3 Improvements, 3 Weeks In (I Think?)

What I think I'm doing better this year as a teacher—plus reasons why I might be...wrong?

I’m happy to report that it has been a good first three weeks to begin the school year.

I know there are many more weeks left in my thirteenth year of teaching, and that those weeks will certainly include swerves and bumps and valleys along the roller coaster that every school year uniquely and inevitably offers, yet I want to make sure to take a breath, look in the mirror, and remind myself one more time before moving forward: it has been a good first three weeks.

Before those inevitable swerves and valleys, though, I wanted to take a bit of time to reflect on why I think it is going so well across my classes so far this year.

And along with naming and explaining three classroom improvements in this weekend’s post that I’m fairly confident about nearly a month into the school year, I also want to make sure to acknowledge potential downsides for each of these shifts—a priority that stems from my reflection this past summer and one that I hope to continue including more often in these Broken Copier posts, even when I feel confident in what I am sharing.

Or perhaps, especially when I feel confident in what I am sharing.

Telling the full story about what works in the classroom means creating space to consider what might not be working, at least for some students, and this post is designed to be a more holistic, humble framing that I hope to continue going forward.

(And yes, feel free to let me know via comments if you find this format more helpful!)

So here we go: three ways I think I’ve improved so far this year as a teacher—along with three potential downsides for these shifts in my practice.

---

Improvement #1: Ending Lessons Intentionally

What this looks like: as I noted in my beginning-of-year goals, something I realized that I wanted to improve upon this year was consistently and intentionally protecting enough time at the end of each lesson to allow students to reflect on their learning. Along with creating a slide template I could consistently adapt from throughout the year, I knew this would mean creating and maintaining a system in our classroom of “closing with our takeaway”:

• Students re-read the essential question and then write “takeaway” at the end of their notes/activities in their spiral (and also highlight it to make it prominent)

• I either a) provide a prompt for everyone to close with (see above) or b) offer them a choice of several options aligned to our classroom core beliefs

• Everyone gets enough time to finish (instead of previous years, where I would often end up having them rush through our final tasks) and then we often close with a collaborative debrief over what they wrote

Reason behind this shift: I mean, I guess this is a bit obvious? It’s less-than-ideal teaching to fail to give students a chance to apply and/or reflect upon what they learned in a given lesson—and, despite feeling really proud of much of what was happening in our classroom in recent years, I too often missed the mark by not protecting space for this important closure.

Additionally, I feel like this is an empowering move for students by giving them a collection of their own writing samples and reflections they can return to in future lessons. A pedagogical belief of mine is that we too frequently undervalue students’ perceptions of their own learning—and even three weeks in I’m realizing this space could be a powerful tool to explore and, consequently, center how students see themselves in our classroom learning.

Potential Downside? To be frank: sustainability. While I believe in the importance of systems and consistency, I also know that variety matters, too—and maintaining a system through September is very different than December and February and April.

I also have to be open about the fact that I’m sort of pushing against twelve years of “teaching muscle memory” in trying to be disciplined about the pace of our lessons and essentially holding this end-of-lesson space as a non-negotiable.

---

Improvement #2: Interlocking Lessons

What this looks like: Building on the improvement of ending lessons with intentional writing tasks and reflections to capture student learning, I then have tried to create space at the beginning of subsequent lessons to return to those closings before we move onto a new skill or activity.

In the example pictured above, it shows the closing task for the fourth lesson of in my sophomore English class in which students had to identify a theme, support it with a key word or phrase from the poem, and then offer an explanation of how their selected evidence ties back to their thematic claim. The next lesson, then, I had sample responses around the room for them to evaluate using the same criteria I would have if it was a collected exit ticket—and this culminated with them turning back to their own response from the previous lesson to self-evaluate.

Only then did we begin our new materials and readings for the day.

Reason behind this shift: One of my main reminders-to-self in recents years is just how myriad the responsibilities are for high school students these days. Most have 7-8 courses to juggle at minimum, and then most have some sort of combination of work or extracurricular or family responsibility most evenings and more than a few weekends, too. Throw in our school district’s block schedule in which I only see my classes three times a week, and it is very hard to build momentum and continuity.

So I’ve decided to lean into this “interlocking” lesson design much more: beginning new lessons by moving backwards in our spiral notebook and readings, quite often, and re-reading and reflecting on where we ended the prior class meeting. In my eyes, it is not only about the value of returning to prior learning consistently but also the value of manifesting a bridge to connect one lesson to the other, tangibly and intentionally, as much as is possible.

Potential downside? Student absences. Amidst my well-documented concerns about rising absences in recent years, I definitely found myself gravitating instead towards more of an “a la carte” lesson design: new lesson, new focus.

If you were absent the previous one? You were still good to jump aboard.

With “interlocking” lessons, I am very aware that this is more challenging for a student returning from an absence, and I’m trying to stay cognizant to how this shift is experienced by students who are more frequently absent than their peers. While I’m confident thus far that this new shift towards interconnectedness is the best design for the bulk of the students in the room, I do not want to lose sight of potential obstacles it might present to students who have plenty of obstacles already.

---

Improvement #3: Slowing Down

What this looks like: Well, what it sounds like! From the pace at which we move through new content and skills to the actual wait time within lessons that I offer students to complete their discussions and written tasks, I’ve been reminding myself again and again and again to just slow down. In alignment with the two improvements already discussed with this post, I’ve adjusted my unit plans already multiple times to spend more time with our current text rather than move onto the next one—and that has meant, at least once, cutting another lesson/activity entirely.

This also has showed up with my own “teacher fidget tool” pictured above: a Spalding High-Bounce Ball that I have taken to carrying around the room, spinning and squeezing, to keep myself occupied while group conversations are humming or pencils are scribbling. If I’m being fully honest, within lessons I know that sometimes I move us forward too quickly as a teacher just because I’m not patient enough myself—so I’ve found a way to simultaneously pay tribute to perhaps my favorite television character of all-time while also tactfully distracting myself from the temptation to disrupt quality, ongoing student work time or discussion.

Win-win, right?

Reason behind this shift: Less can very much be more. Especially for students, who by the time they reach high school too often live their lives at a frantic pace—far too much that they are required to do, far too much that they are incentivized to skim through.

If I say that I value depth—and I do!—then I need to create the opportunity for them to arrive at that depth.

Which means slowing down. Thankfully, I have the trust and flexibility to do this in my current school, and to therefore be responsive to what students need, rather than having to adhere to some rigid curriculum mandate from above. With great power comes great responsibility, it has been said quite famously, and in my case that means the responsibility to tap the brakes a bit more this year. To great effect.

Potential Downside? Pace and coverage, it goes without saying, but also the acknowledgement that when you have 25-35 students in a room, there is never the “right pace” for everyone. When you give all students enough time that unavoidably means giving more than enough time for a decent handful, and finding a way to keep those students who are done ahead of others engaged and challenged can be difficult—especially early in the year before you’ve built a more reliable rapport with them.

Still, through check-in surveys and 1-on-1 conversations, I’ll try to supplement my own informal monitoring of the classroom to make sure those students feel supported and invested—and I’ll also remind myself that sometimes the best classroom for most may not be the best classroom for all.

And to give myself grace with that acknowledgment.

---

The Bigger Picture?

As I discussed on a podcast with Jim a couple weeks ago, my personal “win” from last school year of staying present in the classroom despite outside distractions has become my personal priority this year—and I don’t regret it for a second.

The students are good so the classroom is good, and I’m committed to never losing sight of that.

I want to add, though, that The Broken Copier continues to be good, too, especially due to all the generosity so many of you extend—the individual notes and messages of affirmation; the positive comments and podcast reviews; and the enthusiastic shares to get the word out to as many teachers as possible about what we’re trying to do here.

To have a community in the classroom already forming and a community here that continues to grow?

There’s a lot to be excited about and grateful for.