The Master Teacher Blog

We know that the information provided by formative assessments is crucial to understanding what students know and how their learning is progressing. Formative assessments—quizzes, assignments, drafts, and other progress-related information—can tell us what students have mastered, where their learning is uncertain or shaky, and when they are ready to move their learning forward. The information that is generated can tell us how to plan for future instruction and tell students what to do next, how close they are to achieving learning goals, and when they are ready for summative assessments.

Yet, formative assessments often are fraught with confusion, misinterpretation, and even resistance. Too often, when students are introduced to the terms “formative” and “summative” assessments they immediately translate them into what counts for a grade and what doesn’t. As a result, they may conclude that they do not need to give effort or even regularly engage in work that is “formative,” assuming that it will not have an impact on their grade.

This thinking is often the result of an over-emphasis on grades and under-emphasis on learning. One of the crucial shifts in thinking and focusing on making formative assessment activities meaningful is to de-emphasize grades when it is practical to do so. Grades should reflect learning. Grades are results. The daily work of learning is what determines if students will do well when grades are determined. On the other hand, if grades are the only focus, formative assessments may not seem important.

It is crucial that students to see the relationship between information from formative activities and their performance on summative assessments. Doing well or showing progress on formative assessments almost always is predictive of how students will do on summative assessments.

It is worth noting that we work with young people who often lack the maturity or life experience to connect continuous, diligent effort with successful outcomes. They may not realize the connection between what they do every day and where they end up at the end of a teaching and learning cycle. This is an important life lesson for us to teach.

Of course, some students may do well on summative assessments despite not completing and submitting much formative evidence. When this is the case, we need to ask ourselves if the learning we offered was challenging enough to be worthwhile for the student, or possibly, if the student already knew the content or possessed the skill. 

So, how can we help students see and value the relationship between formative and summative assessments? Obviously, it depends on the nature of the barriers or confusion students have concerning this relationship. Here are seven arguments or explanations that might help.

We might start by reminding students of the importance of practice before a game or performance. Whether competing in athletics, performing in theater, making music, or playing chess, practice and rehearsal is what leads to success. Beginners, amateurs, and professionals all practice and measure their progress before attempting to compete or perform. Formative assessment activities measure where additional practice and skill development are needed.

We can draw on students’ experience with video games. Rarely is success achieved on a first attempt in a video game. Often many steps, multiple attempts and skill growth are required before significant progress and success are achieved. Formative assessment activities are intermediate attempts and progress markers.

We might present students with examples of how performance on formative assessments led to success in summative assessments for other students. We might also share counter examples that demonstrate that poor performance on formative assessments led to lack of success on a summative assessment. When students understand this relationship, it is easier for them to invest in formative activities.

We can give students tools to chart their progress. If we have students set goals for their learning, charting progress can be an informative and satisfying activity. Students need to see a purpose and use for formative assessment information. Progress monitoring becomes the data students use to see improvement and analyze where they need to improve or what they are ready to learn next.

We might make it a practice to meet and discuss formative assessment information with students. We can coach students on how to make sense of and use formative assessment information. We also might discuss with students the next steps in learning the information suggests. Planning together can build students’ understanding, strengthen their confidence, and lead them to value the information formative assessments can offer.

Finally, we can make a personal connection. We might say to students, “I care too much and desire too much for you to allow you to fail. I also want you to learn how to invest, persist, and achieve success in whatever you choose to do with your life. The process of assessing as you learn is a proven powerful strategy that leads to success in virtually any effort.”

Do you have additional ideas to encourage students to engage in and take formative assessment activities seriously? What would you suggest?

Frustration around the expectation to entertain while educating has grown in frequency and intensity as technology, social media, and other sources of entertainment increasingly compete for the attention of our students. Fortunately, we do not necessarily have to choose one or the other. We can provide students with experiences that feature both entertainment and education. It is possible to hold two ideas in our thinking at the same time. We can focus on standards and learning goals while seeking the best ways to achieve them.

The Cambridge dictionary defines edutainment as “The process of entertaining people at the same time that you are teaching them something, and the products such as television programs, software, and others that do this.” Edutainment might be thought of as a continuum featuring entertainment and education. There is a time and place for edutainment and time for an exclusive focus on learning. Of course, overreliance on edutainment can lead students to believe that learning should always be colorful, entertaining, and fun. They can reach the conclusion that they are the audience and educators are the entertainers.

Stories, analogies, humor, examples, videos, role play scenarios, games, and simulations can provide a context, stimulate interest, and present crucial information to support learning. However, we must be careful not to focus so heavily on the supporting activities that shortchange or abandon the intended learning. Edutainment might be thought of as a resource and strategy to support a learning effort or activity. It is not pedagogy.

Building motivation and activating engagement play important roles in learning, but they are not learning. They can prepare students for learning, but they are not ends in themselves. Our work is to help students to develop cognitive connections and structure. This work requires thinking, reflection, and application. It may feature multiple attempts before success is achieved. It can be enjoyable and rewarding, but it is not always fun.

So how might we think about the role of edutainment in our classrooms without assuming that we must be entertainers? Here are six elements to consider:

1. Think of edutainment as a strategy. We might use it as a hook to build interest, a means to renew or build background knowledge, or an experience to make a connection.
2. Start with learning goals and outcomes. If we choose to engage in or enlist some form of edutainment, we need to be certain that it aligns with and supports what we want students to learn. If we don’t and they fail to make a connection, it is just entertainment.
3. Include multiple learning modes. The more ways in which we expose and engage students to hints, previews, visuals, sounds, and actions related to learning, the wider the range of students we are likely to engage.
4.  Search for emotional hooks. Some of the best options for engaging students involve love, hate, outrage, compassion, irony, intrigue, and other emotional connections. Compelling stories, persuasive analogies, heart-tugging examples, and other invitations for students to care can generate surprisingly strong motivation and engagement.
5. Find ways to involve students in creating the experience. Students might design games, develop role play scenarios, create videos, or other engaging activities to introduce and support learning.
6. Follow up edutainment activities. The value of this type of activity is found in the connections and reflections that students make. Observations, analyses, discussions, and even debates can move students from passive listening to active thinking.

Meanwhile, we need to be mindful of several cautions:

• Avoid activities that are overly simplistic and superficial. Our goal is to prepare students for the learning that lies ahead. Activities that lack depth and connections can leave students confused and unable to grasp the intended purpose.
• Resist over-engineering edutainment activities. Time and other resources are precious. Too much time spent preparing and conducting introductory activities can distract and compromise the focus on the time available for learning.
• Use edutainment sparingly. Overuse of fun, entertaining activities can reduce students’ attention spans and leave them impatient and intolerant of extended and rigorous learning.
• Make sure that students have access to necessary resources. Some students may not have the technology and other material resources necessary to participate. Check to be certain all students can participate before presenting an edutainment experience.
• Don’t confuse entertainment and instruction. The real work of learning comes after an edutainment experience. Explicit instruction, reflection, practice, application, and formative assessment are the elements that make learning happen.

The bottom line is that educators do not have to be entertainers. However, finding ways to engage students in experiences that make learning more interesting, intriguing, and compelling can build intrinsic motivation and support deeper engagement.

The workshop model of lesson construction is designed to focus student attention and activities on building understanding, developing ownership, and fostering independence. It also offers the advantage of application across disciplines and subject areas and has been proven to be successful when put into practice.

While there are variations in the ways workshop activities are labeled and described, they share core elements that help to accelerate, solidify, and extend learning. The following are six learning and teaching components common to widely accepted workshop approaches, and a description of how each component accelerates the learning process.

Component #1: Prepare students with engaging opening activities. We might start with a compelling narrative that reveals the relevance and importance of what students will be learning. The activity might reveal and reinforce connections to prior learning. It could be a challenge activity that invites students to solve a problem or find an answer that will be revealed in the upcoming lesson. This activity also might be a pre-assessment task that reveals what students need to review or may still need to learn.

Accelerator: Preparation activities activate thinking and help students get ready to learn.

Component #2: Present brief, focused, relevant mini lessons. Lessons that generate the greatest amount of learning are not long. In fact, maximum attention and information absorption typically extend only for about 10-20 minutes depending on the age and maturity of students, the complexity of the content, and the compelling nature of what students will learn. While we might be tempted to extend our explanation, provide greater detail, or delve into specifics, research shows that students’ attention will begin to wane when the information we share extends beyond this relatively short time span. The key is to discern what is most important for students to learn next, organize the content in the most understandable and manageable format, and present the information with energy, commitment, and authenticity. Mini lessons do not have to be provided through direct instruction. Flexible strategies and variations can be employed to expose students to new learning content.

Accelerator: Short, targeted instruction taps into students’ energy and attention while they are at their peak.

Component #3: Provide opportunities for reflection. When the lesson is finished, students need time to absorb and make sense of what they have heard, seen, and experienced. Often called “brain breaks,” these are important opportunities for students to place what they are learning in working memory where it is sorted and prioritized for storage in long-term memory. We might have students physically move, engage in a mindfulness activity, or another activity that does not require significant mental energy. As little as 3-5 minutes can be adequate to accomplish this goal.

Accelerator: Students’ brains immediately begin to organize and store new information in working memory.

Component #4: Design opportunities for students to interact with what they are learning. Activities such as peer teaching, think-pair-share, and drawing pictural representations and mind maps help students to process new information, strengthen their grasp of information, and articulate their understanding of what they are learning. Students may work alone, in pairs, small groups, or large groups, depending on the content and activity.

Accelerator: Students practice sorting new information, clearing up areas of confusion or misunderstanding, and readying new learning for long-term memory.

Component #5: Arrange for application of new information or skills. Using new skills and applying new understanding to relevant, purposeful, and challenging activities further solidifies learning and builds confidence in using new knowledge. Practice activities also provide additional opportunities to clear up remaining confusion and dispel any misconceptions.

Accelerator: The shift to application and practice completes the transition from learning dependence to independence.

Component #6: Debrief for clarity and understanding. As a concluding activity, debriefing provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. Reviewing strategies, noting areas of struggle, and owning progress and new understanding helps to complete the learning process and move new information toward long-term memory. This can also be an opportunity to identify areas or elements of learning that still need support and review in the future.

Accelerator: Debriefing helps students to understand their learning journey, develop ownership of what they have learned, and provide us with feedback to use as we plan future instruction.

The workshop approach also offers the flexibility to be compressed or expanded depending on the content, amount of time available, and student readiness. Some components might be introduced one day and followed by remaining components the next day. Or, if time allows, the entire process can be accomplished in a single session.

Think about how you already employ elements of the workshop model. Are there areas or aspects you might strengthen or add? How might you adjust your approach depending on the content you teach, the age and maturity of your students, and schedule constraints you face?

Some of the most important tasks to accomplish during the first weeks of school are to learn what students know and can recall, where they may need to review and refresh their learning, and what will need to be retaught before moving forward with new content. Of course, it is best if we can engage students in activities that generate the information we need, while also reinforcing what students already know and building their confidence. A bonus is to have the process be interesting, engaging, and enjoyable. 

There are many potential approaches and strategies for gaining the information we seek. Here are five activities to consider.

Have students build “This I know” walls. For this activity, briefly refer to or describe a concept or skill that students have learned previously. Then ask students to write what they remember on sticky notes and place them on a wall poster you have labeled with the target concept or skill. You may have to offer some gentle probing and nudging to assist students to inventory their memories but resist reteaching at this point. Once students have finished placing their sticky notes, ask students to help you group the notes into subtopics or connected ideas. Follow with a discussion and debrief about what students know and where there are gaps that will require further attention. This activity can be a catalyst to ignite curiosity and motivation for students to fill in their understanding and be ready to move their learning forward.  

Provide student teams with blank or partially completed graphic organizers, timelines, or outlines to complete. Identify a previously learned multi-component concept, multi-part skill, sequence of events, multi-step process, or other content that is comprised of multiple parts, steps, or components. Have teams fill in the blanks with what they know about the components or relationships. The activity might involve a scientific process, a series of historical events, or a mathematical concept, or other content important to future learning. Depending on the age and maturity of your students and the concepts and skills involved, you might fill in some key blanks and gaps in advance to give students hints and guidance. It also might be advantageous to allow students to access resources that can assist them with the task but not immediately provide the answers.   

Design an information scavenger hunt. Create a list of questions that tap into learning from the past year that can help to set the stage for learning that lies ahead. Short answer and fill in the blank questions may work best for the purpose of this activity. Divide students into teams of two or three. In the first phase of the activity, students will respond to the questions they already know the answers to, without accessing resources other than their team members. When they are finished have them designate the answers they generated and with which all team members agreed. Responses to which there is not agreement should be deferred to the second phase. When students are ready, designate resources they can utilize to answer the remaining questions. You might limit the options to the textbook, tangible resources in the classroom, other teams, or you may open the options for students to search online. When the teams are finished, spend some time debriefing the activity, including what they already knew, what they learned, and where they remain uncertain. This activity can be a good stimulator for recall of past learning while also providing you with information about what may need to be reviewed and retaught before moving forward.

Give low stakes quizzes with a twist. Rather than only collecting question responses related to past learning, provide space next to each question for students to indicate whether they are certain their answer is correct, sort of sure, not sure at all. By collecting this next level of information, you can discern where students are solid and confident with past learning, where they have some recollection but may need review, and areas where more extensive review or reteaching will be necessary. Armed with this information, you can plan what needs to be reviewed and retaught, form flexible groups for instruction, and decide when students are ready to move forward with new learning.

Create retrospective anchor charts. Identify key concepts and skills that students typically struggle to recall or likely will need refreshing before they are ready to move forward. Capturing this information in a few anchor charts and posting them as you introduce new content will make it convenient to provide students with real time reminders and support you to offer quick reviews for students. They can also provide subtle reminders for students to access if they need reminders to fill in some gaps but do not need reteaching.

Armed with the information we have collected, we can plan the next steps in instruction and decide how best to group students in the initial weeks of school. Of course, any of these activities might be employed or repeated later in the year when we are ready to introduce new content or skills and need to know what students already know and can do. 

People commonly assume that those who possess special talents will naturally be more successful than those who do not. Similarly, some students often assume that their classmates possess talent that will make their learning and success easy and inevitable. Consequently, the perceived absence of obvious talent on their own part can lead some students to lower their expectations for their success and diminish their level and consistency of effort.  

Such perceptions, though, are not necessarily supported by experience and research. While innate talent certainly offers some advantages, it is only part of the formula that leads to success in learning and life. In fact, talent and effort play near equal roles in achieving success. Talent may make some aspects of learning easier, but effort creates the conditions necessary for talent to flourish. Consider how this truth is revealed in the words of Albert Einstein: “It is not that I am so smart. But I stay with questions much longer.” 

As we begin a new school year, it is important for our students to understand and tap the value of dedicating consistent effort to develop the talents they possess and overcome challenges in the areas where their talents may be less obvious. Here are five insights we can share with students to help them understand and manage this crucial relationship.  

Innate talent can make initial learning easier. Talent, the seemingly natural inclination toward a particular skill, topic, or discipline, can mean that initial learning requires less effort. However, talent takes many forms, and it may be obvious, latent, or developable. Some people display their talent(s) in clear and natural ways. Others possess talent but rarely display it due to circumstance, lack of confidence, or other factors. Still others may not currently demonstrate a particular talent, but with exploration and effort might develop exceptional skills and capabilities. 

Effort can accelerate and deepen learning. Effort has the potential to overcome multiple barriers, including the lack of background knowledge and experience or an absence of opportunities and support to develop a talent. When given consistently, effort can fill experience gaps, reveal hidden potential, and help an individual develop skills and tools that overcome the absence of obvious natural talent.  

Curiosity and interest are crucial contributors to the development of talent and consistency of effort. Exploration and discovery can be the fuel that drives the development of talent and the investment of effort. Feeding interest, providing opportunities to explore, and allowing students to discover can be powerful ways to reveal potential talent and inspire students to invest their energy to learn and develop skills. Meanwhile, we can tap interest that occurs naturally or help students build it through creating experiences, building relationships, and nurturing a sense of value or purpose.  

Talent that is not supported by consistent effort never fully develops. Having obvious or potential talent carries little long-term value unless it is supported and developed through consistent effort. In fact, talent that is not developed offers few benefits and often leads to frustration and regret. Curiosity, experience, and opportunity can lead to the discovery of potential talent, but its development requires commitment and effort.  

Focused, consistent effort can overcome a lack of natural talent. Some students may not possess obvious talent, but they have the power to decide whether and where to invest their effort. Talent supported by effort can be a potent combination, or effort can compensate for the absence of specific talent. In fact, over time, effort can mimic and even substitute for much of what talent can offer.  

The bottom line: Talent may be naturally bestowed, but effort lies within the control of each student. The progress they make and the success they achieve will be determined as much by the effort they give as by the talent they possess.  

Grades play a complex, multifaceted role in most classrooms. While they are intended to communicate what students know and have learned, grades are often used to influence behavior and communicate information well beyond their stated intent. Consequently, grades become a highly attended to, but often confusing vehicle for communication.

Reminding students and others who pay attention to and depend on grades that they are to reflect learning—not the purpose of learning—can be an important first step in dispelling confusion. However, our grading practices also need to reflect this intention.

Unfortunately, many commonly accepted grading practices are not consistent with a commitment to have grades solely reflect what is learned. Nor do many grading practices reflect the realities of learning challenges in the lives of students. Here are five common, but often overlooked, grading practices that are worthy of reflection and adjustment.

Mistake #1: Giving equal weight to early learning efforts and late-stage performance. Students come to learning challenges with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and levels of readiness. Initially, those students who possess limited background knowledge and experience related to what they are asked to learn may not perform as well as those with greater background and related knowledge. Consequently, early assessment information is likely to be more of a reflection of prior knowledge than current learning. On the other hand, later assessment information is likely to be more reflective of learning and thus deserves more weight in grade calculations.

Fix: Give extra weight to student performance demonstrated later in the teaching and learning cycle, thus capturing true learning rather than rewarding background knowledge.

Mistake #2: Refusing to change grades once assigned. We want grades to reflect what students know and have learned. Yet, an initial assessment can reflect partial understanding, existing confusion, or the presence of distractions. Subsequently, learning may continue, confusion may be cleared up, and distractions may be removed. What a student ultimately knows may not be reflected in an initial grade.

Fix: Provide flexibility for grades to be modified as students demonstrate additional learning. Our flexibility can encourage students to continue to reflect, learn, and be recognized for additional progress.

Mistake #3: Giving significant grade weight to work intended to be completed out of school. Traditional homework is deeply embedded in the perceptions many people hold regarding a rigorous education. However, expectations for learning intended to be completed outside of school raises significant concerns. Some students may not have access to the tools necessary to complete the work, such as access to technology devices or internet. They may not have the appropriate space or environment to complete the work. Or they may have responsibilities that compete with homework completion. Further, research on the effectiveness of homework to support learning is mixed at best.

Fix: Give students options for completing assigned work within the class period or school day or provide options for completing the work that are not dependent on access to technology, family support, and other resources.

Mistake #4: Grading almost everything. Of course, we want the grades we assign to be representative of what students have learned and be based on an adequate amount of information. However, choosing to grade too much can work against this goal. Some work students complete may represent early practice, informal progress checks, or formative assessments. While these pieces of work product can inform further learning efforts and provide guidance for our instruction, they may not necessarily qualify for a formal grade.

Fix: Carefully choose assessments, projects, and other work products that offer credible evidence of learning. While having multiple data points on which to base a grade is important, mixing practice and informal assessment information can compromise the extent to which grades accurately reflect what students know and have learned.  

Mistake #5: Using grades to force compliance, motivate, or punish students. Multiple research studies document the lack of consistent power of grades to motivate learners. In fact, over-reliance on grades can lead students to look for shortcuts to high grades while skipping the work necessary for learning. Grades should reflect learning, not be a tool to drive compliance. When grades include teacher-pleasing behaviors, socially adept students tend to benefit while traditionally marginalized students tend to be disadvantaged.

Fix: Avoid using grades for any purpose other than to communicate learning attainment and progress. Encourage students to focus on accomplishing learning goals and meeting learning expectations. Never threaten to hold a grade hostage to non-learning-related behavior.

Grading can be a daunting challenge. However, when we commit to having grades reflect learning and avoid other uses and influences, the challenge becomes more manageable, and grades also become clearer and fairer to students.

Summer is quickly passing and before we know it, we will be starting a new school year. The list of tasks we need to complete before students arrive is important. However, physical preparations are only one part of the process of readying for the new year—we also need to give attention to our mental and emotional readiness.

Hopefully, we have been able to take advantage of the summer to decompress, refocus our attention, and refresh our spirits. As the beginning of the fall semester approaches, we might spend some time reacquainting ourselves with the ideas, insights, and experiences we want to bring with us. We also might revisit and reevaluate key routines and rituals on which we have relied and adjust them to increase our efficiency, comfort, and effectiveness. Further, we might consider relationships we want to nurture and renew for companionship, support, and guidance in the coming months.

Fortunately, investing as little as one hour to engage in some reflection, personal renewal, and relationship management can give us a jumpstart. Consider the following three areas of focus using a 5-4-3-2-1 approach to guide your thinking and preparation. A detailed plan or to-do list may not be necessary, but you might want to jot a few notes as you reflect to revisit later.

Reflection

Reflect on your learning priorities by identifying:

• 5 things you tried with students that worked well.
• 4 strategies you want to try.
• 3 things you want to fix.
• 2 things you still want to learn.
• 1 misstep you want to avoid.

Renewal

Plan your mental and emotional health strategy by identifying:

• 5 daily routines that serve you well.
• 4 affirmations that will keep you grounded and focused.
• 3 commitments you need to make to remain well-balanced and healthy.
• 2 habits you want to develop.
• 1 habit you want to break.

Relationships

Consider who feeds your spirit and gives you energy by identifying:

• 5 people with whom you want to continue to connect.
• 4 people with whom you want to form a stronger relationship.
• 3 people with whom you want to explore a relationship.
• 2 people with whom you have a relationship that needs renewal or repair.
• 1 person you need to avoid.

We can easily become preoccupied by the long list of physical preparations associated with beginning a new school year. However, we also need to make mental and emotional preparations a priority if we hope to launch and enjoy a satisfying and successful year.

Summer is an opportune time to reflect on our professional profile. Reacquainting ourselves with our strengths and talents can be a source of renewed pride and cause for celebration. Revisiting areas that could use greater attention and more consistent focus can lead us to shift some priorities and make new commitments. And uncovering areas with potential for growth can lead to useful learning, new habits, and growing insight.

Our profession demands a wide array of abilities in response to a wide array of challenges that arise while we effectively engage students, colleagues, and others. Consequently, our reflection might be a list of behaviors and characteristics that are typically associated with high performance and universal effectiveness. While not necessarily all-encompassing, here is a list of nine “abilities” (including a few “-ibility” words modified for the purpose of this article) and related questions we can ask ourselves to start our reflection:

• Reli-ABILITY: Am I a “go-to” person when others want someone who will be certain a task or project is completed? Am I someone people turn to with a challenge or problem that needs attention? Can I be depended on to show up and follow through?
• Account-ABILITY: When something does not go as planned, do I take responsibility, or do I try to deflect, deny, or distract? Am I someone who, once I make a promise, follows through no matter what happens?
• Cred-ABILITY: Do I avoid exaggeration, pontification, and conjecture? Do people seek out my opinion and judgment? Do I continually build my professional knowledge base?
• Flex-ABILITY: How easily do I adjust to unexpected events, last-minute requests, and unanticipated expectations? Am I able to go with the flow, or do I become rigid and stressed in the face of change? Do I need advanced warnings, time to adjust, or someone to blame?
• Adapt-ABILITY: When conditions change, and I need to change in response, do I resist and press to keep things the way they were, or do I explore what I need to do to remain successful, then shift my approach or practice and continue to learn? Do I remain aware of trends and conditions that may make future adaptation necessary?
• Like-ABILITY: How well do I make positive first impressions and build deep and lasting relationships? Does it feel as though people want to be around me? Do I smile most of the time? Do I learn and remember people’s names? Do I give my full attention when people are speaking to me?
• Coach-ABILITY: How often do I seek constructive feedback? How well do I receive and act on the advice I receive? Can I set my ego aside when it is time to learn a new skill or practice a new approach?
• Inspir-ABILITY: (Yes, it is a real word.) What inspires me? How often am I inspired? When was the last time I experienced awe? How do I inspire others? How effectively do I share my enthusiasm and passion?
• Humor-ABILITY: (No, it is not a real word, but it should be.) How often do I see and share humor in my work with students and colleagues? Am I conscious of irony and absurdity in the situations I encounter? How often do I laugh with my students and colleagues?

If revisiting some of these “abilities” (reliability, accountability, credibility, flexibility, adaptability, likeability, coachability, inspirability, and "humorability") leaves us feeling uncomfortable or wondering if we need to shift, learn, or grow, now is great time to explore and commit to making change. Summertime may offer opportunities to practice, or we may start now to plan how we will make adjustments in the fall.

We typically think of teachable moments as serendipitous opportunities to insert new insights, leverage curiosity, or explore something our students want to understand. We know that teachable moments are special openings to support learning. They are times when students are ready—even eager—to learn more. These are times when we need to be aware and prepared to respond as opportunities emerge.

However, not all teachable moments have to be spontaneous; they do not necessarily have to be unpredictable opportunities that must be sensed and seized in the moment lest they be lost. We do not always have to wait for students to present teachable moments to us, either. We can “seed the clouds” with awareness, attention, and curiosity to increase the likelihood that teachable moments will fall into our hands.

Teachable moments we create can be the starting place for instruction, they can be the launching pads for student investigation, or they can set the stage for introducing a new unit or kicking off a project-based learning challenge. Here are six strategies we can tap to create interest-grabbing and curiosity-igniting teachable moments:

Partially reveal something new, interesting, or mysterious. We might provide just enough information to pique students’ interests. We can offer a short overview without sharing too much. We might invite students to speculate, question, and imagine. Having created a teachable moment, we can allow students to “light the path” to discovery as we respond strategically to their interest, curiosity, and growing understanding.

Challenge students to investigate and explore before you teach. We might present students with a problem to solve or challenge to attack before teaching a new skill or sharing information. The experience can stimulate students’ interest, tap their desire to succeed, and build anticipation for instruction. A teachable moment can emerge when we use the questions students generate during their preview to guide discussion and point the direction of our instruction.

Present multiple sides of a compelling issue or topic. We might introduce a topic, skill, or process by presenting it first with one approach, perspective, or process and then present the same thing from another perspective or approach. For example, we might introduce a mathematical problem and demonstrate two or three ways to solve it. We can explore with students the reasons why more than one approach might work. Subsequently, students might investigate and explore multiple approaches. We create a teachable moment when we help students to move beyond singular, linear thinking and procedures to focus on underlying concepts and principles.

Share a captivating story. A good story is almost impossible to resist. Stories can tap curiosity, stir emotions, and create engagement. Even students who may have little inherent interest in a topic can be stimulated to investigate and learn after hearing a relevant, relatable, and memorable story. The experience can become a teachable moment when we “seed” the story with key concepts, important connections, and intriguing information.

Create a surprising and memorable event. The unexpected can be a great ignitor of teachable moments. As examples, we might surprise students with the arrival of an unannounced visitor with a problem or mystery for the class to solve. We might unveil a picture that invites discussion or investigation. Depending on our skills, a relevant magic trick can also be a great way to stimulate a teachable moment.

Ask the right type of question. Some questions are simply intended to provide clarification or ensure understanding. These are important questions, but they may not be invitations to create a teachable moment. We can create a teachable moment by asking a question that examines a noticed misconception, reveals an important gap in understanding, or hints at a learning extension that invites an additional investigation or journey of discovery. A teachable moment offers even greater impact when students are given time and support to reflect, analyze, and investigate.

Teachable moments are precious opportunities to stimulate learning and build understanding. However, we do not always have to wait for students to present these special learning occasions. With thoughtful planning and good timing, teachable moments can play a frequent, powerful, and predictable role in the learning experiences we design.