I am very lucky in that I get to see a lot of lessons. In this series, I share the “most common actions” (MCAs) that I find myself asking teachers to take as part of my feedback. The series starts with the first MCA here.

Scenario:

Mr B’s students are writing paragraphs about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of energy source in terms of tackling climate change. As he circulates, Mr B notices that some students haven’t included data in their answers, so he reminds the class that they should be including data in their answers.

I think it’s reasonable to suspect that if students are paying attention to one thing, they are probably not going to be able to pay attention to another thing at the same time. To test this hypothesis, I quietly ask a few students what Mr B just said. They aren’t sure. I ask another student what Mr B said, and he says “use data.” I say “great,” and wait a few minutes, go back to the same student and see if they have included data in their subsequent writing, and note that they haven’t.

Teachers sometimes seem to want to fill the void with noise. In our case, Mr B is at least giving feedback based on what he has seen, but all too often teachers are just repeating instructions or saying things that are completely non-substantive (“this is a great way to prepare for our exams,” “think really hard about what you are writing,” “make sure to write as much as you can”), and I worry that it could just be a discomfort with the fact that there is quiet in a room.

One could argue, well, who cares – no harm done – but I think there are two reasons to hesitate on that front:

  1. When delivering feedback, the teacher is tricked into thinking students have heard it (getting them to hear it will be the next MCA)
  2. Adding noise to a quiet room is always a risky business. Noise begets noise, and one small noisy event can normalise noise and cause a student, thinking that noise is normal, to ask their neighbour for help. Another student follows suit and asks someone else for a pen, and then another and another and another and before you know it there’s noise in the room (“why is everybody talking??”)

It’s therefore prudent to take an approach that says “at best this achieves nothing, at worst it could be detrimental.”

Writing an Action Step in our particular case is tricky, because it’s really about not doing something, but I’d suggest an approach as below, following WHENWHYBY as normal:

When students are working quietly
Avoid disturbing them
By refraining from making non-essential group-level announcements

As above, in the next MCA, we will look at what to do when the group-level announcements are essential.

This is the second post in a new series called MCA, which stands for Most Common Actions. You can read more about the series here.

The strategies here are heavily influenced by ideas from Teach Like a Champion, Get Better Faster and my boss Thanos Gidaropoulos. Whilst I might not reference every individual thing, assume that if the idea makes sense it is because I got it from one of those sources, and if it doesn’t it’s because I made it up. I strongly advise all teachers to pick up a copy of Teach Like a Champion and all leaders a copy of Get Better Faster.

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, please subscribe to the blog by scrolling to the bottom of the home page.