Differentiated Instruction and Teacher Development

Why Use Differentiated Instruction

Teachers must assess the abilities of different learners, fast and slow. PLC experts demand that all kids learn, not just the gifted kids. Therefore, teachers must adjust their practice for students of different abilities. If teachers don’t adjust enough, some kids will be bored or shut down, leading to classroom management problems, and not all will learn. If the teacher adjusts too much (in the extreme, giving every student an individualized lesson) the lesson plan becomes overly fragmented and the lesson loses any forward momentum. Therefore, the instructor must employ differentiated instruction carefully.

Categorizing student abilities as high, medium, and low provides differentiation and allows for most variation in ability. (See below for a better model.) I ask myself, how will low/medium/high ability students handle this lesson, and what do I have set up in the lesson itself to allow these three different ability kids to excel? Teachers can benefit from incorporating pairing and group work in lessons, because it allows all types of kids to master the material. I avoid special lessons for the low achievers. I would rather give them extra help or extra time and use pairings and group work.

What to do right now: Experiment with pairing and group work as shown below.

Pairings

At the beginning of the school year give the kids five minutes (literally) to find four partners—their 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 partners. You can also do this for them to better assure randomness and a more homogeneous selection of partners or go the other direction and make sure that certain students of different abilities are working together. Later in the year, you may yell out, “Work out the reading problem with your 9:00 partner,” and everyone will know what to do and will get help from a stronger student or teach a weaker student.

Group Work

As noted above, jigsawing material works as a fun way to get kids work together to learn long readings. The stronger students take the lead in presenting the material to the rest of the class. These gifted kids know they must simplify the material for everyone else.

Advanced Work Cleverly Hidden through Choice

If I add choice to assignments, I can trick advanced kids into tackling advanced work. Many advanced kids, unfortunately, do not want to do more work and have an uncanny ability to avoid working longer than everybody else, so I offer a question that requires less time than other questions but a higher level of thinking. The gifted kids will usually bite.

Another Model for Differentiating Students

I am exploring a more complicated alternative to organizing students along one axis: high, medium, and low aptitude. I have experimented with monitoring two criteria, aptitude and willingness to work. I then differentiate instruction based on ambition in the classroom as well as ability. The Wechsler (WISC) IQ test can be substituted for ability if the assessor does not have historical grades for the student. Why use an IQ test? Outside of California, where the IQ test has been banned from schools for political reasons, IQ tests correlate very well with K-6 scholastic achievement, more modestly for the higher grades. French psychologist Alfred Binet developed the IQ test to quickly find students that needed extra help in school. As a Californian I have to make an educated guess about a student’s ability. I usually base my inferences on the student’s performance in my class, performance in earlier classes, and state test scores. Please note that I have not yet directly addressed cultural diversity and language issues.

If a student prefers not to present in public, look the teacher in the eye, or win at a game (forcing others to lose) he may not perform as well as he could in some assessments. This student may be assessed more accurately through traditional paper and pencil tests and group work that emphasizes cooperation over competition. The teacher can then more confidently evaluate this student’s willingness to work and his abilities.

I have also encountered students, usually from impoverished families, that work hard in class, but do nothing at home. They may be working a job, watching siblings, or simply be partial to a belief system that limits school work to the time spent in the classroom. These kids may be best assessed by examining their in-class work, but grades will deservedly suffer if no work is done outside the classroom. A college-prep high school curriculum demands some homework from students. What if a student does not have sufficient academic English skills to succeed in your class?

This problem can be best addressed by making literacy issues a part of your everyday curriculum. There are plenty of native-born American kids that don’t understand the meaning of key vocabulary words such as imperialism, totalitarianism, and Cold War. Teachers must address literacy issues for everyone. Once you address the literacy issues, you can better assess the English as second language (ESL) student’s talents as laid out  below. If a student does not have a good enough grasp of English to put a few sentences together on paper, that student should be in a special sheltered class specifically tailored for kids that need to work on English as well as the curriculum. This is an administration issue, not a teaching issue.

Yet despite everything, if you have students in your class with a poor grasp of English you can still assess whether they are hard workers and whether they have academic talent—ask them about their school experience in their country of origin and check on their current math grades. I want all kids to learn, and I am pained because I have had very limited success teaching kids with little or no English skills placed in a regular (not a sheltered) class. The best I can do is to enlist other kids from the same ethnic group to help teach the ESL student and use the text book publisher’s Spanish resources, which of course, are of little help if the student doesn’t speak Spanish.

If you keep diversity issues in mind, you may find a two-criterion model, below, helpful in analyzing differential instruction in your classroom.

Willingness to Work versus Classroom Ability or IQ

Ambition or Willingness                                    Student

to Work

High                 B                                              C

                                                                                               

                                                                       

                                                                                                                       

                        Low                 A                                             D

 

Low     Ability or IQ                 High

                                   

Student A has low ability and does not try to learn the material. She skips homework assignments and gives up on the class. To pass the time she talks to her friends and mocks you when your back is turned. Would this child pass the class if she worked harder? That is the million dollar question. If the answer is yes, the teacher must work with all stakeholders (parents, counselors, coaches) to motivate the student. Occasionally a “deal” will help, such as “I’ll pass you with a D minus if you pass the final with a grade of C.”

If the answer is no, we have encountered student B, and administration and counselors must work together to place the child in an appropriate class. Neither the student nor the teacher is well served by leaving student B in a class where failure is guaranteed. An immediate intervention is in order.

Student C, the denizen of AP classes and honor rolls, makes teachers look good, though student C would probably do well even if the teacher lectured in Aramaic. Paradoxically, the most ambitious and experienced teachers instruct at the AP level, but the mid and low level classes require better classroom management skills and more time differentiating instruction than the AP classes.

Student D tries, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to get by with natural talent and information learned previously, usually outside the class. Student D is either lazy or placed in a class that does not interest her. This type of student acts as a poor role model for the rest of the class and reinforces the insidious stereotype that good students are born, not made. I want to kick these kids upstairs to the AP classes, where they are forced to perform or perish. If a D kid is stuck with me in a regular (not advanced or AP) class, I must grit my teeth and bear the frustration. These kids are used to getting by on raw talent, and my track record inspiring them to work has been rather disheartening. I was, more often than not a D kid in high school myself and didn’t start working hard until college. Perhaps if I was forced into social studies AP classes, which were nonexistent in my school at the time, I would have matured faster. A quick way of identifying whether a student is an A, B, C, or D student is by examining who feels most frustrated in the teacher-student relationship. This frustration may express itself overtly by angry acting-out behavior by either teacher or student unless both work together to solve the problem. (See below.)

Determining student type by assessing who is frustrated

Student Type	A	B	C	D
Who’s frustrated	both	student	no one	teacher
Typical comments	Teacher: “This kid doesn’t want to pass” Student: “I hate this class.”	Student: “This class is too hard.”	Teacher: “I want 150 kids like him.”	Teacher: “This lazy kid will get his comeuppance some day.”
Possible solutions	Meet with student and parents.	Put the student in a remedial class or give the student tools to catch up.	Pray for more of these kids.	Encourage the student to enroll in an advanced class.

Most teachers balk at creating three or four variations of each lesson in an attempt to service the A, B, C, and D student types. In addition to the pairings and group work mentioned above, I have had success with interactive projects and student-centered activities. These projects and activities have enough inherent appeal and changeability that all but the most shut-down students participate in the activity and learn. These activities include:

• Writing skits and performing them
• Composing a political cartoon
• Participating in a mock trial
• Presenting with a group where all get a role

Long Range Goals for Improvement

Many of the best teachers leave teaching for the administrative track. While I can’t fault those attracted to power and leadership roles (as well as much more money), escaping the difficulties of the classroom, one can improve one’s skills and monetary situation on the teacher track as well. As a professional, the mindful teacher acts like any other professional—doctor, lawyer, or CPA—and works to hone her craft, whether or not the state demands one do so.

Competency in Core Fields and Successful Classroom Management

My graduate training was in psychology, not history, but I have a background as a voracious reader of history. As a “backdoor history teacher” my preparation was good enough to pass the state board exams for social studies but not good enough to feel comfortable teaching most history classes. I continued my reading of history, state standards under one arm and a book under the other, selecting areas of history where I felt unprepared. Additionally, I researched and wrote lessons most nights for a couple of years.

After sufficient preparation, we teachers demonstrate competency in the core classes of our discipline. In social studies, for example, one must master modern world history and American history. I became more skilled in managing a classroom, however, by watching master teachers, reflecting how my classes were going, and setting out a goal on how I wanted my classroom to work. One teacher told me that I could have whatever type of class I wanted. What he meant was that teachers can have a quiet disciplined class or a more boisterous group—it is completely up to the wishes and skills of the teacher.

Specialized Training

Many states require high school teachers to earn a masters degree. If not, get one anyway when you can. A masters degree in history makes you more marketable than a masters degree in education, but they are both worthwhile. You are more likely to be hired by the school you want, and you will earn the most off your district’s salary schedule. If necessary, max out on the number of units you need after getting the masters degree. I make between $1,000 to $6,000 per year and after ten years $10,000 to $60,000 more than teachers with the same amount of experience, simply because I have taken more classes and earned an advanced degree.

What to do right now: Pursue your District’s enrichment opportunities and ask if the training can receive course credit. Often the answer is yes. Every teacher should max out on coursework needed to earn the most on the salary schedule.

Advanced Placement Courses

After one shows competency in the most critical aspects of teaching—competency in core fields and demonstrated skill in running a classroom—many teachers enjoy specializing with advanced placement (AP) course offerings. These courses demand a superior level of knowledge and greater skills in curriculum mapping and time management. Teachers instruct and build relationships with the most talented and motivated students in the school, who eagerly pursue college-level work. In addition to strengthening your teaching capabilities, these classes heighten school board interest in your teaching. Why? Parents love AP offerings, and they will encourage their children to take these classes in the future. “If you build it, they will come.”

When I started my current teaching position, my department offered one AP US History section. Now we have two sections of AP US History and also fill multiple sections in AP European History, AP Government, and AP Macro/Micro Economics. The school population remained stable throughout. Simply having the courses available manufactured their own demand for them.

Always On the Look Out

I am always on the look out for primary source documents worthy of including in lessons. Social Education, the official journal for The National Council for the Social Studies includes ready-made lessons using primary source documents. I also scour books, newspapers and magazines, both online and print editions. Most of us have certain areas of history that we really enjoy. For example, I have read many biographies on Theodore Roosevelt and when I start reading the next one, will mark pages with sticky tags, hoping to use quotes from these sections for my AP US History class.

Working on Lesson Plans

Those that prefer creating lessons in a more institutionalized setting have plenty of opportunities. I studied American history and wrote lesson plans for a three-year (Teaching American History) TAH grant. These lessons were shared with the group, edited after receiving feedback, and then uploaded to a website for all teachers. The government awards TAH grants throughout the United States, though I think you will have more luck finding one in a major metropolitan area.

Leadership Roles

A teacher doesn’t have to become an administrator to find leadership opportunities. Schools need committee chiefs. In the last few years my school administration has looked for teacher leaders for a technology committee, a number of Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation committees, student activities, Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), social studies, foreign language, English, physical education, math, science, and special education departments, and department fundraisers. Additionally, my state gives experienced teachers opportunities to mentor new teachers through the California Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) program. Other states have similar training programs.

Summing Up

Buffeted by societal changes and increased demands for performance but also benefiting from increasing availability of tools to analyze ones style and evaluate performance, teaching  has become a cutting-edge profession. Mindful teachers must examine the process, what is going on in the classroom as they teach, and the product, the data that proves that students are learning. I hope that you continue to reflect on your teaching--what works and doesn’t work—and make adjustments in that never-ending quest for excellence and learning.

Using Assessments in Teaching

Formative Assessment Validity

A trendy and popular movement in education, the professional learning community (PLC) may revolutionize teaching practices. In a nutshell, the movement professionalizes the practice of teaching by forcing teachers to rigorously analyze their practice by using a powerful tool--collaborative examination of assessment data. The data, properly collected and presented, shows how much teaching and learning value the teacher adds to a student, and, more importantly, the strengths and weaknesses of the teacher’s practice against specific state standards. Therefore, the teacher knows what she must do to improve and knows where to find assistance, by collaborating with another member of the department that has more success teaching that particular standard. After reading Nassim Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness, I am less confident in the power of comparing small samples of assessment data. When we compare larger, “normal” and therefore more randomly selected student samples, I feel more confident that the differences between teacher outcomes are statistically valid. Certainly, teaching technique must be analyzed somehow, and I am more comfortable examining the teacher’s method itself (which is what this writing is attempting to do) and less comfortable relying only on outcomes.

Looking closer at assessments, the linchpin of the PLC process, teachers have many different types of formative and cumulative at their disposal. If a department chooses to improve assessments for PLC work, the assessments must be common to the department at minimum, and later common to the entire district. In order, easiest to hardest to grade, teachers may use for their assessments multiple choice, fill-in, short answer or short essay questions. Longer essays force students to recall and not just identify the answer, and also compel students to critically analyze and synthesize data. Thus long essays may enjoy the highest validity of all assessments, but they are also the most difficult and time consuming to grade. By developing a detailed rubric and training teachers in using the rubric, teachers can work together to avoid reliability issues that usually mar grading across different assessors. Multiple choice tests require no rubric and the reliability between teachers is perfect—all teachers use the same key. However, since multiple choice tests often show ability to identify concepts rather than to work with them in any useful practical way, I have doubts about their validity in judging the “whole” student. I believe that the AP Board assesses students using both multiple choice and essays for good reason. As a one-time AP exam reader, I can vouch for the excellent rubrics and training readers received using those rubrics when grading essays. (See Figure  below for looking at the tradeoff between assessment validity and cross-teacher reliability.)

Reliability Versus Validity of Assessments

Validity of Assessment

High

                                                            D                     E

                                                                        C

                                                                                                B          A        

                                                                                   

 

Low                                                                 High

Cross-Teacher Reliability

A: multiple choice assessments

B: fill-in assessments

C: short answer assessments

D: essays without rubric

E: essays with rubric

Point E, the essays with rubric, combines the highest level of validity with a moderately high level of cross-teacher reliability. Unfortunately, essays take the longest to grade and since the department must create a rubric, demand much preparation time. Teachers consider time a precious resource as well as validity and reliability. (See figure below.) Multiple choice tests are popular since they are graded quicker than any other assessment—you just run them through the scantron machine, and if you are as quick as I, at 20 per minute.

Time Needed for Grading

Time Needed for

Preparation of Assessment                                  E

High

                                                A                                

                                                    B     

                                                            C

                                                                                    D                                

                                                                                   

Low                                                                 High

Time needed for grading assessment

A: multiple choice assessments

B: fill-in assessments

C: short answer assessments

D: essays without rubric

E: essays with rubric

However, multiple choice questions take a lot of time to compose. Teachers are not trained to create multiple wrong answers! The short answer test may offer a reasonable compromise between test creation and time to grade and take the least amount of time when both test composition and grading time are taken into account. Teachers may prefer one formative assessment over another based on both time constraints and the level of validity needed. After administering the assessment, teachers may chose to re-teach a lesson or make other adjustments to future lessons to increase student learning. Successful teachers, in the spirit of the PLC movement, work with their colleagues to find successful strategies for re-teaching.

Informal Formative Assessments

Teachers that include a formative assessment, and therefore check for understanding at some point in every lesson plan, will ensure that more students learn. These assessments can be created by the seat of one’s pants, without preparation, and are usually labeled as “informal” assessments. These may include a “ticket out of class;” asking a specific student the answer to a key concept, and then (if that fails) getting the student to partner up or asking everyone in the class; splitting the class arbitrarily in half and debating a controversial point; and engaging in games. My favorite three games, baseball, jeopardy, and flyswatter (matamoscas) can be created quickly when needed and are so enjoyable that the students ask to play them if there are a few minutes left in the period.

• Baseball (also mentioned above in my [students’] favorite things): allows students to pick a question that is easy or difficult. Students ask for a “single” (easiest), “double” (medium difficulty), “triple” (hard) or “home run” (very difficult). When a student gives a correct response to the question, she goes to one of the four “bases” I have set up around the room. If she gets the answer wrong, she, the batter, is “out” and her team continues with a new batter. If it’s the third out, the other team bats. Each team scores runs when hitters are batted in by others or home runs. Rules for baseball are only loosely enforced, always in a way that allows me to emphasize material they ought to know. Unprepared or lazy students may ask for a home run question to avoid showing the class how little they actually know. When that happens, reserve home run questions for high achieving students or make a miss of a home run question worth two outs. I recycle home run questions, using them for a “double” or “triple” question later since we have lost the novelty of the question, and another student may have looked up the answer to the question. I can play a few innings of baseball in fifteen minutes.
• Jeopardy: demands more teacher preparation than baseball. In my advanced classes I often assign students to come up with answers needed to run the game. These answers must be categorized by topic and by level of difficulty. Harder answers are worth more points. Try to run the game similar to the television show. The winning group can win a nominal prize such as a picture taken with a digital camera.
• Flyswatter (matamoscas): answers must be set up on the board before class, either by the teacher or by advanced students. Typically the composer creates 20 one- or two-word answers that match questions the teacher will give to the contestants. Two contestants compete. Each contestant has his back turned to the board (and the answers), turning towards the board, rolled up newspaper (or flyswatter) in hand. The first contestant that swats at the correct answer on the board wins that round and faces a new contestant. Both Jeopardy and flyswatter require mere identification of the answer. Teachers can compose questions that require higher order thinking, a la Bloom’s Taxonomy, for baseball.
• Interactive lecture: resembles a conversation on two levels. First, the teacher converses with herself, paraphrasing actual history. What might FDR have said to officials in the State Department right before meeting Stalin at Yalta? (Play it out.) What was Reagan’s conversation with Gorbachev as they tried to hammer out an arms control agreement? (Play it out.) Second, the teacher asks questions to students. Why did FDR need Soviet help at the end of WWII? How did Reagan get Gorbachev to go along on arms control? An interactive lecture presents material in a more entertaining fashion and checks immediately for understanding.

The informal formative assessments above and formal formative assessments fulfill two objectives: they show if the students learned the material and, since it’s usually necessary, gave an opportunity to review the material in an enjoyable way. Occasionally, I let students know that I will be using the same questions they encountered on an informal assessment on a formal assessment. Since the formal assessment counts for a grade, I have now increased interest in learning the material. What if only a few kids have not learned the material? Should the class be held back for the benefit of a few? Perhaps the top students need to work with the laggards. I prefer that slower learners get the benefit of some remedial opportunity built into the school structure, such as a study hall or mandatory tutoring opportunity. PLC writers have demonstrated how this can be done. (See figure.)

Remedial Opportunities when Students Don’t Learn

Informal formative assessment                                       Teacher reviews material         

Students learn

Students do not learn                            Remedial Opportunity

For this model to work, teachers need to have enough slack time in their curriculum mapping for a small amount of re-teaching time, but the greatest responsibility for re-teaching falls upon the system already in place such as a school day study hall.

Homework as Formative Assessment

I use homework primarily (though not exclusively) as a formative assessment—to find out what the kids do and do not know. Since I use homework as an instrument to determine where teaching should go instead of an opportunity to engage in new learning, I keep the assignments short and infrequent. I prefer the bulk of new learning to take place in class where I am available to help with understanding of concepts, vocabulary and writing technique. The education literature does not show a strong correlation between the amount of homework assigned and student performance, especially with at-risk students. Therefore, when I do assign homework I use it primarily to give me feedback and not as an opportunity to grade.

Summative Assessments

Summative assessments do not enable much learning to take place—since after the summative there is no second chance—but, ironically, these assessments are the ones that give both teachers and students headaches and ulcers. Final exams, standardized tests such as the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), CST in California (AKA the STAR test), ACT, SAT, and AP exams, and music auditions put both teacher and student under a microscope. These high stakes tests determine who graduates, who goes to a four-year school, and under NCLB, whether a school that receives federal funding can continue under its current leadership and teaching staff. Since the feds keep raising the bar, increasing numbers of schools have become low performing schools. If the government makes no changes to the process, in a few years all schools will be low performing schools, and, if they receive federal funding, will be subject to corrective action.

Summative assessments can be gut-wrenching experiences for both teacher and student, but we can also make these assessments interesting learning experiences. A final exam can contain an essay prompt that asks for synthesis—asking the student to retell or put facts together in a creative way, using critical thinking. Examples could include questions like the following.

• US History: Show parallels between the 1968 and 2008 Democratic Convention.
• Psychology: Evaluate this clinical vignette and write up this patient under Axes I and II.
• Describe how your membership in groups and your beliefs about the meaning of life have made you who you are.
• World History: Explain why the French and American Revolutions progressed differently.
• Economics: show both theoretically and practically why Keynesian economic policies will (or won’t) work and give historical examples from the crash of 2008 that back up your opinion.

How Teachers Benefit from Summative Assessments

By analyzing state testing results through the number crunching software of Data Director or by hand, teachers can examine the correlation of semester grades with the state test scores. When a teacher discovers a gross discrepancy, such as top test scores but a class grade of C, he needs to explore the reasons why. (See figure.)

Standardized Testing Results Versus Classroom Performance for the Individual Student

Standardized Testing Results
High	Quadrant I Ideal	Quadrant II Unmotivated but bright student or test results may have been altered. Classroom assessments may have little predictive validity.
Low	Quadrant III Student may have “bubbled” test, randomly picking answers or student may have cheated his way through the class. Schools must make standardized tests meaningful and important. Teachers must defend against cheating.	Quadrant IV Expected valid score. Schools must intervene to help low-achieving students learn.
Classroom Performance	High	Low

Teachers expect students to fall within quadrants I and IV. Gifted students usually do well on standardized tests and earn high marks in their classes. Poor students usually do poorly in both testing and grading. Problems arise when students fall into the other quadrants.

What to do right now: work with your department and come up with a plan to better the performance of students in quadrants II and III. Why does your quadrant II student refuse to work at his potential? How can I arrange my assessments to prevent the quadrant III student from cheating or how can I get her to take the standardized tests more seriously?

Teaching Activities to Use in a Pinch

Activities to use in a pinch

Not every school day goes well—students learning and the teacher enjoying herself. Some days have been and will be quite challenging. I’ve been threatened and laughed at by students, splattered by water balloons, chewed out by parents, and criticized by administrators. Even during these difficult and frustrating times, I found balance with a satisfying teaching moment or successful lesson. Typically, I would engage in a few of my (students’) favorite things.

• An informal assessment with “baseball”—I pick the kids and they pick the difficulty of the assessment question—a single, double, triple, or homerun. I run them around the class if they answer the question successfully.
• With dramatic passion, partaking in a read aloud of a passage of primary source text.
• A performance of a skit, created myself or purchased, on a historical topic.
• The bubble: three or four students discuss a difficult subject while the rest of the class watches.
• Students pairing-up to discuss or review a concept followed by a demanding Socratic seminar.
• Illustrating a concept with a cartoon, earning extra credit if the work is funny.
• Asking students to write a short (three-paragraph) story with the six vocabulary words we just learned
• Providing feedback on whether a concept was learned through students self-reporting, using a Likert (one to five) scale.
• Psychological demonstrations and experiments on memory, reinforcement and punishment, and perception.
• Assigning poster presentations or PowerPoint presentations on controversial history and economics topics and biographical anecdotes.
• Analyzing primary source documents such as political cartoons, photographs, short speeches, and editorials placed around the room.
• Bringing in technology—making a video commercial of a concept, “publishing” a biography in Facebook format, and doing web searches.

Some of these activities are teacher-centered and some are student-centered. They all engage both student and teacher and usually succeed. Teachers may compose these activities themselves, copy and adopt colleagues’ activities, discover and implement lesson plans from trade magazines such as Social Education and American Educator, find lessons on various internet sites, buy lessons from publishers, and create lessons through a summer group devoted to that purpose such as Teaching American History (TAH).

Too many teachers mindlessly use the textbook as their main teaching tool. I find three problems with this. First, the state standards and your department’s agreement on which ones are most critical and not the pages of the textbook should determine your curriculum. Second, many textbooks include topics that are not part of the state standards and do not include enough material on standards that may be more important. Third, students with poor literacy skills and those unable to steadily concentrate have trouble reading a dense textbook.

Teacher Models and Attitudes

Observational Learning

Teachers must manage the classroom by modeling the behavior they want to see imitated by their students. I learned many teacher techniques by sitting in the classroom for twenty years (kindergarten through 12^th grade, four years of college, two years of a masters program and one year of a credential program). I have observed teachers from the perspective of a student since the mid 1960s, and I have stolen from the best! Students will imitate teacher behaviors, especially if they perceive that those behaviors are noticed and rewarded by other powerful adults. When I go to work, I dress up as if I’m attending a corporate board meeting in San Francisco. In other words, I wear slacks and a tie four or five days a week, and if I attend a public event such as Back to School Night or a district board meeting I wear a suit. My outfit radiates professionalism, purposefulness, maturity, wealth, and ambition. Parents mistake me for an administrator or district official and ask me questions, because I look like I am in charge. Students notice this attention, deserved or not.

Would I teach better in jeans and a flannel shirt? My dress does not alter my teaching nor does it change my classroom technique one way or another. However, my outfit does generate more respect from both students and parents than if I wear jeans and a flannel shirt. I feel that as an uber-authority (in the students’ eyes) I will be subject to less acting out than the teacher in jeans and the flannel shirt. I will enjoy less disruptions and more successful lessons. I advise all high school teachers to dress up like business professionals unless they are preparing science labs, art projects, or physical education programs. Unfair as it is, a kid will construct a poor first impression of a teacher that looks like a grounds keeper. He will maintain that impression for a long time, saying to himself, “If he doesn’t have respect for his appearance and his profession, why should I?” I want a student’s, parent’s and administrator’s first impression and subsequent sentiments to be working for me, not against me. Psychologists state that visual clues are used more than other modalities. Abraham Lincoln bought a new suit so voters would not “judge the peanut by its shell.” You may be subject to some mocking by your teacher peers who dress like fast-food workers. Accept the teasing in good cheer. It’s still worth dressing up.

Similarly, I do not want to discount our power and prestige by belittling our remuneration. I tell students that this profession pays a middle class salary and allows me to stay on the same yearly cycle as my children, and unlike a lot of jobs, I really enjoy the work. I do not criticize the school board for remuneration issues while at work, nor should you. Save those conversations for your union meetings.

What to do right now: Dress for success and count your blessings. You get paid to work in the world of ideas and you get to help kids.

How the Best Teacher Models Perform

My own best teacher models, my astronomy professor father, music professors Gene Graves and Frank Sumares, and psychologist James Temple, were performers. I observed their techniques on how to attract and hold an audience. My dad used to throw chalk in the air and catch it behind his back. He showed slideshows of galactic cataclysms and metaphorically elucidated the expansion of the universe by pretending to be a raisin in a loaf of baking raisin bread. A teacher doesn’t have to be the center of attention, but that attention must be channeled somewhere in the classroom and not allowed to dissipate.

Physical Fitness and Teaching Success

Teachers who don’t direct attention to a class project must direct it to themselves and “work the crowd” like a musician, comedian or stumping politician. The more the teacher directs attention to himself, the more energy the teacher must expend, and therefore a teacher that uses this style often must get enough rest, proper nutrition and exercise. Many, if not most, successful people say their daily workouts are a key part of their success. George W. Bush ran on an Air Force One treadmill on his trips to Europe. Barack Obama loves his gym workouts, golf, and basketball. I recommend doing something vigorous every day, and I often exercise early (5AM) so I’ll be sharp for my 7:25 class. Ironically, many of my students, 17 years young, near the peak of their physical prowess, shuffle in as if they are being led to their execution. They didn’t get enough sleep, have breakfast, or enjoy a workout. If I get my workout finished early, the students (and staff) benefit from my alertness and tranquil mood. My equanimity cannot be disturbed by adolescent angst.

I found an unintended benefit of exercise early on in my teaching career--showmanship. I hold the attention of students that are more impressed by physical strength than mental acuity. I tell these kids that I can do more pushups than they can do. Then I do the pushups when the class needs a break. Students love this, whether they are athletic or not, and this intervention often leads to a breaking of barriers and increased respect from hard-to-motivate kids. See below.

Physical Fitness and Teaching Success

Out-of-shape teacher ------ less respect from “physical" students------teacher works harder-----teacher is more tired

Physically-fit teacher-----teacher is sharp and “on”------more respect from “physical” students-----teaching is more successful and fun

Looking Good and Having Fun, While Modeling Somewhat Conventional Attitudes

As you may have surmised, a teacher that dresses as I have suggested and exercises at 5AM exudes preparation and ambition, zest for life, drive and purposeness, and success. No bohemian attitudes radiate from my display. Radicalism and counterculture attitudes are not inherently shocking, but education stakeholders—colleagues, parents, administration, school board and students—tend to be fundamentally conservative when dealing with the young. After stakeholders digest your personal appearance and vivacity, they evaluate your attitudes and teaching philosophy. I base my attitudes toward teaching on a simple unarticulated mission statement borrowed from jazz writer Michael Zwerin (Close Enough for Jazz, Quartet Books, London): “You can’t beat fun.” Learning must be fun for the students, and teaching must be fun for you. When I visibly enjoy myself, acting in a friendly way, smiling, telling stories and jokes about the historical subject, acting, and giving demonstrations to explain something in a novel way, the students usually enjoy themselves too. Students, when they like what they do, work “in the zone” of efficient and deep learning, and the task becomes play rather than work. As I stated earlier, I want to encourage an internal, implicit enjoyment of learning and avoid an externally-based reward for learning which leads to education being looked at like work. (I get “paid” for it, so it must not be fun.) Thus I model enjoyment and excitement by learning publicly. When I have the time, I read along with the in-class reading, remarking to disruptive students that they should not interrupt my learning. In addition to getting a good laugh, this comment shows students that knowledge is inherently valuable. I do not read in order to better my grade, make more money, or impress anyone. I do it because it’s fun. What could be more powerful than modeling learning for learning’s sake in front of your students? Teaching and learning must be interesting and exciting. If it’s not, why bother? Neither you nor the kids are then getting anything out of the partnership, and the profession doesn’t pay enough to do it only for the money.

Classroom Management Issues

Classroom Management Issues—Day to Day Tenor of the Room

I keep classroom management issues, or, more precisely, the tenor or activity level of the room, constantly in awareness. Are the students excited, absorbed, interested, and enjoying learning? We all hope so. Sometimes, however, teachers work with distracted, bored, and angry students. Teachers must deliver a lesson plan while maintaining awareness about how their students seem to be feeling.

The tenor of the room guides the teacher in selecting how to deliver the lesson plan. For example, I do not ask students to read a textbook if they are sleepy or bored. A group activity or discussion could wake them up. Then, after they have come around, assign the reading. I reserve some room for improvisation in planning and delivering each lesson, because I cannot predict tomorrow’s mood. When I judge correctly, matching the type of lesson (reading, activity, group work, lecture, etc.) with the mood of the students, the lesson goes over well. When I don’t judge the classroom disposition correctly, or, more likely, become so enthralled with a lesson that I don’t pay attention to the student’s mood, I end up working harder to keep everyone engaged and focused.

What to do right now:

If students are:

• Bored or sleepy, try a group or partnering activity.
• Feeling exhausted and overworked, try a skit or a funny story that relates to the lesson. The lesson may also need to be broken down into smaller chunks. Or send the kids to the computer lab with a webquest created for your current unit.
• Overly excited and scattered, try a short lecture or a read aloud. Follow that with a silent reading assignment.
• Distracted, try to refocus students using music or art.

Group work or partnering, assignments using technology, drama or storytelling add interest and excitement to the classroom. Lectures, read alouds, music and art calm down and focus students. Reading a textbook, if set up correctly with introductions to the material, also calms students down. Do you want to energize or calm and focus the kids? In my student teaching I was often overly ambitious. These students could handle an hour-long lecture on the British Civil War I thought. These were the best students in the school, bound for the top universities in California. Their vapid stares by the end of class and poor performance on a subsequent exam proved that I was wrong. I made two mistakes—lecturing for too long and not breaking the material down into smaller pieces. Similarly, teachers often respond to the pressure of high stakes state testing and copious state standards by talking too much and jamming too much material in a lesson. The results—glassy-eyed students and ghastly test scores—confirm that teaching less achieves more. Students learn and retain more when the curriculum is delivered in a variety of ways and broken down into smaller chunks. If there is extra time in the lesson, check for understanding and re-teach as necessary. In other words, pursue depth of learning over breadth of learning. If you and your department have skillfully mapped out the curriculum beforehand, covering the requisite breadth will probably take care of itself.

Classroom Management Issues—General Overall Environment

Looking at classroom management issues more globally, independent of the day-to-day moods of the students, teachers can plan an environment based on their personality and instructing style. Teachers must find a general approach to running the high school classroom that sets limits, yet feels caring and warm to both teacher and student. See Figure I, Teacher Personality Versus Amount of Structure, below.

Figure I

Teacher Personality Versus Amount of Structure

                                    Teacher Personality

                                    Warm and Empathic

                                               

           

Amount of Structure                             A

Low                                                                                                                             High

Cold and Uncaring

Figure I borrows from the ideas of systems theory. The X (horizontal) axis is the amount of classroom structure, especially rules and procedures. The Y (vertical) axis stands for teacher personality characteristics. Point A is Spinrad’s ideal management style for the middle class high school classroom. The Y axis, warmth and empathy can be observed by how often the teacher smiles, jokes with students, asks about their family, friends and extracurricular activities, self-discloses, responds to student questions, comments on problems (in and out of the classroom), clowns and acts in a self-depreciating manner, goes off topic to attend to a “teaching moment,” creates class jokes, signs yearbooks, performs in rallies, writes and uses music and drama (and other emotion-based devices), and lastly, visibly enjoys teaching the material and the interacting with students. Most teachers cannot exhibit an elevated amount of warmth for every class—it takes too much energy and few of us feel this loving day in and day out. The students would also object. Many adolescents prefer a more business-like tone from adults. However, I recommend that teachers consider working on the warm and empathetic side of the cold to warm continuum. If the classroom is mildly inviting, students will want to stay.

What to do right now: decide in advance how much and what you will self-disclose and how much privacy you want for yourself and family.

The X axis, the amount of classroom structure—rules and procedures—can be found in how the teacher arranges the room; writes, explains, and practices rules and procedures; and punishes infractions. Teenagers need and crave some structure, but too much dampens creativity and openness of ideas, turning the classroom into a bureaucratic labyrinth instead of a place for learning. Who wants to go to school at the DMV? So here too, I prefer to teach in the middle of the continuum, leaning slightly more towards structure, as shown in the placement of point A. Teachers can increase structure by modifying the layout of desks. Turning tables or desks toward each other decreases structure. Desks organized in rows, faced toward the teacher increases structure. Reviewing rules and procedures throughout the year and enforcing them increases structure. Routine tasks such as writing lecture notes on the board before class or always showing a PowerPoint at the start of class increases structure.

I desire enough structure so that the class is perceived as safe with the teacher in control. Students must know a few general rules and procedures and abide by them. That is all. Teachers have the power to add or subtract structure as they wish, based on the maturity of the students and the class interactions. Younger students or classes with a critical mass of rebellious or unruly students require more structure. Mature students that collaborate and find creative solutions need a teacher who will loosen structure and step out of the way. Thus I find it foolish to ask most 15-year-olds to brainstorm, since they cannot handle the freedom. Similarly, teachers perform a disservice when they keep well-behaved, gifted high school seniors away from disorderly but creative group projects.

Teachers may adjust the amount of classroom structure in the same class over the course of a year. Most teachers tend to relax structure and punitive sanctions over the course of the school year, starting the year on the strict side and loosening up later if the students can handle the freedom. Teachers must find the level that works for them and the students. I have seen classrooms with the strictness of San Quentin State Prison and others that remind me of the chaos of Grand Central Station at 5PM on a Friday. Since structure must change with differing circumstances, I don’t always find the proper level. During a chaotic outdoor event I asked some of my sophomores to move to a different spot. The art teacher told me to leave them alone—they were fine where they were. He was right—for his style of teaching.

What to do right now: The teacher can and must adjust the amount of structure to fit his or her style and fit the needs of adolescents. These students respond positively to firm limits and a feeling of safety in the classroom but also require enough freedom to encourage creativity and exchange of ideas.

Who to Call When the Limits are Tested

Adolescents will test the structure and limits set up by the teacher, since this is what youth do in modern American culture. How should an educator react? Teachers have not been trained as policemen, drill sergeants, or probation officers. Lacking preparation, beginning teachers and occasionally veterans throw the book (figuratively) at the offender, sending him or her to the office for relatively minor infractions. Sending a student to the assistant principal (AP) for chewing gum gives both the student and the AP the message that you, the teacher, cannot handle minor discipline issues on your own. No, instead, the teacher must handle all infractions except the most draconian. You were there, and the AP wasn’t, and you know the context of the infraction. Does this kid always act like this, did the incident serve as a challenge to your authority, and do you want to keep the power vested in you or give it away to an AP?

An AP must be brought in if a student threatens physical harm to self or others (and you may be required to warn the intended victim as well) and in incidents involving extreme defiance and controlled substances. District policy occasionally takes the discipline procedure out of the teacher’s hands, as in cases of plagiarism or vandalism. Sometimes a few kids take over a class, especially if the teacher is a powerless substitute, and then again the AP must be called. In most other cases, in a role similar to parenting, the teacher serves as lawmaker, judge, and executor of classroom discipline and must handle the problem herself.

Proper Discipline When the Limits are Tested

A good dishwasher uses the least amount of muscles, soap and water to get the job done. Using too much is costly, an inefficient use of resources, prematurely exhausting, and may even damage the Teflon pans. Similarly, using the least amount of punishment necessary to change a student’s behavior leads to a focused, successfully-paced lesson and maintains the effective mood in the classroom. Teachers also support the adolescents’ sense of justice when they see minor infractions followed with appropriately light punishments. Figure II, below, illustrates how different interventions affect the pace of instruction in the classroom.

 

Figure II

Interventions with Problem Behavior, Least to Most Interupting

A staring at the problem behavior or nonverbally asking the offending object to be put away

B joking about the problem behavior without looking at it

C walking over to where the problem behavior is occurring while continuing to teach

D asking the disrupting student an assessment question on the task at hand

E nonverbally asking for note, gum, cell phone, Ipod, etc. to be surrendered to teacher

F saying the student’s name in a barely loud enough voice for the student to hear it

G writing on the board or telling the class that every minute of disruption will be added to the time they must stay in class after the bell rings and following through OR writing on the board or telling the class that every name written down will get in-class detention writing Latin verb conjugations or an equally odious task

H shut down—standing silently and staring at the class, waiting for them to react

*I taking a student outside to discuss his/her behavior

J writing a referral during class and calling for a yard duty escort to send the offender to the office or calling an administrator to the classroom

K taking a student outside and calling the student’s guardian on a cell phone—the “nuclear bomb” intervention—very disruptive to class time and interrupting the pace of learning

*The class should be able to see but not hear the actual lecture. The teacher must use acting skills, appearing angry for the class but not sounding angry to the misbehaving student. Notice that the teacher avoids wherever possible public humiliation, since it works poorly with adolescents who so badly need to “save face” among their peers.

Positive Reinforcement

As one with a background in behaviorism may attest, reinforcing desired behaviors achieves more than punishing undesired actions. A reinforced student is a happy student and will repeat the reinforced behavior (by definition). Some teachers give out primary reinforcers such as candy. However, explicit (external) reinforcers may take the place of the more powerful and long-lasting implicit (internal) reinforcers. Teachers should give students an acknowledging smile and kind word for a job well done, but I do not think candy or overly effusive praise works well as a reinforcer. Will the student still perform if the reinforcement is not given? I find the best reinforcers include doing interesting work and receiving immediate feedback for that work. Both of these are implicit reinforcers. Grades work well as a reinforcer, and a teacher that gives frequent assessments, whether or not they are marked in the grade book, employs a powerful tool.

These reinforcers, work that is inherently interesting and performance feedback, also duplicate the behavioral contingencies students will encounter later in life outside the classroom. Few of us get paid every day, but most teachers get to learn something new and receive daily feedback on our performance. Reinforcers work better than punishment. Punishment doesn’t tell the student what TO do, only what NOT to do. Punishment produces side effects such as anger and sullenness and so should be used sparingly. Does the problem behavior require an intervention at all? Some bad behavior will go away if ignored for a minute.

When to Use Punishment Instead of Reinforcement

Punishment MUST be used occasionally, and the teacher that tries to survive on using only reinforcement in a class of unsocialized adolescents will have a harder time than the father trying to logically convince a two-year-old in the grocery store to stop throwing things off the shelf. Secondly, teachers must punish poor behavior occasionally or it loses its ability to serve as a deterrent. We do not have our students for an unlimited amount of time and cannot afford to waste any-- that ten-minute disruption may be 20 percent of the class time. Punishment works quickly and it works well in shutting down unwanted behavior. I have noticed three types of adolescent misbehavior in the classroom and have labeled them bravado, shutdown, and clowning. The teacher can determine which of these types is at hand by monitoring his own emotions.

Bravado

The student full of bravado uses loud profanity and boasts, also loudly, of fighting or sexual prowess, or substance abuse. The student wants to impress others with his toughness and show that he’s not afraid of this teacher or any rules. Other students will watch closely how you react, and if you do nothing this obnoxious behavior will spread to other students. When you have one or more of these students in a classroom, teaching feels a bit scary, like you are a warden in a prison. I rarely see this type of misbehavior if I have the student for a semester or more. Almost always, the student is in summer school or I am a temporary teacher, a short-term sub (or student teacher). Anecdotally I have noticed more bravado in mixed sex rather than single sex classrooms.

What to do right now: Resist the urge to publicly mock or confront these students, because they then feel forced not to lose face These kids often respond to adults that have relations with them. You don’t have that relationship. If you have time, find someone that does and you will have all the leverage over this student that you need. This might be a coach, another teacher, a parent, or the assistant principal. Until you find this person, stay calm and dignified and ask the student to quiet down. If he still doesn’t behave, write a referral and with little fanfare send him out of the classroom or to the office.

Shutdown

This student refuses to cooperate—won’t read, won’t do the writing assignment, and won’t participate in any form. Her mind is elsewhere, not on your class. Often the student will attempt to cheat if worried about her grade. When you have one or more of these students in a classroom, teaching feels tiring—the student is capturing all your energy.

What to do right now: Often the student is showing learned helplessness rather than purposely acting out, so a kind word may be the best intervention at first. If the student is not suffering but has decided to fail, get numerous respected adults to remind the student to get to work. These adults could include the student’s family, coaches, or other teachers the student likes. Thirdly, make a deal with the student: “You will pass if you do…” and keep your agreement. Lastly, perhaps this student and the rest of the class could benefit from a more engaging lesson or some partnering work. You can’t beat fun.

Clowning

This student wants attention and wants to stop working. He may become a hero in the eyes of his fellows by finding a way to allow everyone else to stop working too. He gestures, jokes, ridicules, belches, makes faces, and throws things behind the teacher’s back—in a summary steals the attention that should be on the assignment or the teacher. He turns serious and significant discussions or debates into a mockery. The teacher has great difficulty focusing the class. When you have one or more of these students in a classroom, teaching feels exasperating as your best efforts are deflected and you are unable to build up a head of steam. What to do right now: Try your best to stay on track by ignoring the offending student while exhorting the class to get back to work. In more extreme cases, send out the aberrant student or give him a special job to do around the classroom or on the critical class assignment.