But My Kids Can’t Do That!
Last week when I was conducting a professional development workshop, a teacher said,
“That’s fine for the average or above students, but my kids can’t do that!”
It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, and it certainly won’t be the last. These teachers have done a thorough job of presenting the content. Yet, some students just didn’t get it.
When I was a first year teacher in 1970, I said the same thing to my department chairman. He told me, “You’re right. Some won’t get it. Just move on.” That was yesterday’s mindset. We know more today about learning, about the brain, and about effective teaching practices.
So today I say to teachers, “You’re right. They can’t do it…YET! That’s why they have YOU. Your job as a teacher is to figure out what parts they’re missing and to use all the creative tools in your instructional toolbox to help them fill in the gaps in their skills and knowledge.”
I like to use a sports analogy – say, tennis.
The first time you appear at the edge of the court, you don’t know how to hold the racquet, how to swing a backhand or forehand stroke, how to serve. You don’t know the rules of the game or how the scoring works. Your coach breaks all the new information and skill into chunks. He designs ways for you newcomers to practice as you train your bodies to perform the actions needed for competence on the court. The coach knows that most of you won’t become professional tennis champions, but he also expects that if he’s done a reasonable job, everyone who shows up to practice can become at least minimally proficient with the skills.
Using that same analogy, I encourage teachers to imagine how a newcomer would approach their discipline.
What are the fundamental terms, rules, concepts, and skills that form the building blocks of mastery? Which of those do students already know? What are the next chunks? Then I invite them to trace the thinking students will need to do as they assimilate the new knowledge and skills into the schema they have begun to develop. How could they scaffold that process for their students? What type of organizer or mnemonic device could students use temporarily while they are in the early learning phase of mastery? How can they teach them to self assess? Since early success helps students maintain a growth mindset, how can they design the learning process and incorporate frequent formative checks so that students see progress towards mastery early in their learning process?
Most importantly, I invite teachers to question their own beliefs. Just because students haven’t mastered the content in the past, does that really mean that there is no hope for the future? The vast majority of teachers I have known are optimistic visionaries with a heartfelt commitment to making a difference in the lives of children.
So here’s your chance.
You could be the one teacher who believes in that student who can’t so far and teaches them that THEY CAN.
