Write It Down

Happy New Year!

I’m not doing New Year’s resolutions, per se, this year. I’m just...

• Cutting back on my holiday eating and tracking my food
• Trying to keep my family room more picked up (darn it!)
• Finding more time for personal (not work) reading.

New Year's’ Resolutions are a little cliche. And are often “fails” before Valentine’s Day. So instead of thinking about a New Year’s Resolution, I am just trying to be more conscious and intentional.

I feel that way about my new semester. I don’t need a real “resolution:. I just need some attempts at improving myself and my instruction. .

Now, I certainly haven’t taught every type of kid out there. But I have taught a bunch.  

• I have had classes of entirely ESOL students with not an English-speaker to be found.
• I have taught entire classes of all gifted students.
• I have taught ESE Inclusion classes and classes that just happened to have 90% ESE students.
• I have taught classes with 26 boys and 3 girls (who does that?!?!).
• I have taught classes of all girls
• I have taught 6th graders and 12th graders and most grades in between.
• I have taught required courses and electives

And here is the number one teaching hack that I feel is rarely used.

Are you ready for it?

It’s so stupid, it’s brilliant.

Here goes:

Write. All. Your. Directions. Down.

Write ‘em down. Write ‘em on the board, write ’em in a powerpoint, write ‘em on the handout  before you photocopy it. Write ‘em in portal, for make-up work. Write ‘em digitally in your Google Classroom or class website.

Just put the directions in writing to whatever activity or assignment.

It’s amazing how frequently a teacher shows me some student work and bemoans the quality of work ... and then when we look at it more clearly, they notice that a kid missed some part of the directions.

You know. The kid copied the whole question when they weren’t supposed to. Or they answered the first part of the question but missed the second part. Or they totally didn’t find the answers in the reading. Or they didn’t know that there was a second page.

This is not because the kid is stupid. This is because some kids are not auditory learners.

I am not an auditory learner. I need directions written out for me.

When you give verbal directions, some kids are going to miss parts of those directions. If the directions are written, the kid can go back and look to see what she missed.

Here is the beginning of a  solid set of written directions from superstar/Pinellas teacher, JH.

Step 1: Get into groups of 3.  No groups of 4.  You will be in 2 groups of 2 instead.   No, you can’t work by yourself.

Step 2: Read both documents written by Camillo di Cavour in your group.  Come up with comments or questions for each paragraph, and write them on the margin.

Step 3: Discuss the documents in your group.  What is di Cavour’s main idea?  What idea is he trying to spread?

Step 4: Underline the passage every time he makes an argument for nationalism.   Are you convinced? Why or why not?  Write your answer somewhere on the document for each underlined argument.

There is more to the assignment, but do you see how students choosing groups can be a little distracting and can make the kids forget what they’re supposed to be doing next?

Instead of just giving the directions verbally, write them down, too.

Seriously. This is such a small “teaching hack” that can make such a huge difference.

Written directions can help

• the ESE student who struggles with more than one-step directions.
• the gifted student who gets distracted and goes down the rabbit hole.
• the ESOL student who needs to connect the written word to the spoken word, helping his language acquisition.
• the kid who was daydreaming, talking, texting, or staring at her love crush du jour across the room.

It’s not a magic fix-all. But it sure does help more kids be more successful at the learning tasks in your class. And if they’re more successful with the tasks, then they can be more successful with the  learning.

Try it. It’s so simple, it’s awesome.

Write the directions down. And see if that boosts the success of some of your kiddos.

I love to hear about it. Email me! newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy