Explicit directions....

I have never been a blogger before, so you can begin to imagine that having no idea what to write about was a bit of struggle for me. As I sat back to think about why I was having such a hard time with it, I learned something about myself: I work best with concrete directions. When I am given an open ended task I think about it entirely too long, wondering what the best route to go in would be, wondering how it will turn out and if others will like it...You get the idea. All of this thinking about what to write led me to think about my students. How often do I ask them to do something they are not comfortable with? How explicit should I be? Well...after Friday afternoon's lesson on making connections, I've decided that when you are 7 years old being given explicit directions is of the utmost importance.

The lesson started with a familiar reread of The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. My student's had heard the story the previous day so I decided to use it again to model how someone would make connections using their schema as they read to help them comprehend a story and relate to the characters. I asked the students just to listen as I reread the story and shared my connections (I thought I was being explicit when I said "Just listen,"...apparently not). As I began to read and then pause to share my connections hands shot right up left and right to share their stories that related to mine and the one in the book. I think I repeated, "just listen" a good twenty times as I went through the book sharing my connections. When I was finished reading and sharing connections, I restated my learning objective, "When readers read, they can make connections between the text and themselves to help understand and relate to the story." All 18 faces were just staring at me as blank as could be. I decided to have them give it a try in writing to see if it would help (in hindsight I've realized that teaching something new on a Friday afternoon at 2:30 was not a great idea and would have saved me from repeating myself a million times).

All of the students ended up at their seat with their Learning Logs in front of them, facing the Smartboard as I guided them through making a T-chart where they could compare the text of David's New Friends (a story from the second grade reading curriculum) to their own lives. Just making the T-chart and adding a title and date to our entry took almost ten minutes even with me modeling on the board right in front of them (I'm thinking gluing in a graphic organizer for connections would have saved me and them some headaches). I then proceeded to share some illustrations from the story to spark their memory (we had been working on the story all week so they were all very familiar with it). Then, I asked them to think about something from the text that they could connect with....18 blank faces still staring up at me...except for the handful who were flinging erasers, kicking their neighbor and trying to hold 5 pencils in their hand at once. Eventually, at about 2:40 (20 minutes into the lesson) I decided I would model another connection. I wrote on the board that the main character, David, read a book to his sister that he didn't like which reminded me of reading books to my younger siblings that were no my favorites. I asked them each to try a connection after this. 90% of them ended up writing that David went to school and so did they. The other 10%...blank papers.

Needless to say, I ended the lesson there. We picked up and many had meltdowns that they didn't finish. In that moment I realized I am just like my students, I don't feel comfortable trying new things or taking risks when directions are unclear or new to me.

Lesson learned? Be very explicit with second graders, always, and NEVER, ever teach anything new on a Friday afternoon. :)