I Do, We Do, You Do

Dear Teacher, 

I have been teaching for five years now and today I learned that I have been planning and teaching "I do, we do, you do" completely wrong and I bet you are as well. 

I thought this meant I write, you work together, and you do it alone. This is not what it means at all. We have it all wrong. 

I DO

What I thought it was: 
Back when I was in college and even during practicum and student teach, I do was the teacher standing at the board working through the question or problem step by step. This is what I have always done and what I plan for in my lesson plans. My students are watching me work. 

What it is: 
Instead, I should be putting myself into my students shoes. Reserve a seat for yourself in the classroom. Sit back and look at the problem. Then say "Mrs. Judd says to -----. This means I need to ... and then ...." Keep talking about the problem as if you were the student. 

You are gonna feel crazy and at first not see this as important at all but students need a model. They need to "see" what the words should sound like inside of their own head. This is the equivalent of handing them sentence stems to help them start writing. 

The thoughts in our heads are closed to students. We need to open this for them. Not while standing at the board leading them but rather while sitting next to them so they can see us as the student and the process in which they need to go through in order to be successful. 

​We Do

What I thought it was:
Group work where students begin to work on problems together in order to have support when completing them. I often use a jigsaw method for the "collaborative" problems given to us by our curriculum. 

What it is: 
This is the time that I stand at the board, as the teacher, and now work through the problem or question. I have a student be "the voice inside my head" and recreate what I just modeled. This allows the students another chance to see how to meet our goal. This time the student can "see" both the student and teacher side of things. 

After doing this, then I can move onto the group support and jigsaw method. This is what "gradual release" truly means. It is much slower than I thought and the implications of doing it this way result in a lot less "what are we doing?" and a lot more growing in knowledge and skills. 

You Do

What I thought it was:
Students hunched over their desk working by themselves to reach the goal.

What it is:
​This is the student's time to practice the skill. It can be by themselves, with a partner, as part of a game, or any of a number of different things. This is the students chance to model what he/she has gained over the course of the lesson. 

Lesson Planning Success

I also discovered that you can do this multiple times during a lesson. I do problem 1, we do problem 2, you do problem 3 and then back to I do for problem 4, etc....

Now that I know, my lesson plans have completely changed and I have noticed an increase in understanding from my students. To think, all of those teachers I have watched over the years and all of those students learning and here we all were... implementing it incorrectly. 

Until Next Time. 
​Misty