Skip to main content

Figure it Out



I'm not gonna lie. I want students to love me and love my class. I could say I don't care about either, but that would be a lie.  That's why embracing the practice of telling kids to "figure it out" when they ask me certain questions has been hard for me.  As a parent, I remember reading a book that said, "Don't do anything for your child that he can do himself."  It certainly made sense as a parent, so why didn't I apply this to teaching? After following Catlin Tucker like a stalker on Twitter, I knew I had to try this strategy for my students' own good.

 This year one my primary goal was to provide students with meaningful feedback AS they worked, rather than waiting until they turned something in.  This has proved to be one of the best moves I have ever made as a teacher because I honestly feel like I am TEACHING rather than just GRADING, which can often seem punitive. Students are applying what they are learning in REAL time.  By the time students turn something into me,  they have had the opportunity to ask me numerous questions, as well as receive my feedback as I work with them in small groups.  However, I have been confronted with a few hurdles. Students want me to answer questions that they could easily answer themselves?  Here are a few:

 Q-How do I double-space? A-Ask a tablemate, Google it

 Q-Where do I turn this in? A-Check my blog. It tells you exactly what to do

 Q-What's the date?  A-I won't even go there 

 Q-Where are the Kleenex? A-Look around

 Q-What page is the story on? A-Check the index

 I won't even answer these questions anymore. They know to use Google, Youtube, check my blog or ask classmates. I tell them that I refuse to answer questions they can answer themselves and that instead, I want to focus on providing feedback and interacting with them in a meaningful way.  At first, I felt mean telling them to "figure it out".  However, the benefits outweigh the fact that a few students may have felt I was being "mean" the first time I responded this way.  They know I am not lazy but genuinely want to help them. Also, I don't want them to be helpless.  Unlike when I was a student, these kids have the world at their fingertips.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TQE: Get students Engaged and Digging Deep

I've mentioned before how Twitter has helped me grow as an educator.  Edutwitter is a valuable resource for book recommendations, new teaching methods, lessons, and articles.  One of my favorite educators to follow is Marissa Thompson, a high school teacher at Carlsbad High. This summer I read about her TQE(thoughts, questions, epiphanies) method for discussing literature.  I'd always longed for having discussions like the ones I had in my college literature courses, but when I try fishbowl or Socratic seminar with my students, the discussions felt forced, flat, and awkward. That changed today when I tried TQE for the first time.  Sharing homework in small groups Students writing their TQEs on the board When I listened to Marissa's podcast on Cult of Pedagogy ( check it out here ), I was intimidated. After all, her students are in high school and have a rock star teacher.  I think I read the transcript twenty times before finally trying it.  Here's h
5 comments
Read more

Writing an Essay...with a Partner

I love technology for collaboration! Teaching writing to middle school students is not easy.  All students come with different skills and knowledge.  With 35 students in a class, it's impossible to sit down one on one and assist students with the writing process.  Teaching students to write a literary analysis is particularly challenging because most seventh-graders have little, to no experience.  Students need to learn to  develop a thesis statement, find evidence from the text to support it, provide the context of the selected quotations , and write insightful commentary on the evidence they selected. Remember, these kiddos are twelve! Graphic organizers are particularly helpful to these young writers. The biggest challenge is providing feedback to students as they are writing, rather than after they turn their work in for a grade.  Students need to be able to use the feedback they receive and see the difference it makes in the final product.  I was adamant that I was not go
2 comments
Read more

The Outsiders

Anyone else remember reading The Outsiders in middle school?  I remember reading it in 7th grade in 1981. Oh how I loved that book!  Then came the movie!  Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Leif Garret, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze were some of the actors in this Francis Ford Coppola film.  I have to admit that it was a little depressing this year when I mentioned that Tom Cruise was in the movie, and only one student said, "I think I have heard of him."   Yet, here it is 2014 and my students are enjoying this book as much as I did.  On the surface the book is about two rival "gangs," the Socs and the Greasers.  However, the book is about so much more.  It is about stereotypes and prejudging people.  It's about true friendship, family, and loyalty.  It's about courage and growing up.  That makes it the perfect book for middle schoolers. I started off the unit with a web quest about the 1960s to get the students acquainted with the setting of the novel.  They
Post a Comment
Read more