I'm Just Not Good At This, Mom!

The other day, I asked my 17 year old son to put together a bookshelf for me.  This was no fancy dancy bookshelf.  It was one of those 19.99 fiber board shelves with the wimpy backs you tack on - you all have one of these in your home or classroom somewhere, I know you do.  Anyways, not a difficult task. . . if you follow the directions that come in the box.

He worked on it for about an hour.  I came down to see the finished masterpiece, of which he was proud of.  It was put together. . . but, three of the boards were facing the wrong way exposing the fiberboard in the front instead of the back. He hadn't noticed this when putting it together (nor did he read any directions).

These situations always make me itchy.  I'm proud of the fact that he got it together, as is he.  I don't want to sound critical, yet, I need it to be put together the right way.  Word choice here is difficult.

I thanked him for working so hard to get together.

Then, I said, "I notice that some of these boards are exposed this way instead of with the finished side facing out."

He was befuddled.

"AWWWW. . . . MAN!  I can't believe I did that!" he complained.  "I'm just not GOOD at these kind of things!  Geez, does it really matter, Mom?  Can't we just leave it that way?  You are going to just fill it up with books anyway and no one will even see it."

We go on to have a conversation about how it's just as easy to do things "right" the first time, what "right" even is, maybe some people like the exposed side out (his idea), the importance of following directions, how in a real job situation - this would not be acceptable and it would need to be redone.

Well, I deflated him.  However, I don't think it was because of our conversation.  I think it runs deeper.  I believe he was frustrated because of his beliefs about performance.

After he started taking the shelf apart to redo it, he must have said "I am just no good at this kind of stuff. . . putting things together and reading those stupid directions, " at least a dozen times.

Fireworks were going off in my brain, because I was just reading about "dynamic-learning beliefs" and "fixed-learning beliefs" in Peter Johnston's Opening Minds:  Using Language to Change People's Lives, of which you can preview the ENTIRE book here at Stenhouse.

A dynamic-learning frame is one of which a person believes that learning takes time and effort, so trying hard is valued, problems/challenges/errors are to be expected and even valued if a person is taking on a challenge and also, challenging activities are engaging.  Most importantly, someone with this belief system believes that the more you learn, the smarter you get.  You can change your mind, your smartness, and who you are.

Compare that with the fixed-performance frame.  With this belief system, one believes that people have fixed traits, such as smartness and intelligence that they cannot change.  They believe learning happens quickly for smart people, so trying hard is not valued and if you even have to try hard, you probably aren't smart. Problems and errors are indicators of one's intellectual ability and challenging activities are in fact risky or stressful because one might fail.

My son has a fixed performance belief.  In his mind, he made errors in putting the shelf together, so he is bad at putting things together. . . he believes he is "not smart" at this.  I had to help him get it apart and redo it because he was so upset by the fact that he "failed".  The entire scenerio explains the fuss he put up about even having to put it together in the first place.  It was a risk.

I notice this in students at school, especially those who are highly intelligent, as my son is.  They are used to "school" being easy for them.  They "get" things right away and do them quickly.  Many avoid challenges because they could fail and that would get in the way of their goal of looking as smart as they can.

So, how do we help people with these beliefs?

Peter Johnston answers this question throughout his book, but the three main points of influence include:

What we choose to say when children are successful or unsuccessful at something - when we give them feedback or praise.

If we say, "Good job" to a job well done, we are giving the message that they are good at what they do.  If we say, "You worked hard on this.  How do you feel?" we build a different frame in their mind.

The way we frame activities.

Saying, "Let's see who is the best or the quickest at doing this activity," is very different than, "Let's see which of these problems is the most interesting."  The latter teaches different understandings about learning and what they are doing, as well as turning their energies toward a different goal.

What we explicitly teach children about how people's brains and minds work.

Children need to know that each time they learn something new, their brains literally grow new cells.  Teaching about brain growth and function to our students empowers them to engage in challenging tasks and activities.


This book is mind shifting and I wish Peter Johnston had written it back in 1987 when I started teaching.  I'm sure someone else wrote about it and perhaps I even read it and my mind wasn't ready for it.

I'm ready for it now.

I ponder.  .  . maybe I really am not that bad at running the DVD player. . .

Shari :-)

The Perfectly Orderly T-E-A-C-H-E-R

One of the things that I highly value is the importance of modeling for teachers as much as possible.  Interactive Read Alouds are the foundation of our reading instruction.  We use them to teach content, model reading strategies and think alouds, notice writer's craft and illustrations and build deep conversations about author's intent and interpretations.

Because interactive reading alouds are so important in the classroom, this makes it even more necessary to model powerful read alouds during teacher trainings.  The trick is to be able to tie them in to relavent content for the training that day.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my last new teacher training for the year.  We attempt to train new teachers for 40 hours during their first year teaching in the area of literacy.  Our last session was focused on planning units of study utilizing the standards, student needs and our resources.

The perfect interactive read aloud to model during this training is The Perfectly Orderly House, by Ellen Kindt McKenszie.  This is a story about an old woman who can not throw anything away and she decides to organize all of her belongings by having enough rooms in her house that start with each letter of the alphabet.  In each room, only items which begin with that letter go into the room.  It's pretty silly when she has to go to the closet to fetch cookies and cakes and her glasses in the garage.  Her organizational system is amiss and she has trouble finding anything.  At the end of the story, she realizes the simple, small four room house she had was all she needed.  It brought her peace.  The big message:  Less is More.

So, how does this tie into planning?  Many ways.  As teachers, we are constantly looking for ideas for the most fantastic lessons, via internet, books, collegues and such.  Of course, we can throw nothing away for we just might need this idea at some  point in time.  Our closets, filing cabinet, desks, computers and classrooms become an utter mess.  Finding anything we need is a task in itself.

A perfect example of this was a story I told for this training. I searched relentlessly online the night before for the perfect icebreaker activity.  I wasted at least an hour googling and going through all my bookmarked sites for that dynamite idea.  Needless to say, I never found it.  I ended up deciding to just do some various reflection notebook entries reflecting on frustrations, memorable moments and goals for the next year.  I've been using writers' notebooks in my classroom for almost 10 years.  Doing notebook entries is something I could do in my sleep.  Why didn't I just go to that in the first place?  Katie Wood Ray stands out in my mind here when she says to "teach from the heart".  We know what to teach, so just teach it.  We don't need some fancy lesson to do it.  Less is more.

The message we can ultimately leave with is that when we attempt to accumulate ton of ideas, activities, lessons, etc., we actually "teach" less.  By spending our precious time searching for the perfect lesson/idea/activity, we are taking time away from looking at our kids.   Think small.

It's a really big lesson to learn for a teacher.  Certainly, you don't want to end up like the old woman who has to go to the basement to fetch the butter.  Keep a few tools in your toolbox.  You'll always know where they are.

Shari :-)

Hot New Interactive Read Alouds Workshop

I recently provided a couple of inservice sessions for area teachers introducing them to some amazing new (or newly discovered by me) interactive read alouds out there.  One session was for primary teachers and one for intermediate.

I honestly believe that teachers have zero time to be researchers.  Their daily day consists of planning, meetings,  phone calls to parents, paperwork and of course, teaching.  They truly desire to have the most powerfully moving texts to be reading with their kids, but, time does not always allow for them to find them. I feel obligated to make sure we have the books that provoke deep discussion and thinking in our bookroom.  And, also, to make sure our teachers know that they are there.

If we, as literacy coaches, can periodically, do some workshops on the books that are already in our possession and also be constantly bringing in new engaging texts that fit with what grade levels are doing, then we become an increasingly important link to helping students and teachers love reading.  And, we make those teachers who are looking for that "perfect read aloud" smile. :-)

Here are 2 powerpoints for each training, along with a handout for each.


K-2 IRA Powerpoint
K-2 IRA Handout
3-5 IRA Powerpoint
3-5 IRA Handout

Enjoy!

Shari :-)