Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.
– Peter F. Drucker
My friend Darlene earned her master’s in counseling. Never one to do things in a small way, Darlene’s degree is in Adventure-Based Counseling.
In the two years we worked in the same school and the eight years we’ve been friends, Darlene’s made one point about ABC over and over again: The activities are only only useful if you process them with the kids.
Darlene’s processing mantra of choice was, “What? So what? Now what?” asking the kids what they noticed about the activity, the implications of what they noticed on their success during the activity and what they would do to move this new knowledge into practice in their daily lives.
At SLA, we introduce students to inquiry thinking by taking them along a similar line of questioning: “I noticed…Iwonder…What if?”
As I’ve been considering caring lately, these questions and other iterations thereof have been striking me as increasingly important from both an academic and socio-emotional point of view.
On a recent flight, I sat next to a grandmother who was flying home after watching one of her grandsons graduate. I confessed to being a teacher and we felt silent again as often happens with the edd and flow of airline conversation.
“You know, every child needs at least one good and important teacher in their life,” she said, pulling me back to the conversation.
“More than one if they’re lucky,” I said.
“Mine was in ninth grade,” she said, “He told me, ‘I’m going to transfer you out of my class because it’s not quite what you need,’ but he also took the time to explain why.”
We talked for a while about how much it meant to her that the teacher explained to her why another class would be a better fit.
Now in her 70s, it is the processing she carries with her as the memory from both of those math classes. The processing of the why of it all turned out to be the greater moment of learning for her.
I suspect it influenced how she interacted with her own children – taking the time to explain when they asked the omnipresent, “Why?”
Darlene is right, what we do is only as useful as our effort to process it with our students. The processing takes many forms such as giving a response more detailed than “Good answer” in class or providing words rather than numbers when filling out a rubric.
Not only is processing in this way helpful to my practice as a teacher, it’s helpful to my students in their acquisition of the language of learning.
I’m a little cagey on the idea of teaching students to learn. Teaching students the language of learning and how to express the ideas and progress inherent in their learning – that I can get behind.
I second that!
When I reflect upon lessons that didn't go well I almost always find the problem was that I didn't take the time and/or energy to process it fully with my students. It often feels like an extra, tedious step, but it is clearly critical to any useful learning happening.