Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Normalizing Struggle

“I’m the only one having trouble.”

“Everyone gets it except me.”

I spoke this week to a high school counselor who told me how frequently she hears comments like these from students who come to her asking to be removed from an AP or honors class. It seems that the many students who are struggling in tough classes believe no one else is experiencing difficulty.

That’s not entirely surprising. We live in a society that likes to conceal our struggles and hide our failures from the neighbors. We send holiday form letters extolling our superlative year accompanied by pictures of our perfect children, editing out the parts that include little Johnny’s battle with depression and Susie’s F in Algebra 2. On social media, we carefully curate our lives so our followers see only what we want them to know about ourselves, likely leaving out the parts that paint us in a less than flattering light. I spoke to a friend whose teenage daughter posts photos on Instagram but takes them down if they don’t receive enough “likes” because she doesn’t want others to see that she posted something that didn’t receive widespread friend approval. We grew up watching deodorant commercials urging us, “Never let them see you sweat.” Struggle, it seems, is shameful and should be hidden from others.

There’s grave danger in the classroom when we let students believe that they are alone in their struggles. Part of developing grit and a growth mindset requires an acknowledgement of difficulty and some productive conversation about how to dig yourself out of a hole or how to get past a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. We have to normalize struggle rather than hiding it like it’s a dirty little secret.

Perhaps the simplest way to do this is to acknowledge struggles to the full class: “Quite a few of you are still having difficulty with writing a thesis statement for your DBQ essay. I hope that those of you who came to tutorials this morning before school felt, as I did, that your understanding is improving. I’ll be here after school and tomorrow morning if you want some more help or if anyone else wants to stop by. If you’re having trouble at this point, that’s not totally unexpected, but I’d like to help you figure it out as soon as possible.”

A statement like that one not only shows struggling students that they are not alone but also makes it clear that seeking help during tutorials is beneficial and something other students take advantage of. An indirect invitation like this might spur a student to seek some help.

More likely, though, you’ll have to be more direct. If you know a student is experiencing difficulty, invite her privately--not embarrassingly in front of all her friends--to come in for help. Better yet, specify the time and date, and tell the student you’ll see her then. Get parents involved; I found that a solution-based parent phone call lets Mom and Dad know that you care and want to partner with them to help their son or daughter succeed. Your helpful tone of voice comes through much more clearly over the phone than it will in an e-mail.

Another option for bringing struggle to the forefront is to suspend instruction periodically to check in with everyone in a class meeting. Circle the desks or chairs up if you have room so everyone is on equal ground, and host a productive, growth-oriented class discussion about how things are going. Create a safe space for students to share what they are finding difficult and what seems to be working for them. Students love to give one another advice. Hearing other students share their confusion or difficulties lets students know they aren’t alone. When you share your own stories of encountering challenges, you break down some barriers that could exist between you and your students.

A couple of warnings are probably useful in conjunction with this.

Struggle is normal. Make sure students know that. But if every student is experiencing struggle or is not performing up to your expectations, you can’t blame the entire class. That’s when you need to examine your own instruction and your expectations. Must beginning-of-the-year students perform at an end-of-year level to earn a satisfactory grade? Have you eased students into a challenging task, gradually increasing the level of difficulty, or did you just throw them into the deep end and complain when they aren’t able to swim?

I sometimes hear teachers, when defending a widespread lack of success on an assignment, say that they are grading students on the end-of-the-year rubric but that there’s a safety net in place. In other words, lots of students are going to fail this assignment, but the teacher has a plan later on to allow them to redo and improve their mastery and, at the same time, raise the grade. I’d argue that the initial lack of success affects some students so negatively that there’s no hope for recovery. Many students facing a devastating failure will just give up; they’ll see it as an indication that they’re not capable and will shut down. Hiding the safety net until later is just plain scary. Don’t make them stand on the high dive and jump off unless they know that there’s water in the pool below and a lifeguard on duty. Maybe it’s better to let them hone their diving skills from a lower platform at first, spotting them to assist in the execution of the dive until they can do it successfully on their own.     


Let’s quit treating our struggles like some misfit locked up in a secret room in the attic in a Victorian novel. They’re not something to hide from the world; instead, we should acknowledge them, address them, push through them, and grow stronger because of them.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

The Best Guest Speakers Open Doors of Career Possibilities

What do you want to be when you grow up?
          
Having asked this question to hundreds of high school freshmen over the years, I can almost always predict the answers:  a doctor, a lawyer, a rich businessperson (the “rich” part is always included), a movie star, a rock/hip-hop/country musician, or a pro athlete. From this limited list, I conclude that my students’ exposure to the vast array of career options is fairly limited.
          
From time to time, I’ve tapped into the idea of bringing a guest speaker into class to broaden my students’ horizons, but I’ve discovered that it’s tough to ask a civilian to step into my classroom and give the same talk six hours in a row to a roomful of squirmy teenagers (so, now you think teachers are overpaid?).
          
Fortunately, my students have had their eyes opened to previously undiscovered career possibilities through the magic of TED Talks. These interesting, informative presentations readily available online bring guest speakers into my room instantly, and I don’t have to coordinate with their work schedule, buy them lunch, write a thank you note, or have 911 on my speed dial for fear they will collapse from exhaustion.
          
Take, for instance, this TED Talk by Rachel Pike titled “The Science Behind a Climate Headline.” In just over four minutes, Pike takes her listeners on a behind-the-scenes tour of the scientific process that eventually leads to the global warming warnings the students hear on the nightly news or read about in their Twitter feeds. Pike shows her audience the cool gadgets she gets to use, tours the decked-out plane she flies in to take measurements, and throws around words like “zeta-illion” that sound enormous and impressive, all the while remaining easy-to-understand and approachable.
         
In the ELA: Writing and Speaking Curriculum at AVID Summer Institutes, we use this TED Talk as a source for writing a research paper. Students can learn from watching this how to incorporate non-print sources into their writing. Beyond the English classroom, this video certainly has applications in chemistry or other science classes. Speech classes could view Pike’s speech to talk about effective use of visual aids, speaking with confidence, and clarity.
          
Pike’s lecture, however, serves a secondary purpose of opening students’ eyes to new career possibilities. No longer does the science-loving freshman have to believe that the only interesting scientific career option is in medicine. Showing a female scientist (and one who defies any preconceived stereotypes of scientists) can also provide inspiration to students who are underrepresented in STEM fields of study.  
          
Probably the most successful TED Talk guest speaker experience in my classroom in recent years occurred in conjunction with a visit I scheduled for my Humanities and AVID students at the Dallas Opera. Having scored some free tickets to the final dress rehearsal of the Dallas Opera’s Southwest regional premiere production of Death and the Powers, a new opera by Tod Machover with a libretto by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, I wanted to provide some background for my students so they would know something about the production they were soon to attend.
          
TED Talks came to my rescue. I showed my students Machover’s TED talk “Inventing Instruments That Unlock New Music.” In the talk, Machover, who, in addition to composing operas, is Professor of Music and Media at MIT’s Media Lab, discusses his research, much of which focuses on his work creating new instruments that allow people with mental and physical disabilities to compose and play music. He also—perhaps more interesting to my students—helped develop the game Guitar Hero. At the end of the video, composer Dan Ellsey, who has cerebral palsy, performs one of his own compositions made possible by Machover’s assistive devices. All in all, it’s an impressive 20 minutes.
          
Machover also talks about Death and the Powers, an opera that incorporates unique technologies—a giant musical chandelier, an automated music-producing bookcase, a costume that becomes an instrument itself, and an army of robots operated by remote control—to produce something never before seen or heard on the operatic stage.
          
Primed with information about Machover and his research, my students piled on the buses and headed to the opera house. In the lobby was a chair that allowed those who sit in it to play music by waving their hands at various levels in the air. While my students were exploring this marvel before the performance, Machover himself appeared and watched in delight. Students noticed him with the excitement usually reserved for the sighting of a pop superstar. The opera itself didn’t disappoint as students were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into the music of the future in a setting many had never before experienced.
          
In talking with several students after the opera, I was pleased to hear murmurs of excitement about newfound discoveries. One young musician who also loves science told me he is determined to attend MIT and work with Machover in the Media Lab.
          
From this experience, I learned about the power of TED Talks to open doors for students to help them see new possibilities. Not only do they learn a great deal about things they’ve never before considered, but they also have broadened their view of options for their own futures.
          
TED Talks provide some of the best guest speakers I’ve had in my classroom. I’ll be inviting them back.