Make Coaching Part of Your Professional Development Plan

During these final days of school, many of you are having end-of-year conferences with your evaluating administrator and are receiving accolades and areas of growth based on their observations, your progress toward goals, and your professional learning for the year. Evaluations like these are no one’s favorite thing, neither for the evaluated or the evaluator, but the best meetings of this type conclude with both parties having an idea of what strengths have been reinforced and of what the next step is in the educator’s growth as a professional. If we are educators with growth mindsets, we don’t see appraisals as reflections of our worth as human beings but instead as opportunities to continue to hone our craft in what is an extremely challenging profession—one that no one ever really masters because there’s always room for improvement.

The hardest thing about any feedback—and something we need to be mindful of as we provide comments on our students’ learning—is that we tend to fixate on the negative. Thirty accolades can be undone by one “recommendation for growth.” That’s human nature. Do your best to conquer the monster of your negative inner voice and instead try to be objective. Force yourself to see that less-than-stellar mark as a guide to help you direct your improvement efforts next year. Turn those marks of “developing” and “improvement needed” into invitations to become “accomplished or distinguished.”

An instructional coach can be a valuable ally in your improvement. We don’t work for your principal; we work for you. And, unlike most every other kind of professional development, we bring the learning into your classroom and personalize it to your individual needs.

Here’s how:

1.  You identify an area of growth and contact a coach to help you. Or you contact a coach first, meet to talk about your situation and ideas, and let the coach help you determine an area of growth.

2.  Set a measurable goal along with the coach, determine what you need to learn to help you achieve that goal, and learn all you can with the guidance of the coach. Instructional coaches have experience with research-supported best practices and can provide you with resources to facilitate your learning. Because we know you’re busy, we can distill some of the learning and come to your campus to share it with you at a time that fits into your schedule.

3.  At some point, you could choose for the coach to observe your class to collect data. Even better, the coach could video your lesson so you can watch yourself and/or your students to get a clear idea of what is going on. Collecting data before and after the learning is a fantastic opportunity for you to document your progress toward your goal.

4. Part of the learning could involve observing someone else teach, watching the coach model part of a lesson, co-teaching with the coach, or rehearsing a lesson with the coach.

5.  Implement your new learning and collect data to see how it worked.

6.  High-fives all around if you met your goal. You can now continue working on another aspect of the same goal, begin a new goal cycle, or decide you’re going to just revel in your success. If you didn’t meet your goal, that’s okay, too. Your coach can help you implement Plan B (or C or D or E) until you see results.

That’s instructional coaching in its purest form, but it doesn’t always look like that. Sometimes, coaches help teams or individuals plan lessons, work on ways to implement differentiation strategies, set up classroom management routines, and turn other professional learning into action.

You’re free to share with your administrator that you’re working with a coach, or you can choose to keep it quiet. The coaching relationship is a partnership. What happens in a coaching relationship stays in that coaching relationship. Your boss will only know what you choose to share.

Instructional coaches can help with any of the four domains on T-TESS:  planning, instruction, learning environment, and professional practices.

Here are a few areas from the T-TESS where a coach would be happy to assist you:

• Unpacking lessons from the curriculum and tailoring them to the needs of your students and your teaching style
• Communicating daily learning goals clearly to your students
• Integrating technology in a meaningful way to enhance student mastery of goals
• Using formative assessments to get a clear picture of student learning and to communicate that to students and parents
• Collecting data to measure student progress and adjusting instruction in response
• Framing lessons to engage and connect with students
• Providing opportunities for students to individualize their learning
• Promote authentic questioning and student inquiry
• Increase student ownership in their learning
• Plan for collaboration that maximizes student participation and accountability
• Promote high-level student achievement through goal setting, metacognition, and self-monitoring.
• Increasing your own content expertise in your subject area
• Sequencing instruction appropriately
• Using effective questioning techniques so that all students can access learning at an appropriately sophisticated level
• Adapting lessons to meet the needs of all students by using appropriate differentiation strategies
• Gathering input from students to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and adjust if needed
• Creating a safe, efficient, welcoming classroom environment that promotes student leadership and high-level learning
• Establishing, communicating, and maintaining clear expectations for student behavior
• Developing rapport with and among students
• Reflecting on your practice to implement changes that result in improvement in student performance

Consider including a coach in your professional development plans for next year, and be prepared for powerful, personalized professional learning that can transform your classroom to increase student success.

With the end of school only days away, next year is probably the last thing on your mind, but in case you are interested, feel free to reach out to a coach now, especially if you’d like to meet during that back-to-school week in August. We can help you start the semester so that the year goes smoothly as you implement your powerful student-centered learning goal. We look forward to partnering with you.  

Don’t Forget the L

Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL, is all the rage these days. It seems we have realized that we can’t just stand in the front of our classrooms and teach, heedless of the fact that there are human beings in our classrooms who have emotional baggage they lug with them to school each day.

The anxiety, interpersonal conflicts, insecurities, fears, abuse, stress, sadness, peer influences, grief, drama, and trauma that weigh down the lives of even the most seemingly well-adjusted kids impede students’ abilities to focus on the business of school. What we now know about the brain is that any kind of stress triggers the brain’s fight-or-flight response, which overrides the rational, thinking part of the brain. Students who enter our classrooms having experienced trauma (or even just a really bad morning) are unable to learn until the amygdala relinquishes control of brain activity and allows the student’s brain to return to normal functioning.

It’s no surprise, then, that the education world has jumped on the bandwagon of Social-Emotional Learning. SEL reminds us that building relationships is crucial. Students need to feel comfortable in our classrooms. They need to trust the teacher and their peers. They need to know that the classroom and the campus are safe spaces, physically and emotionally. They need to develop positive dispositions about themselves and about school. 

Positive reinforcements, praise, chants, cheers, claps, “atta boys,” classroom meetings, and affirmations abound in schools today, and we pat ourselves on the back because our students feel great about themselves. Teachers have filled their students’ social-emotional buckets so full that school has become a happy place for most—and certainly for many who traditionally disengage from classroom connections.

My concern in all of this is that we sometimes forget about the L in SEL. The important thing about Social-Emotional Learning is the learning that results from all of our community building and connecting. We can never lose sight of the SO THAT.

The SO THAT is the reason behind the things we do, the impact our efforts have on student learning.

I make sure my students feel safe in my classroom SO THAT they are comfortable taking risks when I ask them to engage in classroom discussions and think about things that are hard for them. 

I let my students see that failure is a part of learning and provide many low-risk learning activities SO THAT students can push themselves to experiment as thinkers and writers without worrying about a grade being attached to it.

I get to know my students’ as people SO THAT they know I care about them as more than just a number in my gradebook because I am planning to push them to do things they may not believe they can do and I want them to know I’ve got their best interests in mind and that they can trust me when it gets precarious.

I talk with my students about things other than school SO THAT when it comes time to talk about academic things they will pay attention to that, too. 

I ensure my students connect with others in the class SO THAT they have a network of support to rely on as they learn because students learn from one another better than they learn from me.  

I try to make students feel comfortable talking with me SO THAT they aren’t afraid to approach me for help when they face struggles with the rigorous content in my course. 

There are so many worthwhile SO THATs that come from paying attention to our students’ social and emotional needs, but we need to make sure that community building and feel-good strategies are not ends in themselves. Social-Emotional Learning without the Learning is not the goal of school. School needs to be a safe, joyful place because we’ve got big plans to meet students where they are and take them to where they need to be. 

Don’t forget the L.

Face-to-Face (or Side-by-Side) in a One-to-One World

Kids today (I say in my crotchety old man voice) are really good at staring at screens. I guess that’s not a totally new thing. I have photos of me and my brother sitting slack-jawed in front of the television watching Scooby Doo cartoons in our pajamas. My brother spent countless hours playing Atari games while I tuned into every game show our rabbit-ears antenna picked up (Big bucks, no whammies! ... I”ll take Paul Lynde to block.... Survey says…!). 

Screens today are ubiquitous, though. You can’t escape them. Now they fit in your pocket, so there’s no excuse to be away from your electronic device. Teens no longer phone one another; the hours spent tying up the family landline while switching back and forth between two friends on call waiting have been replaced with chats, snaps, tweets, and insta-whatevers with numerous friends and acquaintances around the globe. In many ways, young people are more social now than they ever were. 

But they don’t do a lot of speaking. 

In fact, when given the opportunity to have free time, I’ve found that groups of high schoolers will sit in a circle staring at their phones in silence rather than engage in live, in-person conversation. 

There’s a tiny part of my English teacher self that is pleased that teens are spending more time than ever composing written text for others to read. So much written communication has to have some positive impact on writing skills, right? There’s probably something to that theory, though the flipside is probably just as valid: students’ abilities to write a “correct” sentence are declining. (Incidentally, I recently learned that it’s now considered rude and offensive in the world of teenage electronic communication to punctuate the ends of sentences. A colleague’s fifteen-year-old son informed her that every time she put a period at the end of text it was like she was stabbing him, and another friend’s college-aged son asked her why she was angry when she sent a reply of “Yes.” This is completely off the topic, but I wanted my readers who communicate with their offspring to be aware of their unintentional electronic microaggressions.)  

More alarming to me than the decline in traditional conventions of written English is the dip in spoken interactions among screencentric people. As education moves to an increase in instructional technology in classrooms, teachers need to be mindful not to forget the importance of face-to-face verbal communication. 

Before you dismiss this as the angry rant of a technophobe, let me assure you that I’m no Luddite. Technology opens up so many possibilities to transform the factory model of traditional education by engaging students in authentic writing and inquiry in ways we never would have imagined several decades ago. Collaboration can occur within a classroom, across class periods, and even across the globe. Teachers who know AVID strategies can WICORize traditional lessons with thoughtful technology applications. As many campuses shift to one-to-one environments where every student has a laptop, Chromebook, or other device handy at all times, teachers can harness the power of technology to extend student learning to new frontiers. 

At the same time, teachers run the risk of creating classrooms where digital communication completely replaces speaking. On a technology-rich campus, students could conceivably spend their entire school day sitting in chairs and staring at screens, with all communication occurring electronically. 

I don’t think this is ideal. Students still need to talk to one another. Students still need to get up and out of their seats. Teachers need to plan deliberately to include both of those. 

I’ve often said that the ability to write well gives a person an edge in life. A well-written essay can get you into college. An effective cover letter can land you an interview for a competitive job. A compelling persuasive e-mail can get others to listen to what you have to say. 

It’s also true that the ability to speak clearly gives a person an advantage. Someone who can speak articulately and powerfully can ace an interview, move a crowd to action, convince coworkers to listen to a new idea, and get what they want. A person who is comfortable speaking to another, who makes eye contact, who employs effective body language, and who has a command of spoken language can succeed in higher education and in the workplace. As educators, we have the responsibility to provide our students with every opportunity to hone oral language skills as one of the “basics” along with reading and writing. 

If you’re working on a campus with abundant access to technology, please embrace those powerful tools for reaching students and helping them learn in 21st century ways. At the same time, intentionally build in opportunities for students to talk to one another—in pairs, in small groups, and in more formal larger groupings. Allow them to collaborate as they work on their devices, and not just by sharing a document and typing away in silence. Provide turn-and-talk breaks for students to share what they are learning, strategize about their next moves, offer constructive feedback, and question one another. Explore options for having students communicate orally using technology applications such as video chats and recordings (both video and audio). Don’t forget, though, that speaking at a camera isn’t the same thing as learning to express oneself in front of another human being who can respond in the moment. Developing comfort, poise, and fluency in oral communication will serve our students in so many ways. 

Medical experts have become especially vocal recently about the dangers of sitting. Combining speaking and movement—like asking students to walk and talk with a partner about something they are learning—keeps our classrooms from becoming silent deathtraps. An abundance of  technology in the classroom makes it easy for students to sit; teachers, too, can sit at their desks and monitor student work from their own screens. Be aware that though this may be a learning preference for some, others need to process orally, interact with others, and get their blood flowing through movement. 

Technology is wonderful. So are speaking and movement. Making room for all three turns the 21st century classroom into a brain-based happy place where students can thrive and develop the skills they need to succeed wherever the road of life takes them. 

Safe Spaces

This wasn’t originally what I planned to write. I had a perfectly good idea that I attempted to write about on multiple occasions during the week. I’m sure I will return to it in the future, but this week, like much of America, I have been consumed by the images and words that have filled my tv screen, dominated my social media feeds, and disturbed my dreams.

The unimaginable devastation of Hurricane Harvey is impossible to ignore. I can’t even fathom what it must be like in the midst of the destruction, but watching from afar has been horrifying. Last night, I sat mesmerized for hours watching news footage of people escaping rising waters, abandoning what is left of their homes, clinging to rescuers for security, and entering shelters in hopes of finding safety.

Watching the families and individuals filing into the shelters reminded me of an experience 15 years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. To offer whatever help I could, I signed up as a volunteer for the Red Cross, attended a fast-tracked version of their disaster-response training, and reported on Saturday to Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas to work at the shelter that had been set up there.

I did many jobs that day: serving meals, distributing toiletries to people who were about to have their first shower in days, sorting supplies, and working the main floor of the arena where families were setting up cots and staking out the tiny squares of floor they would call “home.”

“Hopeful relief” is the phrase that best describes the atmosphere in the shelter that day. Though the people there had traveled for miles, had left all but minimal possessions behind, and were uncertain what the future might hold, they knew that at last they were safe. Love was everywhere that day. Children played games and colored together at tables at one end of the arena. Grandparents read stories aloud and hugged their grandkids tightly. Fathers returned from DART rail trips to the Cityplace Target with clean, new shirts and socks for their children. A small choir of teens practiced a song to perform at a local church the next morning. One elderly woman told me she was eager to go to a house of worship to give thanks for the safety of her family.  

After thousands were fed and bedtime approached, the shelter began to settle down. The harsh overhead lights were dimmed and quiet hours began. Voices were at a whisper as the elderly and the very young began to drift off to sleep. One father sat in a silent vigil, watching protectively over his wife and children as they slept. There were some quiet tears amid the snores as the room drifted into a deep slumber. Peace and safety replaced doubt and anxiety. Life might look different from this point forward, but things were going to be alright.

An hour later, the silent night was disturbed by the sound of a bullhorn and the glare of the arena lights being turned on suddenly. It seems that several other busloads of evacuees were due to arrive the next morning, and the man in charge of overseeing the operations at the shelter decided that we needed to make room immediately for them and others who might show up later. The volunteers were told to squeeze everyone into half of the arena floor.  With no concern for the comfort, safety, or humanity of the people, the man barked orders into a bullhorn, rudely waking the room and destroying any sense of home created during the day. The space was no longer a safe one.

I do not recall ever in my life feeling so bad on behalf of others as I did that night. These volunteers who had spent all day ensuring the safety and helping to establish community in that shelter were the very ones who had to disturb sleep and attempt to explain why it was so crucial to move everyone in the middle of the night. I couldn’t explain it because it didn’t make a bit of sense to me.

All of these memories remind me of the importance of creating safe spaces for students in our schools and classrooms. Many of us will encounter students in the upcoming months who have been displaced by Harvey. All of us already have students in our classes who experience traumas of their own every single day. During childhood and adolescence, even tiny problems can seem insurmountable. Unfortunately, many young people deal with issues that no one would call tiny. Homelessness, depression, domestic violence, abuse, death, crime, neglect, divorce, abandonment, substance abuse, poverty, and so many other traumas we can’t begin to imagine are everyday parts of the lives of some of our students. For many, school is their safe place away from all that, their escape.

In high school psychology, we studied Maslow, who said that safety was one of the needs—second only to physiological needs such as food, water, and shelter—that must be met before things such as learning can occur. People who don’t feel safe are constantly on high alert. Their brains are in the fight-or-flight stage, and they aren’t receptive to things that don’t impact their immediate survival. Learning doesn’t take place when students don’t feel safe.

Creating and maintaining a safe space for learning should be the top priority for anyone who works in education. We create safe spaces in many ways:

• by the family or community we build
• in the ways we speak to students and they ways we allow them to speak to others
• through our responses to mistakes, errors, and imperfections
• in the rules and norms we set up and how we enforce them
• by listening, even when we are busy
• in our preparation and readiness for each day of class
• with our policies and procedures
• through our body language and physical arrangements of the learning space
• in the ways we accept and celebrate the wide variety of personalities, learning needs, backgrounds, perspectives, and physical types that inhabit our classrooms
• by our words and actions on the days when we are the most stressful ourselves

A teacher told me today about a student who wrote and shared a piece of writing about what it felt like to have a seventeen-year-old older brother who will be in prison for the next ten years. The class listened intently and cried along with this sixth grade boy as he read aloud about an extremely sensitive and personal part of his life in a classroom he had only known for six school days. That teacher has clearly created a safe space for that young man to take risks and share important aspects of himself with others.  

Safe spaces take work to create and even more work to maintain, but the results are worth the effort.

May your students find refuge in your classroom from whatever storms they are weathering. For some, you will be the lifeboat that rescues them, the compass that guides them, the rudder that steers them in the right direction, the life vest that keeps them afloat, or the rock they can cling to when things get rough.

My day working in the Katrina shelter was one of the best and worst days of my life because I experienced the power of creating a safe space and then witnessed what happens when that safety disappears. To our sisters and brothers affected by Harvey, whatever the future brings, I wish a speedy return to safety and stability.  

May we all soon inhabit safe spaces because only there can we be our very best selves.  

Academically Speaking

I’ve never been very good at keeping up with the slanguage of the youngsters. My conversational skills are hardly on fleek when I realize I’m not sufficiently jiggy wit’ it to tell the difference between someone who’s your bae and someone who’s basic. Clearly, I’m not fly or legit. My bad.  

Slang and colloquial expressions fall under the broad communicative category of the “casual register.” We speak in the casual register when we’re hanging out with friends and perhaps family. It’s language that doesn’t have to abide by the formal rules of grammar and sometimes consists of short bursts that aren’t “complete” sentences.

For many of our students, the casual register is the only register. Even when they write in school, they reproduce strings of words and not-words that defy traditional grammar rules and don’t approximate standard English.

As teachers who are preparing our students for the post-high-school world--whether it be college or career--we have the responsibility to introduce our students to a new mode of communication:  the formal or academic register.

This doesn’t mean that we devalue the casual register that may be many students’ preferred (or only) method of discourse. While honoring this aspect of the students’ language, we need to make students aware of when it’s appropriate and inappropriate to use.

Speaking in casual register is probably not a good idea when you visit a bank to talk to a loan officer about securing funds for your startup business.

I wouldn’t advise trying to schmooze a judge or woo a jury with your mastery of the casual register.

There’s probably a study somewhere that shows that the casual register doesn’t get you too far in job interviews.

And if you’re trying to impress a college professor with a bright idea you’ve thought up, expressing it in the casual register is likely to lessen the idea’s impact.

In our classrooms, we should teach students how to use a new register--the academic register--so they can use it skillfully when the situation is right. Not only do we need to introduce the academic register; we also need to practice it. Simply talking about it is not enough. Students need to be able to shift smoothly into the academic register when the situation calls for it.

Last week, I attended an ESL symposium where Dr. Kate Kinsella talked about this very topic. If Dr. Kinsella had her way, teachers would never slip into the casual register with their students and classrooms would become linguistic sanctuaries where the academic register could flourish. Some teachers who like to make students feel comfortable by interacting more colloquially with them may find this a bit extreme. I think, though, that even the most casual among us will concede that it’s our responsibility to teach students how to speak in a way that will increase their odds of future success in a world dominated by those who have attained some advanced education.

So how do we teach our students how to employ the academic register? Here’s a brief list of strategies, many of which I learned from Dr. Kinsella’s presentation:

Model academic register in your classroom discussions. Provide written examples of statements in the academic register, allow students to follow along as you read them aloud, and then ask students to repeat them chorally as a class. This gives your students a chance to hear how scholars put words together and practice hearing themselves do the same.

Make the students speak, and require them to speak in academic register, even in small-group discussions and pair-shares. Don’t accept one-word answers to discussion questions. People who speak in the academic register speak in complete sentences. Before a discussion, remind your students to practice speaking in complete thoughts.  

One way to reinforce responding in complete sentences is to teach students to flip the question. For instance, if the teacher’s question is, “What is one way we can reduce our carbon footprint?”, students can begin their academic-register response with, “One way we can reduce our carbon footprint is….” Depending on the skills and abilities of your students, you may find it useful to display the question and the flipped response so your students have it handy.

Sentence stems and word banks can provide guidelines for academic-register language in discussions. If a student has a handout or card to use, he can refer to the sentence starters and replace “Nuh-uh” with something more appropriate, like, “While I see your point, I think…” or “I understand you think…; however, I believe….”  Giving students lists of transitions to use in various discussion situations provides them with the scaffolding they need to construct increasingly thoughtful contributions to conversations that will sound more scholarly than before.

Noticing academic register in the speaking of others is an ideal way to raise awareness. Using a short video clip of an interview or a TED Talk can provide fodder for discussion about how the speaker communicates as well as about the content conveyed. Let your students see how experts speak and how their method of speaking adds to their credibility.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Imagine the impact you could have if you were the adult who unlocked this simple secret, one that will open so many doors for your students. It’s, like, totally awesome. It’s wicked.  It’s phat.  Word!

Thanks for all you do to keep your students’ futures full of possibilities.

Craig

Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun...

I don't like Starbucks. There! I said it.

It's just not my kind of store. First off, I'm not a coffee drinker, so my menu choices are somewhat limited. I'm fairly adept at brewing my own tea at home or on the go and, if given a choice, prefer water. Tap is fine. So the idea of paying a big chunk of change for someone to make a beverage for me isn't my cup of tea, literally.

But those are not the real reasons I don't like Starbucks. In truth, I'm uncomfortable going there because I don't know how to "do" the Starbucks thing. In some stores, I don't even know where I'm supposed to stand to place an order. Then, when it comes to making a decision, I have to choose from sizes that don't make sense to me (Why is "tall" only slightly larger than a Dixie Cup?) and employ a whole vocabulary of terms that somehow everyone else seems to know but me. I have to decide what sort of milk I want, how frothy I want it, how many shots of caffeine I need, whether I prefer room left at the top to add goodies of my own, and whether I want flavorings, sweeteners, or toppings. There's an entire article on WikiHow explaining the ins and outs of this process, with baffling insider tips like this one:  "A tall typically comes with a single shot of espresso, a grande comes with a double shot, and a venti also comes with a double shot, unless it is a venti iced drink, in which [case] it comes with a triple shot of espresso." When I order at Starbucks, I feel like a stranger who doesn't know the language or the local customs.

You know what else? I don't see what's the big deal about In-N-Out Burger. I realize them's fightin' words to some of my West Coast friends, but, really, this fast food joint doesn't dazzle a guy raised with Whataburger and Braum's nearby.  On a trip to Sacramento years ago, some locals said, "You must try an In-N-Out Burger while you're here." I did. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to ask, "Which burger should I order?" The In-N-Out menu only offers three options:  a hamburger, a cheeseburger, and a "Double-Double," which is apparently a registered trademark term. The sole side order option is fries (not much of an option, is it?), and the adventurous may select from three flavors of milkshakes. During my taste test, burgers and fries were fresh and tasty but nothing special. Due to the simplicity of the menu (Their website even says, "Ordering is as easy as 1."), In-N-Out avoids the mind-boggling complexity of Starbucks.  Or so I thought....

Imagine my surprise when I learned that for years In-N-Out Burger has had a "Secret Menu" that only those in-the-know order from. You can get your burger "Animal Style" (which includes a mustard-cooked patty and grilled onions), enjoy your meat nestled in a lettuce wrap instead of a carb-filled bun, or appreciate the simple beauty of a grilled cheese sandwich if you know about this hidden menu. It might have been helpful to have this info while I was in line.

Once again, like Starbucks, In-N-Out has become a place that only people with a knowledge of unwritten or hard-to-find secrets can navigate successfully.

I wonder how many similar secrets we keep from our students in the daily operation of our classrooms.

Do we make our expectations specific and clear? Are we transparent about why we are doing a particular activity? Are policies and procedures spelled out and easy to follow, even for the uninitiated? Could a person walking into our classrooms off the street (after passing the interrogation and identity check at the reception desk) tell what our students are supposed to be doing and why? Do our students feel that sense of panic that I feel as I inch to the front of the line in Starbucks or the jealousy and sense of helplessness I feel when I watch the guy at the next table at In-N-Out devour a sandwich I couldn't find on the menu?

Recently, I discovered that some of our cherished educational practices may inadvertently be "members only" experiences for our students. An article in the New York Times last week revealed that the traditional college practice of lecture-only instruction was biased toward white male students from wealthy, educated families. Every student benefited more from active learning strategies than from lectures, and the students who saw the most positive effects from active learning (and were the least successful at learning during our lectures) were women, minorities, low-income students, and first-generation college goers. This is a powerful reminder that the sit-and-get methods of "instruction" are largely unsuccessful for the majority of the kids we teach.

So what can we do to divulge those secrets and let all our students in on the workings of our classrooms so all can benefit? Here's a list of a few ideas:

• Post daily objectives (learning targets, essential questions, or whatever you want to call them) in kid-friendly language and point them out to our students before the learning begins.
• Engage our students in experiences that enable them to immerse themselves in the learning, struggle with the concepts, and figure out things for themselves. 
• Utilize word walls for academic and content vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to some. 
• Establish clear procedures for what students should do when they enter and exit the classroom, how they should keep track of their learning, what they ought to do when they miss class, and what you expect of them.
• Provide rubrics for assignments ahead of time, and help students make sense of them before and during the time they're working. 
• Conference with students (even for tiny amounts of time) to make sure they understand what's going on. 
• Let students in on the "why" of the lesson by establishing a practical reason for what you're teaching them or asking them to do. 
• Explain specifically what you mean when you say "study for the test." Give students concrete activities or processes so they'll know what "studying" means. 
• Communicate with students and parents (via e-mail blasts, a class blog--Blogger is extremely easy to figure out and links with your Google login at school--, or whatever method you prefer) to let them know what's going on, what's coming up, and how they can seek extra help if they need it. 

Here's a quick example:

Earlier this week I visited several middle school language arts classrooms that did an especially effective job of taking the mystery out of expectations and procedures. In one, a clear objective was posted prominently for all to see, a word wall let me know what vocabulary words and roots they had studied so far this semester, a display informed me of what the teacher was reading and what she had finished reading, and the teacher gave crystal-clear instructions and then followed up with students individually as they worked to make sure they knew what they were supposed to be doing. In the other, the teacher opened class with a slide on the screen that contained an objective, a list of activities on the day's agenda, a photograph of the items the students would need to have on their desk to begin class (writer's notebook, a pen, and a highlighter), and--this made my AVID heart happy--the letters WICOR with the elements of the acronym highlighted to show the students that during class they would be using inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading. In both classrooms, I had no doubt that the students felt equipped for success.

None of the items on the above list are difficult to implement. And why not do all you can to make your students comfortable and confident when they enter your classroom?

After all, grabbing a cup of coffee, ordering a burger, and participating in school shouldn't be stress-filled activities shrouded in mystery.

Thank you for all you do to help your students find their way. 

Craig

   

But What Are the Kids Doing?

“I have the best idea for a lesson.  I found this new article on a website that I thought I could read to the students and then we could talk about it and how it relates to what we have been studying.”

“But what are the kids doing?”

“…and then I thought I would tell the students a story about that time I…”

“But what are the kids doing?”

“…using the PowerPoint to explain the concept of…”

“But what are the kids doing?”

“…with a video from YouTube that provides a great way to get the students interested in the topic of…”

“But what are the kids doing?”

“…and I could show them a model  and some really gross pictures of….”

“But what are the kids doing?”

In and out of the classroom, teachers spend a lot of time thinking about how they’re going to teach their students. Ideas come to us when we are reading, browsing online, sweating on the treadmill, driving, or even taking a shower. But not every idea that comes to us is classroom-worthy. Sometimes, something that sounds fun, intriguing, or creative still fails to pass the one-question test: “But what are the kids doing?”

Several weeks ago, I sat in a group planning for a one-hour presentation we would be giving at a meeting of the district’s principals. We spent quite a time brainstorming the components of the presentation before we began sketching out a lesson plan.  As we added to our list, one voice of reason in the room asked us contemplative questions about the lesson, most often the question, “But what are the principals going to be doing?”  If the answer was “Listening,” “Sitting,” or “Nothing,” we revamped that portion of the agenda to make the learning something other than a sit-and-get experience.

It occurred to me that “What are they doing?” is probably the most important question we can ask ourselves while we plan for our classrooms.  It’s so easy for us to pontificate in the front of the classroom—to be the wise conveyor of information, the witty raconteur, the know-it-all professor. Even if students are mesmerized by our monologues and lectures, research tells us they’ll only remember a small portion of the information if they simply sit and listen. Writing down what you say only increases their retention by a small degree. Allowing students to talk about the material with one another and asking them to do something with the content boosts their learning potential dramatically.  

I can already hear some of you thinking to yourselves (or saying aloud), “My students are much better behaved when I stand in front of them and lecture. ”  Perhaps.  You know, babies cry less when they are sound asleep, too.    

Others of you are thinking fondly (and perhaps defensively) about your class discussions, the ones where you are standing in the front and asking your class provocative questions to stimulate conversation. Those may be beneficial to the handful of student who are actively engaged in answering and debating, but what are the other twenty class members doing? (For the record, most of the time I was one of the other twenty class members, and I wrote a lot of letters to friends, doodled on the margins of my notebook, outlined the great American novel I thought I’d write someday, wished I were elsewhere, and dreaded being called upon.)

How about adding a quickwrite before your discussion to allow students to organize and plan out their thoughts? Could the discussion take place in smaller groups within the class so that all students can have the opportunity to contribute?

One of my favorite aspects of AVID’s classroom strategies is the emphasis on student engagement and active learning. Stay tuned throughout the year, and I promise more techniques you can use in your classes to find better answers to the all-important planning question:  “But what are the students doing?”

I challenge you to make your classroom a place where the students do most of the talking, most of the doing, and most of the learning. We shouldn’t be the only ones doing the work in our classrooms, should we?

How to Give Instructions That Kids Will Follow

How many times have you given what you thought were clear instructions only to discover that your students completely misconstrued what you wanted them to do? Or they responded with a billion questions after the fact?

Giving clear instructions can make or break a class activity. Poorly-delivered directions can cause confusion and chaos and can impede success and increase classroom management issues. In the past few years, one of my professional goals has been to work on the oral  instructions I give when I work with students and with adult learners.  I’ve listened, observed, and pondered pitfalls to determine what works and what doesn’t. Here are a few tips teachers can apply if they want to strengthen their direction-giving:

1.  Tell the students where they’re headed.  Remember what life was like before a GPS guided us everywhere?  For a few years, many of us relied on Yahoo Maps and other online tools to provide printed lists of driving directions to get us from here to there. Oftentimes, the detailed instructions were especially confusing if you didn’t look at a map first; it might take five separate steps to explain that you were supposed to get onto the Tollway going southbound. Taking a moment to preview the route could prevent confusion along the way because the driver could use the big-picture idea to make sense of the smaller instructional steps. Previewing the map also could've helped the driver get back on track when an instructional step was missed or misunderstood.  The same idea applies in the classroom. Unless it needs to be a surprise, teachers should probably let their students know what they’re about to do before providing instructions.  It can be something as simple as, “Today we’re going to learn how to use and share a Google Doc, how to create a folder to organize your Google Drive, and how to submit an assignment on Google Classroom,” or, “We’re about to set up our Writing Notebooks.”  Expert direction-givers Gordon Ramsey, Alton Brown, Emeril Lagasse, and Rachel Ray always let their at-home viewers know what they’re concocting before they start throwing ingredients together. Students, like TV-watching wannabe chefs, love knowing what they’re doing before—bam!—the instructions start flying at them.        

2.  Avoid the fillers. Someone at some point in history taught teachers to be too polite:  “Okay, so…Now, what I’d like you to do, if you don’t mind, is to take out a piece of paper—if it’s okay with you—and a pen, preferably, or, if you don’t like pen, a pencil.  I need you to be quiet so that you can hear the next instruction, if you will.”  Some teachers spend so much time apologizing in advance, avoiding giving commands, asking "if you would" or would you please" questions, and sugarcoating their verbiage that the directions get lost in the shuffle.  How about this instead?  “Take out a piece of paper and a pen.”  I don’t think this “harsh” demand is going to damage any students irreparably, and the fewer words we say, the more important each spoken word becomes.

3.  Make sure students are ready to receive instructions before you give instructions.  Don’t tell students how to fill out the top of the scantron while you’re in the middle of handing out the scantrons unless you want half the class to turn in a scantron with no name and no information on it.  Don’t start explaining where to find a Google Form when ten students are still turning on their computers.  Don’t begin instructions when a gaggle of girls is huddled in the corner of the classroom discussing the homecoming dance proposal that occurred during the passing period.  Establish your class routine for getting students’ attention, get their attention, make sure all students have what they need, and then begin your instructions. If you don’t make sure they’re ready, be prepared to repeat yourself or to watch your students invent their own interpretations of the instructions.

4.  Keep the instructions simple and direct.  This one is self-explanatory. Tricky instructions overwhelm learners. Break the procedure down into manageable steps, and state the steps clearly.  Verb + direct object.  “Take out a piece of paper.”  “Fold the paper in half, hotdog style.” “Trade papers with your elbow partner.”  

5.  Provide written instructions, too.  Simplified written steps projected on a screen or on the board can help students who are visual learners or who lag behind. Pare down your written instructions to the most essential wording, and elaborate as needed while you present them orally.

6.  Have a signal so you'll know when to proceed.  "When you've finished marking the text, put your pen down so I know you're ready to proceed." "Sit down in your seats after your entire group has shared their prewrites." Simple visual cues can help you determine when to give the next set of instructions. 

7.  Help the slowpokes catch up by providing “bridge” instructions.  You'll inevitably have a few students who lag behind the rest of the class. Some of them might be dragging their heels because they're unsure of what they are supposed to be doing. I'm fond of adding a little bridge to let everyone know how to catch up with the rest:  "After you've underlined the sentence you think is the main point of the article, write a paraphrase of that sentence in your writer's notebook."  The students who are confused or delayed then know to speed up the previous step and rejoin the class.                         

               

8.  Keep them from jumping the gun.  When you begin giving instructions, some students start before you've finished what you have to say. Starting off with, "Stand up and find a group of three people who don't sit at your table," will cause several students--or the entire class--to leap from their seats to locate their group before you tell them what to do. I recommend giving a cue at the beginning of your instructions to let them know when to begin.  "In about a minute, when I turn on the music..."  "After I finish these instructions, on the count of three...." Providing a clear signal prompting them to begin the activity will keep them in their seats and attentive while you tell them what they need to hear. 

9.  Don’t overload.  We're all guilty from time to time of giving too much information at the beginning, which leads to us having to repeat ourselves later. We begin by saying something innocent like, "Stand up, find a partner, discuss the question on the board, and then draft a summary of your response in your notebook. Then, you're going to list pros and cons for the statement you wrote down." A better approach might begin like this: "When I say 'Go,' stand up and find a solemate--someone who is wearing shoes similar to yours. When you find your partner, stand side-by-side, face me, and quietly wait for the next instruction. Go!"  Once you've ensured that everyone has found a partner, you're ready to continue. 

10. Ask for questions in a way that will get the questions you want.  I've found that "What questions do you have?" works better than "Are there any questions?" This doesn't give the students an easy "no" answer and doesn't presuppose that there will be no questions about your instructions. Even the best instruction givers sometimes leave the students with legitimate unanswered questions. 

The art of giving clear instructions is not easy to master. All of us can continually improve. But if you are mindful of the pointers above, you'll soon find that your students become more compliant and that your classroom runs much more smoothly. 

Now, when I say 'Forward this blog post,' send this to three of your teacher friends who might need help with instruction-giving so they can learn what you just learned.  They will thank you later. 

Thanks for all you do to make your classroom a successful learning environment for all your students. Forward this blog post!

Craig