Long before I knew about the maker-movement, or taught classes with a regular hands-on approach, I tried out an idea I had gotten from the Internet. I used it in a more advanced group, in a grammar elective class where the focus had been passive modal verbs. After learning and practicing them, I wanted to give students what I thought would be a fun way to put these verbs to good use by making their own game and outlining the rules: The ball must be rolled into the goal; Only the sticks can be used.
This was during my early teaching years, and one thing I neglected to do was prepare students for the task by first asking them about games they knew and liked, activating schemata related to games, and motivating them towards the task. For me, designing games comes fairly naturally, but that is not the case for most students. Not only that, but doing it in a second language and collaborating with people from vastly different cultures is an enormous challenge. This doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile challenge--only one that needs proper building up to. But when students got stuck in the process, I remember saying something very unhelpful, which most likely ended up killing the whole thing. I said, "You need to be creative." Telling someone to be creative when they don't consider creativity to be their strong point (or even something necessary for learning English) is like telling them to be Spiderman--something you can't just flip a switch and do, and not necessarily something you even aspire to. (I've since put this same lesson idea to use in other situations with much more successful outcomes than this particular one.)
Over the years, I've learned some much better strategies for guiding and motivating students through a project, and a few months ago an episode of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast got me thinking again about how well-chosen words can not only a build better environment for learning but also help students discover their better selves. In the podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez suggests a quick overhaul of language used in the classroom, based on some influential books, Peter Johnston's Choice Words: How Language Affects Children's Learning, and Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish's How to Talk So Kids Can Learn. I haven't read these books, but I found some great wisdom from the tips Gonzalez offers, no doubt based on her own experience teaching. I'm going to summarize a few of the points she makes, and connect them to ELT and the maker movement.
Something I've learned, and something Gonzalez reminded me of, is that students--especially teenagers studying a foreign language--will hesitate to ask questions, not wanting to take the risk of looking weak in front of their peers. Rather than asking, "Do you have any questions?" (to which the answer, in my experience, is always a room of shaking heads), teachers can ask, "What questions do you have?" This signals that it is natural to have questions, and that they are expected. This is relevant whether teaching grammar or introducing a STEM challenge (or doing both at the same time!)
A lot of times young people, whose minds are racing in many different directions, will make a comment that's off topic. Gonzalez suggests honoring their comment and identifying the student as someone with unique thoughts by saying, "That's an interesting idea. I'll have to think about it sometime." For a question that might open up a can of worms or lead us down a rabbit trail at an inconvenient time, I might respond with, "That's a great question. Can I get back to you on that?" (And then I'll do my best to remember to bring it up again at the right time.)
This happened on the first day of class of this semester. I was trying to transition activities, and a student came up to me and asked me "which English" I thought was better. That's definitely a loaded discussion and not one to be had in a quick desk-side chat. After telling her it was a good question that I would come back to later, I led the class in the next activity, and later on, when we were setting some norms for the semester, I brought up her question, and we discussed it as a class. I asked the students who they thought the English language belonged to, and, we all concluded that it is a global language that belongs to everyone. It's easy to let our preoccupation with timing a lesson give the impression of being dismissive, but there are words we can use that let students know that their contributions are valued, and their questions are important.
While listening to Gonzalez describe a scenario with mixed results among groups collaborating on a project, I envisioned a not-so-smooth maker moment being addressed by the questions she suggested asking. Rather than criticizing the class and demanding better results next time, the questions were:
What problems did you have?
How did you solve them?
What will you do differently next time?
Besides being excellent questions to build agency in students, those are impactful questions to ask makers. Even if students are doing a low-stakes STEM challenge as part of a warm-up, asking questions like these allows them to reflect on their work and consider different possibilities. Just like assuming students will have questions, why not assume there will be struggles, and help develop a growth mindset that seeks to figure out solutions?
Here are some more questions for maker reflection suggested by Mitchel Resnick of MIT Media Lab and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group:
How did you come up with that idea? What motivated/inspired you?
What was most surprising to you?
And, if something goes wrong in the making process, What did you want it to do? Or, I might ask, What was your original plan? How did that change?
Teachers often think they need the answers, but asking authentic questions can help students reflect more deeply, learn to solve problems that arise and be agents of their own learning.
One more powerful tweak of language suggested by Gonzalez really caught my attention. The words we use can be instructions or authoritative directions, which are perfectly fine, or they can help shape a student's identity, allowing them to realize new capabilities and consider themselves in different roles. Giving the example of a student whose writing draft contained some mediocre dialogue, she suggests:
Instead of saying, "Your next step would be to revise some of the dialogue to make it more realistic."
Try saying: "I wonder if, as a writer, you are ready for some more advanced dialogue techniques."
I could replace this with so many things (of course, changing the challenge in the second clause accordingly):
as an English speaker
as a scientist
as an artist
as a builder
as a coder
as a team member
as a maker
Simple, well-chosen words can awaken students to different skills, talents, character traits, as well as give them the opportunity to see themselves in roles they had never imagined.
You won't catch me telling students to be creative nowadays. But I will do my best, mostly through words, to create a fertile ground for creativity--among other skills--to develop naturally.
What simple words and questions have transformed your environment? What words should students hear more often? I write this post with the intention of reminding myself of these things, and I welcome anyone's contribution to the discussion. What kind of language overhauls do you hope to implement into your own situation, in or outside the maker space or the classroom?
This was during my early teaching years, and one thing I neglected to do was prepare students for the task by first asking them about games they knew and liked, activating schemata related to games, and motivating them towards the task. For me, designing games comes fairly naturally, but that is not the case for most students. Not only that, but doing it in a second language and collaborating with people from vastly different cultures is an enormous challenge. This doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile challenge--only one that needs proper building up to. But when students got stuck in the process, I remember saying something very unhelpful, which most likely ended up killing the whole thing. I said, "You need to be creative." Telling someone to be creative when they don't consider creativity to be their strong point (or even something necessary for learning English) is like telling them to be Spiderman--something you can't just flip a switch and do, and not necessarily something you even aspire to. (I've since put this same lesson idea to use in other situations with much more successful outcomes than this particular one.)
Over the years, I've learned some much better strategies for guiding and motivating students through a project, and a few months ago an episode of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast got me thinking again about how well-chosen words can not only a build better environment for learning but also help students discover their better selves. In the podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez suggests a quick overhaul of language used in the classroom, based on some influential books, Peter Johnston's Choice Words: How Language Affects Children's Learning, and Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish's How to Talk So Kids Can Learn. I haven't read these books, but I found some great wisdom from the tips Gonzalez offers, no doubt based on her own experience teaching. I'm going to summarize a few of the points she makes, and connect them to ELT and the maker movement.
The environment we create
Something I've learned, and something Gonzalez reminded me of, is that students--especially teenagers studying a foreign language--will hesitate to ask questions, not wanting to take the risk of looking weak in front of their peers. Rather than asking, "Do you have any questions?" (to which the answer, in my experience, is always a room of shaking heads), teachers can ask, "What questions do you have?" This signals that it is natural to have questions, and that they are expected. This is relevant whether teaching grammar or introducing a STEM challenge (or doing both at the same time!)
A lot of times young people, whose minds are racing in many different directions, will make a comment that's off topic. Gonzalez suggests honoring their comment and identifying the student as someone with unique thoughts by saying, "That's an interesting idea. I'll have to think about it sometime." For a question that might open up a can of worms or lead us down a rabbit trail at an inconvenient time, I might respond with, "That's a great question. Can I get back to you on that?" (And then I'll do my best to remember to bring it up again at the right time.)
This happened on the first day of class of this semester. I was trying to transition activities, and a student came up to me and asked me "which English" I thought was better. That's definitely a loaded discussion and not one to be had in a quick desk-side chat. After telling her it was a good question that I would come back to later, I led the class in the next activity, and later on, when we were setting some norms for the semester, I brought up her question, and we discussed it as a class. I asked the students who they thought the English language belonged to, and, we all concluded that it is a global language that belongs to everyone. It's easy to let our preoccupation with timing a lesson give the impression of being dismissive, but there are words we can use that let students know that their contributions are valued, and their questions are important.
The makers we make
While listening to Gonzalez describe a scenario with mixed results among groups collaborating on a project, I envisioned a not-so-smooth maker moment being addressed by the questions she suggested asking. Rather than criticizing the class and demanding better results next time, the questions were:
What problems did you have?
How did you solve them?
What will you do differently next time?
Besides being excellent questions to build agency in students, those are impactful questions to ask makers. Even if students are doing a low-stakes STEM challenge as part of a warm-up, asking questions like these allows them to reflect on their work and consider different possibilities. Just like assuming students will have questions, why not assume there will be struggles, and help develop a growth mindset that seeks to figure out solutions?
Here are some more questions for maker reflection suggested by Mitchel Resnick of MIT Media Lab and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group:
How did you come up with that idea? What motivated/inspired you?
What was most surprising to you?
And, if something goes wrong in the making process, What did you want it to do? Or, I might ask, What was your original plan? How did that change?
Teachers often think they need the answers, but asking authentic questions can help students reflect more deeply, learn to solve problems that arise and be agents of their own learning.
One more powerful tweak of language suggested by Gonzalez really caught my attention. The words we use can be instructions or authoritative directions, which are perfectly fine, or they can help shape a student's identity, allowing them to realize new capabilities and consider themselves in different roles. Giving the example of a student whose writing draft contained some mediocre dialogue, she suggests:
Instead of saying, "Your next step would be to revise some of the dialogue to make it more realistic."
Try saying: "I wonder if, as a writer, you are ready for some more advanced dialogue techniques."
I could replace this with so many things (of course, changing the challenge in the second clause accordingly):
as an English speaker
as a scientist
as an artist
as a builder
as a coder
as a team member
as a maker
Simple, well-chosen words can awaken students to different skills, talents, character traits, as well as give them the opportunity to see themselves in roles they had never imagined.
You won't catch me telling students to be creative nowadays. But I will do my best, mostly through words, to create a fertile ground for creativity--among other skills--to develop naturally.
What simple words and questions have transformed your environment? What words should students hear more often? I write this post with the intention of reminding myself of these things, and I welcome anyone's contribution to the discussion. What kind of language overhauls do you hope to implement into your own situation, in or outside the maker space or the classroom?
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