Give them the power

What is your favorite part of school?  That question is asked of students all the time.  In fact, it was asked at church on Sunday when they were blessing the backpacks.  What do kids answer 95% of the time....Recess or PE.  Sometimes lunch!

Why do kids hone in on PE and Recess?  Why is that the best part of their day?

The quick, immediate answer people give is because they like free time and not having to work.

I disagree, I think because it allows them to be active and it allows them to interact with other students. If you ever watch kids when they are left to their own devices, they are really rather creative.  They use a lot of imagination and come up with a lot of things that they wouldn't if they were being given directions and being told what to do.

Some will argue that kids just like to play games.  Yes, kids do like to play games, kids like to be active.  As a teacher said to me just today, kids these days are connected are "on" 24/7.  When we ask students to simply sit still and listen - we are asking them stop being themselves, to stop doing what is natural.

When I think about this topic, I think about myself and how I learn best.  Do I learn best by sitting quietly and listening?  Nope.  I learn best by being able to hash it out and discuss it with others.  I like to throw around ideas, discuss aspects, see if I can come up with other things.

Now people who know me well know that I do not like group projects.  So my last paragraph may seem weird.  When it comes to doing a project, I find it easier to do it myself.  I tend to be a control freak in that way - I want to know what all aspects of the project will look like and sound like.

But when learning things, I really like to be in a group and have the chance to kick it around and really think about it in depth.  I like bouncing ideas, talking different angles, debating issues, really thinking things through and hearing all sides.

So why do we think that kids learn best by sitting in a chair listening to us go on and on.   I realized in 8th grade, studying with a friend of a test for geography, that when you are teaching someone else you learn it better yourself.

The other day I was watching 2 flute students working together at their band lesson.  One student had already had about 6 lessons and the other was on her first lesson.  The band director was working with a 3rd student at the time and I watched the more experienced student helping the new player.  She was showing her where her fingers should go, how to hold the horn, and which fingers pushed which keys.  She was patient, she used terms and language that the student used so it was very effective.

What impressed me the most was that NO ONE asked them to work together.  Their director hadn't said, "help her figure this out" while he was occupied elsewhere.  They took it upon themselves to do this.  They wanted to learn, they wanted to help each other succeed.

In my room I use what I call rhythm partners.  I tell the students that each day they have a rhythm to figure out but they don't have to do it alone, they can get help from anyone else in the room (except me).  If their partner doesn't know the answer, then feel free to ask another student.  I watch them work together, teach each other how to count the rhythm.  They say things in the words their friends understand.  And funny enough, I could use those exact same words and they would not learn it as well.

Quite the phenomenon, same words, same ideas but when it comes from a peer, they are able to learn it better than if it comes from me.  I've taught kindergarten for several years and I always teach the same notes and rhythms.  This year I embraced a new technique, I am using puppets to talk to the kids about the notes.  SAME thing I would say (am saying since it's my voice) but they are grabbing on to it completely and learning it tons better.  What?  They'd rather listen to a silly puppet than me?  Yep, I guess so.  They'll come in the next day and say, "Do we get to see the puppets again?"  Seriously, you would think they would get sick of the silly little puppets I made.  Nope - they love it and learn it.

So how do we get kids to say their favorite part of the day was math or social studies or science?  (Or...  :-)  Music?!)  We need to learn from what they do in PE and Recess.  They interact, they are active, they are involved.

A friend told me about the way she is teaching the parts and jobs of a plant.  Rather than simply drawing it or showing them or talking about it - each student has a paper flower of their own.  The roots open up and inside it says the job of the root.  They lift the flap and write in there what the part of the flower does.  So they are hands on, involved.  And putting the answer where it happens helps them relate the process to the location.  They read it, they write it, they touch it...and they are having fun doing it.  This helps them learn.

In one of my previous schools they used what is called CGI Math.  (Cognitive Guided INstruction)  It was a hands on approach to teaching math.  They didn't give the kids the way to solve the problems.  They gave them the problems, gave them a "tool box" of manipulatives and asked the children to come up with 3 different ways to find the answer.  Yes, 3 different ways!!  Then, they would get together in a group and the kids would get to share the ways they came up with to solve the problem.  Kids would share their ways and have to explain to the other students why they did it that way and how they came up with the idea.  I watched this process on several occasions and it was awesome.  When a kid had the wrong answer - they usually figured that out when they were explaining their process.  It allowed them to try and fail and learn from that and then come up with a way that did work.

It was amazing to watch kids grasp concepts way above the expected concepts for their age.  There were kindergarten students doing multiplication and division problems and not realizing it.  Those words and terms weren't used, but the concept was there and the kids were getting it!

What if we did more of collaborative work?  What if we allowed more exploratory learning by the kids?  Yes, guided and structured exploration.  The more ownership one has in their learning the more they learn.  If kids feel like they are controlling things, they are coming up with the answers, they will learn it much better than if they are simply told the answers.

Recently, my son has started going to the library with a friend after school to do homework.  I questioned at first if they were just messing around, but they go into the study room and work on their work or study.  Yesterday they went and re-read parts of their social studies chapter to study for their test.  They asked each other questions.  Granted, they would have done better if they had used the study guide provided to them by their teacher, but they were using the text and reviewing things that way.  They came up with a plan and they put it into action.  They decided to study, no one told them they had to, no one suggested doing it together or going to the library.  They came up with that all on their own.

Wouldn't it be awesome if kids told others that the best part of their day was Social Studies?!  Wouldn't it be great if kids wanted to learn and wanted to share their learning with others?

We have the power to do that for them... give them the power.  Don't hold the power over them, don't threaten them with power - grant them the power to learn.  Grant them to power to discover how great it is to learn and delve deeper.  Grant them ownership in their education by allowing them to teach each other.  Give them responsibility, hold them accountable and allow them to teach each other.  Imagine the power they would feel, how great they would feel about themselves.

Scary for a teacher to give up that control, but in honesty, the teachers who do this have much greater satisfaction in their teaching because they are helping guide the students to finding the answers.  They are guiding the students to help each other.  You give the students the tools they will use for the rest of their lives.  By teaching them to search, hunt, find the answers you are giving them tools they will use forever.

Can you give up that control and turn the learning over to the students?  Can you be the one who takes the risk, goes into scary territory and teaches kids what it really means to teach?  Teach them to teach and you give them the world.