Do You Know How to Arm Knit?

Picture this...you enter the school on a day set aside for district improvement. There are no kids, no classes - thank goodness! And you and your colleagues are sitting down in the library, anxiously waiting (not really!) for the presenter to begin. You shift in your seat and focus your attention to be respectful, all the while thinking What are we in for today? And then the speaker begins..."Today I'm going to teach you about the process of arm knitting." The presenter then goes on for 20 minutes about the extensive intricacies of knitting with two appendages.

What?!? I don't want to know how to arm knit! Why do I need to know that?! And I certainly can't learn how to do that if you're just going to talk at me! If I'm required to learn it, I need to process this! I need a) a video to show me how, b) I need to talk these steps through because this seems really confusing, c) I need to bounce my thoughts off someone else because I'm not sure I'm interpreting this correctly, d) I need to ask questions to clarify, e) I need some practice time because you can't expect me to get this straight after just listening to you, and it goes on and on! How frustrating!!

And this is when it should hit you like a ton of bricks...what do students think and feel when they've entered our classrooms, have been told they're learning a new concept that feels like it's way out of their league, and then we (more or less) talk at them. You see, we know a lot about our subject. It's our passion - we spent many years in schooling and many dollars in tuition to fulfill our lifelong dream of teaching not only students, but our content. It just makes sense to us! Now, plug in a 12-, 13-, or 14-year-old who hasn't chosen school as their passion...probably more than a few of them! No background knowledge...no desire to achieve world success...just a 12-, 13-, or 14-year-old who is expected to come to school and listen, and listen...and listen...and...

How do we compare to our students? Do we differ? Are we sensitive to our own needs of learning through multiple approaches? More importantly, are we sensitive to the needs of our students to learn through multiple approaches? Do they need visuals? Do they need practice? Do they need to talk it through? What will help them make the connections? If we aren't able to learn how to arm knit (a completely foreign skill for most) by simply listening, how can we expect our students to learn our content area (which can sometimes be completely foreign as well) by simply listening?

In the ASCD 2014 publication, Speaking Volumes, it states, "In the hands of a skilled teacher, the speaking and listening that students do result in deeper understanding, increased engagement, and significant satisfaction with schooling." It goes on to say:

It matters who's talking in class because the amount of talk that students do is correlated with their achievement. One study found that in high-achieving classrooms, teachers talked about 55 percent of the time; but in classrooms in which students were identified as low-achieving, teacher talk consumed a whopping 80 percent of the instructional minutes (Flanders, 1970). A more recent large-scale study of elementary classrooms similarly reported that 91 percent of instructional minutes were devoted to whole-class teaching or individual work, with "few opportunities [for students] to learn in small groups,to improve analytical skills, or to interact extensively with teachers," (Pianta, Belsky, Houts, & Morrison, 2007, p. 1796).

So, if you find yourself in the classroom with a bunch of blank faces staring back at you, try to remember, "What if I was teaching them how to arm knit? How can I get them involved in their learning so this can make more sense? Active engagement can only increase the learning that takes place in our classrooms!

If you have questions about what the talk time looks like in your room or would like to discuss strategies that promote student engagement, please feel free to contact me!

References

Flanders, N. (1970). Language and learning. London: Allen Lane.

Pianta, R. C., Belsky, J., Houts, R., & Morrison, F. (2007). Opportunities to learn in America's elementary classrooms. Science, 315, 1795-1796.