I'm struck by Zach's observations about behavior. Years ago, I was coerced into doing a "project" for our U.S. Constitution unit with a few other teachers. Students were supposed to create a poster demonstrating how a bill becomes a law. The students were sprawled out in the classroom, and into the "common area." I watched, mortified, as I saw students basically just copying the diagram of how a bill becomes a law onto large sheets of butcher paper. There was nothing about the assignment that suggested they should do otherwise. Some visiting administrators happened to walk through as they were doing this. I was rather mortified, but then I heard one of them exclaiming about how awesome this was--how engaged all the kids were. They were absolutely engaged: with each other. It was such mindless work, mostly coloring, that they were freed up to socialize. And the fact that we were doing this with kids in other social studies classes meant they had access to their friends who weren't in their class. And my weakest students had found a strategic spot in the hallway to goof off. I was shocked that these administrators didn't see that, even as they were taking photographs of it to post on the district's social media account.
But when I have a classroom of students, mostly in rows, listening to my instruction, then thoughtfully writing about it, that isn't admired because it looks so...I don't know, academic?? Not instagram-worthy?
Thanks for including the link to the webinar. I look forward to watching it. And Zach, I'm already a big fan. Looking forward to digging into more of your work.
I'm struck by Zach's observations about behavior. Years ago, I was coerced into doing a "project" for our U.S. Constitution unit with a few other teachers. Students were supposed to create a poster demonstrating how a bill becomes a law. The students were sprawled out in the classroom, and into the "common area." I watched, mortified, as I saw students basically just copying the diagram of how a bill becomes a law onto large sheets of butcher paper. There was nothing about the assignment that suggested they should do otherwise. Some visiting administrators happened to walk through as they were doing this. I was rather mortified, but then I heard one of them exclaiming about how awesome this was--how engaged all the kids were. They were absolutely engaged: with each other. It was such mindless work, mostly coloring, that they were freed up to socialize. And the fact that we were doing this with kids in other social studies classes meant they had access to their friends who weren't in their class. And my weakest students had found a strategic spot in the hallway to goof off. I was shocked that these administrators didn't see that, even as they were taking photographs of it to post on the district's social media account.
But when I have a classroom of students, mostly in rows, listening to my instruction, then thoughtfully writing about it, that isn't admired because it looks so...I don't know, academic?? Not instagram-worthy?
Thanks for including the link to the webinar. I look forward to watching it. And Zach, I'm already a big fan. Looking forward to digging into more of your work.
Insightful interview! Thanks for pointing me to Zach's book. Reading on my Kindle now. 👍
Fun fact, Zach wrote his book with the help of AI, by his own admission. So...maybe not a great source of information on explicit instruction.
Great interview. Hugely important message, particularly in light of today's NAEP scores.
Carol Jago