25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them (30 page)

SCENARIO 14.10
Wait a Minute . . . or Two or Three

A teacher asked me a question and made me feel embarrassed because I didn’t know the answer. I felt stupid in front of the class.

Calling on students at random is a good behaviorist strategy for keeping students on their toes. When calling on students at random, teachers should observe a questioning etiquette that allows students to say “pass” and save face if they do not know the answer.

After teachers have observed an appropriate wait time for an answer from a student (Rowe, 1987), they can offer to come back to the student, or can ask if there is anyone else who would like to answer the question. Teachers also may rephrase the question to assist the student in understanding the question and thereby increase the odds that the student can respond correctly. Hints and clues may jog the student’s memory. To question students effectively, teachers must be willing to offer as much assistance as is reasonable.

SCENARIO 14.11
No Excuses . . . EVER!

When I was in seventh-grade orchestra, attendance at all concerts was mandatory, which I perfectly understood. However, at the spring concert, I had to get a ride from my friend’s parents because my dad worked swing shift and my mom didn’t drive. At my friend’s house, things were chaotic. Her mother couldn’t find film and batteries for the camera. As time got closer and closer to the concert time, I got more and more anxious. “Your mom knows the orchestra is first?” I asked my friend.

Her mom insisted we would not be late, but we were. When we got to the school, I ran to the band room, grabbed my violin out of the case, and ran down the hall. I opened the door to the gym just as the orchestra played the first note of our first song. I knew I couldn’t come running in and interrupt while they were playing. I burst into tears. The band members waiting to play next insisted the teacher would understand. “You don’t know Miss J.,” I bawled. “She said if we weren’t here we’d fail.”

When Miss J. came out in the hall, she looked like she could have killed me, even though I was still hiccupping from crying so hard. She said she’d talk to me about it the next day and that I could at least play in the finale. The next day she told me, “I realize that you were late for reasons beyond your control and you did play in the last song. So, in view of that I will not give you an F. You will get a C.”

I’d had an A up until that point. To this day, I don’t think I’ve forgiven her. As an adult, I wonder how she could punish a thirteen-year-old for something, knowing an adult had been to blame, not me. I had even brought a note from that parent explaining and apologizing. Fortunately, I still love to play the violin. (Amazing.)

The teacher was understandably angry with the student for being late to the concert. However, her reaction to a situation that was obviously out of the child’s control was extreme, punitive, and irrational. The student indicated that she brought a note confirming that it was the adult’s fault that she was late. The teacher obviously ignored this acknowledgment and remained steadfast in her resolve to punish the student.

In extenuating circumstances like this, effective teachers are flexible. They show empathy and understanding for what was obviously an agonizing situation for the child. The teacher’s intent was to have a mandatory policy that permitted no exceptions under any circumstances. Policies that are this rigid are bound to break somewhere. In this case, it broke the spirit of an innocent child. Teachers’ policies should not be like dry, brittle, rigid sticks but more like green branches that bend in a gracious bow of forgiveness and understanding in extenuating circumstances. The teacher let the student play in the finale and she should have stopped there. The child had been punished enough. Lowering her grade at this point was more of a punishment than an assessment. It is reasonable that teachers should communicate rules to students, should expect that the rules be followed, and should have appropriate consequences if they are not followed. Teachers also should communicate that each case will be judged by its own merits.

The teacher’s inflexibility about rules is reminiscent of Piaget’s (1965) concept of moral realism where children see rules as absolute with no consideration of intent. In a similar childlike manner, this teacher did not consider her student’s intentions.

SCENARIO 14.12
Competition Isn’t Always Good

I hated being “bawled out” by teachers. I hated being forced to participate in competitive sports at school. I wasn’t good at this and found it humiliating.

Students are often required to participate in competitive sports. Forced participation becomes a shame-based activity because students who are reluctant to participate are usually poor performers. They are uncomfortable about their ability to perform and about their teammates’ reaction to their performance. Reluctant students are usually the last to be chosen to be on a team. This agonizing form of rejection has long-lasting effects. It reinforces a child’s feeling of inadequacy.

Although teachers cannot eliminate competition in sports at school, they can minimize its adverse effects on students by recognizing their good qualities. Gardner (1993) proposes a theory of multiple intelligences that suggests that different students may be intelligent in different ways. Versatile teachers will showcase the poor performers’ talents in one of these areas. Behaviorists such as Skinner (1953) would argue that this student’s dislike of competitive sports may be attributed to classical or operant conditioning, where the student associates the negative feelings of humiliation with the sport and subsequently becomes conditioned to hate competitive sports.

SCENARIO 14.13
Keep Working, Rain, Shine, Sleet, or Divorce

When I was in the third grade Mrs. L. was my teacher. I lived in Massachusetts and my parents were getting a divorce so I was quite upset most of the time. Mrs. L. would always make me read when I had been or was crying. I could never understand why but now I do. I believe that she was trying to deter my thoughts to something else, but at the time I hated her for it and will never forget it.

This is an inappropriate strategy to expect some form of academic performance when children are visibly upset. This strategy may set children up for conduct problems or other inappropriate behavior. The children may either refuse to participate or, as in this case, be so anguished that they are scarred for life. This student was traumatized by this event, as evidenced by the strong emotional tone of the sentence, “I hated her and I’ll never forget it,” and underlining the sentence for emphasis. If children are
crying, teachers should talk to them privately to find out if there is something wrong. Without being intrusive, they should try to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on in each child’s life and home and try to be attuned to recognizable signs of distress.

Divorce is an extremely traumatic event for most children. Helping the child make the adjustment is a better strategy than distraction. In this case, offering a child an opportunity for distraction through participation is fine only if the child welcomes the opportunity.

SCENARIO 14.14
I’m Writing as Fast as I Can

In first grade, [my teacher] used to make us copy paragraphs from a projector. We had a limited amount of time to copy these paragraphs. I was so scared of her that my hands would perspire so much that they would stick to the paper. One day I did not finish in time so she hit my hands with a ruler at least two or three times. I do not ever remember not finishing in time again. This was very unfair. Some students do not write as fast as others. As you can see, I’m the only one still writing. Well, almost.

This punishment was only temporarily effective. The student wrote faster to avoid punishment but as soon as the threat of punishment diminished, the student resumed the slow writing and continues to write slowly to this day. The ominous persona presented by the teacher and the punishment made the student very anxious. The real question here is what is so important about rapid writing that it warrants high anxiety and physical punishment for the student. What is the objective of forcing a first-grade student to write rapidly when they may be hindered by limited manual dexterity at that age?

The effective teacher would allow ample time for students to complete the writing task. Of course teachers need to set limits on assignments, but they could give extra time to students who need it, especially first graders who are just learning to write. Timed writing could simply require only as much as the child is capable of copying within the time frame. This amount should increase as the exercise is repeated over time. Each student is different. Some students at this level need to work at a slower, more deliberate pace to form the letters correctly. A slow pace is certainly not a punishable offense. Teachers rarely hit students with rulers anymore, but any type of punishment for writing at a slow pace is inappropriate. A good teacher would create a nurturing, relaxed atmosphere that is conducive to learning. When I was in graduate school, I was a substitute for a first-grade teacher whose students had excellent penmanship. I was so impressed that all of the students had such good handwriting that I had to ask the kids how they became such good writers. They said, “Our teacher smiles at us and gives us a happy face when we write
good.” I talked to their teacher later and she agreed. She laughed as she explained that they hurry and line up for her to see their work. She thought it was important to smile at the children in addition to drawing a happy face. I agree with her: The proof is in the writing.