If you ask my students what I do with their work after each intervention session, you are likely going to hear them respond, “She tosses it in the trash.”
Now before you write me off as an apathetic educator, let me explain.
I’ve only been teaching for five years. But, I’ve had multiple experiences in a variety of classrooms and there tends to be a common theme in each and every one of them. Kids are afraid to fail. They are afraid to mess up. And they – desperately – seek out the answers in your eyes. They are hesitant to respond and will look up at you – searching your facial expressions to see if they will give them the answer they need. And if, for some reason, you – the teacher – break face for even a second, they frantically erase what they’ve written as if to eliminate all evidence of having the wrong thing down on paper.
For the last 15 minutes of my intervention groups, I hand each kid a piece of paper and spend that chunk of time practicing our spelling and our sentence writing. My students have a lot going against them. Some of them have deficits in phonological awareness. Others have difficulty keeping the sounds in their memory for long enough to get it down on paper. So, my job as the interventionist is to teach them strategies to overcome these barriers.
Cooper is a student of mine who struggles when writing two-syllable words.
So, together, we practice breaking two-syllable words apart because hearing the sounds in each syllable is much more manageable for him. (For example, we break the word “napkin” into “nap” and “kin” and, suddenly, spelling is a whole lot easier for him).
All of the kids sit together at one long rectangular table as I dictate the words I want them to spell. At the beginning of the year, many students would discreetly (or not-so-discreetly) side-eye their neighbor’s paper to make sure they wrote down the word correctly.
So, in September, when the side-eyes were outta control, I stopped what we were doing and asked my kids, “What do you think I’m going to do with this paper when you guys walk out this door?”
Cooper responded, “Grade them?”
“No,” I said. “I’m going to toss it in the trash. I don’t care if your answers are right or wrong. I don’t yell at you when you mess up. Because when you get it wrong, it gives us all an opportunity to learn from your mistake.”
This is true. I don’t wait until the end of the “spelling” portion to give the students feedback on which ones are right and which ones are wrong. When I notice a child making an error, I prompt them to use the strategy and try it again. Right then and there. This gives them the immediate feedback they need and reminds them of the strategy over and over again.
And then, when the 15 minutes comes to an end, the students have practiced using the “break apart” strategy multiple times, I have taken note of the students who continue to struggle in a specific area, and the papers make their way toward the trashcan.
So, if you happen to be walking by my classroom, and you hear a child yell, “She’s going to throw it in the trash,” they’re reminding their fellow classmates to put something down on paper – to write without fear – because this is nothing more than a learning opportunity for them.
Question of the Day:
- How do you remind your students it’s OKAY to fail?
I’ve seen this so much in my past student teaching and as a nanny- kids are so afraid to fail. I am not teaching right now, but when I am caring for kids I always encourage them to keep trying before I help them.
As a SpEd teacher, my students have been told they are failures way too many times. They are not! Not all learn in the same way nor on the same day. Kudos to you! Keep up your loving ways. Xoxo
I love this! I feel like it’s a useful idea for me as a parent, even though I’m not a teacher.
What a great idea! When teaching elementary we often used notebooks, and kids self corrected their own work…but there’s still some anxiety there. If we avoid the anxiety and free them from all this judgement and grading…they can relax and will probably do even better. Love it!
This is a great idea! I know a lot of my problems with math and science stemmed from the fear of doing it wrong!
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I love this. In the sixth grade class I taught we spent each morning free writing in their spirals. We didn’t grade the free writing, we didn’t even look at it. We would allow for about ten minutes after writing for anyone who wanted to share a favorite sentence or passage, but outside of that, the journals were for them.
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This is such a good strategy to teach kids that mistakes aren’t permanent and that trying is part of learning!
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I ma not an educated teacher soI don’t know all the different ways to teach children. Knowing that if they make a mistake it is going to okay and they can just throw it in the trash and start over and learn from their mistakes. What we always told our children. I would love to have had you as a teach for my children.
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Kids need so much encouragement. I remember myself being very insecure in class!
I have been teaching for five years as well and totally agree with you! Kids are so embarrassed and scared ALL the time to get the wrong answers…
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love this! I am such a perfectionist. I need to throw my “work” away too.
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That’s great! I notice a lot of students don’t like to write while I’m watching. Often I will say to them “complete x task and I will be back in 5 mins and we can go through it together” they suddenly seem to become less anxious and are able to concentrate with less hovering 😉
Hmmmm this is a very interesting approach. I will ask some of the teachers I know if they practice this strategy too and how they see the kids more willing to write down rather than being afraid of mistakes.
What a great philosophy — if kids see teachers like that, it may just change their whole outlook for the better! xoxo
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You’re really a perfect teacher! Kids always need encouragement and compliment. I’ve learned a lot from you I ca apply this to myself even I’m not a teacher but as a mother. (wink)
I admire your dedication to teaching. That has always been a difficult job, but it seems to be so much harder these days. As a very young child, I remember that there were so many Saturday morning educational cartoons on television. One of them that helped me and lot of other kids my age was the Electric Company. Here is one of the many videos that I think every educator – especially SpEd should see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjVv0nXPP0c. There are many others like this. I really miss this show!
Amazing strategy. You are an awesome, dedicated teacher Divya.
Thank you for sharing on your blog for others to learn.
God Bless!!
This sounds like a wonderful technique for teaching. This, in theory, can be used with almost anyone in almost any situation. The idea of working to understand the very basics of something and then putting it together to see the bigger picture is how we should all operate from. It sounds like you truly empower your students to learn without fear and that is not an easy task.
Breaking the 2 syllables word is a nice idea, spelling is always been hard for the kids especially when the teacher speaks so fast. You’re a very good teacher. 5 years is a long experienced of teaching anyway.
I love this idea! I teach middle and high school health/life skills topics, and most of the work I have students do is done anonymously and spelling does not count. It makes a huge difference when students realize I’m not “judging” their work in any way – they feel comfortable writing the most amazing things! Kids really are afraid to make mistakes. Great job for making your students feel comfortable messing up sometimes!
I think this is such a good idea, yelling at kids and belittling them doesn’t work it just makes them dislike their teachers. Telling them that it’s ok to make mistakes and learn from them is the best way to help them!
Wow this is a very interesting point of view, and I think it’s awesome!
I’m completely with you on this, and I do the same thing when I’m helping my kids at home. It’s helped my son a lot.
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This is so great, going to share this with my two teacher friends!
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That certainly sounds like a very effective way to instill routine and knowledge to kids. The world is thankful for people like you who can teach well using different learning methods.
This is great. I had never really thought about it. It sounds like you have a lot of innovation as a teacher!
I admire teachers for being innovative in teaching kids. I have a lot of friends who are teachers.
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I like this aspect of teaching because it gives students a chance to actually recognize that everyone makes mistakes. They constantly dont need it thrown in their faces with graded papers over and over again!
xoxo
Isaly Holland
http://www.memoriesbyisaly.com
That sounds like a good strategy. I know it’s hard to see graded work because all you look at is the grade, not what needs to be fixed or what was done well.
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I really like your technique. I wish my kids had a teacher like you when they were younger.
You sound like an amazing teacher. 🙂 My 9 year old is my only kiddo in school and he HATES it when I throw stuff away. He’s really smart and usually has good grades so he wants me to keep them all. haha
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I think each teacher are allowed to practice their own style of teaching because it allows them to teach the kids more. It’s not for us to judge, you worked hard to become an educator and you already know what you’re doing. If this technique works for your class then that’s awesome.
Interesting. I never would have thought of this as a method. I love that they think they’re work matters, but their progress matters more.
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I’ve always believed you don’t fail if you keep trying. I am not sure I agree with your approach but I can see our sincerity in it. The best teachers, like you, are hard to come by.
I love this! I taught 7th & 8th grade history and English for a few years. There were things I never graded, and the students knew it. I would always tell them what was graded and what wasn’t. I tried to instill confidence in them and told them that success doesn’t necessarily mean an A.
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Honestly, I think it’s okay. You’re their teacher and you know better about what to do with their work. If your style works for these kids then why not continue with it, right?
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You. are. amazing. I love this post. I did a similar thing, but instead of using paper during our intervention time, I used mini whiteboards. They were actually marker-board pieces from home depot. Much cheaper than buying the mini ones. That way they can write without it feeling so ‘permanent’ and I can see what they’re doing. You are doing such amazing things for your students. I want to be just like you when I grow up.
What a great and caring way to teach. It’s great to help the kids as they go as opposed to pass or fail.