Thoughts on the session by Colby Tofel-Grehl at the International Visible Learning Conference in Carlsbad, CA.
Contributed by Jeffrey Spanier, English and AVID teacher, Carlsbad High School, CA.
Subtitle (according to Ms. Tofel-Grehl): “Turns out Severus Snape was a better teacher than we thought”.
During Ms. Tofel-Grehl’s presentation I became alertly aware of how different teaching younger students (elementary school) and the older students I teach in grades 11 and 12. She explained how hard it is for many teachers to be direct in correcting a student. This extended to the types of questions a teacher asks/prepares for students—too often being of the easy-to-answer-correctly variety. In video clips, we saw how a first grade teacher’s kind-hearted nature diminished the classroom discussion and overall learning experience of her students. I could easily compare this to classrooms I have observed at higher levels. It occurred to me that one of the major differences of teaching Advance Placement English and lower levels of English is how readily I reject answers at the AP level. In the AP classes, the need to be specific and accurate in our critical reading requires direct correction. While students flinch at first, they eventually get over their shyness and take on the challenging questions by risking their ideas and opinions in class discussion. Lower classes are much more reticent in making this shift. As I listened to Ms. Tofel-Grehl explain how to give more direct, purposeful feedback to young students, I realized why it takes high school students so long to open up and risk answering critical, open-ended questions.
I recommend this session to anyone who is moving into the Common Core curriculum approach and wondering how they will push students into more meaningful and higher-level discussions. Understanding the importance of direct correction will make teachers of all students at all grade levels more willing to “tell students no.”
