ELLEN
BERG
Diary #13
Getting Our Teaching Hands a Little Dirty
When I was a kid, I loved to get dirty. My next-door neighbor and best friend, Patty, was always willing to help me in that endeavor. We made mud pies (and marveled at how smooth our skin was afterwards), played with worms, danced in the streams of water flowing down the street during rainstorms and rolled down grassy slopes in the summer, breathing in the smell of sunshine and warm grass.
Somewhere along the way, right around middle school as I recall, the urge to get dirty seemed to pass. Our focus switched to makeup, wearing the "right clothes," and being as inconspicuous as possible. Everything had to be just so for fear our friends and classmates would laugh at us or notice our irregularities. We shrugged off our former carefree days in favor of what we thought was more adult behavior. It was not until I went to Costa Rica on a two-week inquiry workshop that I remembered the beauty of getting my hands dirty. Awkward at first, I slowly made my way back to delighting in getting a little muddy and peering closely at the tiny leaf-cutter ants going about their work. I began to see and live again.Getting deep down
These thoughts return to me this week as I continue conferencing with my students about their research projects.
I grew up believing teaching was all about the delivery of knowledge; tell the students what they need to learn, give them an assignment, test them, and move on. I have long understood it is much more than that — designing effective lessons, using constructivist strategies, and matching curriculum with students' interests — but I have only recently begun to understand that we have to get way down deep in the mud and clutter with our students to help guide them through their learning and understanding their thinking along the way.
My students are currently finishing up their research for a magazine article project. Students identified a topic they were interested in learning more about, generated questions, and began using a variety of resources — the Internet, interviews, surveys, the encyclopedia — to answer their questions. I divided students into five learning teams to cycle through five centers: two centers were going to the library, and one center was in-class research (computers and reference materials). In another center, students continued reading in the genre (magazine articles), and we used the final center for conferencing. I have been amazed at how diligently and quietly my students have been working on this project. It is rare that a student is off task. Part of this, I believe, is that they are learning about subjects that interest them, but the other part is that I am giving them the support they need in the conference center, and I've reduced class size as a result of two groups going to the library to work with the librarian.Given the chance, they ask for the help they need
In the past, there have been lots of times when I would observe student behaviors and work, make inferences and judgments about them, and make a prescription based solely on my own thoughts. Sometimes I was right, and the student was able to make the adjustments necessary to do well. Other times I was wrong, but I always believed the student just was not taking advantage of my help.
What I have figured out during these conferences is that my students have a lot to say about what they understand, what they're confused about, and what they need. As I sit around the table with my students, they pose questions about content and process, share information with one another, problem solve and seek my assistance with sticky research situations. It is quite clear that my students care about what they are doing, and, given the chance, they are asking me to help them where they need it. How better can we differentiate? If all I do is look at your work and test scores, I am missing part of the picture. We often tell kids what we want them to do, but how often do we invite them to tell us what they need from us? The information I have received has been invaluable.Conferencing needs to be a permanent fixture
Last year I shared my thoughts about using individual conferences during my poetry unit. The more I conference, the more I see the necessity of making it a permanent part of my classroom.
Not only are we able to connect on an academic level, sending the message that each student's success is indeed important to us, but we are able to connect on a personal level as well. I have been able to gently remind students of the upcoming deadline, ask them questions about what they need to do to meet the deadline, and help them establish some goals and personal homework in a way that is simply impossible in a whole group setting. No one feels threatened, and no one has argued when I have suggested they complete a certain portion of their research for homework for time's sake.
We cannot sit in a high and lofty position in our classrooms, observing but never really interacting. We have to get into the middle of the action, asking students questions and listening, really listening to what they say. In the end, getting our hands a little dirty in the confusion, exuberance and process of our students' projects is a lot more productive – and fun – than shaking our heads in dismay when the final product does not meet our standards.Go on, jump in. They're a little strange, but they don't bite...really!
