The Power of Can-Do
I had a Co-Teaching reflection post outlined for this week, but I was inspired to write something a bit different and on the fly.
Conversations with teachers can often escalate to something like this:
Teacher: (clearly frustrated) “This student doesn’t know English.”
“This student doesn’t understand what I’m saying.”
“This student can’t write.”
“This student needs a tutor to improve their English.”
I get it. I’ve been a classroom teacher before. We all get frustrated when the same student just doesn’t seem to understand what it is we’re teaching. We’ve tried different strategies that worked for everyone else in the class, yet nothing seems to reach this one student. A teacher–student relationship should be a two way street, right? Why can’t they seem to pull their own weight and do the work?
Even kindergarten and first graders can pick up on this negativity. Their “poor performance” is a reflection of our frustrations. If we assume they can’t, then why should they try?
Why can’t they seem to do the work?“
And then there are some that are small saplings; eager to grow, but overshadowed and overwhelmed by the rest.
And then there are some that are small saplings; eager to grow, but overshadowed and overwhelmed by the rest.
Coyan (not the real student name) was that sapling today. It’s been upwards of two months since school started and students are well into their narrative writing. Many have multiple published stories and lots of teacher feedback. Coyan, however, was staring at a blank page. He spent tremendous amounts of time tracing dotted letters, often writing, erasing, and rewriting simple sight words. When asked to spell on his own, he shut down and immediately sought teacher assistance.
Writing clearly gives Coyan anxiety, and since English is his second language there’s an added layer of complexity in his learning. Even expressing his needs to the teacher takes a huge amount of energy and thought processing, so writing must surely seem like an insurmountable feat.
I worked with Coyan’s teacher to create a support plan, outlining his strengths and how we can utilize them day to day, focusing on ways to facilitate English learning through writing. Together, we discovered what Coyan CAN do.
- He can copy writing carefully.
- He can listen and follow directions.
- He can try really hard.
Perfect. We can work with this.
Out of this conversation, we decided to use the following strategies:
- Scaffold writing using strategic sentence frames.
- Use large posters / examples with photographs.
- Model effective writing strategies every day.
It brought me back to my first years teaching at an American school when I moved to Kuwait a few years ago. I often felt overwhelmed when working with students who required more differentiation and scaffolding than others. Being a new teacher, I was lost. I wished I’d had someone to not only sit with me and make a plan with how to meet the needs of my students in the classroom, but also show me how to do it.
That’s when I offered to show my colleague how to implement what we planned out as a starting point for our plan. He gladly accepted, expressing his appreciation to show instead of tell (this is what we often encourage our students to do!). Throughout the rest of the week, I modeled writing lessons and used the strategies we discussed on the whole class, showing how they can specifically help students like Coyan.
Throughout the week, I provided relevant sentence frames to scaffold Coyan’s thinking, especially when he struggled expressing his thoughts into words. I modeled writing using large, teacher created exemplars, but then engaged the class in shared writing so that we could generate ideas together. When Coyan was writing independently, we played a game where I set a timer with my phone and challenged him to copy sentences on his own. We recorded his time, and every day we tried to beat it while remembering to use finger spaces and letter sizing. Not only did I show how to use the scaffolds we decided on, but I also modeled differentiating on the fly (using a timer to improve his writing speed). If we rely on scripted interactions with students, in the end we will only meet a small fraction of their needs.
After about three days, Coyan was writing original sentences on his own.
It turns out he had it in him after all.
With a bit of scaffold and encouragement, Coyan realized that he can write, he just needed a bit of additional support to get started. His writing was by no means perfect or neat, but he wrote. Once he has gained the confidence to pick up his pencil and articulate his thoughts (in English, no less), then we can work on building writing skills from there. The biggest reward, however, was the look on his face when he realized he could write on his own. It was as if he discovered he had this super power that he thought he never had. That type of lesson is one that teachers can’t teach – the student needs to experience it on their own.
If we rely on scripted interactions with students, in the end we will only meet a small fraction of their needs.
None of this would have been possible if we didn’t maintain a can do attitude towards problem solving. Dwelling on the negative typically leads to superficial goals and unsustainable gains, if any at all. All teachers should work together to steer conversations towards helpful, can-do mentalities that benefit both teachers and students. Working with any student who has learning needs can sometimes feel like a slow, grueling process, but, as seen with Coyan, focusing on what students can do helps us unlock their true potential!