Effective Teaching...

by Harry and Rosemary Wong

Article 1

October 2000

How to Start a Class Effectively

It’s All in How You Start

In tennis you are allowed two serves for each point. How you play the first serve will allow you to dictate the point.

In knitting, how you begin the first row will determine your success with the rest of the stitches. In fact, you can expect to start all over again if you find out later that you began incorrectly.

And guys who have ever tried to meet a nice lady, know that the first sentence said to her will determine if she will allow you to say a second sentence to her or not.

Prime time is a term used by the television industry to denote the time when the audience is potentially at its largest. (See page 133 in The First Days of School.) Prime time in school is the first few moments in class. If you blow these moments you blow the success of your class for that day. The same is true for the first day of school. It is the most important day of the school year. You start the first day of school incorrectly and you may never recover for the rest of the year. Effective teachers know how to begin the first day of school, the beginning of the school day, and the beginning of the class work.

Your first priority when class begins is not to take the roll; it is to get the students to work.

 An assignment must be available, and the students must know the procedure for getting to work immediately. Do not destroy prime time with non-prime time activities such as taking the attendance, making announcements, answering questions, or collecting papers.

To prepare the students for the day’s instruction, they should enter the classroom and begin with a morning or class routine. A typical routine could be

Quietly walk into the classroom. Remove coat or jacket. Hang it up. Empty backpack or book bag. Have two sharpened pencils, books, and materials ready. Hand in all completed homework. Read the agenda for the day. Begin BELLWORK assignment on your own.

 The effective teacher has

a bellwork assignment already posted before the students enter the classroom and

it is posted in the same location every day.

You know this is not happening when the students enter the classroom and immediately begin asking, “What are we going to do today?” or “Are we going to do anything important today?” They then wander around visiting and talking, and do not sit and settle down until the teacher asks, urges, yells, and becomes caustic in order to get their attention.

Opening assignments can be posted on the chalkboard, a bulletin board, a transparency, or distributed when the students enter the classroom. If you are a migrant or resource teacher who has to move from room to room, have the assignment ready on a transparency or on a flip chart ready to display the second you enter the classroom.

In classes such as physical education and K-1, the assignment does not have to be posted. The procedure is started as the bell rings, and then is rehearsed, and is repeated daily so that when the students enter the class they just know what to do.

Lucia M. Dideo, Spanish teacher at Manchester Township High School in Whiting, New Jersey, began her career as a migrating teacher. She had to go from one side of the building to the other. She used four different classrooms, used by a math, science, English, and history teacher. She entered each of these rooms ready with the assignments, objectives, rules, and procedures on a corkboard.

After five years of teaching, she now has to change rooms only once a day, and she’s expanded her technique to use either a corkboard or a portable dry erase board. She proudly says that her students are learning because they speak to her in Spanish when they see her at the mall.

The start of the school day in your classroom tells the students that you are organized and ready to work. This is the same expectation you have of your students-organized and ready to work.

Effective Teachers Waste No Time

Shirley Hord, researcher with the Texas Education Agency, discovered that anywhere from 3 to 17 minutes are typically wasted at the beginning of each classroom period. That is, from the time the first student enters the classroom until instruction begins, she discovered that anywhere from 9 percent to 32 percent of the total classroom time could be wasted.

However, effective teachers know that students will easily get to work if

1. The students have an assignment;2. They know where to find the assignment; and3. They know why they are to do the assignment.

 Effective teachers have different names for these opening assignments. Some common terms are

Bellwork,Assignment,Do Now, DOL (Daily Oral Language),Sponge Activity, and Prime Time.

 A teacher in Arizona has a set of bellwork assignments prepared for the entire school year. These are on transparencies, one for each day, and are stored in a binder on the cart under the transparency projector. Each night before she leaves, she places the next day’s assignment on the projector ready for the next morning. She also has a student trained to turn the projector on if she should be late coming into the classroom.

As you develop your own set of assignments, keep them and you will have them ready for the following year. The best bellwork assignments are those that are related to that

day’s work with a transition or a motivation to what is to follow. A common bellwork in elementary schools, especially K-4, is silent reading until the lesson begins.

Bellwork assignments are not graded. Do not begin a class by threatening the students. A bellwork assignment is a procedure and procedures are not rules, thus have no consequences or punishments.

Effective Schools Have School-Wide Procedures

At Harris Elementary School in Bakersfield, California, the principal, Wanda Bradford, showed tape three of the video series, The Effective Teacher. She did not mandate anything, rather her staff chose to start each day with a bellwork assignment. Thus, this became a consistent school-wide procedure.

She reports, “We start each day with a structured opening. Each teacher has a daily opening and the students start the day on task.” She describes the success of her school in a poem.

Each day begins with learningWhen students come to class.And without a lot of chatting,They start the day on task.

With assignments clearly posted Students need not be told,To quiet down and get to work While the teacher takes the roll.

If daily routines are followedLess wasted time is spent.Classes will run smoothlyWith great class management.

Research has been proven Achievement gains will rise,When effective teachers start the day With time that’s maximized.

 The key words in the poem are “achievement gains.” The staff at Harris School in Bakersfield was able to obtain student achievement because of its knowledge of “classroom management” and the implementation of “procedures and routines.”

The goal in the above poem is student achievement and the teachers achieved this by using routines to manage their classrooms.

Fifty-One Percent on the Honor Roll

Because of construction delays the staff of Molasky Junior High School in Las Vegas was unable to be on campus until two days before the school year began. Yet the classes at the brand new school began smoothly, because the staff met off-campus as a family for two days before school began and agreed on a “Blueprint for Success.” The blueprint consisted of five procedures the first of which was

Students are seated and completing a “Prime Time”assignment when the tardy bell rings.

  At the end of the year principal Pam Hawkins writes, “I can’t help but reflect on the success of our first year. I attribute much of that success to the consistent implementation of school-wide procedures. Many of my teachers have told me that this has been their best year of teaching.Perhaps the greatest affirmation is that 881 or 51 percent of our students attained honor roll status of 3.0 or higher.”

Life Would Be So Much Easier

What do the two schools in Bakersfield and Las Vegas, and so many other schools, have in common to create student achievement? The staffs met together as a family and agreed on school-wide procedures.

Think about Harris School in Bakersfield, Molasky Junior High School in Las Vegas, or, better yet, your own school. Imagine

The students walk into a class, sit down, and immediately get to work. No one tells them what to do; they know where to find the assignment.

They go to their next class, sit down, and get to work. And on to the next class. The next class. And the next.

 And this becomes the prevailing culture of the school. The next year the students go from 3rd grade to 4th grade, 6th grade to 7th grade, and 11th grade to 12th grade, and this is the prevailing culture in the school district.

Just think how much easier life would be if the teachers supported each other with routines that were consistent.  

Just think what the achievement of these students would be if this were the prevailing culture of the school.  

Just think how effective the schools would be if this were the prevailing culture of the district.

 To accomplish all of this, no money is spent. No costly, faddish programs are installed. Nothing is controversial and the concept works regardless of what grade is taught, what subject is taught, and what educational philosophy is espoused by the district.

The key is the staff works together as a family, creating a sense of consistency, thus making life so much easier for everyone. And, most importantly, student achievement is increased because there is more time for instruction and learning.

Article 2

April 2009

The Tools for Success

To improve a classroom, school, or district, we must train the teachers and develop their effectiveness.

John Goodlad, while at UCLA, reported looking at 40 years of educational innovations and did not find a single one that increased student achievement.  What he did find:

The only factor that increased student achievement was the effectiveness of a teacher.

Effectiveness is not a fleeting concept.  What it takes to be effective and how to achieve it is known.  This month we share with you four successful educators who have seen the benefits of having successful teachers and know how to bring about these benefits.

You work just as many hours as the education leader in the neighboring school.  Their test scores are higher, their children have fewer behavioral problems, and their classrooms buzz with learning—and you’re left to wonder why this is not happening at your school.  What are your colleagues doing that you’re not doing? 

The components of success are well documented.  And it has nothing to do with programs, money, secrets, or luck.  We’re about to introduce you to four successful educators who all subscribe to the same mantra: 

If everyone knows what to do, they will do it!

So what is it that they are doing and how do these leaders get their schools to do it?

Procedures Help Get a New School off to a Running Start

Wayne Watts, a principal in Georgia, says, “Three years ago, my system asked me to open our newest middle school.  We are now in our third year of operation, and I can attest to how important routines and procedures are when starting a new school!”

Wayne’s new school received students from three different schools, all coming in with their own experiences and expectations.  Can you imagine what a mess it would have been on the first day, the first week, the first month, or even the entire first year of school, if the school staff had not come together to establish a clear, consistent, and comprehensive school-wide set of procedures?

Wayne says, “Because our staff and students knew what to do and when to do it from Day One, we were quickly able to establish our school culture, which we refer to as ‘The Davis Way.”

There are schools that have been around for decades and still have no discernible school culture that sets them apart from other schools.  Yet, in three short years, the staff and students at General Ray Davis Middle School have so identified with its school-wide procedures, that they are able to proudly claim ‘The Davis Way’ as their own!

“This has paid off tremendously,” says Wayne, “In two years, we’ve earned thehighest student achievement scores in our system.  Several of our subjects are in the top 10% of achievement in the state for their grade levels, with our 8th grade Social Studies in the top 4%.”   

Of course, as with everything else—be it playing a musical instrument, driving a car, or doing a sport—the more procedures are practiced, the better they are learned, and the faster they become routines.  They are like automatic reflexes—procedures and routines are carried out without even thinking about them.

Wayne says, “In our recent school start-up, the first day went so smoothly that it was like we had been here for a month already.  In what should have been a chaotic moment—dismissal and getting on the right bus home—everyone knew which bus to catch and we got everyone home in 15 minutes—with ‘No Child Left Behind!’ 

“Procedures and routines created the structure that helped make this happen.  It is so simple—everyone knew what to do, and so they did it!

“My staff is talented and capable, but having the structure and a way to get things done has helped us create a great learning and teaching environment.  Having procedures in place allows our teachers to focus on teaching, and to let their skills blossom—to the benefit of our kids.”

Savvy Schools Make Good Investments

Some educators have observed that by implementing procedures in class or throughout the school, “you seemingly waste a little time at the beginning, to gain time at the end.”  Mike Gee, a principal in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, and his staff have found, school year after school year, that rather than “wasting time” on the first days of school, the truth is that when you teach procedures, you are “investing time.”

“Ultimately, it is a great investment that improves instruction the other 170 daysof the year.  Our teachers and students are much happier as a result,” says Mike.

He shares, “At Joe Harrison Carter Echool, we have a school-wide rendition of ‘Give Me Five.’  At a recent PTA meeting with a student program, I simply raised my index finger and said, ‘J.’  Everyone in the gym of 300 people became absolutely silent within seconds.  I felt like the most ‘together’ principal ever!  I even noticed parents looking around in amazement that everyone was silent—wondering what had just happened.”  

“Our procedures have become the routines by which we function, and the proof is in the test results.  Our scores have achieved heights we only dreamed about.

“Our academic index jumped from 83 to 110 and it wasn’t the result of one or two isolated changes.  The Wongs have shared ideas used by so many effective teachers and these ideas have provided a culture for our school.  It is this culture that has enabled our other efforts to be more successful.

“After over 20 years, and in my ninth as a principal, I love what I do,” says Mike. 

A Great Way to Start

Dr. Jerry Ralston is superintendent in Glasgow, Kentucky.  His expects district-wide success and he gets it.

He says, “In Barren County Schools, we expect procedures to not only be in place—they also need to be understood and affirmed by everyone.  In line with this, our staff shares PowerPoint presentations on their First Day of School Procedures. 

“As a result, we just had the best first day of school in the eight years that I have been superintendent.  I continue to be amazed at how implementing procedures in school has impacted our staff and students.  We are having a most productive year.”

A School-Wide Culture of Success

Mark Wilson, is a principal in Madison, Georgia, and was recently selected the 2009 National Principal of the Year.  An educator for over twenty years (Mark began his career as a Social Studies and English teacher in South Carolina), he became a principal in 2003.  Mark is too modest to say so himself, but as fellow educators, we are tremendously proud of his success and feel the need to shout out:

It took Mark barely six years to become one of the best principals in the United States.

How did he do it?

Mark says, “At Morgan County High School, first and foremost, we have ‘One Morgan in All We Do.' All teachers participate in a semiannual planning session where we reach a consensus on a series of procedures for all students.  As with any initiative, success depends on universal consistency, so it’s important that everyone is in agreement and onboard.”

Mark implemented a school-wide culture of procedures—does this sound familiar?

Mark continues, “On top of that, our school has a creative schedule that allows the staff to have T3 (Thursday Teacher Time) every week.  On Thursdays, our students report to school at 9 a.m.  and our teachers come in at 7.30 a.m.  During this time, we are in our Professional Learning Communities with our new, newer, veteran, and very veteran teachers split up among groups. 

“We make sure each group has a mix of teachers at different points in their career who bring varying perspectives, experiences, and ideas to the table.

“This is our professional learning time, and since the year began, we have been collaboratively studying The First Days of School.  It gives us a great springboard to focus on what we want most at Morgan County High School—high expectations for all, great classroom management with practiced procedures, and student mastery of lessons.”  Mark says,

“Crucially, our work—be it individually, in small groups, or as a whole group—is not being done in a vacuum.  Our teachers read, share, and discuss, and they are able to help one another become better teachers.”

All this benefits the students, and of course, they are happy, productive, and fulfilled teachers.

Mark adds, “All teachers receive a copy of The First Days of School and the book serves as a framework for how we define effective teaching.  In fact, we are incorporating our work on it into a rubric for our annual teacher evaluation.  We focus on these elements:

1. Instructional Effectiveness2. Classroom Management3. Working with Parents4. Serving as an Effective Employee and Team Member5. Improving Capacity to More Effective Instruction

Under Mark’s leadership, the school has dramatically increased the number of students taking Advanced Placement and other rigorous courses. And since 2003, the school has raised its graduation rate by more than ten points to 82 percent. It has also closed the achievement gap in critical areas such as English language arts.

Mark says, “We have always been a very good school with caring, hardworking teachers.  But even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you don’t keep moving!”

Mark is one of those visionary leaders who recognize the dynamic nature of education.  Learning is constantly evolving, and bringing everyone together to establish the direction for the school year ensures consistency with new and veteran teachers, as well as old and new students to the school. 

You Can Be Successful, Too

At the start of this column, we wondered what it was that esteemed leaders do to enable successful schools.  As you can see, there is no secret.  It is simply a case of “everyone knows what to do, and so they do it!”

Procedures, routines, and processes that are confidently and consistently applied school-wide and even district-wide allow teachers to focus on teaching, students to focus on learning, and success to be achieved by all.

There is no hocus pocus, bag of tricks, special programs, or multi-million dollar school endowment fund involved.  There is just a school-wide or district-wide culture of success, and a drive to continually become more effective teachers.

Encore, Encore

The examples you’ve just read sound repetitive, and they are!  Only the characters and settings have been changed.  And that’s our point.  Good schools with sound leadership are easy to establish.  They’re in every state and Canadian province.  You know one immediately when you enter the school.  There is an aura that radiates the culture of success.

On the other hand, you know a school in need of help the moment you set foot on campus. With no money spent (an important consideration in these economic times), and with just the convening of a staff meeting, the road to success can be under way.

There are more examples of successful schools in The First Days of School.  Please go to page 328 and access the GoBe, “A Most Effective School.”  Visit a school with a consistent learning environment and take a look at the poster they use to ensure everyone knows what the procedures are from Day One.

Also, read pages 328 to 330 about Lee Douglass’ school.  Each day, the students remind themselves about their mission in coming to school (learning!) with a school-wide morning routine.  Their test scores are extraordinary and it is because they have managed to establish a comprehensive and coherent culture of learning.

The Tools for Success Revealed

The cause-and-effect results from establishing procedures in your school are well known. The examples we have just shared document a culture of success

The Tools for Success are encapsulated in three easy words—Procedures, Procedures, Procedures.  Such a simple tool for such a powerful result.  Procedures aren’t hard, they cost nothing to implement, and they produce results that are priceless.  In successful classrooms, schools, and districts, everyone knows what to do and does it. 

 

Article 3

March 2009

Assessing for Student LearningBrad Volkman does something unusual—almost unheard of—in his class.  He GUARANTEES his students that if they work with him and follow his system of practice and self-assessment, they WILL NOT FAIL his course, no matter how bad they think they are at Math.

Brad’s Math 14 class consists almost entirely of students who either failed Math 9 or were in a Grade 9 resource room pull-out program where they did a modified Math of some kind.  A quarter of the class is usually coded for severe or moderate special needs.  These are students who are not university bound and aren’t even sure they want their high school diploma.  The only reason they come to school is because their parents make them or because this is where their friends are.  In other words, Brad teaches the kind of students that many teachers dread or even fear. 

And he GUARANTEES his students they will not fail!

Two Simple Statements

Brad does not tell his students that they have to work harder than they’ve ever worked in their entire lives.  He does not drown them in homework.  And he certainly doesn’t intimidate them by saying, “You better get busy!  I grade everything in here!”

Instead, each day, the students are given a short quiz to test themselves on their understanding of yesterday’s lesson.   At the end of the quiz, Brad goes over the solutions and then asks the studentsnot to put a score on the quiz.  All the students need to do is to check one of the following:

_______ I can do this.

_______ I’m still not too sure about this.

Brad says that at first, his students are either shocked or suspicious of the two statements.  They expect to be marked (“graded” in American terms) and when asked

to assess their own learning, they wonder, “Is this a trap?  Do I get marked down if I check ‘I’m still not too sure?’

Brad is conscious that these students have been graded, scored, ranked, and streamed throughout their academic careers.  They have been dismissed as “lazy” and “unmotivated” and humiliated by the ranking process.  His priority is to convince them that he is on their side. 

Drawing on a sports analogy, he tells them that he is their coach.  He is not the enemy—with tricks and surprises and “gotcha” questions up his sleeve—trying to trap them. 

He is their coach and the only way he feels like a winner is if they win.

Importance of Feedback

In the same way a coach needs feedback from the team to figure out a training strategy, the checkmarks give Brad instant feedback on how well he has taught the class.  They let him know if he needs to re-teach the concept or if he just needs to meet with a few students to provide extra support or instruction.

But first, Brad goes over the quiz so that the students can review the questions while the questions are fresh on their minds.  He does not put the solutions on the board immediately, but asks students to suggest possible answers. 

Brad says it’s not uncommon to get several different answers to a question.  He says, “I ask the students who offered their solution to justify it to the class.  Sometimes, I ask the class to vote on which of the suggested answers they think is right.  This may lead to further attempts by the student to justify the answer, trying to win as many votes as possible.  I thoroughly enjoy these kinds of discussions when they happen . . . I learn a lot from them!”

Once his students have had a chance to volunteer and discuss their answers, then, and only then does Brad show the correct solution in detail.  Sometimes, the student who offered the wrong solution will say, “Hey, wait a minute, Mr. Volkman.  Yesterday, you told us . . . and that is why I thought the answer was . . . .”  To which Brad usually responds, “Wow.  That is incredible.  I can see now why you thought the answer was . . . . Thank you, you have helped me to teach this material better next year!”

“It’s great to see the light bulb go on for my students and even greater when they see the light bulb go on for me as I see how I can improve my teaching,” says Brad. 

What Brad has done is to validate his students’ learning experience—from their side of the classroom.  Instead of thinking, “I’ve covered the material.  I can’t help it if they don’t want to learn,” Brad is constantly thinking about how better to teach so that his students are successful.

“Us older guys can get sloppy if we’re not careful.  I need to be reminded that even though I know the Math curriculum very well, and have taught this stuff for many years, my students are seeing it for the first time,” says Brad. 

Creating a Safe, No-Pressure Learning Environment

The key to these daily quizzes is that they are NOT graded.  In Brad’s class, his students come to see that the quizzes are for them—a no-pressure opportunity to check their own understanding and to communicate it to their teacher in a safe way. 

Students are more willing to take risks in a safe learning environment than they would be if everything were to be graded.

Brad says, “When everything is for grades, some students would rather leave a question blank than to risk doing it wrong and reinforcing to themselves, their classmates, and their teacher that they are dumb. 

“More is gained by the student who attempts a question—even if they do it wrong—than if they make no attempt at all.  The student who did it wrong will learn from his mistake.  The student who made no attempt can’t even do that.”

What is amazing is that after the class discussions, even the students who got all the questions on the quiz wrong are able to check “I can do this.”

By having students discuss their answers, everyone is able to clarify their doubts and refine their understanding of the concepts.  “It’s like the lesson really got taught twice—once the day before when I taught it for the first time and again the next morning when I go over the quiz,” says Brad. 

Motivating Students to Do Well

Sometimes, students will put a check mark between the two options:

 _______ I can do this.

_______ I’m still not too sure about this.

It indicates to Brad that the student is pretty sure about it, but still has some doubts. 

Brad says, “I collect the quizzes and put a check mark in my records for those students who say they get it and an X for those who say they do not.  Then I find time later in the class or the day to talk with those students about their specific struggles. 

“My entire goal is to make quiz time serious but non-threatening.  The students are motivated to do well on the quiz and to take a risk on a question they’re not sure of, precisely because it’s not for a grade, it’s for them,” says Brad.

Imagine that!  Students are more motivated by a quiz that is NOT graded than a quiz that is scored. For Brad, it went against all his previous training and practice. 

“It seemed that when the quiz was not ‘high stakes,’ but for their own personal feedback and to guide my instruction, the students relaxed and performed better on the quizzes.  They actually tried harder.  The atmosphere in the classroom became less threatening and more collegial,” says Brad. 

Motivating Students to Submit Homework

Another one of Brad’s practices is the use of pink slips in his classroom—sheets of paper that give students the opportunity to explain why they have not done their homework.  At the start of class, students either submit their homework or fill out a pink slip ( slip used to state reason as to why homework is not submitted).

There is no penalty for submitting a pink slip, but when a student submits too many, Brad tells them he is concerned they won’t do well on “game day” (Brad’s use of a sports analogy for test time) and that he needs to see them for a few minutes during lunch to make sure they’re prepared. 

“Interestingly enough,” Brad says, “Even though I do my best to convince them that it is not punishment, the students are going to get their homework done in future.  This is because they want to avoid my insistent desire to give up my own precious time to help them out at lunch. 

“Having to give up their personal time to work with me, even if it’s only five to ten minutes, is a much greater motivator to do their homework than any threat to their grades.

“Plus, it is far more effective as I get one-on-one time with them to make sure they understand the concepts.  By having them think out loud while working on the problem, I get to look for patterns of misunderstanding.

“For instance, a student was getting the area of a ten by three centimeter rectangle to be 900cm2.  I could not figure out why she was having so much difficulty until she explained that she multiplied all four sides of the rectangle—because to get the perimeter, we add all four sides.  Once I understood where she was coming from, I was better able to teach her—and she never forgot it!

“This is where I feel most like a professional teacher—like a doctor diagnosing and treating an illness that at first was not entirely obvious,” says Brad.

Perhaps radically, when the students who come to see Brad at lunch prove that they understand the concept despite not submitting their homework, he feels no need to “get on their case.”

“Would you want to retake your driver training if you’re already an accomplished driver?”  Brad asks, “No one wants to keep re-doing the things they’re already good at.” 

Brad goes on to say, “Instead of keeping these students down with low grades, I’d sooner show them how smart they are, give them the grades they deserve, and hopefully encourage them to move up to a higher stream.”

Setting Students Up for Success

Brad creates the exams himself so that they mirror his own teaching style and emphasis.  He says, “Set them up for success.  Don’t try to trick them.  My exam questions look very similar to my quiz questions and homework questions. 

“While showing examples on the board, I often say, ‘On next week’s exam, you will be asked to do this, and in order to get full credit, your answer must include each of these steps.’  I also find myself saying, ‘Please watch for these common mistakes, I see them every year on this particular exam.’

“If it sounds like I’m teaching to the test, well, maybe I am.  But I am okay with that.  Because my test is perfectly aligned with what I teach, which in turn is perfectly aligned with the 38 outcomes listed in the Math 14 Program of Studies (Curriculum Guide). 

“Students need to know three things to succeed:

1. what to do (class procedures);2. what to learn (road map); and

3. how they will be evaluated (scoring guide).  I make sure my lessons address all three.”   (See Chapter 23 of The First Days of School.)

How to Be a Winner on Game Day

Brad believes it’s important to generate anticipation and even excitement for exams.

“No one likes game day if they are certain they are going to lose.  Everyone likes it if they feel prepared and equipped to win.”

In the same way all good sports teams warm-up prior to the opening whistle, Brad takes his class through a few examples of each type of question being covered—just before he gives the exam. 

In the unlikely event a student doesn’t do well, he asks them to meet with him over lunch, where he goes over the key concepts they missed before giving them a short re-test.  This grade is averaged with the original one.

Brad says, “Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said that the key to winning is not losing twice in a row.  In other words, learn from your mistakes.  It’s the coach’s job to make sure that the mistakes are fixed. 

“There are no failing students, just failing performances—and those can be fixed.”

Some have asked Brad if he is reflecting “the real world” by allowing the students a second chance on the exam.  His response is to ask how they would feel if they were not allowed a second chance after failing to obtain their driver’s license on their first try!

Brad says, “Assessment for learning helps both the students and myself see where they are going wrong before it counts for a grade.  The emphasis is on enhancing learning and helping students master curriculum outcomes, rather than providing a final grade.”

As an indication of how well Brad’s teaching model works, his students are often “chomping at the bit” to get started on the exam.  They tell Brad, “We get it, we get it, give us the exam already!” They want to show Brad, and to prove to themselves, that they are ready.

“I am seeing students who have experienced a lot of past failure, gaining confidence,” says Brad.

Brad capitalizes on the fact that all students want to succeed.  No one wants to lose.  He says, “The students and I have a common goal—to be winners on game day!”   Her students beg her to test them, too. 

The concept of positive assessment applies to all grade levels.

Enabling Student Success

Brad Volkman guarantees to his students on Day One that if they are willing to buy into his system, none of them will fail the course.  He takes a major source of student anxiety out of their hands. Basically, he is saying, “I am a professional, I know what I’m doing, and I have a system that works. There is no need to worry at all.”

In the end, one hundred percent of his students pass his class.

Brad says, “Summative assessments can be bi-weekly or weekly, while formative assessment for learning needs to be happening daily and even minute-by-minute.  This is what truly makes you a practitioner of your trade—teaching.”

Assessing for Teacher Learning

Following Brad’s model, we offer the following:

After reading this column, please select one of the statements:

_______ I can do this.

_______ I’m still not too sure about this.

If you selected the first response, share with us your stories of how it worked for you in the classroom. 

If you selected the second response, we suspect it is more out of fear of change and failure than it is the lack of understanding.  Don’t be fearful to try the technique on some obscure assignment.  The students won’t be totally honest with you at first, but we suspect with time, the level of communication between you and your students will become much more collaborative.  They will truly see you as someone who is helping them learn, not someone doling out grades.

And then, if you are like some of Brad’s students and mark between the two statements, be sure to extend your study of this by reading the information in the Article Resources box.  Perhaps that will increase your confidence and you’ll give it a try.

 

Article 4

September 2000

The Problem Is Not Discipline

Bob Marlowe is typical of the millions of devoted and committed teachers who fret about their next day's lessons. His major question every evening is, "What am I going to teach tomorrow?" So, he plans what he will cover or what activity he will do in class the next day. He thinks this is teaching because

1. most teachers cover or do activities,2. then they discipline when things go wrong.

And when things go wrong, Bob Marlowe frets again the next evening wondering

1. what he can do to get the students to pay attention to their lessons and,2. thus, have fewer behavior problems in the classroom.

He asks that perennial, but incorrect question, "What can I do to motivate my students?" thinking that motivated students will be more attentive and better behaved.

But the next day, the cycle repeats itself and Bob Marlowe continues to

1. cover and2. discipline.

The problem is that most teachers do not spend any time managing their classrooms. If classroom management procedures were taught, most all class discipline problems would disappear and more time in the classroom could be spent on learning.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE PIZZA

Let's look at Bob Marlowe as if he owned a pizzeria. Every night, Bob would ask himself

1. What kind of a pizza can I make tomorrow?2. Then when customer problems occur, he fires an employee.

As his business gets worse and worse, he frets over what he can do to motivate the diners to return to his restaurant. He wonders, "What new kind of a pizza can I serve tomorrow-Thai, eggplant, shellfish?" But, still the problem of having no customers occurs.

The problem with Bob Marlowe's restaurant is not his fabulous pizzas; it's his lack of management skill. He pays little or no attention to such things as teaching his employees the procedure for how to take an order, how to cook a pizza, how to store leftover ingredients, how to clean the pizza paddle, or how to clean the restroom. He thinks that all he has to do to run a successful pizza restaurant is to have a great menu featuring fun, creative, and exciting pizzas.

Bob Marlowe, the teacher, is no different. He thinks that all he has to do is cover the material-maybe even make the lessons fun and exciting. He pays no attention to such things as procedures for getting student attention, heading papers, entering the classroom, taking lecture notes, passing papers in, absences and tardies, maintaining a current grade-record book, what to do if a student finishes early, and a myriad of other procedures that happen on a daily basis in a classroom.

An effective teacher is a master at classroom management skills.The effective teacher knows that student achievement will only occur when the student's work environment is organized and structured so that learning can take place. When students are engaged in the learning process, there is a concomitant reduction in behavior problems.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND DISCIPLINE

Classroom management and discipline are not the same thing.Owners don't discipline a store; they manage a store. Coaches don't discipline a team; they manage a team. Likewise, teachers don't discipline a classroom; they manage a classroom.

No learning takes place when you discipline. All disciplining does is stop deviant behavior, which must be done, but no learning has taken place. Learning only takes place when the students are at work, or as we say in education, on-task.

DISCIPLINE: Concerns how students BEHAVEPROCEDURES: Concern how things are DONE

DISCIPLINE: Has penalties and rewardsPROCEDURES: Have NO penalties or rewards

We have been getting many questions about what to do with the behavior of certain students. We regret that we cannot respond to each situation because we have no background on the student, the classroom environment, and, most importantly, the specifics of how the classroom is managed.

We suspect that the great majority of what teachers call behavior problems in the classroom have nothing to do with discipline. The number one problem in education is not discipline. It is the lack of procedures and routines resulting in students not knowing what to do-responsibly-in the classroom.

WHY PROCEDURES ARE IMPORTANT

Students readily accept the idea of having a uniform set of classroom procedures, because it simplifies their task of succeeding in school. Efficient and workable procedures allow a great variety of activities to take place during a school day, and often several activities at a given time, with a minimum of confusion and wasted time. If no procedures are established, much time will be wasted organizing each activity and students will have to guess what to do. As a result, undesirable work habits and behaviors could develop which would be hard to correct.

Procedures are the foundation that set the class up for achievement. Student achievement at the end of the school year is directly related to the degree to which the teacher establishes good control of the classroom procedures in the very first week of the school year.

When a class is managed with procedures and the students know these procedures, they will more willingly do whatever you want them to do.You can then be an exciting, creative, and informative teacher with a well-oiled learning environment.

CLASSROOM PROCEDURES  

Ineffective teachers begin the first day of school attempting to teach a subject and spend the rest of the school year running after the students.

Effective teachers spend most of the first two weeks of the school year teaching students to follow classroom procedures.

There must be procedures in the classroom. Every time the teacher wants something done, there must be a procedure or a set of procedures to accomplish the task. Some

procedures that nearly every teacher must teach include the following:  

entering the classroom dismissing at the end of the period or day returning to class after an absence arriving to class tardy quieting a class beginning of the period or day asking for help moving of students and papers listening to/responding to questions working cooperatively changing groups keeping a student notebook finding directions for each assignment collecting/returning student work getting materials without disturbing others handing out equipment at recess moving about the room going to the library/tech center heading of papers

 

TEACHING CLASSROOM PROCEDURES

Most behavior problems in the classroom are caused by the teacher's failure to teach students how to follow procedures. Teachers must learn how to effectively convey the procedures just as students must learn how to follow the procedures. Below is a summary of an effective method of teaching classroom procedures.

The Three-Step Approach to Teaching Classroom Procedures  

1. Explain : State, explain, model, and demonstrate the procedure. 2. Rehearse : Rehearse and practice the procedure under your supervision. 3. Reinforce : Reteach, rehearse, practice, and reinforce the classroom

procedure until it becomes a student habit or routine.

 Please refer to Chapter 20 of The First Days of School or the video series, The

Effective Teacher, to see how the three-step technique is used to teach selected procedures.

I AM SO EXCITED TO GET TO SCHOOL EACH MORNING (A letter written to Harry K. Wong)

I began teaching in 1992 fresh out of college, 21 years old, single and no clue as to what I was getting into. I opened a new high school teaching three classes of Consumer Math and two classes of Algebra II.

I went through a year of TOTAL hell! I gave serious thought to not returning in the Fall of 1993. I had no order in my classroom. I posted the rules but did not put much emphasis on my rules and policies.

The next three years were no better. Last year was awful! Pregnant with my second child I found myself sick and put to bed 31 weeks into my pregnancy. My students suffered greatly. When I was able to return part time I found there was NO organization present in my classroom. Needless to say when my students completed the semester I truly believed I was a failure as a teacher.

I was not looking forward to returning in August until I heard you speak to our county teachers at our preschool meeting. I decided to make some major changes in my classroom structure. I never knew what one simple thing I was missing until your session in August. I went home that night and started writing. By the time I finished, everything I expected was written out and ready to give to my students on the first day of class. I spent the first two days doing nothing but discuss and practice my policies and procedures. Then, I reinforced them the next full week.

We are five weeks into this school year (as I write this letter) and I have to say I am having a wonderful year! My students follow my policies and procedures without any gripes. The greatest thing is that my students are really learning this year! They walk in the door on task and stay there for 90 minutes every day. My first block students are even in class before the first bell; they do not wait until the second bell anymore.

Plus, we were on a testing schedule last week and my students were disappointed they were not going to be in class those days. Can you believe students being disappointed to miss Algebra II?!

I am totally sold on the technique of procedures and routines! They work! You saved my career as a teacher! I can't wait; I am SO excited to get to school every morning and start teaching my students.

                Jamie Davis, Math Teacher                North Laurel High School