This article, on strategies to keep kids from giving up, has become a cognitive "pea" for me. No matter how much I try, I can't get it out of my mind.
Now... before I go any further, I should say that I like the Teach Thought blog. I read it regularly and have gratefully shared good stuff from them both before and after seeing this piece. Further, I don't know the author of this article, but I'm 100% convinced that they are devoted to making a difference for kids.
It's just, as I read this article (and reread it again just now) I couldn't help but think of other strategies, (strategies that are more closely linked to instruction than to classroom management), for making it easier for kids to stick with something, especially when that something is hard.
So... while I have no problem with the suggestions listed in the original piece, I'd humbly offer the following additions/alternatives to the list:
- Create assignments that are worthy of your students' time: Despite what they might say, kids are not motivated by easy work. They want and deserve opportunities to do something epic. What's more, they know the difference between quantity and quality. More work is not the same as challenging work. If you want kids to persevere and not give up, be respectful of their time and involve them in work that means something. After all, Jack Andraka was not inspired to do something amazing by a worksheet or a trifold board.
- Create assignments that focus on what kids accomplish, rather than just on what they produce: Kids need to be rewarded for taking risks, for trying something new, for dusting themselves off when they stumble and for accomplishing stuff that the original rubric couldn't have imagined. Rather than focusing so much on what the final product looks like, we need to give credit for the journey. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that we give everyone an "A for Effort" but what I am saying is that if a kid feels like they'll only get credit for climbing Everest if their flag makes it to the top, they've got little incentive to shoot for the next base-camp when things get tough.
- Create assignments that privilege student voice, student questions and student interests: In Creating Minds, Howard Gardner posits that one of the traits frequently exhibited by geniuses is the childlike ability to wonder. Kids wonder stuff. They ask why. They imagine. They dream. And they think about ways to create the stuff their magical little brains cook up. UNTIL they get to school and we teach them that the only thing that matters is the right answer. If we want kids to stick with challenging work, we need to let them have a voice in how that work is crafted. We need to allow them to find the answers to THEIR questions, solve the problems that THEY care about and pursue things THEY are interested in.
- Create assignments that matter in the real world: "Why are we doing this?" is a legitimate question. It's not disrespectful or cheeky. AND it deserves an answer other than "because it is on the test" or "because I said so." Kids need to know (which is different from being told) that the tasks they're being given relate to life outside of the classroom. One of my eduheroes, Kevin Honeycutt, created a classroom environment in which students tackled the art curriculum as entrepreneurs: picking CEOs who then hired employees, who then had to accomplish certain tasks or risk being fired. They managed budgets, created marketing campaigns, learned how to interview for jobs and developed countless other workplace skills all while covering the entirety of the art curriculum. The work was hard but Kevin's students, many of whom were tough customers, stuck it out because they knew it was real.
|#brobrarians John & Stuart Making Mischief & Magic|
All we need is the will.