concerning teacher efficacy, I feel I need to develop strategies to begin developing dealing with presenting situations and my interpretations of them. As my goals drive my behavior, interpretations, and responses it seems fair that I fully understand what my goals are and what other factors influence my behavior. After reading the chapter, I thought back to my time in class observing how the clinical teacher deals with students and distractions and I believe she deals with them negatively. A student who is facing the wrong direction or students chatting in the back of the room are immediately called out with the same harsh tone of voice and expression. This occurs in every class and I feel that there are better ways to deal with these situations. The Marzanos’ explain that there are three questions you should ask yourself before responding to a situation: What is it? Is it positive or negative? How important is it? How do I feel about it? The clinical teacher has expressed to me that she deals with a lot of discipline problems and that kids today lack respect and manners. Drawing from the chapter, I think this biases her towards any distraction that occurs in her class and she immediately believes that students are purposely being disrespectful, so she deals with it negatively. I haven’t seen any attempt to walk around the room to make her presence known, or ask if students are talking because they have a question about the lesson, or ask a student if they are feeling well because they aren’t focusing, or ask a student a surprise question to get them back on task. She also hasn’t assigned seats to keep chatty friends away from eachother , or rearrange the room environment. In life, I usually try to discern what a person’s motivation is before jumping to conclusions, and it only makes sense to do this with my students. When I was teaching my first lesson with her, a few students were quietly talking and I don’t know if I was just too nervous to notice or if it didn’t bother me, but the teacher jumped in and yelled at them to be respectful and to be quiet. While I appreciate her trying to help me out, I would have preferred she let me deal with it in my own way because I did not find it to be too big of a deal and I wasn’t all that concerned; I would have attempted to manage the situation if it became a concern. However, the Marzanos’ suggestion to manage control over my interpretation, control over outcome selection, and control over my response on the spot while in the middle of a lesson seems a bit impossible. I think after teaching for a few years and gaining more experience with the types of situations that might occur will help me prepare to manage them effectively. _Joanna Bourque

I really enjoyed this chapter because for the first time in this book, and the first time in this program, I think, someone is addressing the psychology of the teacher and not just of the students. On a personal level, I really liked learning about this because I have a great interest in psychology and it's sometimes easy to forget that the psychology of the teacher affects the psychology of the students every single day. How a teacher feels about learning, feels about teaching, the curriculum, the students themselves, affects not only the day to day classroom but their overall approach to teaching (which is why those certain teachers who clearly and vocally do not enjoy teaching always annoyed me). When teachers have a positive approach to their curriculum, the students will most likely recognize that and have a more positive outlook on the subject too.
One thing that teachers must overcome psychologically is putting "bad" students in the "bad" category forever. It is all too simple to write off students who are disruptive or inattentive instead of figuring out why they are doing what they do - one bad instance does not make a student bad forever. It is also easy to put every similar instance in the same category without finding out the facts first. It is easy to yell at a student for talking to a neighbor during class because students have talked aimlessly in the past, without finding out that the student in question was merely finding out what page the class is on. Categorizing events is key to human psychology, but it is important to pay attention to the exceptions to the rule as well. This chapter specifically highlights the many ways our brain takes in and analyzes information, breaking down what the mind does mostly on it's own. At least for a good teacher who wishes to do well in his or her classroom, taking events that happen in the class and analyzing them is something they do naturally, wishing to create the most positive environment possible. Teachers use their thought process, ruling out whether an event is important enough to be bothered with or if it will only create more of a distraction, relatively quickly in order to keep the learning environment as stable as possible. ~Erin Caracappa
Robert and Jana Marzano’s chapter 14 delves into the teacher’s psyche (interesting territory). It is stated that this chapter is designed to, “help teachers exert more control over their behavior as a consequence of their understanding and control of their thoughts and emotions” (346). Claiming responsibility for why I respond to situations they way I do and being committed to understanding my own responses so that I can make changes where they are needed is a huge undertaking, but a necessary one. As teachers, do we not expect the same from our students when we exercise our own brands of classroom management? I think the Marzanos have a great point. As teachers, we have the power to influence our students, for good or bad, even when we are not conscious of that influence. It is our duty to be metacognitively aware of how we behave in the classroom and respond to classroom situations because, as teachers, we are called to a higher standard—we are the example. When we walk into another teacher’s room, we immediately make connections between that one and our past experiences. Those past experiences are what set the stage for liking or disliking the teacher who belongs to that room. We have lasting effects upon our students, and our students have parents who have also known teachers. Our responsibilities do not end at the last pages of our texts and lesson plans. Whether we like it or not, once we choose to walk into a classroom as the teacher, we choose to partially mold our students into whatever our own shapes are. This is why we must always be striving to improve our minds and our perspectives. I like what my Art practicum instructor, Mr. Roark, has said, “There are students who come in here who have been through more in one night than I have in my whole life, we cannot judge them, and we cannot understand them until we have walked a mile in their shoes.” Cliché, a bit, but quite true. What I take away from this chapter is this: it is important to know myself and my students; and when I find myself in a new situation (good or bad) to take all the time I need to respond instead of react. These words of wisdom are not my own, but both my husband’s and my Great Uncle Whinny’s. They are smart men.
---Holly L. Tucker

I was heartened to read this after being confronted by some depressing scenes in my practicums of teachers who have very negative attitudes towards their students--one actually said to the entire class that "Jimmy has learned nothing this year!" Teachers have a lot of hats to wear, so to have the decision making process that runs through our head explicated is helpful enough when one is already juggling, but I appreciate the tips to almost "hack" our thinking into more positive patterns and processes. While the research shows teachers with high self-efficacy belief systems lead to beneficial school environments, personally I find this a benefit for my own well-being. In a stressful environment, remaining positive is always helpful, even if it does take some effort. (I say this as a somewhat pessimistic person who has to take steps to do this already!) While I don't think all teachers need therapy anymore than the average man on the street needs therapy, I was impressed with Marzano and Marzano's calling attention to the primary negative events and their continuing influence on future events. By paying attention to these, as teachers we can do our best to keep from perpetuating negative reactions and assumptions in our classrooms, and by being aware of the long-term effects of these situations, we have good reason to be as constructive and positive as we can in our classrooms. Just as we can be seriously changed by an event, so can our students--these same processes play out in their heads, at a much younger and more impressionable age. This means we need to be sensitive to how our students may experience our actions or our classroom environments. I know if I had been the student in my practicum, I would have been very upset about my teacher's statement. I think the boy in question--he's been in self-contained SPED for years--is so hardened to school that it did not have a huge impact, but then, I suspect he's checked out due to so many negative events in earlier years.--Noren Bonner
I really enjoyed this chapter because for the first time in this book, and the first time in this program, I think, someone is addressing the psychology of the teacher and not just of the students. On a personal level, I really liked learning about this because I have a great interest in psychology and it's sometimes easy to forget that the psychology of the teacher affects the psychology of the students every single day. How a teacher feels about learning, feels about teaching, the curriculum, the students themselves, affects not only the day to day classroom but their overall approach to teaching (which is why those certain teachers who clearly and vocally do not enjoy teaching always annoyed me). When teachers have a positive approach to their curriculum, the students will most likely recognize that and have a more positive outlook on the subject too.
as well. This chapter specifically highlights the many ways our brain takes in and analyzes information, breaking down what the mind does mostly on it's own. At least for a good teacher who wishes to do well in his or her classroom, taking events that happen in the class and analyzing them is something they do naturally, wishing to create the most positive environment possible. Teachers use their thought process, ruling out whether an event is important enough to be bothered with or if it will only create more of a distraction, relatively quickly in order to keep the learning environment as stable as possible. ~Erin Caracappa

I find chapter 14 to be an interesting change in the readings for student achievement by discussing the effect of teacher efficacy. The discussion on basic operating principals and situated goals could be described a bit clearer, but the fact that each goal stems from a higher, broader goal is kind of obvious. This hierarchical aspect is seen frequently, however I have never seen it explained in this way. Her example of interpreting and event is something that teacher inevitably run into during their teaching careers and you never really think about how you will respond, you just do. You might think about it later, but the outcome of the situation is dependent upon your positive or negative response and as teachers we guide the atmosphere of our classroom, which according to the authors is dependent upon out attitudes. The discussion of metacognitive responses is helpful in understanding the authors point in this chapter, because as I said earlier, people are constantly weighing their reactions and emotions to events throughout their lives whether they are consciously thinking about it or not. This chapter has provided several good examples to her you understand the concepts that are being discussed, but after several confusing sections with a lot of psychological jargon. Their argument of the "inner world" affecting the "outer world" is very logical. I have felt since the first day of teaching that whatever I exude on the outside will affect the atmosphere of my classroom and I have aimed to avoid any negative outcomes.-Helen Phillips
I was heartened to read this after being confronted by some depressing scenes in my practicums of teachers who have very negative attitudes towards their students--one actually said to the entire class that "Jimmy has learned nothing this year!" Teachers have a lot of hats to wear, so to have the decision making process that runs through our head explicated is helpful enough when one is already juggling, but I appreciate the tips to almost "hack" our thinking into more positive patterns and processes. While the research shows teachers with high self-efficacy belief systems lead to beneficial school environments, personally I find this a benefit for my own well-being. In a stressful environment, remaining positive is always helpful, even if it does take some effort. (I say this as a somewhat pessimistic person who has to take steps to do this already!) While I don't think all teachers need therapy anymore than the average man on the street needs therapy, I was impressed with Marzano and Marzano's calling attention to the primary negative events and their continuing influence on future events. By paying attention to these, as teachers we can do our best to keep from perpetuating negative reactions and assumptions in our classrooms, and by being aware of the long-term effects of these situations, we have good reason to be as constructive and positive as we can in our classrooms. Just as we can be seriously changed by an event, so can our students--these same processes play out in their heads, at a much younger and more impressionable age. This means we need to be sensitive to how our students may experience our actions or our classroom environments. I know if I had been the student in my practicum, I would have been very upset about my teacher's statement. I think the boy in question--he's been in self-contained SPED for years--is so hardened to school that it did not have a huge impact, but then, I suspect he's checked out due to so many negative events in earlier years.--Noren Bonner
I really enjoyed this chapter because for the first time in this book, and the first time in this program, I think, someone is addressing the psychology of the teacher and not just of the students. On a personal level, I really liked learning about this because I have a great interest in psychology and it's sometimes easy to forget that the psychology of the teacher affects the psychology of the students every single day. How a teacher feels about learning, feels about teaching, the curriculum, the students themselves, affects not only the day to day classroom but their overall approach to teaching (which is why those certain teachers who clearly and vocally do not enjoy teaching always annoyed me). When teachers have a positive approach to their curriculum, the students will most likely recognize that and have a more positive outlook on the subject too.
One thing that teachers must overcome psychologically is putting "bad" students in the "bad" category forever. It is all too simple to write off students who are disruptive or inattentive instead of figuring out why they are doing what they do - one bad instance does not make a student bad forever. It is also easy to put every similar instance in the same category without finding out the facts first. It is easy to yell at a student for talking to a neighbor during class because students have talked aimlessly in the past, without finding out that the student in question was merely finding out what page the class is on. Categorizing events is key to human psychology, but it is important to pay attention to the exceptions to the rule as well.

I like how Jacobs consistently related curriculum mapping to other concepts such as cartography and architecture, especially when she explains how curriculum mapping reflects what is happening in real-time as an “original itinerary would only surmise a likely scenario—it could not anticipate the realities” (198). I understand curriculum mapping as an active process that allows teachers to review where students have been, where they are now, and provide direction for where they are going, but I would love to see a real-world example of this database in use because it all seems a bit overwhelming. Having every teacher’s lesson plans, project maps, and diaries along with every student’s progress reports—trying to sort all that out seems impossible. Fortunately, Jacobs maps out the seven phases of the mapping and review process. Allowing teachers to see what students have or have not already learned will help in providing continuity of concept development. I have seen this in the middle school art classes I am observing. Students in seventh grade learn drawing skills and work on applying the art elements to their drawings throughout the year. In eighth grade they continue in the same direction combining elements and using new materials now that they have the basic skills and concepts. The same teacher teaches the seventh and eighth grade classes so she knows what students have been taught, which students have or have not progressed, and has insights into why so that she can focus on delivering what students are lacking. In her World Cultures class, students are creating presentations they have researched online and she has discovered a gap their research and writing abilities. Some students simply copy and paste online content into their presentations, some lack any formal writing skills, and some cannot distinguish between relevant and unimportant information. This is an instance where I think curriculum mapping would be useful. Reviewing what these students have and have not learned would help the teacher design scaffolded projects and instruction.
What struck me the most from Brophy’s chapter was this: “Despite widespread student complaints of a meaningless and irrelevant curriculum, reform efforts have focused on pressuring students to work harder, not on improving the curriculum” (301). There are many different theories about the types of motivation that inspires students to learn, yet as Brophy explains, intrinsic-motivation theories have found that when learners are more autonomous in choosing activities they perform better because they see the value in doing so. I do agree with this, yet I don’t believe students have an innate sense of what has value. I have been considering an article I recently read which concerns a study done on classroom blogging to develop self-reflective practice in students. There was no structure, no guidelines, no expectations, no formal consequences, and no rationale given to students for why they should participate; they were simply given a space to self-reflect through writing. By the end of the study, participation dropped from 95% to 30% and only those who continued using the blog became more self-reflective. It could be that without formal consequences students were not motivated to participate, as the researched concluded, but I feel it could also be that students could not see the value in what they were doing and were given no support in understanding the value of self-reflection. Students will not simply perform better because they choose an activity that interests them. Brody emphasizes that teaching for value must be modeled; students must first come to understand what value is inherent in a certain activity and in what way. ~Joanna Bourque
Regarding Chapter 8, I share Erin's concerns about the amount of information Jacobs encourages sharing via curriculum mapping--not so much because it will be online, but because sometimes one can drown in data. If you have everything, it can be like having nothing because there is simply too much to sift through. I am also reminded of the 1950s exhortations for housewives to have documented systems of all the work they did to "improve efficiency in the home"--in the end, it was more trouble and less effective than just letting them get on with it. I normally don't read the author summaries, but a few pages into this and I checked--Ms Jacobs is indeed selling something. I do think a well-implemented system that enables online, visible records of what students have been taught, how they were assessed, how they performed on that assessment, and what they will be taught will lead to a more collaborative, effective schools as well as possibly (and I think beneficially) serving as a district-wide mini-pinterest. My fears about this stem from the misuse of this potential--Ms Jacobs refers to having a leg up on standardized tests so one does not feel ambushed, but I see a constant, real-time system to see how teachers are handling the test as sadly but understandably degrading into a way to push teaching to the test even harder.
In Chapter 12, I was immediately pleased to see some less-conventional vocabulary on motivation. I'm researching it during student teaching, so I'm really quite used to seeing extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on a daily--or hourly--basis, but I was immediately struck by how controlled and autonomous motivation are not just new names for the old framework. I can imagine "autonomous motivation" encapsulating what might be labelled "extrinsic motivation" because it is student-driven, like wanting to impress a teacher. In almost all of the reading I've done, that would be labelled "extrinsic" but I think it is very autonomous--the student may have a good reason like needing a recommendation letter. (I spent my senior year only working hard for the people I needed letters of recommendation from--the rest, pfft.) After working in SPED, where motivation seems to be thin on the ground and I can't say I've learned a lot of techniques at Heritage for improving it, reading about the model for scaffolding appreciation was revelatory. I see elements of it in what I'm doing with the students already, but this way I can KNOW I'm doing them.
Chapter 19--I don't think I've hidden this very well, but I haven't always appreciated the Thinking Maps approach--it's seemed overly religious, and never seemed to adequately provide options for students, like those who suffer with NVLD, who do not read graphic organizers nearly as easily as they do more traditional lists and outlines--but this chapter I read while saying "Yes!" a lot. I think, after all the reading, I finally understand why they refer to Thinking Maps as a language. Hyerle and Williams discuss how by asking students how to think, we are really trying to teach them how to think when we, their teachers, are gone from their lives. In the Novice to Expert section, they discuss how by repetition, assistance, and guidance, students develop automaticity with the maps, which is a function all fluent speakers of English have with words, but one I could never quite get about the maps. But I taught a lesson using a character chart--not a Thinking Map--in SPED, assuming that 10th and 11th graders would know how to use a chart. Most of them did, but enough did not that I realized this was not an obvious task. My chart had open-ended blanks for students to fill in categories of their choosing, and while the students participated, the results made it clear they did not understand the way a chart sorted things. Without being able to independently select and implement a function, it's not entirely known, and Thinking Maps, by virtue of their repeating forms and flexibility between content areas, are a way for all teachers to work collaboratively to teach fluency in thinking skills while also teaching content--because they can put whatever content they need to into the maps.--Noren Bonner

Chapter 14 by Marzano and Marzano was a bit confusing to me, however, some good points were made. This chapter basically outlines the thought process which a teacher should go through given an un-planned event in the classroom, and the chapter also goes over internal scripts that we mold into our metacognitive processes. On page 350, Marzano and Marzano mention, "...how we interpret a presenting event dictates how we respond to it." I think this statement is part of the reason why many of us jump to conclusions frequently. If I was lecturing, and I saw students talking in my class, I would immediately think that they were causing a disrupting. I would not take the time to think that they could be discussing something that I was lecturing about, or something relevant to the class. I automatically assume that they are doing something negative and therefore proceed to handle the situation as if they were misbehaving, rather than investigating what they were actually doing. I think that the chapter makes a good statement about jumping to conclusions and assuming things too quickely; atleast that is what I took away from it. The reflexive response mentioned on page 352 is also a good reasoning behind our jumping to conclusions and immediate thought process. As a teacher now, I am going to try and take the time to fully evaluate a situation before mentally deciding what desired goal outcome I would like. I think my students would appreciate it as well, because they won't get in trouble for doing good things in class... I guess it is something I never really considered or took the time to think about before, but now after reading this chapter I will take the time to investigate behaviors more. -- Caitlin Unterman
I find chapter 14 to be an interesting change in the readings for student achievement by discussing the effect of teacher efficacy. The discussion on basic operating principals and situated goals could be described a bit clearer, but the fact that each goal stems from a higher, broader goal is kind of obvious. This hierarchical aspect is seen frequently, however I have never seen it explained in this way. Her example of interpreting and event is something that teacher inevitably run into during their teaching careers and you never really think about how you will respond, you just do. You might think about it later, but the outcome of the situation is dependent upon your positive or negative response and as teachers we guide the atmosphere of our classroom, which according to the authors is dependent upon out attitudes. The discussion of metacognitive responses is helpful in understanding the authors point in this chapter, because as I said earlier, people are constantly weighing their reactions and emotions to events throughout their lives whether they are consciously thinking about it or not. This chapter has provided several good examples to her you understand the concepts that are being discussed, but after several confusing sections with a lot of psychological jargon. Their argument of the "inner world" affecting the "outer world" is very logical. I have felt since the first day of teaching that whatever I exude on the outside will affect the atmosphere of my classroom and I have aimed to avoid any negative outcomes.-Helen Phillips
I was heartened to read this after being confronted by some depressing scenes in my practicums of teachers who have very negative attitudes towards their students--one actually said to the entire class that "Jimmy has learned nothing this year!" Teachers have a lot of hats to wear, so to have the decision making process that runs through our head explicated is helpful enough when one is already juggling, but I appreciate the tips to almost "hack" our thinking into more positive patterns and processes. While the research shows teachers with high self-efficacy belief systems lead to beneficial school environments, personally I find this a benefit for my own well-being. In a stressful environment, remaining positive is always helpful, even if it does take some effort. (I say this as a somewhat pessimistic person who has to take steps to do this already!) While I don't think all teachers need therapy anymore than the average man on the street needs therapy, I was impressed with Marzano and Marzano's calling attention to the primary negative events and their continuing influence on future events. By paying attention to these, as teachers we can do our best to keep from perpetuating negative reactions and assumptions in our classrooms, and by being aware of the long-term effects of these situations, we have good reason to be as constructive and positive as we can in our classrooms. Just as we can be seriously changed by an event, so can our students--these same processes play out in their heads, at a much younger and more impressionable age. This means we need to be sensitive to how our students may experience our actions or our classroom environments. I know if I had been the student in my practicum, I would have been very upset about my teacher's statement. I think the boy in question--he's been in self-contained SPED for years--is so hardened to school that it did not have a huge impact, but then, I suspect he's checked out due to so many negative events in earlier years.--Noren Bonner

In chapter 14 by Robert Marzano and Jana Marzano the chapter addresses the "inner world" of teaching. "In the field of education, one finds direct and indirect support for the inner world/outer world connect (p.345)." Meaning that a teacher's inner world effects how she/he controls their outer world. I found the situated goals portion of the chapter to be very interesting. How they compare situated goals to a script that the teacher presents to his/her students. The script in turn is the actual lesson because they say what the script includes near the end of the section. The script or situated goals contains all of the components of a good lesson. The idea of a presenting event was a new concept for me. Having two students in my classroom talking the using my "inner world" to figure out how I should deal with it on the "outer world". The four questions Marzano and Marzano give actually make you think about how you would/should deal with a situation in your classroom appropriately. "She might then consider a more useful interpretation, such as the students' talking, while bothersome, can be viewed as an opportunity to practice some classroom-management strategies she saw modeled in a workshop (pg. 356)." I thought that this scenario modeled a good way to handle a situation such as talking in the classroom rather than calling the students out in front of the whole class. Overall, I found some parts of this chapter a bit confusing but mostly very helpful. The idea of the teacher's "inner world" effecting their "outer world" is something I had never really considered as a pre-service teacher. -AK
Chapter 14 by Marzano and Marzano was a bit confusing to me, however, some good points were made. This chapter basically outlines the thought process which a teacher should go through given an un-planned event in the classroom, and the chapter also goes over internal scripts that we mold into our metacognitive processes. On page 350, Marzano and Marzano mention, "...how we interpret a presenting event dictates how we respond to it." I think this statement is part of the reason why many of us jump to conclusions frequently. If I was lecturing, and I saw students talking in my class, I would immediately think that they were causing a disrupting. I would not take the time to think that they could be discussing something that I was lecturing about, or something relevant to the class. I automatically assume that they are doing something negative and therefore proceed to handle the situation as if they were misbehaving, rather than investigating what they were actually doing. I think that the chapter makes a good statement about jumping to conclusions and assuming things too quickely; atleast that is what I took away from it. The reflexive response mentioned on page 352 is also a good reasoning behind our jumping to conclusions and immediate thought process. As a teacher now, I am going to try and take the time to fully evaluate a situation before mentally deciding what desired goal outcome I would like. I think my students would appreciate it as well, because they won't get in trouble for doing good things in class... I guess it is something I never really considered or took the time to think about before, but now after reading this chapter I will take the time to investigate behaviors more. -- Caitlin Unterman
I find chapter 14 to be an interesting change in the readings for student achievement by discussing the effect of teacher efficacy. The discussion on basic operating principals and situated goals could be described a bit clearer, but the fact that each goal stems from a higher, broader goal is kind of obvious. This hierarchical aspect is seen frequently, however I have never seen it explained in this way. Her example of interpreting and event is something that teacher inevitably run into during their teaching careers and you never really think about how you will respond, you just do. You might think about it later, but the outcome of the situation is dependent upon your positive or negative response and as teachers we guide the atmosphere of our classroom, which according to the authors is dependent upon out attitudes. The discussion of metacognitive responses is helpful in understanding the authors point in this chapter, because as I said earlier, people are constantly weighing their reactions and emotions to events throughout their lives whether they are consciously thinking about it or not. This chapter has provided several good examples to her you understand the concepts that are being discussed, but after several confusing sections with a lot of psychological jargon. Their argument of the "inner world" affecting the "outer world" is very logical. I have felt since the first day of teaching that whatever I exude on the outside will affect the atmosphere of my classroom and I have aimed to avoid any negative outcomes.-Helen Phillips

I agree with Silver and Perini that engagement is difficult to define, because many people describe it differently. I personally feel that student are engaged in different ways, especially at different levels. I am constantly thinking about how I can make my student more active in their learning other than just taking notes and doing the surface work, i.e. enough to get an "A." Designing lessons to strengthen commitment to learning as Silver and Perini suggest is all well and good, but it is difficult to accomplish for the multifaceted student body that teachers deal with daily. The break down in this chapter of the types of learners into four categories is quite useful, as I read them I was already categorizing my students. The "eight C's" discussed in this chapter may seem obvious, but when you are teaching and writing lesson plans you can feel overwhelmed by the task at hand and have a difficult time picking engaging tasks. If you just consider the "C's," they will help you implement engagement into routine activities at the very least. These go hand-in-hand with the blueprint that truly help breakdown lesson/unit planning for teachers. It seems that if you follow the authors advice to increase engagement, it would be nearly impossible to fail as seen in Mr. Cogito's lessons. It is good to see in the author's example of how the teacher broke down the blue print into several days, not just one lesson necessarily while intermixing the "eight C's"It is also beneficial to see the flow of the lessons involve different teaching/learning styles that will inevitably result in more engagement from his students. I found this chapter very helpful and well written/easy to understand and see the benefits.--Helen Phillips
I agree with Helen that students can be engaged at different levels. I find it very difficult sometimes to ensure that each and every one of my students is engaged in some sort of way, because we all get so caught up in teaching the material and making sure that our students know the information necessary for the SOLs (another side effect of NCLB I guess). I like the Eight C's that Perini and Silver lay out in their chapter. I especially like competition, curiousity, and challenge. For reviewing test content, I always try to engange my students in friendly competition. It gets them "engaged" in the way that Silver and Perini compare it to commitment. My students get so involved in the competition that they are commited to knowing the information because they want that positive evaluation at the end. On page 340, they mention "commitment is reciprocal". I could not agree more. If we as teachers show commitment to our studnets, then our students will show commitment to us; just like respect. Though many of our students may be hiding their commitment behind goofing off and disrupting class, all in all they are commited to doing the work assigned because we are committed to teaching them the information and guiding them along the way. I am constantly thinking of ways to incorporate engaging activities into my lesson plans, and I even find myself writing ideas down on napkins in restaraunts just so I wont forget a great concept. As we develop as teachers, our students are developing as intellectuals, and we need to keep their active minds engaged so that they can succeed. - Caitlin Unterman
This morning I met with another professor in our program--she is trying out a new evaluation program in development at UVA on me during one of my observations, and it involves a preliminary meeting--and one question on the evaluation form was "How do you account for different learning styles?" (or something to that effect). I said, point-blank, that I had not done a lot of that. My lesson involves a great deal of discussion, some controversies, role-playing, etc, but I was still thinking of learning styles as "I like to read, I like to listen, I like to move around, etc." Having now done the reading, I feel better about my lesson plan again, but I also have really had to re-evaluate my own concept of learning. The eight Cs and the focus on student engagement as opposed to student preference for certain tasks (like reading as opposed to drawing) suggest that it's not what students have to do but how they do it and in what structures and environments they complete the work. What I found most promising--and, as a pre-service teacher, quite brave--about Mr Cogito's lesson was how it wholly depended on student engagement. If a class declined to participate, the activities would fall apart--.if the students did not get behind the puzzle of determining the topic from the vocabulary, the hook would not work. Similarly, if the students did not actively engage with the concept sort later on in the week, there would be very little learning. So because of the high stakes, the activities are all very respectful of the students. They are challenged via competition and comparison to improve their vocabulary, but on the first day, the homework is not to go home and write out definitions--the task is to think about the opportunity for learning. The vocabulary will come later on, in respectful and authentic ways, not through exercises that may force students to learn but don't engage them with the material. I appreciated the authors' formatting decisions, because by having the two columns, I could easily get familliar with working examples of integrating the eight Cs into the classroom. To my surprise, I realized my existing lesson does account for different engagement styles--I start with a seemingly off-topic comedy hook from Monty Python, which is curiosity, will be intentionally bringing up the War on Terror/The War in Afghanistan to compare with the Trojan War (controversy), will have students make epic hero comparisons with comic book heros (connections), and will have them working in groups (cooperations) to discuss various scenarios. By spelling that out for me, the authors reassured me that this is easily integrated and instead of being one more thing to include--as much as I love essential questions, I did slightly begrudge them space on my already overcrowded planning--the eight Cs are a tool to IMPROVE my lessons and make my classroom more engaging, both for the students and for myself, as I'm now much more comfortable discussing and improving their engagement.

Please post your summaries, opinions, and connections to personal experience here:
In chapter 14 by Robert Marzano and Jana Marzano the chapter addresses the "inner world" of teaching. "In the field of education, one finds direct and indirect support for the inner world/outer world connect (p.345)." Meaning that a teacher's inner world effects how she/he controls their outer world. I found the situated goals portion of the chapter to be very interesting. How they compare situated goals to a script that the teacher presents to his/her students. The script in turn is the actual lesson because they say what the script includes near the end of the section. The script or situated goals contains all of the components of a good lesson. The idea of a presenting event was a new concept for me. Having two students in my classroom talking the using my "inner world" to figure out how I should deal with it on the "outer world". The four questions Marzano and Marzano give actually make you think about how you would/should deal with a situation in your classroom appropriately. "She might then consider a more useful interpretation, such as the students' talking, while bothersome, can be viewed as an opportunity to practice some classroom-management strategies she saw modeled in a workshop (pg. 356)." I thought that this scenario modeled a good way to handle a situation such as talking in the classroom rather than calling the students out in front of the whole class. Overall, I found some parts of this chapter a bit confusing but mostly very helpful. The idea of the teacher's "inner world" effecting their "outer world" is something I had never really considered as a pre-service teacher. -AK
Chapter 14 by Marzano and Marzano was a bit confusing to me, however, some good points were made. This chapter basically outlines the thought process which a teacher should go through given an un-planned event in the classroom, and the chapter also goes over internal scripts that we mold into our metacognitive processes. On page 350, Marzano and Marzano mention, "...how we interpret a presenting event dictates how we respond to it." I think this statement is part of the reason why many of us jump to conclusions frequently. If I was lecturing, and I saw students talking in my class, I would immediately think that they were causing a disrupting. I would not take the time to think that they could be discussing something that I was lecturing about, or something relevant to the class. I automatically assume that they are doing something negative and therefore proceed to handle the situation as if they were misbehaving, rather than investigating what they were actually doing. I think that the chapter makes a good statement about jumping to conclusions and assuming things too quickely; atleast that is what I took away from it. The reflexive response mentioned on page 352 is also a good reasoning behind our jumping to conclusions and immediate thought process. As a teacher now, I am going to try and take the time to fully evaluate a situation before mentally deciding what desired goal outcome I would like. I think my students would appreciate it as well, because they won't get in trouble for doing good things in class... I guess it is something I never really considered or took the time to think about before, but now after reading this chapter I will take the time to investigate behaviors more. -- Caitlin Unterman