Thinking Thursday – Week 9
Three Conversations About One Thing
“I don’t have time to teach this stuff.” “What stuff?” “Information literacy. Research skills. Internet safety. Global awareness. Career readiness skills. All the extra stuff they keep throwing at us.” “Why not?” “Too much content.” “Isn’t that content?” “I mean too much real content. Reading. Math. History. It’s too much. They won’t take anything away. It just keeps piling on.” “So you try and squeeze everything in.” “No, I squeeze the important stuff in. The stuff I’m really on the hook for. The stuff they really care about. The rest I save for half days, days right before holidays, you know, the days when no one’s really paying attention and everyone checks out mentally. It’s easy enough to do it then.” “To teach more, you have to teach less.”
“My kids aren’t learning this stuff.” “Are you teaching it well?” “Sure I am, but they’re not remembering it. I teach it one day, a week later they can’t answer simple questions about it. Nine weeks later and they look at me like I’m crazy for even suggesting that we ever covered it.” “Maybe you need to change the way you teach it.” “And just how am I supposed to know how to do that?” “Aren’t you going through professional development?” “Sure. I get two hours a month of it. Meanwhile, I teach ninety-four hours a month. You can guess how well that works out.” “Seems unbalanced.” “Yeah, but we’re not given time for any more. It doesn’t make sense.” “To teach more, you have to teach less.”
“The students just don’t care about learning. They don’t know how to work together. They don’t take responsibility for themselves. They can’t solve any problems I put in front of them. They’re not curious about anything.” “What can they do?” “Sometimes they can pick the right answer in multiple choice.” “Anything else?” “They’re pretty good at worksheets. Pretty fast at them, too.” “Why can’t they do the other things?” “I don’t know. I stand up there, I tell them what they need to know, then I review, review, review. How much simpler can I make it? I can’t make it any easier for them. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be getting it.” “So they’re not independent.” “Not in the slightest.” “They depend on you to give them what they need to get by.” “Absolutely.” “To teach more, you have to teach less.”
What does to teach more, you have to teach less mean to you? Letting go of antiquated or unneeded content for the truly important content that’s worth remembering? Spending less time in the daily grind of teaching and more time learning how to grow and improve professionally so that the instruction you deliver is of a higher quality? Devoting more time to putting the learning responsibility in the students’ hands, so that they can take ownership of their own education, rather than spoon-feeding them content? Or something else entirely?
Extra-special bonus challenge – can you respond to the prompt above without using the words can’t, won’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t?
December 26th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
How about becoming a facilitator of student learning instead of an instructor? If our goal is for students to actually become life long learners, shouldn’t we be looking at teaching our students to teach THEMSELVES- from day one, grade one?
Cooperative learning is a challenge- anyone who has lived with a two year old knows that sharing and coopearting are not traits children are born with. However, these are traits they will need in the world of work. Instead of solving all student problems for them (including “if he bothers you, tell a teacher”) and spoon feeding instruction, how about facilitating instruction through content-integrated projects?
WebQuests, Project-based learning- all of these require a different mind set on the part of the instructor. The teacher becomes a “guide on the side”, not “a sage on the stage.” You design the project, you make sure everything necessary for student success is present, lo and hehold you may even integrate multiple subject areas into one project- but your students truly facilitate their own learning. And if you do it correctly- they REMEMBER! Because it INVOLVES them.
More planning, more integration, more facilitating– less “instruction”
December 26th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
We are currently teaching to a test, the SOL. Content and curriculum is paced to coincide with EOC SOLs. The team concept at the middle school needs to come back, or the focus changed to a junior high model that includes grade level integration of ALL subjects. Do we teach or do we follow pacing guides?
Our students are inheriting a world that is so different from ours that we need to be different in how we teach/learn. Can we coordinate with other school divisions, states, or even countries? Are there universals that all students need no matter where they are or where they will end up? It will take a global village to accomplish this.
December 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I have recently noticed that my kids take on less ownership than previous classes. I had come to believe that when I told my class to learn for the sake of learning, that was no more relevant to them than telling them they should learn because to do so would be crucial to their futures. I realized one day that kids today want more; these old answers are paramount to telling kids they should learn because I said so. They don’t believe me and so they are not vested in the process. I have tried to make lessons fun; I have tried to teach what I thought was pertinent to them; I have even tried bring in new toys to attrack their attention, I just don’t think it works in the long run. One day I decided to ask them what they wanted and what they needed within the perimeters of what I was required to teach them. They actually talked to me and this conversation made me think maybe I could turn my literary analysis over to them. Maybe they could direct the learning conversation and I could take the pressure off myself to teach and give them the option to teach themselves.
We’re currently reading The Good Earth and it seems they had (and have) more to share than in our usual discussion of themes. They wanted to focus on the comparison of cultural differences; the literary analysis came after we decided life for the protagonist was reasonable and probable for today, given the fact that many of their life impressions are surprisingly similar to the protagonist. This may not have been the intent of standard ninth grade analysis; however, my kids agreed after some “heated debates” that many of them see this story unfold every day as women are objectified, neglected, and abused in America (in Newport News) every day. In years past, kids only focused on the differences and I taught tolerance of those differences. This was a whole new take on the piece; one I would not have even imagined but the kids demanded it and so we ran with it. New theme – new kids – new needs – I asked; I listened; we all learned.
I did not teach this; I listened. Now I plan to bring in literary elements to explain how the author successfully communicates her message. After several months of pushing and pleading, trying desperately to cover material; getting in enough appropriate writing samples; reviewing new vocabulary; and explaining the function of literary elements; I finally have vested students and I actually did less. I trusted them to do the right thing and they didn’t let me down. I feel better and hope that I can WORK WITH my kids from now on.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:09 am
To teach more, teach less…
Instead of lecturing/telling/presenting; the teacher should CAUSE LEARNING TO OCCUR by creating opportunities for students to be actively, truly actively involved with the entire process. Authentic teaching happens when students are learning … demonstrating a change in behavior, growth in understanding, knowledge use, transfer, and application.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:48 am
To me it means less teacher talk and more putting content into action. More time for real learning! More discovery! More understanding and making connections. More child-centered foundation building. It means letting go…..letting go of stiff structure and teacher-centered lessons.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:55 am
This year I had my students manipulate a spreadsheet on the election of 1800 (US history). It took a full 90 minutes, but the students did not complain, and they seemed to enjoy the opportunity to go online to fill in the required data. I am not sure if they leaned more, but they were more into learning. Teachers should experiment sometimes with going out on a limb and trying new, and sometimes uncomfortable, methods of getting through the content. Trying new things with the students is also liberating for the teacher, as they are not tied to lectures and worksheets.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Interesting how we, adults, want to figure things out by ourselves without asking for input of the persons we will be teaching to see how best to serve them. Yes to a certain extent we, educators, may have a heads up on what might work for our students but the majority of the knowledge is from what we experienced ourselves, through research of trial and error by other educators and now even brain research. Well if we actually put all these ideas together we can create a great mix to educate our students on the meat of what they need to know and actually allow them to run with it. Some students also need to be able to transition to post secondary institutions which initially will be just lecture classes. Therefore teaching/facilitating the facts and allowing the students to stimulate their brain through creative lessons with keeping in mind the requirements can and will be advantageous for our children. Watering down the expectations of what the students will need to know and level of performance in this global competitive world is not going help our children but harm them in the long run. High expectations with the right learning tools and resources for our students can empower our children to learn how to learn.