Have you ever wished you could get in the minds of those inscrutable youth that fill your classroom?
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Is this particular teaching move sticking? Is it working? If the children could design the day, what would they want me to do?”
Have you ever wished, “Wow, if only kids could feel how difficult it is to be a teacher for just a few moments.”
Well I got that Freaky Friday rare opportunity to switch roles with my seniors when recently I asked students to take turns in teaching groups leading the class in exploring stories in Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. (This is where I should pause to say of course this good idea originated from Paul Smith, as all the best ideas do. Whereas his focuses more on students leading discussions, I decided to opt into more of a “teach any way that you’d like” model.) Students were asked to work in small groups to design a 30 minute experience for their colleagues specifically tasked to ensure that (1) comprehension of the short story comes through (2) their peers were engaged in meaning-making and (3) they included a check for their understanding. And yes, of course this assignment is reminiscent of my Millsaps teacher education days. But we also all know that teaching a thing is the best way to ensure we actually take the time to understand it, whether or not you are training to become a teacher for real.
Of course in situations like this there is a lot of pressure for the first group to try a thing and model it for the whole group. I expected this, and I expected to see some cross-pollination of ideas. What I did NOT expect was for every single (with the exception of one) of the 7 groups of students to use the EXACT SAME combination of instructional activities. I mean talk about setting the tone, Group 1.
The only reasonable interpretation to take from all of this (ok there are other reasonable interpretations but shhhhh) is that the first group struck GOLD in the best, most awesome, most youth-friendly pedagogical design of all time. So (drumroll . . . ) without further delay . . . . the WINNING WAY OF TEACHING ENGLISH ACCORDING TO THE 17-18 YEAR OLDS IN BLOCK 7, ENG 12 includes:
- An opening Kahoot or Gimkit or other thing like this that asks comprehension level questions about the story students were supposed to have read.
- Division into small groups.
- Posing questions for the small group to explore from the story.
- Whole class discussion/reflection on the small questions.
While I do sorta roll my eyes that we had the exact same class six times in a row (the one outlier instead led a Jeopardy game the entire class) I do think there was a good bit of wisdom to this lesson plan structure. Students like to have a warm up to recall basic details of plot and characters. They enjoy anything that is gamified and competition can just add an extra layer of “ooomph” to a lesson. They sensed that it can be intimidating to speak in a class of 20, so giving smaller groups time to first discuss boosted the safety for more participation across the board
In other words, we must all be pretty good teachers for them to have observed such a solid formula for teaching and learning.
As for that third wish at the start of the blog, the one in which students experience the pains of trying to lead a class, let’s just say their personal reflections after the fact accounted (1) frustration when their peers didn’t come prepared to discuss the chapter (2) indignation when they discovered someone trying to cheat on the Kahoot (3) outright rage on the day I had a sub in the room and several of their classmates blatantly played games on their laptops instead of participating in the lesson.
So, in all aspects, mission accomplished?
I can’t say that I have fully embedded the three step kahoot-small group-large group model of instruction into my own ENG12 repertoire. I actually think I need some detox time from Kahoot and Gimkit. Still, every time I have students compete in some gamified form, think-pair-share ,or attack a hard thing in small groups before a large group convening, I smile and think to myself, “Somewhere deep inside they appreciate this. They see its value. They showed me so when they were the teachers for the day.”