"Watch me!"

"Watch me, Mom!  Watch me!" All summer long my children beg me to watch them perform some glorious act - dig a deep hole in the tiny sandbox, hold a handstand for 5 seconds, kick the soccer ball into the net, spin around and around until they can't stand anymore, and many other feats that innumerable children have done before successfully.  My children, though, want me to watch them.  They want to be seen and hear the "Good job!" accolade from their mom.

This reoccurring request from my own children makes me think about my students.  Teaching high school English, I encounter students who feel confident about their skills and seek my attention in similar ways as my seven and three year old kids do.  It delights me when a student asks, "Ms. Rocco, can you read this for me?"  Or when another presents an opposing viewpoint in class:  "Ms. Rocco, I think the green light represents hope, not jealousy, and here's why."  There are many other students, though, who tuck themselves inside themselves, crumpling low in their plastic chairs desperately averting any attention.  But I know they really do want to be seen too.

These shrinking students have had too many negative experiences with school.  Much of the attention they have received has been critical or unpleasant.  Often teachers think it is their job to identify the many skills students are doing wrong rather than focusing on what they are doing well.   Teachers will spend several minutes seeking every grammatical error in an essay, but allot little time to find what students are doing really well.  Many teachers still assess work with the intention of fixing the work rather than teaching the student.  This must change.   As educators, it is necessary to find what students do well and focus on utilizing these talents to build the skills with which they need more assistance.  Katherine Bomer talks about this in her wonderful text Hidden Gems (Heinemann 2010).  When teaching students, it is crucial to give them a sense of accomplishment, to find something in a piece of writing or an assignment or a class discussion and to tell them what they are doing well.

This praise, though, must be authentic and specific.  Teachers tend to write "Great job!" in margins, but they do not explain what made that paper or a particular sentence great.  We must name it, so kids know what it is they do well.  Thus, they will gain confidence, want to do more of it and (most importantly) feel better able to tackle a new skill.  As their teacher, I am better able to push students to try something new or practice with a struggling skill because the students know I believe they have many strengths.

Yes, it takes time to do this work...it takes lots and lots of time.  I needed to rework my lesson plans and incorporate time for conferences during class and for writing in class, so I could be there with them during the process rather than only collecting the product.  However, it used to take me hours to grade sets of essays and seek out every imperfection in the assignment.  I thought I was doing my job.  Now, I know it is my job to focus on what students do well, help them do more of it, do it in more sophisticated ways, and then teach them new skills.  When they insist "Watch me! Watch me!" I know I am doing my job.