Or: Let’s stop treating the need for proof like errant behaviour
Ah, the memories of being a teen being taught. I was pretty
compliant but lots aren’t and many of us teachers have to battle every day with
behavioural energy-vampires borne of disinterested family cultures and the
unfortunately-present half-formed-teen-brain quasi-sociopathy.
I was working in an English GCSE class the other day. I haven’t been in one of these since I was in
one myself and it sure brought back memories.
Like how much the teaching of English Literature destroyed my academic
interest in books. It’s never stopped me
reading but there is something deeply boring about being spoon-fed
interpretations of a novel to regurgitate in an exam. It reminded me of many things I Will Not Do
in my own English classes.
Like reading out loud for more than a couple of
paragraphs. Missing opportunities to
have them read. Missing opportunities
for them to prepare answers together to build confidence. Taking any chance to get them to do the work
and not just write down what I say.
Ah, those old memories. Why, why, why.
What I wasn’t expecting was the next reminder. Being an Old Person, combined with senior
school academic ease and the trusting top-set classes I studied in, I ‘d
completely forgotten about this old refrain…..
“When are we even ever going to use this?”
“WHEN ARE WE EEEEEVEN EVER GOING TO UUUUSE THIIIISSSS?”
Feeling those neck muscles clenching up in annoyance?
Boy, how this took me back. I never really said stuff like
this. Or, well, if I ever did, it was out of some sense of rote/duty about How
To Be A Teenager, like when I was Well Into East 17 because it seemed clear to
me at 12 that I was meant to join one of the boyband tribes and they looked
like the most fun.)
Now, this student was not particularly bad for their level. I was pretty sure they were just trying to
derail the last 10 minutes when they should have been writing because they were
nervous about their ability….I could hear that in their tone. It wasn’t a
serious moan.
“Nay-saying? Turn it up to 11, immediately! Give no quarter!” Actually, not really.
I’d already praised what they’d written and so said
something along the lines of “That’s a good question and I’d love to discuss it,
but not right now because you need to finish your task” and moved along. The teacher
chimed in with “X, don’t be so rude…..”.
The lesson finished and I heard the teacher say “X, can I
have a moment before you go?” I kind of tried to hang around to get involved
because I wanted a chance to talk to the student about why GCSE English and book analysis will be helpful. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say
but I definitely want to get the practice in now before I have my own classes. But the opportunity didn’t transpire, so I
wandered off.
And downstairs, and to the shop across the road before
remembering some admin back in the office which had to be done. So I wandered back to the office. Past said student, only to hear “….and she
made me stay behind and gave me a bollocking…!”
But It’s So Annoying!
Now I know, I know that ‘when will we even use this?!’ is
infuriating to hear. It’s so hard to
answer, and not just because teens on the whole just aren’t mature enough to
consider long-term goals, situations they haven’t been in, or indeed have the
experience of changing dramatically over the years and thus can’t see the need
for preparation for who they might be next decade.
And it’s hard to answer because it’s not immediately apparent. How does fiction analysis match up to the
humdrumity of real life, really? At least with Maths, you can drone about
buying new carpet or digging a pond in your garden. At least with English Language, you can
mutter about applying for jobs and keeping in touch with friends.
And it’s painful, as academic types, to hear that others don’t enjoy thinking and weighing things up. For me anyway, it brings me to despair, in
that kind of solipsistic how-can-you-not-even-?-?-? kind of way. Don’t-you-realise-this-is-the-best-way-to-live!?!....
At which point, you are promptly poleaxed by
relativism. “Oh God, I’m being elitist,
I’m being a snobby-lefty-Grauniad-bullshit purveyor, not everyone likes
reading, etc. etc.…..”
So Wat Do?! It Makes Me So Cross!
There’s many pitfalls to ‘BUTWHENWILLWEEVER….” So I get why we don’t always engage that
positively with it. But we do need to address what they give us.
That’s our job. It’s not ‘stand and the front and say the
words and they better listen’, its ‘meet them where they’re at and
signpost/scaffold them towards independent thinking”.
What I cannot stand is the bollocking-them response. It’s not rude. There’s nothing rude about wanting to know
why you should do something. The only
way this can be ‘rude’ is if teacher-is-right-because-I-say-so-you’re-threatening-my-authority-get-back-in-your-box.
I thought this had been addressed in modern teacher
training. I thought that PGCEs and
PTLLS and DTLLS and all the rest clearly covered that. My PTLLS training certainly had.
I thought it had been made clear that We Don’t Do That
Anymore. That the research showed
that. That it was abundantly clear that
trying to squish behaviour in an overbearing fashion DOES NOT WORK WITH
TEENAGERS (or with anyone, for that matter).
And that it doesn’t really turn them into particularly
well-set-up adults because you’re not giving them a chance to flex their
individualisation and ability to distinguish between what’s right for them and
what’s wrong for them, and the ability to seek motivation in things that they
don’t really want to do. You know, on account of how they will have to do that
forever and a day because that’s life and our job is to set them up for life?
Improving our response as teachers
There are several points here for educators to be reminded
of, to my mind.
- Keep It Simple, Stupid
First, do not go nuclear on minimal disruption.
Just remind them to zip it when it’s clear that they don’t even really want a
conversation or to stage a protest about The State Of Education Today…..they
just don’t want to do their work.
- Is Now The Best Time?
Secondly, monitor your frame of mind to decide
how/why to tackle behaviour. Discretion
is the better part of courage, and there ain’t no point in winning a battle if
it’s going to help you lose the war.
- No, Now Is Not The Best Time
The basic underlying rule of #2 is that if
you’re all knackered and fed-up on a sleepy Friday afternoon, don’t try to
tackle really low-level behaviour. Save
it for another time.
- Reflect And Prepare Yourself
Prepare yourself! You’ve seen it before and
you’ll see it again, so what are you going to do about it? Impotently shove your attitude about?
HOWTHISWILLBEUSEFUL attitude preparation
So, let’s prepare for WHENWILLWEEVER before we launch the little darlings through the window.
- Start every new module with a lesson on HOWTHISWILLBEUSEFUL. Make them do it. Make posters, make word clouds, make them write a blogpost about it, make them write a letter to each other and write back to rebuff the other’s arguments. Make them debate. Make them choose the opposite opinion to flex that empathy too. Make them email people in industry for how English is important. Get someone from industry in to do the same thing. Ask Literature specialists for how it’ll help.
- Ask what they were like 10 years ago. Do they do the same things? Do they think about things the same? What prepared them for who they are now? Was it worth it? How has it helped?
- Think about your different types. The Romantic/Idealist will be fine….they’ll already be swooning over word placements and drifting off into their own fantasies about the setting and so on. It’s the Realists and the traumatized ones with shitty families that need meaningful, concrete ways your lesson is worthwhile and reasons to trust you as an adult. Outsource this, if necessary. Drop a few posts on popular forums online. Search for people that have already asked the same question. Find examples of how not knowing the basics is a problem in later life. Give them evidence.
Give ‘em real-life examples
Indeed, I unwillingly suspect it might be best to appeal to
the teen fear of non-conformity/looking stupid.
Here’s a nice little screenshot to illustrate why basic Maths skills stops
you looking stupid. Be careful with acting
like you’re proud for, like, totally knowing about Facebook and totally being
on it and totally loving it, as they’re pretty much over Facebook (because us
boring old fuckers are all over it, being all old and weird) but it’s
understandable enough for both us and
them to come together to learn the point:
It wasn’t too easy to search online for other people
visiting this problem but, with a few attempts at changing my search terms, I
found some half-decent stuff to get us all started. Nearly everything is about Maths because
Maths is the big one, in terms of WWWE, due to its socially-endemic levels of horrible
PR. On that note, I hear teachers moan about Maths constantly. Keep it together in front of the students,
people! It does not endear you to them or make you seem more relatable; it just
encourages them to give up.
There was more but I
wanted stuff that was more or less ready for use with teens. For instance, weusemaths.org sounded good but
when I went there, the first thing that presented itself was the tagline for
the home page video –“Purpose….Opportunity…Success….”. I’m pretty sure this will
just sound pompous and out-of-touch to most teens except that one weird
business-obsessed kid who likes to carry a briefcase.
3 excellent starting points
“Why Do We Need To Learn This?” – by Allen Mendler on Edutopia
- Ask them about what they want to do. If they know, relate it to that. If they have a variety of options, ask for them and then promise to be clear about how it could help when it’s relevant. If they don’t, then explain about keeping their options open.
- Explain how it’s more about the process than the result. It’s about practicing the skills to understand things so when they are in a difficult situation without help, they can rely on themselves. Make it about independence and not needing boring, stuff old grown-ups that cramp their style.
I made an infographic about this one.You can get it here.
“When Will I Ever Use This Stuff Anyway?” – PDF report overview download by Austin and Bercelli.
- Community college students absolutely loved and could see the point of Maths when they did a ‘service-learning’ project. In this case, they found someone in their local community to interview to understand a real-life situation when algebra was needed. The resources made from this were then used by the college students to teach with another lower-year group about why Maths is useful.
“When Will I Ever Use This: Career Exploration” PDF download by icollaboratory.com
10 lesson outlines for making the students work out just how
and why things are useful. Defining goals/researching careers/linking skills/assessing information found/salary and outcome linked on valuing what you’re
learning now/teaching others the same.
Pooling Our Resources
If you’ve tackled this before, please let me know what works
well. I’ve got a plan brewing to create
a guide for a) doing this process yourself and b) gathering together information
for all subjects to save everyone time and energy. If we could just get this
one out of the way, everyone’s life will be much easier.
