ELLEN
BERG
Diary #17
When Students Care, They Ask for Help
"Mrs. Berg,
I for real don't have any idea what you were talking about," confides
Dani. "What are we supposed to be doing?"
Last week, many of my students asked me to work with them individually on their magazine articles. We worked on leads and organized information they had collected into sub-topics. Even so, many of my kids still wore puzzled looks on their faces. However, instead of just sitting in their seats confused, students began questioning me earnestly about what to do and how to do it.
Why am I so excited?
In the past, my students have seemed reluctant to confess their confusion about the subject matter or concepts we have covered. Their usual tactic has been to act out, waste time, and avoid the work altogether. A seasoned teacher, these behaviors did not fool me, but they did frustrate me. I repeatedly tell my students, "I am here for the sole purpose of helping you." So why weren't more of them asking for the help they obviously needed?
I chalked it all up to not wanting their peers to know they were struggling. Image is a huge issue with my students, and I assumed that was at work here. After this week, I've decided that theory is unsound.
Why are my students seeking me out?
While I am excited students are finally actively seeking my help, I need to figure out what conditions in the classroom are allowing this renaissance to take place. After thinking about it over the weekend, I think I may have the solution.
First, I believe my constant message of the importance of time on task and my high expectations for all students are finally sinking in. I begin each class with, "As usual we have a lot to do today," then read the list of agenda items. I repeatedly tell my classes how much we have left to do this school year to prepare for seventh grade, and tell them every moment is precious.
We work steadily from the beginning to the end of class with our eyes on the end project. I do not provide free time, and I do not allow students to waste our limited time with sleeping and other off-task activities. It has been difficult to cultivate and hold students consistently to this standard, but it is finally paying off. I hear students chastising offending class members for wasting our time, even saying, "Mrs. Berg says she won't waste our time with stuff that's not important, so don't waste our time with your silliness."
The second reason? I believe students feel comfortable asking for help is that my focus has been on the process of learning rather than on being right or wrong. I share my failures and shortcomings with them as well as my strategies for improving and growing stronger in those cases.
For example, a couple of weeks ago I made the comment that my desk was so clean. One of my girls said, "What? You have papers all over it. You call that clean?" I replied, "Well, you have to understand that last year my desk was piled two feet high with books and papers, and they weren't stacked neatly like they are now. It's a huge improvement." She acknowledged that I had made great progress and declared my desk clean as well.
When students have faltered in my classroom, I have tried to turn it into a learning experience, allowing them to reflect and figure out how to fix or improve the situation. In my room it is safe to be a learner rather than someone who knows everything already. We are all learners together.A final reason I think students have opened up is they are engaged in their work.
We have been discussing the difference between entertainment and engagement on the MiddleWeb listserv, describing an engaging activity as one students can not easily walk away from because they are personally invested and interested in the task.
With this unit, students chose topics they wanted to know more about, developed research questions, and located information. Currently they are organizing information and preparing to write the articles they will share with their peers. They not only care about their topics, they care about their audience, and they are doing everything in their power to create a worthy product.
Students who had complained about the 20-question requirement at the beginning of the project are asking me if they can do more research as they notice gaps in their article's content. Students are asking each other for assistance, eagerly offering suggestions for organization and strengthening leads. Homework, which has been centered around pieces of the article they are writing, has been completed at an overwhelming percentage rate. Kids who had spent a good deal of time avoiding other assignments are asking my opinion about what they are writing, looking for ways to improve.The difference is — they care
When kids are engaged, they care about their work, enough to risk their image by asking for assistance. At a time when many adults shake their heads and claim today's youths are apathetic and unmotivated where school is concerned, I have four classrooms full of kids who are excited and focused on what they are learning.
Did I simply get lucky and end up with a hundred intrinsically motivated children? Are the sixth graders at Turner Middle School really so different from the nation's other youths? Or did their teacher finally figure out that instead of buying into the negative stereotypes of her students she should take a good hard look at what she was doing and how she was contributing to the problem?
I leave you to decide.
