A Pulse Check, a Pivot, and a Crown
An example of how and why teachers can adjust pace and inject "fun" into their classroom
Sometimes, as teachers, we need to pivot.
Earlier this the week, several classes of students had seemed a bit, well, off—so we quickly went through a “pulse check” activity: I asked students to think of a number 1-5 about how they were doing overall (in class, outside of class, etc.) and then to share what they are willing to share about their number with their group members.
Following those quick discussions, I did a quick straw poll, offering the ability to opt out if they wanted:
“Anyone who is a 5, raise their hand. Okay, now anyone who is a 4…”
In only a few minutes, this gave me the ability to “check the pulse of the room,” so to speak, and to respond accordingly.
What I noticed this past week: whereas the norm for this activity is lots of 3’s and 4’s, this week the 4’s were almost entirely absent—and instead the majority were 2’s, with some 1’s sprinkled in. Pretty clearly, things weren’t going well for students.
Hence, the pivot.
Next Step: Re-Thinking the Next Lesson
Along with taking some steps to adjust the pacing sequence to meet students where they were (we moved the outside reading for our novel, Their Eyes Were God, to another day—meaning students had nothing to worry about between classes to add to their stress) the more important “revision,” in my mind, was to try and make the classroom space a bit more fun, if possible, in our final lesson of the week.
In my experience, the first few weeks in the school year are when a lot of teachers are doing a lot of things—as they should—to inject enthusiasm and energy into their classrooms. And that’s important! Creating a positive classroom culture is essential, especially in transitioning students from summer to a new school year.
However, once we get to the end of October and into November, too often these creative and collaborative activities fade from our rooms, and school becomes very much the “grind” that we as teachers also tend complain about. In “moving through the curriculum” as teachers, students end up moving through our classrooms much in the same way: without variety or flexibility, and with the same sense of meh, in their words.
So how do we interrupt that?
Here’s what we did, and how it went:
Along with slowing down the pace and building in some low-key collaborative activities that had students intentionally talking with each other throughout the lesson, both in their seats and standing, I decided to amp up the enthusiasm a bit more with a mid-lesson activity:
As we moved into a focus on foil characters, I wanted to re-engage students with the idea of juxtaposition from our first unit—but of course, with the very reliable way to add energy to any classroom: healthy, consequence free competition.
Students were given four minutes to come up with as many juxtapositions within the novel so far as they could as a group, and to heighten the mood I decided to quickly cue up intense music. The moment it turned on, students went through a variety of emotions: some smiles, some wide eyes, and some urging of group members to lock in to “win.”
Of course, I did nothing to alleviate this stressful joy, walking around the room and shouting out random time intervals—“3 minutes, 3.5 seconds remaining!” and “only 45.329 seconds remaining, now!”—while watching the lists expand while smiles and laughter continued.
This was the win we needed—but it was time for one more pivot within the pivot:
It was time to bring out the crown.
Winning the Crown
From time to time in our class, students have a chance to “wear the crown” (and yes, the octopus theme never stops, as I admitted in our latest podcast episode)—typically when going over the best sentences from writing samples. But this week was not a normal week, as I mentioned earlier, and it was time to add this final reward into the mix.
“Stop where you are at,” I yelled, turning off the music suddenly. “There has been a rule change! This is no longer about quantity, but now about quality. Choose your best and most innovative juxtaposition—and the winning group will wear the crown!”
A couple grumbles emerged from the groups who felt confident in their quantity, but competition won out and they locked back in to debate their lists—and then only a minute we began the royal procession:
The first group shared their “best” juxtaposition and, as the first group, automatically was awarded the crown, to the applause of their classmates.
Every group after that shared theirs, and then I would weigh—in my best “reality TV judge personality”—whether it deserved to wrest the crown from the previous group.
This continued group-by-group, with several forfeitures of the crown (all more peaceful than Game of Thrones, I assure you) with mourning from those who lost it and cheers for the new usurpers—until the cycle would complete itself again.
The final group’s verdict got a bit intense, admittedly, with one group holding hands with closed eyes awaiting their fate, I kid you not. And then loud applause when the ultimate crown winner was awarded (and out of the corner of my eye, at least one phone-policy being broken for a crown-wearing selfie to be taken right before the period ended *shrugs shoulders*).
The point, though, is this (I think):
One more slide of notes and then the bell rang, and we will see where they are at next week with another pulse check.
But it was a good day in our classroom, and sometimes I think we underrate just how much that matters by itself. For teachers, too.
So if I was going to reflect on the three things I am going to try and pin from this week’s sequence and pivoting, it would be the following:
Do what you can to get a read on where your students are—even if it’s just a quick pulse check
Then respond, prioritizing what your classroom community needs over what your curriculum sequencing needs. The former always matters more than the latter.
Finally, don’t be afraid to take a risk from your normal lesson structure and inject some fun and laughter into the classroom, especially at this time of year!
And when in doubt, just create a crown out of construction paper, turn on intense music, and see what happens.
Hope you’re doing well and that your November is off to a great start.
And for those who just subscribed, thanks so much! We’ve just crossed into triple-digit subscribers, and it is so exciting to have this new network to share ideas with—so please don’t hesitate to let us know if there are any topics you’d suggest, questions you have, or feedback about what we could do better with The Broken Copier.
Take care, and thanks for reading!
—Marcus