Teachers in the Responsive Teaching Project typically had a wide range of topics to discuss at their biweekly meetings. On this page are some of Donna's reflections at one meeting. You may want to view the transcripts or print them for note taking and reference.

One of the first topics Donna brought up was how to get all of her students involved. She was finding this particularly difficult to accomplish in a class of students with an exceptionally wide range of abilities. She discusses this and does some brainstorming in the first video.

Video 1

Reflecting on the video. What are some of Donna's ideas? What are some other strategies for involving all students? Do all students need to be engaged in the same way? If not, then procedurally how can a responsive teacher manage this to maximize students' productive engagement and minimize "down time" for individual students?

In the next video, Donna shares a student's idea on how to demonstrate evaporation, and suggests that setting it up might be a good activity for the class to do next.

Video 2

Reflecting on the video. Doing the experiment would be engaging for the students, so responsively that might be one option Donna could pursue next with her class. What are some questions the class could ask that would take the experiment beyond the level of a superficial activity?

One cornerstone of scientific pursuit is to understand phenomena in terms of cause and effect. What are some ways the class could frame the experiment so that they are thinking in terms of cause and effect? What other aspects of scientific pursuit could help frame the experiment?
 

In the last video, Donna is focused on how evaporation happens and what she would like her students to learn about evaporation. She is very immersed in thinking scientifically about evaporation.

Video 3

Reflecting on the video. What are some questions about evaporation that arise in this video? Does watching the video generate any questions from you about evaporation? At the end Donna says, " … as far as what evaporation is, I'd like them to understand that things go up, and somehow it has to change to go up." How is Donna's learning goal scientific? How could you flesh it out?

Donna is very candid in all of these videos, taking risks through sharing her concerns, questions and limitations. In spite of this, she is comfortable and articulate. This became true for all of the teachers in the Responsive Teaching Project. It's interesting to note that the teachers came to promote the same environment with each other that they aimed to promote in their classrooms!