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Learn to Work with What They Give You

September 28, 2014

I once sat in an adult Sunday School class and heard the teacher ask a question.  I formulated a response but didn’t immediately say anything.  I tend to talk too much in class and don’t like being that guy, so I held back.  When nothing was forthcoming from any other student I raised my hand and offered my thought.  The teacher smiled at me and very kindly said “That’s wrong – does anyone else have a thought?”


Well, that stung, but not because she thought I was wrong.  I may or may not have been but the deeper issue was this: I wanted to be in the game.  I wanted to play and she just kicked me out.  My answer didn’t fit her game plan and I was eliminated.  For the rest of the class I sat there silently, wondering if I was wrong but also wondering why she wouldn’t let me explain my thinking.  The pain wasn’t permanent and by the next class I was back to talking, but I keep thinking of how many people have been scarred deeply by such an experience and decide never to play again.

If you haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, you should.  It is full of insightful little essays about how and why we make the choices we do every day. In one of the essays he speaks of watching an improv troupe one evening and being fascinated by their ability to create something dramatic out of almost nothing and keep a steady flow of humor in their work.  In trying to discover how they did it he was taught this lesson: “One of the most important rules that make improv possible is the idea of agreement, the notion that a very simple way to create a story – or humor – is to have characters accept everything that happens to them.”  That is, when one character offers a line (and this is all impromptu) the other character has to accept it and do something with it.  For example if one of the characters says “Doctor, I broke my leg” the other character can’t say “No, it looks just fine”.  He has to accept the idea of a broken leg and build from there.  To refuse the line is to kill the action.

That is true for the classroom too.  Great teaching and learning are hastened as the teacher listens to and accepts what the students offer in conversation, even the things that you initially find absurd. By learning to accept what is said and then doing something with it, you validate student thinking and help in the learning process. You can take what they give you and help shape a response. Here are some ideas how you can do that.

If a student offers a comment or thought that meshes well with the lesson and /or the conversation, give that student thanks.  It can be quick or extensive as the occasion and the student require.  It could just be a smile or a nod of the head.  It could be a pause, followed by “Wow that was great.  Thank you.”  You will know what to do and say with each student and in each circumstance.

If a student gives you something that is tentative or slightly askew in relation to the direction the class is flowing, ask him for a little more.  Try to discover what he was thinking as he said it.  Students like to show just the tip of the iceberg and usually have more to say if we invite them to say it.  Make the invitation.  Ask him for more, to add to his answer or to expand on what he just said.  It is initially surprising to the teacher to find out such things.

If a student gives a comment or response that seems miles off, I like to say something like “You know, I’ve never thought of it that way.  Help me see what you see.”  If they were just saying something silly they will usually admit it and we all have a good laugh and move on.  But many times they have something to say, something important to say, and if I don’t give them latitude to say it and explain it, we all have missed out on something important.


It’s not the job of a teacher to catch students being wrong.  That benefits no one.  It is the teacher’s job to teach so that students learn, and one real good way of doing that is to take what they give you and do something with it.

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The Big Question Revisited

September 14, 2014

Would you like to know why most students won’t answer your questions in class and in fact are hesitant to participate in discussions at all?  It’s because for the bulk of their educational lives they have been asked questions that need a specific answer and they have learned to be very hesitant about raising their hands to offer a simple thought.  Even if they are semi-sure that they know the answer, they also know that the possibility exists for error and they will probably be wrong and the teacher will not hesitate to point it out.  When they (or you or me) are publically called out for being wrong we will hardly try again; hence, the resistance to classroom participation.


But students almost always have something to say and it takes the right kind of question to bring it out, and it takes the right attitude from the teacher to bring it out.  The attitude is this: “I know you have something to say and I really, really want to hear it.”  But the teacher can’t just say that; it has to be demonstrated.  You have to show them that attitude. 


The right kind of question is the one that requires a response rather than an answer.  An answer is a very specific type of response that corresponds directly to the question.  Think of a math class (“The square root of 16 is…?”).  There is only one answer to that question.  Think of a science class (“The 15th element on the periodic table is…?”).  Only one answer will do for that question, so we watch students furrow their brows and puzzle over it, looking down and hoping not to make eye contact.  Very few are brave enough to answer and when no one does the teacher continues to assume that questions are not very useful in class and “I should just stick to my lecture notes.”  So much for questions that need an answer.  They rarely bring one and when they do it comes without much thought.


But what about asking a question that begs for a response?  A response is any comeback that keeps the conversation going.  It could be an attempt to directly answer the question, but it could be a follow up question from a student, or simply a thought, or a wonderment.  What if the teacher asked the kinds of questions to which there are no wrong answers?  How about this one: “The Russians launched an earth orbiting vehicle before the Americans, but the Americans were first on the moon.  Why?”  There could be lots of reasons and lots of thoughts about that, but all can participate safely. 


Here’s another one: “Joseph Smith received his first vision in 1820 but the church wasn’t organized until 10 years later.  What was happening in those 10 years that made the wait necessary?”


Often you can start a question with this simple phrase: “In your opinion…”  There is a slight danger with that question because you don’t want to create a huge pool of shared ignorance, so the teacher needs to listen and guide and help reshape the responses, but everyone can eventually share an opinion.


I read of a science teacher who gave each student a barometer and asked them to use it to discover the height, in feet, of a certain tall building.  I suppose there are a lot of useful scientific ways to figure that out but the one that intrigued me was the student who had the correct answer and when asked to explain his method said, “I went to the building superintendant and told him that if he would just tell me how tall the building was that I would give him the barometer.”  The teacher’s original question created enough room that a wide variety of thoughts and responses were acceptable.


So if you want to get students talking in your class – and it works for both adults and kids – stop asking them to recall names and dates and numbers.  That closes the door very quickly. And please stop asking this question “What did we talk about last time?”  I can barely remember what I had for dinner last night.  I just know that it was good and I liked it but I generally can’t recall it on cue anymore than I can recall the content of yesterday’s lesson (or last week’s).  If you need to spend a brief little time reviewing what you did last meeting, just ease them into it by reminding them – “Remember yesterday that we talked about some of the main reasons America entered World War II?  The reason that I thought the strongest was…..  Which was yours?”  As you ease them into it, they will remember and start to talk and then you can begin asking them questions that really generate thought and discussion, questions that need responses not answers.

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Help Showing Videos at Church

September 12, 2014

Bible Videos Screen Capture

I know teachers with problems showing videos in church all over the world.  The church typically relies on the very lowest bandwidth residential connections it can get, which causes problems for a media-hungry curriculum like Come Follow Me.  The Come Follow Me site has a page that teaches you how to avoid the bandwidth crush as several teachers try to display the same videos during class at the same time….
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My Lesson is Boring!

September 12, 2014

AC expressed a common concern on the LDS Seminary Teacher Facebook Group: “I’m a new teacher this year, not creative at all and need desperate help. I have my two boys in my class and they both tell me I’m boring.” Here’s what I said: Please know that everything I’m about to say is intended to be helpful. Please read it in that context.1) Consider the source. Your own children…
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Increasing Student Participation during Gospel Lessons

September 11, 2014

Most gospel teachers struggle with classroom participation. Sometimes you’ll get a classroom of students who are very active and loud, and other times you may have a classroom of very quiet students. We want students to enjoy each other, but “between the prayers” we want them to talk about the gospel — not Friday night’s game. Following are some ideas to help you increase appropriate discussion in your classroom: Talk…
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Are you sure you didn’t want to be an Architect?

September 7, 2014

What do you think of this sentence: “The teacher is the architect of the learning experience”?  I like it a lot.  It’s been with me so long that I can’t recall if I thought of it (maybe) or I read or heard it somewhere (more likely).  Either way, it expresses a truth about the classroom and the teaching/learning dynamic. 

An architect has a vision, then commits that vision into detail on paper, and finally directs the execution of the vision.  What he doesn’t do is all of the work.  There are lots of people down the line that labor in realization of the vision, but the vision and the details begin with him. 

A great teacher begins with a vision of student learning (not teacher performance) over the course of the term and for each daily lesson.  The vision is “what will my students learn” and the details are “how will they learn it.”  Start with a plan, fill in the details, and then be prepared to modify along the way, if the occasion calls for it.  You’re the architect; you get to pick the materials to use and the quantity.  For example, student participation is one of the materials to aid in the learning process.  It is not the final product.  Don’t get fooled into thinking that just because students are participating that they are learning.  They may or may not be, but if you’re not careful, you’ll perceive participation as an end, not as a means to an end.  The end we want is learning, and participation is useful because it opens up thinking and thinking causes learning.  So we love to see hands go up to respond, but here is a truth that is hard to grasp: not everyone that raises a hand needs to be called on.  If I ask a question and five hands go up I won’t necessarily call on all of them and I generally won’t do it in the order they raised their hands.  If the last hand up is a student who doesn’t talk much, that’s the first person I call on.  She needs to be heard and a variety of voices generally makes for a better class.  And if I think that after 1-2 comments we have stirred the pot successfully and people are thinking, then I move on because as the architect of the learning experience, I get to select the materials (in this case, participation) and the quantity (how many students I call on).

You might assume that students will be offended if they are not called on, but here is another truth: when you raise your hand it is a sign that you have had some thoughts, that you have been stirred up sufficiently so that you want to participate.  Whether you vocalize it or not you still have had the experience of thinking and that enhances learning.  And if a student really has something to say that needs resolution, she will let me know by her persistence and she will get her say.

Great teaching is not delivering a boatload of new facts.  It is the ability to stir things up in the minds of students so that they think and begin to see things in ways that maybe they hadn’t before and thus learn.  When the Savior taught the two men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) He expounded all things unto them, spent time with them, and then left, leaving them to ponder and wonder and grow in learning.  He may not have answered all of their questions but He stirred them by leaving some things unsaid.  

It takes a classroom architect with vision and skill to make that happen in a great teaching way that leads to great learning.

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Evaluating A Gospel Lesson – 10 Questions to Ask

September 5, 2014

After a lesson is complete, you may feel elated or even discouraged.  Evaluating your teaching is an important, often neglected, step that can help you improve as a teacher.  Evaluating your lessons is the “report” part of the Return and Report pattern taught in the temple.  Reporting, by asking questions of yourself, prayerfully consulting the Lord, speaking with another teacher or leader, or blogging experiences, can help you develop Here are…
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