Class and Conduct

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As a newly minted emergency certified teacher in a self-contained room, I had to learn with great speed the important survival skill of praising and teaching with specificity.

Early on you might have heard me say something like, "Hey! Don't do that!".

Which begged the question, don't do what?

You may have also heard me say, "Good job!"

Which begs another question, what made it a good job?

After a year, I was sinking. Students were sinking. It was a social skill and academic skill morass.

After some terrific training - I learned that specificity of feedback was the hallmark of success.

What I was doing was telling my students to find the corner in the round room, and saying good job or don't do that when they couldn't find it.

Once I added some important language, sentence stems, and reflective questions - I increased the likelihood of them replicating good choices, and replacing poor choices with viable skills.

I had to scaffold and teach replacement skills for the poor behavior of my students. It simply wasn't enough to say don't do that. I had to name what it was they were doing and how it impacted their liberties. Then we had to work together, repetition/modeling/feedback, on replacing that behavior with a skill.

Likewise, when they made a terrific choice, I had to unpack that choice with acumen. Naming each thing they did, and reminding them about how that supported their liberties.

It was difficult, repetitive, and sometimes mind numbing work. However, watching them repeat good choices was far superior to them repeating damaging behaviors.

It surprises me that something so simple escapes us.

For example, we talk of equity, diversity, and inclusion as binary states of being - in the face of contextual clues that should lead us to seek understanding around the complexities of such bold endeavors.

If, as the activists preach, gender/sex are not binary, but fluid; how can racism be so concrete a construct?

Have we scaffolded and modeled replicable behaviors for equity and inclusion? For anti-racism?

Are we specific in unpacking exemplars of equity and inclusion? Do we coach, teach, and patiently measure progress in these areas? Do we praise with specificity? Do we listen and teach with specificity?

Or, are these vagaries - corners in the round room of life - that those in sapiential power laugh about when we simply can't find them?

Onward!

Dr. J

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