In my work in coaching, professional development, continuous improvement, leadership, change, and technology applications, I am often asking the question,”What do we need students to do?”. The question is driven by my assumption that students, not teachers, create student achievement. Only when the teacher is clear as to what student behaviors are likely to generate the student achievement, can the teacher design learning activities (instruction) that create and promote the desired student actions. Only by knowing what those student behaviors are can the teacher assess if the current activity is “working.”
I’m becoming convinced that we need to spend substantially more time as educators in this exploration and conversation:
Some recent experiences:
During walk-throughs in a small school district with the superintendent I met a high school teacher who didn’t have students when we entered his classroom. I was informed that he was a teacher who was frequently using the Smart Board installed in his classroom. I asked, “How does the Smart Board change the student learning experience?” He began telling me how convenient it was for him as a teacher. I stopped and repeated my question and again he described how he could now identify and play short video clips. It took additional conversation to get to the words… the students experience a visual context/representation of the historical content…if I had the chance to probe longer… what do students get to do with or because of getting that visual representation?
Working with a school based RtI (Response to Intervention) team, we were examining their issue of teacher fidelity of an intervention. I asked,”How about student fidelity?”. If an intervention is a 30 min. daily session on a computer reading program, “What is the program supposed to get the student to do?” … practice building fluency, be exposed to broader vocabulary, hear fluent reading etc.?
Then, what does the student need to do while in the program? What should be happening in the student's head as they work? Many participants struggled to answer these questions. That led me to the next obvious question, "Does the student know the purpose of the intervention?”. Several teachers volunteered that they hadn’t thought of having that conversation. Those that did were general in their approach,”Make you a better reader.”. We are more likely to get student effort when students understand specifically what behavior we are requesting and why?
In the April 2010 Phi Delta Kappan, Steven Wolk raises a question about what we want students to be doing In this case, what should they be reading:
“Walk into any 1st grade classroom and you’re surrounded by voracious readers. Walk into a 6th grade classroom, and you’re surrounded by children who desperately avoid books, especially boys. What do schools do--- and not do--- to turn reading books into such drudgery?
…simply reading a text doesn’t mean students are intellectually engaged. Much of their school reading is done with little thought. They read to get the assignment done as quickly as possible. Why do we perpetuate this school culture of fake reading when our school is filled with so many astonishing things to read.”(pg 10)
To develop the reading skills and reading attitudes that you believe are important, what do you want students to do? Does what we assign for required reading have an impact?
How much material is available (newspapers, magazines, online) on the stories of citizens/children of Haiti? If that topic were assigned reading, might we see a change in student behavior during the reading work?
By deciding the student behaviors that will create the achievement we seek, teachers can get immediate feedback on the impact of our instructional choice. If my learning activity is not getting the needed student engagement, I need to modify my strategy.
Try these questions in your coaching pre-conferences. What are the most important student behaviors during the learning activity for it to produce the desired achievement? What choices are you making as the teacher to get those behaviors? What can you plan for in advance? How much will you have to design/decide during the lesson?
How do you use celebration to motivate, provide feedback, and reinforce your desired culture?
At Performance Learning Systems, we promote a strategy for teachers called the celebration of perseverance. Whenever students have preserved (worked hard) and succeeded we suggest the teacher throw a party…..a 30-90 second party.
--A kindergarten teacher does the class back rub…where students form a circle and massage the back of the person in front of them, then spin around and repeat.
--A middle school teacher has a clothes line of socks bearing the school logo. When your writing “knocks her socks off” you win one. You need to repeat to get a pair.
--A high school teacher serves milk and cookies (homemade by him) when high test results occur in a class section.
--A principal shows up at a faculty meeting wearing a waitress outfit and carrying an order book. She announces, “You came expecting to get orders. Instead, today I am taking them. The meeting moves to a local 50’s diner where the principal treats. In What Every Teacher Should Know About Motivation, Donna Walker Tileston describes the difference between rewards and celebrations.
“Rewards have commercial value and will be expected. If you all do your work we will have a pizza party. Students know they will get the pizza if they finish their work. With celebrations the reward is unexpected. Students work hard on a project and the teacher surprises them with a pizza party.”
In Daniel Pink’s recent book, DRIVE, he explores how extrinsic rewards can be detrimental in motivating conceptual, breakthrough creative thinking. He suggest that managers replace “if then” rewards with “now that” celebrations.
“Now that” a great job’s been done, “now that” you reached a new level, “now that” the team finished the project a bonus, reward, party, etc celebrates the effort….. Often the celebration is more social than tangible.
Celebrations provide feedback and information regarding what is valued in the culture of the organization.
Mary Ellen Slayter's blog on appreciation points to a favorite book of mine:
In “How Full is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life”, Tom Rath and Donald Clifton said that the main reason most North Americans leave their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated. They also noted that 65% of Americans say they receive no recognition at work.
Appreciation has the biggest impact when it is given randomly. B.F. Skinner discovered that random reinforcement more strongly anchors behaviors than consistent reward. Consider how we view bosses who arrange a surprise on Administrative Assistants’ Day compared to a boss who for no reason acts with a gesture of appreciation. It’s similar to gestures of affection in intimate relationships. Compare the romantic scale of a single rose gifted on Valentine’s Day with one given on an ordinary day.
I recently worked with the staff at Southeast High School in Manatee County, FL. J. Michael Horne, the principal ,shared that they had just held their annual Teachers’ Choice Awards. This celebration allows each faculty and staff member to show appreciation for students. Each member has the opportunity to recognize one student, but the criteria for that recognition are left solely to the staff member. Students are often rewarded for exceptional work, personality, or improvement. Students and their parents receive an invitation to the celebration not knowing who has chosen them for what.
The student I recognized for the 9th Annual Teachers Choice Awards was recognized for her everlasting smile. Even when getting corrected she still ends up smiling. This kind of person we like to have around because they tend to rub off on others.
Kathy Campbell
Southeast High School
Visual Arts Department
School Newspaper Advisor
Guard Sponsor
What celebrations are you planning? What feedback will participants take from the celebration? How will the celebration help define your culture?
Recently, I was invited to work with grade level teams at an elementary school as a follow up to a day of walkthroughs at their school and presentations of my observations to the teachers. Our initial work had focused on engagement. I shared this in an earlier blog labeling engagement as teacher initiated and student initiated.
Here are the requests I received from some of the teams:
3rd Grade: We would like Mr. Barkley to help in the following ways: Motivation and the “uncaring” student. Describe some techniques to help students take ownership of their own learning. We are all confronting lack of motivation of some students within our classrooms and we have discussed this amongst our team and PLC’s. We strongly feel that these students negatively affect the classroom environment. Other students, who may not normally behave in this manner, tend to follow the “uncaring” students lead and do the same. The problem seems to spread. We have discussed motivation and tried many things that have had minimal impact. We would like Mr. Barkley to share some motivation techniques with us that have worked in other schools.
Kindergarten- We would like Steve to help us improve student effort and attempt. How do we make this student initiated instead of teacher initiated? What can we do to make our school FUN?? We want children to be excited about learning. Kindergarteners are excited about school but seem to lose that excitement as they grow older.
In both groups we spent some time reviewing work from Tapping Student Effort: Increasing Student Achievement.We reviewed the formula EFFORT times ABILITY focused on a MANAGEABLE TASK equals SUCCESS and looked at William Glasser’s work identifying survival, belonging, power freedom and fun as motivators.
I provided some examples from Tapping Student Effort for the third grade team
:
Banana Split (page 108) where a third grade teacher created a class goal. When everyone in the class passes a test on the times tables, there would be a banana split party for the class. Her class quickly became a team helping and supporting each other to complete the task. To quote the teacher, ”They all experienced a degree of success due to their own hard work that led them to believe that memorizing the facts was possible for them."
Skywalker Sprouts (page 62) where a second grade class from Michigan learns lots while running a business. Students purchase Alfalfa seeds, water and grow sprouts, package, market, sell and reinvest in the next crop. When problems arise they practice problem solving along with planning, and cooperating to reach a common goal. Students created a booklet for first time purchasers.
All these areas of motivation are connected to Daniel Pink’s work in DRIVE:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
“We know—if we have spent time with young children or remember ourselves at our best – we’re not destined to be passive and compliant. We’re designed to be active and engaged. And we know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we are clamoring for validation from others, but when we’re listening to our own voice --- doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.”(page 145)
Watch the primary students in this video having fun learning and identifying how they listen to their own voice and DO!
The first grade team asked to look at confidence in work and risk taking in reading tasks. After looking at the same information on motivation, I sent them to the blog of Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano to listen to first grade readers who blogged, podcast, and tweeted their updated Flat Stanley stories.
Listen to a few of the students reading on the podcast and you’ll note what Silvia states…reading and producing for a worldwide audience does make a difference.
I’d love to see your examples of students working with purposefulness. Promise I’ll share them with teachers to spark their thinking and push their courage to do the same.
This week I received a question that a middle school administrative team is exploring.
"Do middle school students need recess?”
“Is it harder for them to get back into the academic mode when they return from recess? Would it be more beneficial for students to just have the social time allotted to them while eating lunch? Or, does it make them more wound up when they don't have that free release time? Some of the charter schools in our area don't have recess so they can have more instructional time. We are curious about your thoughts on the subject.”
Being part of several PLNs…Professional Learning Networks, I sent the question out and received these responses.
A very experienced middle school teacher and consultant responded:
I remember the most difficult time for me to teach was right after lunch and the last period of the day. Your idea for recess after lunch may give your students the opportunity to release some of their energy and be ready to learn for the remainder of the day. My grandchildren attend a private school that has recess for K - 12. If weather is bad, they have recess in the gym. The social time to interact and share during lunch is a different type of release than the physical activity they can enjoy during a recess. The big question to answer is which will allow you to have more meaningful and productive learning?
a. scheduling more instructional time
or
b. having a recess so students are ready to engage in learning?
It is so important that we allow this age group to mature to the point of being able to focus like our older high school students
A very experienced middle school teacher and principal responded:
The question of recess for middle schoolers presents some tremendous scheduling challenges because of meeting the individual grade level needs. In my experience, it all depended on the grade configuration of the middle school. If it's a 5-8 or 6-8 configuration, traditional recess worked well for grade 5 and part of grade 6. As they "matured" to 7th grade the best results and relationship building came from a structured recess where students had many choices to do some right-brained (creative) activities. This can be a real scheduling challenge and takes a lot of commitment and dedication on the part of the teachers. It's well worth it when the afternoon learning time is maximized.
A Twitter response said, ”They NEED recess! Schedule the recess before the lunch so that students have lunch to settle down and be ready to go back to work." 
When I responded to the question from the principal, I asked, ”Are the students getting sufficient movement during the day?" Thinking of the kinesthetic learners, I wondered if teachers built movement into instruction. Was there an informal classroom (studio environment) where students "wandered freely" or was it pretty much stay in your seat?
I’m thinking that it’s okay not to schedule recess if teachers have strategies and freedom to provide movement and even an outside break when they see students need it (from Dead Poets Society movie where the teacher has kids reviewing information outside with a soccer ball).
The principal replied:
I would honestly have to say no. They get gym twice a week at school and some are part of our few sports team. I would say that most of them go home to sit in front of a TV, computer, video game, or combination of all three. I think the only thing they get less of than physical activity is silent, sustained reading, which is one of the items that we were considering to add to the schedule. Which is more important? We have our ideas, but I'd love to hear more of yours.
Another Twitter response said: "The recess question for middle schools will raise the issue of obesity, but I’m wondering is that the job of the school?"
I did find an article by Cara Bafile on Education World titled: Recess: Necessity or Nicety?
She lists the following reasons for recess:
• Middle school kids are learning to socialize as adolescents. They need to try out various roles, and school is a safe environment.
• They need to control their unstructured time to use it well.
• They are growing at different rates and are at various levels of development physically, mentally, and emotionally. They need to be able to try out their skills and their muscles and use their energy.
• The students get to relate to administrators in informal settings. Says Meyer, "It is amazing what I can find out about a kid [during recess time], or I can connect with kids I wouldn't ordinarily see. Lots of teaching goes on during this time, and I learn too!"
Well, there are several folks' thoughts? What are yours?
