As a teacher of 5th graders and a parent of a 15 year old daughter and 16 year old son, I have been learning a lot about "letting go". It is hard to let my personal children and students mess up or make mistakes, and while I think this has always been difficult for teachers and parents, I believe that it seems even more so in today's society. With social media and the instant world wide access to everyone's business, parents and teachers want to protect kids from messing up so that they don't have to deal with the consequences of those mistakes (which with technology seems to have even more of a negative effect when we mess up). For example, recently some students at a local private school were caught cheating. Back when I was in high school, we may have heard about it in a few social circles, but with social media, thousands or even millions of people knew all about it in a matter of minutes - names were exposed, comments were made, and lives were affected in way that would have been much different 20 years ago. So, "letting go" becomes a huge responsibilty for teachers and parents. In the academic setting, as a teacher, I feel the responsibilty to make sure my students understand why they need to become independent thinkers and problem solvers, but this is a process that must be directly taught, scaffolded, prompted, and practiced in a safe environment. For example, the CRCT is notorious for giving the wrong choice as an answer choice. I teach my students to not let the CRCT test creators (or any curriculum assessments for that matter) "trick them". I want them to understand that they are always going to be in situations in which the wrong choice is going to be a choice and that they have to be able to recognize the problem at hand and think through how to solve it drawing upon previous experiences. How do I teach my students this? I do a lot of modeling and thinking aloud. I encourage students to share their thinking both verbally and in written form. I make mistakes in front of my students (both intentional and accidental) and model for them how to work through it. I scaffold and prompt at times and then I observe - watch and listen. I use my observations to guide what needs to happen next - more scaffolding, modeling, prompting - or I move on to collaborative/independent practice. I encourage students to think before jumping in. I ask them to make observations about the task at hand and then use what they know (previously taught lessons, strategies, personal experiences) to solve the task. I remind them that doing it wrong and knowing they have made a mistake is actually a step in problem solving and to use that to guide their thinking and next plan of attack. There is really no scripted timeline as to how much we scaffold or prompt before letting go. Teachers have to be constantly observing (formative assessment) and making diagnostic decisions daily. Not all students can be let go at the same time - teachers have to be really intuitive and be willingly to accept trial and error as a daily practice. The bottom line with letting go is to understand that if we let go and students fail then we analyze why, and we make a plan for what to do next just like I expect my students to do. This is a cycle that continues not only in school or during a game but in life. Students and teachers need to understand that we are all more than the final grade - we are a continuous work in progress that at times requires more help from others and at other times, we need to be let go.
I really like the advice you share with your students when they get stuck. I think it is important to help students understand that it is ok to struggle for few minutes. It is also ok to make mistakes. I need to do a better job of reminding my students that making a mistake is part of the learning process. Also, I agree that not all students cannot be let go at the same time. For some students it is going to take more guided practice and scaffolding before they are able to move onto to more challenging questions. This is where differentiation comes into play. It sounds like you do a great job of teaching your students how to think for themselves!
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Lauren Sinclair
2/4/2014 05:26:14 am
I agree that letting go is a huge responisbility. I posted that teachers are scared to let go because of the amount of time they are given to teach the material and because of the big TEST. I also agree that teachers want to see each and every student excel in the classroom. If we "train" our students how to teach themselves they will far exceed our expectations.
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My name is Kelly Chester, and I am completing my School Library Certification at Georgia Southern University.