Big changes take time. They are achieved by blending many small changes through consistent and conscious effort overcoming innumerable obstacles arguing for the status quo until an aggregate of change is accomplished. Big changes are hard to accomplish because personal commitment to change is even harder to maintain than the many small, individual efforts required for a large-scale change.
Hence, commit to small changes. They are easier on the body and soul. And, incrementally they cause very large results – one at a time.
Teachers say to me, “There is tremendous pressure on us to improve student academic achievement. And, every day we receive information about another new professional development venture guaranteed to cause students to learn more or learn more efficiently. There are so many ‘do this’ advertisements that it makes my head spin.” Then, they ask the important question. “If I only did one small thing differently, what one thing should I do that would help my students to learn?”
Here it is. Spend more time checking all students for their understanding of what they think they heard you say or saw you do before they launch into an assignment. The essential words in that statement are “what they think.”
Sadly, a classroom of students frequently is as attentive as small children playing baseball. Picture nine children on a baseball field. One or two players are informed and skilled and focused on every play. In the field, they have their eyes on the batter ready to field a ball hit their way. Other players stand in the right position, have their glove on the hand they catch with, but may be drawing their name in the dirt with the toe of their shoe when the batter swings. And, other players are watching clouds or turning like a top or have dropped their glove on the ground so they have a softer place to sit. There also is this kind of variance in the classroom even though all children may be sitting in their chairs looking toward you.
Elementary-aged children? Yes. The above descriptors may not read like the children in your classroom. It is because elementary children can at least look as if they are attentive. Innocent-faced tykes wanting to learn while their minds are on breakfast, recess, the Ipad game they played before school, and wondering what worms do at night. They wiggle loose teeth and try to pinch dust motes that float across their desk. A few hang on their teacher’s every word. More need help in focusing on what the teacher’s words mean because their wonderful little minds are constantly thinking their own thoughts.
Secondary students can be a totally different inattentive lot. The difference between elementary and secondary students is that the inattentive middle schooler or high schooler may not care how they appear to you. While the academically-focused students give you their more mature, note taking focus, the inattentive may be looking out the window, turned all the way around in their chair looking at someone in the back of the room, or sitting with their heads down on their desk tops not looking, not listening and not caring. Others may resemble the seemingly attentive elementary student – sitting up and looking at you while they are texting on a phone in their hip pocket.
Checking is checking for readiness to do the activity of learning.
Checking means asking all children to give back to you the directions that you gave to them so that you know they not only heard but listened when you described or demonstrated what they should do next.
Checking means having all children write down the steps you provided – step 1, step 2, step 3.
Checking means having all children tell, show, list, or illustrate individually or in groups. Checking can be social as long as the outcome is a demonstration of their understanding.
Checking means that you listen, watch, and observe demonstrations of what all children think they heard you say, do or write.
Checking means that you have the opportunity to correct any aspect of their misunderstanding prior to their work. It is so much easier to correct misunderstandings before children begin to work rather than during or after. Waiting just five minutes means that children, acting upon what they thought you said, may have focused on the wrong ideas, made mathematical mistakes, or assumed something to be true that isn’t and committed their time and effort on a wrong pathway. When learning children start with mistakes, you must not only give them correct information but you must also neutralize their mistakes and this neutralizing business is not only time consuming but may not be effective. Mistakes and wrong information have their own lifetime and can reappear later because the mistakes are in the child’s short-term memory and will compete with the correct information.
In each of the above checking statements the word “all” precedes children. It is easy to ask a student who you know to be attentive to recite the directions for the class assignment. However, to stop with an attentive child’s response is to enter the swamp of time and effort correcting misunderstood directions. Check all children by engaging all in your demonstration of understanding and then randomly watching, listening, observing for correctness. This is worth the few minutes it takes to accomplish and will breed improved attention practices over time.
So, the one little thing to do that will have huge positive results is to check what children think they thought you said for did before they start reading, writing, solving math problems, start a game, begin group work or even walking down the hall to music class.
Check. Listen, watch, observe. Confirm or correct. Then, worry about the next little thing to do differently. Together, these small little changes can make a large difference in how well children learn.