What is the essence of your lesson?
Have you heard about the Golden Records that NASA shot up into space in 1977? On it contained a library of sounds that symbolize the diversity of life on earth: babies crying, people laughing, waves, whales, cars, music for every era, speeches of peace, dictators, wind, rain - you name it! Stamped onto the gold record are symbols of man, woman, child, symbols that an intelligent life form might recognize and be able to decode the essence of Planet Earth.
In talking to some of our colleagues this week about achieving the aims of the lesson and the success of our students, I asked, “What is the essence of the lesson? What is the main thing we need to communicate to the students?”
This week I have had several teachers talk to me about some of the learning behaviors that are popping up in their classrooms. In some cases, a negative attitude towards the teacher; in others, the student assumes a general “laugh it off” behavior. These are all maladaptive coping behaviors that our young ones have learned to make work for them because they are socially acceptable, but lucky for them, they are surrounded by adults who see right through these negative behaviors - teachers that can recognize that every complaint or misbehavior is just an unspoken request.
Being the example for the student is key. Sometimes these students don’t know how to ask for help. My fellow colleagues who sought out collaboration this week are examples of the same advocacy skills we need to start teaching our students and are really taking a stand for the goodness and potential of every child in doing so.
I spoke to one fellow educator about a lesson she is conducting about the American Revolution. The students are in a time of forensic style investigation. Walking into the classroom, one can feel the buzz - that very distinctive feeling in the air that the students are learning. The very concerns that this educator had about an EL student of hers were evident. Though this student had the article up on his iPad, he did not know what was going on, nor was he able to access the content (with no fault to the efforts of the teacher in the classroom). The language barrier and his behavior were an unspoken request for help, and the teacher helped the student by voicing his needs.
That’s where we start. I took the student outside and had a conversation with him about this topic. He admitted to not knowing what a revolution is let alone what significance the American Revolution has for us as Americans. Our conversation went somewhere in the order of this, “Do you know what a Revolution is? … No? … Well there are different kinds of revolutions, but basically, a revolution is a ‘big change’. A change that causes a person, a community, someone’s mind, or even a country to change, heck even the world! Have you ever had one of these? … No? … Really? … I want you to go home tonight and talk to your parents about what revolutions they have experienced in their lives, what big changes they have had; and I want you to think about revolutions that might be big in peoples’ lives. For example, the decision to move from somewhere far, far away like to the United States.”
In our conversation I asked him if he knew what the American Revolution was and if he knew what he was doing in class. He once again confessed, “No, I don’t.” So I told him that this is important for him to know because he is now living in America and that this is his country. He is now a person with two countries, and this is the history of what makes Americans, Americans.
Of course we talked about what responsibility for learning looks like, of course we did a little counseling, and of course all of this was preceded by introductions, but what he got was a time out, a check in, and an assignment that he could do. Tonight (hopefully) he will go home talk to mom and dad about “revolution, big changes in one’s life”, write 5 sentences, and tomorrow he will translate them from Spanish (his 2nd of 3 languages) into English. Then we can talk about the American Revolution, the essence of that being that the American people fought for freedom and liberty from a corrupt power.
This is the essence of the lesson. Now he has to communicate and express an understanding of the standard that can be observed and entered for credit. This is what success looks like; from the teacher’s willingness to seek out collaboration, to the student’s willingness to step outside, this is Champion behavior. It is something that we model and something that we teach our students with every action. I might even go as far as to say that taking risks is the essence of teaching and learning.
Have you heard about the Golden Records that NASA shot up into space in 1977? On it contained a library of sounds that symbolize the diversity of life on earth: babies crying, people laughing, waves, whales, cars, music for every era, speeches of peace, dictators, wind, rain - you name it! Stamped onto the gold record are symbols of man, woman, child, symbols that an intelligent life form might recognize and be able to decode the essence of Planet Earth.
In talking to some of our colleagues this week about achieving the aims of the lesson and the success of our students, I asked, “What is the essence of the lesson? What is the main thing we need to communicate to the students?”
This week I have had several teachers talk to me about some of the learning behaviors that are popping up in their classrooms. In some cases, a negative attitude towards the teacher; in others, the student assumes a general “laugh it off” behavior. These are all maladaptive coping behaviors that our young ones have learned to make work for them because they are socially acceptable, but lucky for them, they are surrounded by adults who see right through these negative behaviors - teachers that can recognize that every complaint or misbehavior is just an unspoken request.
Being the example for the student is key. Sometimes these students don’t know how to ask for help. My fellow colleagues who sought out collaboration this week are examples of the same advocacy skills we need to start teaching our students and are really taking a stand for the goodness and potential of every child in doing so.
I spoke to one fellow educator about a lesson she is conducting about the American Revolution. The students are in a time of forensic style investigation. Walking into the classroom, one can feel the buzz - that very distinctive feeling in the air that the students are learning. The very concerns that this educator had about an EL student of hers were evident. Though this student had the article up on his iPad, he did not know what was going on, nor was he able to access the content (with no fault to the efforts of the teacher in the classroom). The language barrier and his behavior were an unspoken request for help, and the teacher helped the student by voicing his needs.
That’s where we start. I took the student outside and had a conversation with him about this topic. He admitted to not knowing what a revolution is let alone what significance the American Revolution has for us as Americans. Our conversation went somewhere in the order of this, “Do you know what a Revolution is? … No? … Well there are different kinds of revolutions, but basically, a revolution is a ‘big change’. A change that causes a person, a community, someone’s mind, or even a country to change, heck even the world! Have you ever had one of these? … No? … Really? … I want you to go home tonight and talk to your parents about what revolutions they have experienced in their lives, what big changes they have had; and I want you to think about revolutions that might be big in peoples’ lives. For example, the decision to move from somewhere far, far away like to the United States.”
In our conversation I asked him if he knew what the American Revolution was and if he knew what he was doing in class. He once again confessed, “No, I don’t.” So I told him that this is important for him to know because he is now living in America and that this is his country. He is now a person with two countries, and this is the history of what makes Americans, Americans.
Of course we talked about what responsibility for learning looks like, of course we did a little counseling, and of course all of this was preceded by introductions, but what he got was a time out, a check in, and an assignment that he could do. Tonight (hopefully) he will go home talk to mom and dad about “revolution, big changes in one’s life”, write 5 sentences, and tomorrow he will translate them from Spanish (his 2nd of 3 languages) into English. Then we can talk about the American Revolution, the essence of that being that the American people fought for freedom and liberty from a corrupt power.
This is the essence of the lesson. Now he has to communicate and express an understanding of the standard that can be observed and entered for credit. This is what success looks like; from the teacher’s willingness to seek out collaboration, to the student’s willingness to step outside, this is Champion behavior. It is something that we model and something that we teach our students with every action. I might even go as far as to say that taking risks is the essence of teaching and learning.