Responding To "I Can't Do This" and Whip Arounds

Excellence in Education: “I Can’t Do This”

“I can’t do this.”

When Michael Oher, the football player portrayed in The Blind Side, told his tutor, Ms. Sue (played by Kathy Bates), that he couldn’t do it, she responded, “Not yet.”

In observing several classes this week, I was impressed with how they rarely provided students with the answer and how they dealt with “I can’t do this.”

We should aim to instill a growth mindset, grit and personal responsibility in our students. We can’t let them off the hook by providing them with the answer. But, we can’t simply say “Try your best” and walk away either.

So how can we answer student questions and instill the growth mindset in our students when they don’t get it?

The teachers I saw asked specific questions, enabling them to discover why the students didn’t understand the material. Sometimes the questions were scaffolded, enabling the student to work towards the right answer.

Ms. Harper turned the student’s I don’t get it into a diagnostic opportunity by asking Why? Of course, the student simply retorted, “because I don’t.”

Instead of getting frustrated, she asked another question, “What part do you get?” and then asked a series of scaffolded questions that enabled the student to get it.

Another advantage to asking Why?: it serves as a starting point in enabling our students to grow and take responsibility. The reasons for students stating, “I can’t do this” are varied and asking why enables us to tackle each of them.

Reasons students claim, “I can’t do this.”

1.      They truly don’t understand how.

2.      They’re distracted by something in their personal life that they can’t control (homelessness, hunger, poverty, etc.)

3.      They’re emotionally exhausted. Being a teenager isn’t easy and can be emotionally draining.

4.      They’re physically exhausted.

As teachers, our job is much more than just dispensing content. We need to get to know our students as individuals. We must instill a growth mindset in our students so they can see and reap the rewards of determination and hard work. We must teach our students the skills necessary to be successful in school and beyond. 

Ideas for the Classroom: Whip Arounds

Building upon our group work conversations of last week, one aspect that stood out to me was a comment made by someone in my afternoon group (can’t remember who). “We can’t expect students to work in groups unless we teach them how to work together.” (see stat below for further proof)

One way of building collaborative skills is to use cooperative, interactive strategies. One of my favorite strategies is called the Whip Around. Here’s how it works:

1.      Teacher poses a question—one that has multiple parts to it

2.      Students individually answer with a list.

3.      Students then turn to a partner and create a common list. The common list can not include any common words.

4.      All students stand.

5.      Go around the room with each partner reading one word from their common list.

6.      Students cross off and words on their list that are shared by another student. Students can also be required to add any words that they don’t have on their lists.

7.      Continue until only one is left standing.

Administrative Notes

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/cZIXm7

I’ll be moderating another edition of #vachat on Twitter tonight at 8pm. The topic is School Culture and Climate. We’d love to have you join educators from around the Commonwealth and around the nation. I recommend using www.tweetchat.com/room/vachat . This will show only tweets with the vachat hashtag.

Stat of the Week

I came across this and thought it built well upon our Cooperative Learning/Group Work Conversation.

Around one million students were asked how good they were at getting along with others, 85% rated themselves above median and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%...Far more than 50% of the people rank themselves in the top half of driving ability. When couples are asked to estimate their contribution to household work, the combined total routinely exceeds 100%. And most men rank themselves in the top half of male athletic ability.

Teaching social and emotional skills is as important as teaching academic skills.

(Keller, Scott: How to get senior leaders to change, Harvard Business Review http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/06/how-to-get-senior-leaders-to-c/, 2012)

Upcoming Schedule

Tuesday and Thursday of this week are flex days. The average teacher is inviting more than 5 students to his/her classroom for a variety of reasons (extra help, tutoring, work with peers, make-up assignments, etc.)

The in-school talent show is next Tuesday during first block.