Talking Beats Writing
One night, I was having technological difficulties giving online feedback to a student who had submitted a rough draft of his paper electronically. Frustrated, I searched the Web and found other English teachers raving about using MP3 files for feedback. I downloaded the open-source audio recording program Audacity and recorded a five-minute audio file explaining where I saw errors in his draft and why the student should change them. The next class, the student came to my desk and remarked that he usually dreaded turning in drafts because the handwritten comments in the margins made him think he was a hopelessly poor writer. Listening to the audio file was the first time he felt that I was trying to help him improve instead of just telling him what he had done wrong. My tone of voice, he said, made him realize he could change the errors and submit a stronger paper.
—Gwendolyn Todd, secondary instructional resource teacher, Charles County Public Schools, Waldorf, Maryland
"But You Learned Something!"
I had a math student who felt she couldn't do math. On her first test, she got 55 percent. I told her I was proud of her. Her response was to scoff, "It's just a 50." I replied, "But you learned something!" After that, her attitude changed. She started trying, came to me for help, and got 80 percent on the next test. That change in perspective from "just a 50" to "you are learning" had a huge impact on her attitude and learning.
—Carey Lehner, math teacher, Carlton High School, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
Expectations Can Transform
"Without a doubt you have changed my whole life," his two-page handwritten letter began. "Everywhere I go, something you've said is always in the back of my mind, helping me get through situations. When you told me I shouldn't want to put my name on mediocre work, that's when I felt that I didn't need 'thief' anywhere near my name either."
Early that school year, after Tyler had submitted a slew of shoddy work, I had pointed out to him that his name is attached to everything he does. He revealed that he'd gotten into trouble for stealing. We spoke about character, and I told him I believed in him.
Tyler's letter altered how I taught. His feedback on my feedback made me realize that what I expected of my students made a difference that went beyond academics. My job is not just to show them how to find the right answers, but to inspire them to do the right thing. Good teachers inform; great teachers transform.
—Steve Schultz, English teacher, Fountain Valley High School, Fountain Valley, California
Jump-Start Those Questions
I had a student in my freshman prealgebra classroom who appeared to be painfully shy. He never asked a question and hardly ever seemed to understand what the class was doing. I told him that he could improve his grade by asking me at least one question every day—it didn't even have to be about math. The first day he asked me why the sky was blue and then asked whether that counted as his question. I reminded him that now he had asked me two questions. The day after that, he asked me something else. By the third day, he was asking questions about homework. Soon he was completely involved in class and asked lots of good questions about the content. He completed Algebra II Trig his senior year with a B average.
—Becky Stark, math teacher/department lead, Spokane Public Schools, Washington
Sometimes "You're So Smart" Is OK
The teenage girl who entered my room looked familiar. She asked, "Do you remember me?" Oh, how I wanted to say yes. I wanted to be that teacher who remembered every student, but I'm not. She didn't make me wait long. "I'm Anna." Then I remembered the freckle-faced little girl who had struggled to read but arrived with hope every day.
We hugged, and she began to describe how my words had changed her life. She reminded me that, as part of my reading conferences, I had shared something Anna did as a reader that was "so smart." (Marie Clay's books taught me that.) My goal had been to give specific feedback to encourage her to repeat some important strategies, but she had heard more than that—she had heard that she was smart! She added that no one ever had said she did something smart before. Anna told me that she had just been awarded a scholarship, and she felt she had to find me and tell me how my words had helped her to get there. That was pretty powerful feedback … for me.
—Tammy Brown, instructional coach, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Charlotte, North Carolina
If My Teacher Can Do It, So Can I
My 3rd graders were consistently unable to use oral and written feedback I'd provided to improve their work. I decided to model the process by inviting their feedback on my teaching. It was the first time any of them had an opportunity to grade their teacher. Initially hesitant, they soon understood they could be brutally honest. They took their time crafting responses and responding to a set of questions about how they learned and things we did in class that they did or did not enjoy.
The next day, I altered my lessons in response to their suggestions and explicitly told them what I had done. They looked shocked, not only that I had listened to them, but also that I had also followed through and changed my instruction accordingly. From that point on, they had a visual and emotional hook to inform the use of feedback I gave them.
—Wendi Pillars, ESL teacher, Virginia Cross Elementary School, Siler City, North Carolina
The Blossoming Leader
Last year I had the pleasure of working with a young man whose grades and test scores did not reflect his high verbal ability. Each morning when I arrived early, I would find him sitting at my classroom door, and I would invite him in. It took 15 invitations for him to start accepting. We would talk about his family, his goals, and his progress in school. Initially he feigned disinterest in all subjects and played the class clown. But when we discussed current events each day using the New York Times daily lesson plan, his love for his brother who was serving in Afghanistan overcame his act, and his comments about the war were insightful and well supported. I privately and publicly noted his exceptional comprehension of the complexity of the issues. From then on, he continued to comment on current events topics. By May, the other students looked up to him as one of the brightest students in the class.
I don't think that any one comment of mine led to his change. I think it was the respect I showed for him, his family, and his opinions that enabled him to blossom into the leader he was meant to be.
—Theresa Chavez, English teacher, Ironwood Ridge High School, Tucson, Arizona
Naming the Problem
Donald tried everything in his power to avoid doing his work. We discovered from his cumulative record that he had a reading-related learning disability. Believing that naming what was working against him would help him rise above his problems, I kept him after school so that I could privately explain his disability. I made it clear that he had abilities in many areas, and that together, we were going to strengthen his abilities so that he could read. He sat silently for a long time and then said, "Why didn't anyone ever tell me this before?" I had no answer.
Soon, he started working in class. The next year I saw him in the office. The principal said, "You remember your teacher?" "Yes," he said. "She's the one who taught me to read."
—Karen Haag, instructional coach, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Charlotte, North Carolina
A Student Gives Feedback
As a second-year special education teacher in 1970, I was trying to raise the bar with my primary resource class of students ranging in ages from 6 to 14. (Yes, times were different then.) I was telling students why they should use erasers instead of scribbling out unwanted numbers when performing basic math operations. I realized that my tone was possibly too emphatic when my 7-year-old student with Down syndrome began frantically waving her arm back and forth in front of her face. "JoAnn, what are you doing? " I asked. "I'm erasing you!" she replied. It was my learning experience that mattered that day.
—Pamela Lawrence, education coordinator, Valley Community Schools, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
You Never Know
Mike was a difficult 7th grader. He seldom did any work in math. He was disruptive. He never even brought a pencil to class. One day, as we started going over math homework, Mike told me that he had left his homework in his locker. I had heard that story before and I didn't believe it, but this time was different—after class, Mike caught me in the hall, crumpled homework in hand, a huge smile on his face. "See, I did it! My homework!" I was speechless. From that day on, Mike became one of my best students. He came to class with a positive attitude and worked hard. When I asked him why he had changed, he told me, "You always acted like you cared and liked me even when I didn't do my work, so I decided to try doing it and see what would happen."
From Mike, I learned to never give up on a student. You never know when your efforts will pay off.
—Cossondra George, special education teacher, Tahquamenon Area Schools, Newberry, Michigan
Refuse to Accept "I Can't"
I teach online, and many of my students give up when they encounter roadblocks. Several years ago, a student e-mailed me on day two of the course that she couldn't handle the material. She said everyone around her was right—she was too dumb for college, and she was quitting.
I picked up the phone and told the student with no sugarcoating that day two was too early to say she couldn't do it. If she wanted to prove everyone right, she could quit—or she could prove everyone wrong, stick it out, and ask for help when she needed it. She continued, was one of my best students that term, and went on to earn both a bachelor's and a master's degree.
How many of us can say that we did something that took 10 minutes and changed someone's life? Keeping that experience in mind empowers my teaching. I never know when I'll encounter the next student who will use my feedback to change his or her life.
—Teresa Marie Kelly, professor, Kaplan University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Timing Is Everything
As a college instructor, I was required to use six state-developed rubrics to grade a final project for one of my classes. I knew that adequately using each element of each rubric would take substantial time and that if this feedback came at the end of the class, it would not help students improve. So I decided to break up the project and back it into the course early on. Students did and redid that work until it was at standard—no exceptions.
In exit interviews I conducted, students had positive things to say about the process. In other classes that had similar projects due in the final two weeks, they felt rushed and stressed. I'm sure those other instructors put in hours grading each project, but the students had no structured opportunity to use the feedback to do better. I can just hear students saying, "If I'd known that, I would have done it!"
—Suzann Girtz, assistant professor, teacher education, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington
A Nudge in the Right Direction
He was a student who had much potential, but little direction. He'd blown off all of the college recruiters, and on the last day of high school he realized that he had no plans after graduation. I'd known him for 13 years and feared we had failed him. Fortunately, my experience as an army commander's wife and teacher helped me give this young man feedback about his strengths and weaknesses, and he decided to visit a military recruitment office. A year later he walked proudly into my office in his Marine uniform.
—Jacquelyn Drummer, gifted and talented coordinator, School District of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin
A Balanced Diet
In my upper elementary classroom, one student insisted on reading in only one genre—comics. I encouraged him to think about the different reasons for reading—for pleasure, to get information, to learn how to do something, or because we need to be able to discuss a topic with others intelligently. I think that what clicked for him, though, was when I compared our reading lives to our diet and exercise lives. Although we have our favorite types of food and drink, we still need other types of nourishment. By the end of the first semester, he had not only fulfilled his reading-across-the-genres assignment but was eagerly awaiting the second semester's reading list.
—Fallon Farokhi, teacher, Edith Bowen Lab School, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Tough Love
When I was a dean of discipline at a junior high school, a 9th grader was brought to my office with her mother. She had started to get into drugs, and her previously good grades had slipped. It was essential to get her to seek help. Although I did not really have the authority to do so, I told her that I would not permit her to return to school until she had entered a rehab program. She fulfilled my "edict" and was able to come back to school. This move might have saved her from a tough time. Twenty-five years later, I still receive updates on Facebook, and she is working successfully in her own business.
—Ron Klemp, professor, Santa Monica College and California State University, Northridge
Tell Me About
We want to hear your stories! Future "Tell Me About" columns will feature readers' experiences with dealing with students who challenge us, teacher evaluation, and more. To see upcoming questions and contribute a response, go to www.ascd.org/tellmeabout.
