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When Students Say, “I Tried, but I Can’t Learn It.”

Students who’ve tried to learn a new concept or skill and have been unsuccessful often complain they’re not capable of learning what we ask. Their observations may be couched in statements, such as “I am just not good at…”— insert math, science, or another discipline. Or “My mother wasn’t good at learning this, so there’s no point in trying.” These observations reflect symptoms of students who experience low levels of academic self-efficacy. Their perception is that trying to learn something and not being successful proves their inability to learn. Yet, the cause is more likely to be an ineffective strategy, an unproductive effort, or a failure to make full use of resources that would assist the student in the learning process. Left unaddressed, these students may go through much of their lives believing they lack ability when what they lack are correct tools for learning support. Efficacious learners understand that when they attempt new learning and are unsuccessful, they likely can change the outcome by employing three key learning tools: strategy, effort, and resources. We can help students become more effective learners by coaching them to review the strategy they’re using and consider more worthwhile alternatives. We can explore with learners the nature of the effort they’re giving and how other approaches might be more successful. Finally, we can direct the attention of students toward available resources that might be helpful to their understanding and support their learning. Our discussion with students about learning strategies might include examples, such as:

Reading new content and taking notes for later review.
Listening to new content while simultaneously reading it.
Focusing on the big picture or general concept and then sorting details and exploring implications and applications.
Breaking down content or skills into parts and focusing on sections.
Self-testing occasionally to confirm and consolidate understanding.
Looking for connections with what has been previously learned.
Creating pictures or graphs to understand connections and relationships.
Explaining new content to others as it is learned.

Our coaching to subsidize essential forms of learning practices might encompass:

Sustaining extended periods of focus and persistence.
Giving intermittent focus followed by brief breaks for reflection.
Engaging in intense study followed by other, unrelated activities, and returning later to refresh and extend learning.
Spacing practice over multiple days to build recall.
Shifting physical locations while studying to employ context to assist memory.
Scheduling study sessions during optimal times of the day when energy levels are highest.

Our encouragement for students to use resources available to them could include:

Consulting fellow students who’ve already learned the content or skill for explanation and learning hints.
Watching online videos that provide explanation and practice opportunities.
Reviewing varied text explanations that provide different perspectives.
Exploring graphic representations of content or skills.
Reviewing and reflecting on examples of applications for new learning.

The oft-repeated teacher admonition for students to “try three before me” takes on new dimensions when students realize they have access to a wide array of tools to support their learning. By accessing effective strategies, employing smart effort, and tapping available resources, students can overcome most learning barriers and succeed with difficult learning challenges.

December 02, 2022

High Expectations: Our Superpower

These are times when we need to tap every strategy, technique, and advantage we can use to help our students succeed. In many ways young people are still finding their way back from the pandemic. They need to make up for lost learning time and accelerate their academic progress. It’s not easy when they struggle to regain their social identities, develop new relationship skills, and reestablish their positioning with peers. They also are looking for support on which they can depend as they make their way through normal developmental tasks and trials. Our commitment to teach, coach, guide, and mentor students through this time represents a significant challenge. We don’t always know the best thing to do or the best time to do it. We may not know what new skills to develop or what new tools to adopt. However, there is one gift we can give to our students that requires no new skills or tools and requires no extra time or training. Yet, it can have a significant and lasting impact on our students’ learning and life success. That gift is the deceptively simple and sometimes counterintuitive action of holding high expectations for our students. We may think that lowering expectations might help students as they struggle to regain their balance and momentum. However, holding high expectations may be even more important now than during more stable and disruption-free times. In fact, lowering expectations risks sending a message to learners that we do not have confidence in their ability to meet the challenges they face and succeed despite their current circumstances. Most of us are familiar with the 1960’s experiment known as “Pygmalion in the Classroom” in which teachers were told that certain students demonstrated test results that showed they were about to make significant gains in IQ in the next several months. In fact, the students had been selected randomly with no attention to intellectual capacity. Several months later the students were retested. The students who had the teachers who were told they were ready to make unusual progress demonstrated learning progress that significantly outpaced a matched group of students who had not been labeled as ready to make unusual growth. The only difference between the two groups was the expectations of their teachers. Importantly, the “Pygmalion in the Classroom” experiment has been replicated multiple times with similar outcomes. Bottom line: Teacher expectations matter to student learning. Now, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a new study that documents an even wider role that teacher expectations play in student success. The research focus expanded beyond test scores and grades to include other areas important to life success. The study found that when teachers hold high expectations the odds of their students completing college increased by seventeen percent. The odds of students having children before the age of 20 were reduced by three to six percentage points, and the odds of students receiving public assistance by age 26 were five percent lower than the general population. To be clear, it is not enough for us to say we have high expectations. Our behavior and interactions with students must reinforce and amplify our words. When we believe in the potential of our students and hold high expectations, our work with them changes, often in subtle but important ways. First, our language with students becomes couched in the inevitability of success. We talk with students about “when” they succeed, not “if” they succeed. When we communicate our belief in students through our language and behavior, it’s easier for students to believe in themselves and plan to be successful. Second, when students begin to slack off and underperform, we intervene quickly. Instead of seeing the behavior as an aberration that needs attention, we view it as reflective of the student’s potential. Third, when students struggle, we take extra time to explain the purposes, implications, and details of concepts and skills. Our focus moves to generating deeper understanding rather than focusing primarily on the steps and sequence of completing an assignment or finishing a task. Fourth, when we believe in the potential of our students, we take advantage to present them with challenges at the leading edge of their learning and development. We nudge them to struggle and grow, reinforce that their learning is worth the effort required, and we display trust in them to succeed. Fifth, when we engage students we see as having potential, we use ourselves and our experiences as examples. We share stories about our struggles and successes in overcoming challenges and present ourselves as models students can emulate. As a result, students are more likely to see themselves as having potential to becoming accomplished, successful adults. Of course, the power of high expectations also applies to us as adults. When we are viewed as successful professionals, are given more detailed coaching, receive attention and support, are given growth-evoking challenges, and frequently hear that success lies ahead for us, it creates a positive effect on us and enhances our abilities.

November 18, 2022

Prevent Bullying: Three Things That Don’t Work and Three That Do

Bullying has been a part of our culture for a very long time. In some cases, bullying has even been seen as a rite of passage, from rituals associated with hazing in fraternity and sorority societies and the gauntlet of joining an athletic team, to being a newly hired employee. Yet, the negative impact of bullying can be far reaching, especially for children and young people. Bullied students often underperform academically, suffer emotional distress, and can suffer from lack of self-confidence and depression for years. Meanwhile, children and young people who bully, too, can suffer from emotional issues, fail to develop important social skills, and can go on to engage in even more serious and destructive misbehaviors. Educators have been engaged in the prevention and elimination of bullying behavior for generations. However, recent studies that connect prolonged experiences with being bullied and violent actions against others, including school shootings, have brought new attention to the need to reduce, prevent, and deal with bullying behavior. Interestingly, some of the most popular programs and strategies to deal with bullying have little grounding in research and little impact on preventing and interrupting bullying behaviors. Here are three worth noting: First, several studies have documented reliance on zero tolerance policies and punishment of bullying behavior as largely ineffective in preventing bullying behaviors. In some cases, punishment can make bullying behavior less visible, but may do little to eliminate a culture of bullying. Second, peer mediation programs that place responsibility on students to work out bullying and related conflicts and behaviors have even shown to increase the number and severity of bullying behaviors. Bullying behaviors often rely on unequal power relationships; thus, victims can face an impossible challenge in trying to change the situation. Further, children and young people rarely have the maturity and skills to be successful in such a complex emotional situation. Third, programs and training to position bystanders to intervene work only if bystanders have higher social status, possess strong tendencies toward moral engagement, and are empathic extroverts. Most children and young people do not possess the courage, skills, and confidence to intervene effectively, especially when they anticipate that their engagement may shift the bullying to include them. So, what strategies can we use to decrease, prevent, and deal effectively with bullying behaviors? Here are three approaches to consider: First, we can focus our attention and efforts on ensuring that students feel they belong and are connected within the school and classrooms. When students experience stability and consistency in school and classes and feel they belong, they are less likely to disrupt and put their status in jeopardy. In addition, they tend to perform better academically. Second, we can pay attention to what researchers often call “entry” behaviors that signal and build into more serious and aggressive bullying behaviors. Like efforts to prevent serious crime, often dealing with smaller issues can prevent the need to respond to more serious bullying actions. Entry behaviors include:

Ignoring and excluding others.
Laughing cruelly and encouraging others to laugh at a target.

Eye rolling and prolonged staring.
Back turning.
Stalking and spying.
Giving disparaging nicknames.

Third, we can make social emotional learning elemental in building culture within the school and classroom, not just a component of the curriculum. Social emotional focused lessons and activities can be a start. But nurturing a caring, inclusive, emotionally safe environment can build a culture that makes mutual support and empathy integral to the learning experience of students. Rather than focusing on what we want to avoid, this approach builds counter attitudes, behaviors, and experiences to make bullying less attractive and acceptable within the culture. Of course, there may still be instances and situations in which bullying behaviors surface. Our best response is to address the situation early, to focus on teaching and coaching more socially acceptable behavior alternatives, and to keep the culture strong and positive.

November 03, 2022

Make Your Instruction Memorable—Here’s How

The instruction we provide to students results from significant investment of thought, time, and effort. We carefully sort what’s most important for students to hear about a topic or a focused lesson skill. Organized sequentially, our presentations provide a logical and understandable path for students to follow. And we’re committed to providing students with a professionally designed and delivered learning experience. Yet, experience and research demonstrate that students don’t retain a sizable portion of our instruction. In fact, estimates show on average that students retain about only 10-30% of a typical lesson. Unfortunately, what students retain may not be the most crucial aspects of what we taught. Of course, instruction covers only one component of the learning experience we offer to our students. Discussion, guided and independent practice, review, and application activities also support their learning. Still, initial instruction typically comprises the center of learning experiences we offer. Our obvious challenge? How do we ensure our students retain, as much as practical, our instruction to guide, build, and stabilize their learning? Fortunately, we can integrate several practices with our instruction to make it more memorable and accessible to students. Here are six techniques we can tap to build longer term recall more effectively. First, we can limit lesson length to 10 - 12 minutes, followed by brief mental breaks. Regardless of how compelling our instruction may be, students’ brains need time to absorb and process information to remember it. Giving students time to turn and talk, review their notes, contemplate a question, or simply reflect increases shared information retention. Second, we can customize content to connect with our students. We might use examples that draw on their experiences. We can respectfully use students’ names in examples we share. Further, we can create explicit connections between focused instructional concepts and skills— and their uses, needs, and purposes important to our students. Students more effectively recall information that feels personalized. Third, we can shore up with stories. Before we had the ability to write and record information, stories served as a primary vehicle for transferring information within communities and across generations. Our brains are conditioned to pay attention to and recall stories. When stories support our instruction, they tap emotions, create connections, and embed themselves in other ways to facilitate recall. Fourth, we can inject images. When our instruction includes relevant pictures, graphics, diagrams, charts, and other visuals, we add dimension to information we share, making absorption and recall easier. Additionally, when students draw pictures, create diagrams, and develop other images representing information they receive, their understanding and recall grows. Of course, images students create also provide informal formative assessment insight, so we can examine and discuss with them whether their visuals accurately reflect information we shared. Fifth, we can mix in motion. When including physical activities in our instruction, we add another dimension to experiential learning. Having students clap to the rhythm of poetry, use hand signals to indicate their understanding or having students “huddle up” - think Dead Poets Society - for essential information, we embed memory markers creating greater recall value. Sixth, we can unveil the unexpected. Surprises deliver powerful brain stimulants. The unexpected engages our brain’s hippocampus area key to memory. Further, surprises break up routines and provide a focal point around which we can construct our instruction. For example, dressing up as a character or concept, unveiling an image of a new idea or skill, or even having students turning to face a new direction for the lesson creates easy-to-recall memories of our instruction. While these six techniques help students recall our instruction, they’re also fun. And having fun builds memorability. Now may be a suitable time to loosen up a little and create some especially memorable and fun learning experiences.

October 28, 2022

Seven-Step Process for Responding to Angry Parents

The frequency with which educators are confronted with angry parents has increased over the past few years. The trend is not surprising given the uncertainty, fear, and disruption families have experienced during the pandemic. Meanwhile, political forces have, at times, conspired to create doubt and suspicion regarding instructional content and regarding the intentions and strategies employed by educators. These factors can be the source of considerable angst and emotional distress for parents. It follows that much of the emotion, including anger, gets directed at teachers. The prospect of meeting with an angry parent can create significant anxiety. Teachers may not know the source of the anger. They may feel uncertain about how and whether they can respond adequately. Handling the situation successfully will most certainly require a plan. Fortunately, there is a process teachers can employ in these circumstances that can help them navigate emotions, respond to concerns, and move forward. Consider this seven-step approach: First, look at the situation as an opportunity to solve a problem, not as a personal attack. This perspective allows you to avoid taking a defensive position and seeing the situation as “win-lose.” Approach the situation with more objectivity. In some cases, this approach can even enable you to enlist the parent as a partner in finding a solution. Second, listen carefully for understanding, rather than defending or explaining an action. As much as possible, avoid interrupting other than to seek clarification. Allowing the parent to vent can be the first step in moving the situation toward resolution. Equally important, you’re likely to hear information and discover important clues that later can form the foundation of an effective response. Third, focus on the emotions the parent is sharing, rather than responding with logic or additional information. Your understanding and respect for the emotions and empathizing with the distress the parent is feeling can be as crucial to resolving the situation as the ideas you share and commitments you may make. You don’t have to agree with the parent’s perspective to be accepting and respectful of their emotions. Fourth, summarize what you’ve heard to confirm your understanding, rather than correcting or judging what has been said. Your goal is to assure the parent that you’ve been listening to understand, not to prepare a counter argument. Listening is one of the most respectful actions you can take and being listened to can be a powerful dissipater of anger. Fifth, express confidence that you’ll find a solution, even if you don’t yet have a fully formed outcome in mind. This also is the point in the conversation where you might tactfully share additional information, including information that may be counter to the perceptions of the parent. You may point to additional information you need to collect and clarify. Doing so may mean suspending the conversation until you’re able to build a better understanding and develop options for moving forward. However, you need to be specific about the timing and focus of the next steps to avoid giving the impression that you're stalling or avoiding the problem. Sixth, offer multiple potential solutions, rather than choosing a single option to consider. Your choice to contemplate more than one course of action can open the door for the parent to provide input and create greater acceptance of and ownership for the next steps in the process. However, you need to clarify and confirm what will happen next to avoid confusion and avoid undermining the trust you’ve built. Seventh, follow-up with the parent to provide an update on actions taken, share any additional relevant information, and confirm any other commitments you’ve made. This information typically is best communicated in person or via another form of live conversation to avoid any misunderstanding and to reinforce the relationship you’ve built. Dealing with an angry parent may not be a comfortable prospect. But teachers can approach the situation with confidence and optimism if they have a plan to guide them through the emotional context—that communicates respect and responsiveness, and that leads to a thoughtful, responsive, and mutually acceptable outcome.

October 14, 2022

Six Ways to Assess Learning in an Era of Siri and Alexa

We know that many traditional assessment approaches, such as true/false and multiple-choice questions, prove ineffective in measuring depth and breadth of knowledge. A short answer assessment format is better but still reveals little about depth of understanding, ability to make connections, and ability to grasp concepts. For many of us, the written essay has been the preferred choice for understanding student comprehension. However, recent and emerging advances in artificial intelligence alarmingly call all of this and other assessment strategies into question. Today, if students need to access historical facts, they can consult Siri or Alexa. If they need an answer to a math question or access to a formula, Siri, Alexa, and other sources quickly provide it. The same is true for many other fact-based assessment strategies. Now the stakes have been raised with the release of an essay-writing technology that responds to a prompt by searching the internet, organizing information, and writing a multi-paragraph narrative on the topic. Developed by OpenAI, Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3, also referred to as GPT-3, has access to 540 billion words and operates using 175 billion parameters. And these resources mark only the beginning. Driven by artificial intelligence, similar technologies continue to be developed and made available, naturally tempting students to use them whenever they can. So, how can we understand what students have learned when true/false, multiple choice, short answer, and now even essays can no longer be relied upon to provide credible information about what students know? The good news is that there remain many useful assessment strategies from which we can choose. In fact, these strategies have been around for as long as or longer than the approaches technology currently renders less useful. Here are six strategies that can give us information going well beyond whether students know basic facts to reveal understandings of context, connections, and consequences. First, students can participate in dialogue on a target topic. Prompts, queries, and probes invite students to reveal what they’ve learned in the context of a conversation. Dialogue also gives students opportunities to share information learned beyond core objectives—information that tends to be overlooked in a more traditional assessment format. Second, we might arrange for students to partake in debate on a concept or perspective related to their learning. Debates give students opportunities to synthesize and share what they’ve learned while also considering how others might view the same content. Further, debate encourages students to delve deeper into a topic, improving their opportunities to prevail in a competitive context. Third, students can demonstrate a learned skill or concept. Demonstrations give students opportunities to share their learning with an audience, thus making the learning and assessment more authentic. The process of preparing a demonstration helps students integrate and sequence their learning in ways that deepen understanding and increase retention. Fourth, we can ask students to take a position on something they've learned and prepare to defend their perspective. This approach encourages students to move beyond facts to consider the value, significance, and consequences of what they learned. Like debate, this activity helps students learn structures of argument. Fifth, students can produce a diagram explaining their learning and how it relates to other concepts and applications. Diagramming relationships among people, events, concepts, and consequences helps students display learning while placing it in context. Sixth, students can perform a dissection of an event, piece of writing, or oral presentation to demonstrate understanding of individual parts, their relationships to the whole, and their implications. While we might think of dissection as an activity performed in a biology class, the same concept applies in a variety of settings with an array of content. Artificial intelligence presents many implications for how we teach and assess learning. Obviously, we’ll have to continually evolve and modify our strategies and techniques. There also remain times, conditions, and roles for the use of traditional assessment strategies, including essays. We must remember that learning occurs with the individual student and the meaning they assign to it. Our assessment strategies must reflect this reality.

October 06, 2022

Share Your Tips & Stories

Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.

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Fighting the October Funk

October can be a challenging month emotionally and motivationally. Some call it “slump month.” Summer seems like long ago. The end of the first grading period quickly advances. Parent-teacher conferences approach. The seasons are changing. Turning leaves, while beautiful, signal the coming of winter. Meanwhile, sunlight hours dwindle, the end of daylight savings time is eminent, and Thanksgiving break is weeks away. The combination of these factors and others can leave you feeling tired, lethargic, and out of balance, causing our energy and enthusiasm to ebb. New initiatives and skills you committed to learn and practice can remain challenging. You may be experiencing what’s called the Implementation Dip—a time after learning something new but before feeling competent and comfortable with your new skills and practices. The good news is that you don’t have to give in to the October funk. You can take control, shift your perspective, and take advantage of the opportunity to re-energize. Here are ten actions to counter the forces of October and take charge of your mood. Celebrate the success of getting started. Most anxiety from the opening weeks of school typically is behind you. The routines you planned are in place, and you’re familiar with your students. Their year-long learning journey is underway. Now is a suitable time to reflect and celebrate the progress made in the opening weeks of the year. Pause to assess what is going well, what needs adjusting, and what needs eliminating. It may be time to withdraw helpful scaffolding you provided to students to frame and focus their learning. Perchance it’s time to seek feedback from your students about how the year is going, solicit their ideas, and add diverse practices and procedures in response. Consider scheduling exams and major assignment submissions for early in the week. Having a few days to finish grading tasks before the weekend frees up time to relax and push school responsibilities into the background. Keep negative feedback and criticism in perspective. Negative comments and critical advice don’t define you. They represent information you can evaluate, and you can assess the worthiness and usability of what you hear. If it doesn’t fit, let it go and forget it. Decide a time to finish your day and leave. Time constraints often help you prioritize and manage your time. They also force you to decide what must be done now and what can wait until tomorrow. Having accomplished the crucial tasks, you can better enjoy the evening. Find time for yourself. The frenzy of starting a new year can leave you so focused on caring for others that you neglect your own needs. Perhaps reestablish sleep patterns and adjust your diet. Additionally, carve out undesignated, personal time to do nothing or do something fun. Capture the change from daylight savings time. Perhaps start an exercise routine. Set aside time for reading or another activity in which you’ve wanted to engage but have not had the time. Use this as an opportunity to move an end-of-the-day activity to the morning when you have more energy and fewer competing activities. Schedule time with colleagues and friends. Meeting for dinner, planning a hike, visiting the zoo, or going to the theatre provide good options. However, the time might be most refreshing if you make a “no school talk” agreement during your downtime. Commit to making someone’s day. Share your appreciation for someone in your life. A face-to-face conversation is best. The next best thing—a written a note of gratitude. You might offer to help a colleague with a project. This also is a suitable time to encourage a student, by pointing out their strengths and noting what they do well. Remind yourself that what you’re feeling is natural. It is common for educators to experience an “October Funk.” You can also remind yourself that this phase is temporary. You’ll soon find yourself feeling re-energized as the year unfolds, seeing progress, and looking forward to what lies ahead. With some patience, self-care, and perspective adjustment you’ll find your motivation and momentum returning and moving you forward.

September 30, 2022

Five Things to Notice in Your Classroom That Will Make Your Week

During the morning math lesson, Jonnie notices an elaborate spider web in an upper corner of the room and asks how spiders can possibly create something so beautiful and deadly. Later in the morning, Rogan proclaims that it’s magic how the sun creates a spectrum of color in the rainbow outside the window. Then, during the math lesson, Shondell suggests that the base-10 number system was invented because combined, we have ten fingers. Each of these comments might be considered off task and not part of the day’s academic agenda. Yet, they open possibilities for rich discussion and learning. We can ignore them, or we can seize the moment and explore with students the meanings and implications they introduce. Unfortunately, the pace and focus of activities playing out each day in our classroom make it easy to miss some of the most delightful, amazing, and important—but not on the agenda—happenings playing out before us. We tend to see what we look for and pay attention to. If we become too focused on what we planned and want to accomplish, we can miss or even become impatient with the unexpected, unscripted, and serendipitous around us. Yet, these spontaneous incidents can offer humor, pleasure, and stress release, if we pay attention and appreciate them. They also can add to student learning and make our work more satisfying and rewarding. Just because we didn’t notice something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Our attention and actions interpret for students what matters and what they should pay attention to. Of course, a lot happens simultaneously in classrooms. We can’t catch every comment and observation, then leverage them for learning. We also can’t always set aside the intended lesson and learning to take advantage of the unplanned. Still, recognizing teachable moments, meaningful inquiries, and surprising insights can transform the learning experiences of our students and make our teaching more significant and pleasurable. If we want to ensure capturing these serendipitous opportunities for learning, laughter, and lifting spirits that can lie hidden in our classrooms, there are at least five places we can look:

Watch for the off-hand comment that reveals a quiet sense of humor. Listen for the ironic observation; connections made between two seemingly unrelated statements, actions, or happenings; or a surprising twist on situations or relationships.
Listen for the surprising answer that reveals a creative perspective worth exploring, or a comment that suggests a novel application of information. Listen for questions, such as “Is this like…?” or “Might this be…?”
Pay attention to unanticipated questions that suggest a curious mind. We might find cues in questions, such as “Why?” “What if?” “Why not?” or “How might…?”
Notice questions that reveal a rich imagination. We may hear statements and questions beginning with “I wonder…” and “Could it be possible that…”
Be ready for comments regarding a detail or related issues that point to a gift for observation. Some students see what others miss or ignore. These students may not say much, but they see much.

Our noticing and valuing the unexpected, serendipitous, and humorous happenings in our classroom can create delightful discussions, compelling discoveries, and day lightening laughter. They can lessen our stress, lighten our mood, and lead us to appreciate the opportunity to work with such sensitive and gifted children and young people. In short, they can make our week.

September 30, 2022

The Secret of Generating Better Learning Outcomes

Our society applauds, respects, values, and compensates the final product of successful effort. We might think that preparing students for the “real world” means focusing attention on perfection and the final products students submit. While time allows for this focus, we must consider that our primary work is in helping students learn. For example, when new employees undergo training, often emerging ideas are refined and new products or services result. True ability focuses on learning growth, best processes, and progress toward success. Excellent processes create quality products. When preoccupied with students’ final products, we risk students losing perception, appreciation, and value for the learning process. Not surprisingly, copying someone else’s work and other graceless actions that fail to generate learning and build learning paths become the unimaginative and desperate options students consider. When focused on processes rather than preoccupied with results, learning accelerates, and students become more invested. Unless we help them to become aware of learning processes and how they lead to success, we risk students thinking that what matters most is the grade, not the learning journey. Here are four reasons to help students focus on the process as much as the destination. A focus on process:

Gives students permission to reflect on and learn from mistakes. Risks present less scary when students see them as part of the learning path.
Helps students see that learning emerges as the result of a journey. The destination may be a beacon for direction, but the journey to learning is what matters most.
Provides greater focus on what leads to learning rather external rewards. Approval and other symbols of success become a reflection of rather than the purpose for learning.
Offers students greater control over decisions, steps, and strategies that lead to learning. Students gain greater ownership of and gain increased sense of efficacy about their learning.

So, how can we help students increase focus on the processes of learning and be less preoccupied by grades and other symbols of accomplishment? Here are four strategies to consider. First, break down major assignments and projects when introducing them to students. For example, begin with students contemplating potential topics, generating questions worth exploring, or engaging in other generative processes. Students might develop draft outlines for the learning work they want to do and seek feedback from classmates and you to refine and clarify their work. Next, students might develop portions or drafts of their work to share for further feedback and suggestions. As the work unfolds, the learning journey can be captured in successive decisions, drafts, and other documents that tell the story from initial exploration to final presentation. Second, have students keep a log of their thinking, initial attempts, mistakes made, learning gained, and how what they have learned is applied to and integrated with their evolving work. This level of reflection helps students become more aware of their thinking and learning as the work unfolds. Their learning reflections also will fill with meaning and likely will be remembered long after the work is finished. Third, focus guidance, support, and feedback on the process of learning. When you focus engagement on what and how the student learns, you reduce preoccupation with grades, while valuing the learning journey. Your questions and observations about what students notice, how they adjust, and the difference their thinking makes in their learning provide powerful stimuli and foster focused influence for learning. Fourth, display learning journey evidence. Students might create bulletin boards, write blogs, or create graphic images with artifacts to document their learning journey. Posting, sharing, and documenting their learning journey sends a powerful message about the purpose and value of what they have accomplished without distraction from artificial symbols, such as grades. There’s no question that quality learning outcomes are integral to the long-term success of our students. However, learning outcomes result from decisions, strategies, and other processes that lead to the success our students deserve. Attention to the processes of learning inevitably leads to learning products that reflect the quality we seek.

September 23, 2022

Teach Students to Respond Rather Than React

One of the post-pandemic challenges we face is helping our students to learn, or relearn, how to live, learn, and work with others. Long periods without frequent human contact followed by having to deal with the in-person words and behaviors of others have left many students without effective, flexible interpersonal skills. The absence of these skills can lead to hurt feelings, verbal confrontations, and even physical conflicts. The situation is not likely to improve without our intervention and support. One aspect of interpersonal skills where we can assist students is building an understanding of the significant difference between reacting and responding to the behavior of others. We can start by sharing with students what it means to react and how they can choose to respond. Our message to students might be something like this: (Adjust for age and maturity) When someone says or does something to us that we perceive as hurtful, unwarranted, or disrespectful, we have a choice to make. We can allow our emotions to direct our behavior, or we can pause, consider, and decide the best action to take. Our reptilian brain urges us to react based on our assumption, perception, or emotion of the moment without consideration of the context, intent, or consequences. Our actions are spontaneous and not necessarily reflective of our skills, values, or goals. We may not even be fully conscious of the choice we make, but it is a choice. We can also choose to pause in order to consider, reflect, and decide what we should do next. Important is to consider the perspective and intentions of the other person and what response would be best for us. What someone said or did does not have to dictate our behavior. How we respond is our choice. If we allow another person to dictate our behavior, we give up our power and become vulnerable to their manipulation. We also risk engaging in actions that do not reflect who we are and who we want to be. Following up this discussion by sharing examples of ineffective or unproductive reactions and the consequences that follow the choice to react without thinking provides opportunity for deeper reflection. Contrasting those examples with others that demonstrate more effective responses and avoid needless and hurtful conflict serves our advantage. Further, students can brainstorm and practice strategies to respond rather than react to words and actions that might hurt their feelings or make them angry. Additional strategies for students to consider can start with these five ideas:

Asking a question to clarify the other person’s intent.
Calling out the words or behavior as hurtful or disrespectful.
Assuming the positive intent of the person and claiming confusion with what they meant.
Asking to talk later when everyone has calmed down.
Ignoring the comment or action and walking away.

We might also share this five-step strategy using the acronym PLACE, depending on the age and maturity of our students:

Pause. Rather than allowing emotions to control, take a deep breath and create space to think.
Label what you are feeling. Are you angry, frustrated, confused, or feeling something else? Naming your emotions makes them easier to control.
Ask what is causing your feelings. Why are you feeling the urge to react? What will you accomplish by reacting?
Choose a response. What do you want to accomplish? What other actions might you consider? How might this choice lead to a good outcome? How might the other person react or respond to the step you contemplate?
Empower yourself. Consider that you are making the choice of what to do, not the other person. You are acting from a position of power and control. You have not discounted or given away your power.

Of course, as adults we too can encounter situations that tempt us to react rather than respond to the words and actions of others. The good news is that the same strategies we teach our students can be effective for us.

September 16, 2022

The Master Teacher Blog