The Myth of Laziness

Photo credit: https://www.hanksmedia.com/2012/11/16/students-become-lazy-before-the-break/

Those of us who live in New England have strong Puritan histories, whether we are protestant or even religious. Idleness was considered a severe character flaw and that idea as trickled down through the centuries to modern society and especially our schools. I'm in a professional book study reading Grading for Equity by Joe Feldmann. The upcoming discussion is on biases and how we need to make our grades bias-free. As I reflect on what I'm reading, I think a major bias that teachers have is the idea of student laziness. I've been doing research and executing my findings for the last 7 to 10 years on why and how students learn, and I've come to the conclusion that laziness is a myth.

Exhaustion exists, poor nutrition exists, mental health issues exist, weak executive function exists, low parent expectations exist, students inability to relate to a subject exists,  all which can present as laziness. Teachers use “laziness” as a scapegoat for why students are failing. Teachers tend to want to penalize students who they perceive as lazy, but laziness is a symptom, not a character flaw. 

Daniel Pink in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us attributes motivation to mastery over something that matters, relevance is necessary. If our students, especially our most low ability students, don't see the relevance of the content, they will not invest time in the work. To overcome this obstacle, we need to constantly tell students why they are learning the subject and content, especially if we can make it connect to a real world example. Identifying the objective and continually referring back it makes the lesson or unit relevant.  In the book Building Executive Function by Nancy Sulla the first item on her list of executive functions in Table1.1 is “attending to a person or activity” (2).

Photo source: https://www.middleweb.com/37017/executive-function-is-key-to-student-achievement/

Students with weak executive functions fail to follow through on assignments; teachers think that the reason they're not doing their work is because they are lazy, but in actuality they have an immature prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex does not fully developed until it's 25 years old, out teenagers have 7-10 more years of development. This is the reason that teenagers make poor decisions, i.e. playing video games versus doing homework. This is where teachers need to recognize weak executive function and intervene earlier rather than later. When a student hasn't done an assignment, the teacher needs to provide space and often the scaffolding for the assignment to be done. The worst scenario is that the teacher moves on expecting the student will be motivated by the zero they received to do the assignment on their own. It's not going to happen without intervention. According to David Sousa in How the Brain Learns, when a person is in a mental crisis, the first thing to go is executive functions. Think back to the early days of the pandemic, when we were first quarantined. Although we were working from home and most professionals still maintained the same schedule, no one could remember the day. Our working memory, was impaired because we were in crisis, guess where working memory functions in the brain-the prefrontal cortex. I've know several adults who have said they cannot focus enough the read while they were in crisis, now imagine trying to manage 6-7 different classes' expectation, assignments, all of which the require focus, organization, and persistence, the exact executive functions that students in crisis are lacking. When students are struggling with mental health issues their executive function is impaired. Students in that situation need compassion and empathy not anger and ridicule for perceived laziness. Several of the causes of sluggishness, which teachers attribute to laziness, are in the control of parents. Parents could make their kids go to bed earlier, requiring they get the 9-11 hours that teenagers need. They could ensure healthy food that build energy, unless they are low income and can’t afford expensive unprocessed food like fruits, vegetables, and protein. Or, they are so busy that speed of meal preparation is the highest priority. Finally, parents could instill in their children a value for learning. However, our students have little or no command over their parents' attitudes or actions, yet we blame the students for things that are primarily our of their control.

When teachers penalize students for their perceived laziness, with the only thing with in their power: the gradebook; they are punishing kids for things mostly out of their control: immature brains, inability to see relevancy of Shakespeare or Geometry, and for mediocre parenting. It’s those students who need education most. What if teachers checked their bias and reassessed their “lazy” students. What if student learning was the goal, no matter a student's circumstances. What if teachers asked, what actions, shifts, changes can I take to ensure this student learns? What if teachers said, I will not let this student fail because their conditions are not ideal.

Non-Cognitive Skills

Any class would be the ideal class with a group of expert learners who were purposeful, motivated, resourceful, knowledgeable, strategic, and goal directed (Ralebate 53).

                                                                         Phtoto credit:  college.library

A class full of students with this skill set would be fun to teach. In my mind’s eye I could see a bustling classroom where the teacher was actually at the side lines assessing the above skills, only stepping in when asked for clarification or to redirect the learning. Students would be on task and excited, but more importantly learning with everything they've got. Since reading Mindset by Carl Dweck I have been focusing on "strategy" with my own son, and it has been paying off. When he shares meta-cognitively how he resolved issues, problem solved, I smile...he is being strategic. More importantly I am hearing about this after the fact, he didn't run to get me to solve his problem, he worked it out on his own, additionally he uses the word "strategy" his description.

Photo credit: https://fromthegreennotebook.com/2013/09/24/leader-development-ends-ways-and-means/

A student was very upset recently and wanted to vent about two different teachers who had been rude to her. The teacher’s frustration had come out as rude. But I saw the situations very differently.

Scenario 1: the teach says "you guy are very lucky, look on the board; I have some extra credit for you this week." The student says, "oh great what is it?" The teacher, frustrated, says "I just said it was on the board." Student was very upset with the rude tone of the teacher. The teacher was frustrated with the student’s lack of "expert learner" skills. I would say that this same situation plays out every day in every classroom that has not explicitly communicated the expectations that students should be working to become "expert learners." This situation could have been a very different scene. First, teacher should have made these "expert student" skills clear at the beginning with examples and then been reinforcing these skills through the school year to the extent that the teacher should be monitoring and assessing these skills and then conferencing with students about their personal progress toward "expert learner" status. Then when this scenario arose, the teacher would merely say in a non-judge mental tone "what strategy might you employ to find the answer to your question." Students would be used to this kind of feedback. 

Scenario 2: the same student went to the Math class later and had a similar negative interaction. She had 5 questions about the homework. She asks her first question related to the homework, the frustrated teacher answers the question, but insinuates the question is a dumb question. The student is embarrassed and angry at the tone of teacher, and won’t ask her last four questions. In my mind it's the exact same situation. The teacher is assessing students "expert skills" but without having told the students what the expectation is for them. When the student didn't employ the "expert skills" like trying to find the answer on her own first, the teacher gets frustrated and makes her feel inferior, thus creating a hostile learning environment. Communicating with students your expectation of "expert skills, then providing examples, and finally assessing through conferences with students-personally- their progress (mastery oriented feedback) throughout the year,  will change the relationship between teacher and student, change the classroom climate, and improve student's "expert learner" skills. 

The Single Most Important Thing...

This post is part of an ongoing series about transforming student learning. See my earlier post "The Holy Grail" for background. 



The single most important activity you can do as a teacher is...

Conference with your students!  

Of all my research, this quote from Paul Tough in Helping Children Succeed struck me like a lightening bolt. 

"Those who intensely analyzed their [student] progress, spoke frankly, and in detail about their mistakes. Helping them see what they could have done differently. This careful close attention transferred to their lives as well as skills in school." (10)

Image Sources: https://hechingerreport.org/when-students-lead-parent-teacher-conferences/ 

Conferencing with students has a multitude of benefits. Recently I sent a follow-up email to staff about procedures. Two days later I see a teacher not following the procedure, so I gently reminded them of the procedure. The staff member seemed surprised that the procedure applied to them. Students do the same thing. If you do not speak to them directly they literally do not believe what you say to the group  applies to them.    Conferencing allows the student to know you are speaking to and about them. It's an opportunity to talk about their progress, and share strategies to help them improve learning. It lets them know that their academic learning is important to you. The demonstration of caring that occurs in a conference is vital in building those crucial student-teacher relationships. When student feel cared about, they do better in school. 

End each conference with this question 
"What can I do to help you be successful?" 
Those nine words are some of the most powerful you can say to a student. Those nine words convey you care, you value them and their opinion, and you as the teacher are in it with the them.

I suggested conferencing to a colleague whose class wasn't congealing...something was off.

Here is her reflection of conferencing with students... 

Conferencing with students was transformative. I conferenced with each student over multiple days at the end of class while others got started on their homework. I had given them a Quarter 1 reflection to complete in the days prior and used that as the basis of our discussion. As a result of the conferences, I realized I need to add a lesson about how to read for understanding. I was also able to share some study strategies with students who were struggling or not committing enough time to the subject. The greatest effect came with some of my quiet students who I had yet to really connect with, After the conferences, there was a tangible change in my connection with those students. I attribute the shift in that classes culture to the individual conferencing.  ~LL

My experience was similar. I was able to conference with every freshman about their progress on their research sometimes multiple times. I found them reluctant to actually conference, but afterwards I found them much more personable, more willing to approach me to ask for help. The conferencing helped them to see me as an ally, and a support. 

Focus Exclusively on Learning

I am a Carol Dweck: Mindset groupie, and have been for years. Much of my literature review last year referenced Carol Dweck's theory of mindset. If we want students to learn we have to stop referencing the numbers: IQ, grades, GPA, class rank, etc. These are external labels and motivators, which have proven ineffective in deeper, long lasting learning. External motivators like rewards for reading for example, are good at getting compliance, but not at producing readers. My goal as an educator is to not just teach content and skills, but teach students how to learn. I believe grades are arbitrary, and are based on compliance, not on learning, so I have stopped talking about "the numbers," and exclusively talk about proficiency in learning. 

 

Image source: https://www.xyleme.com/want-to-know-what-personalized-learning-looks-like-its-right-in-front-of-you/

I took the unit that I co-teach with the 9th grade social studies teachers, the research process & paper, and created a spreadsheet with the standards that I assess during this unit: internal citations, paraphrasing, and the works cited page. When I pitched it to the social studies teachers they added writing skills, thesis statement, and historic support to the standards based rubric. After adding the students names, I began recording not grades but level of proficiency for each student in each lesson beginning with a pre-assessment. The proficiency codes were

P = Proficient

PP = Partially Proficient

NP = Not Proficient

Then I asked the English teachers for the student grammar tests (a pre-assessment) and recorded that data. Next I recorded student’s first Lexile test scores. Even after only a few entries a picture of the which students needed extra support started to emerge. This standards based spreadsheet data becomes the basis for scheduling student conferences.

Image Source: Rachael Costello

I feel more effective this year, because I am proactive. Recognizing student weaknesses, and intervening early to get them back on the path to success.

I will continue to explore my professional journey in future blog posts.

The Holy Grail of Learning

I feel as though I have found the metaphorical "holy grail," "fountain of youth," or "The Secret" of student learning. 

 

Image source: https://www.slideshare.net/ILXGroup/mind-the-gap-learning-technologies-conference-2016-by-russell-kenrick 

As mentioned in a previous post, last year was spent doing research, first collecting student perspectives on how and why they learn, and then a literature review, based on the themes that arose from the student data. The outcome was four strategies to significantly improve learning.

1. Focus on learning exclusively
2. Conference with students
3. Integrate Non-cognitive Skills
4. Mentor

Employing these four strategies has made me overwhelmingly professionally satisfied. For the first time in my career, I know for a fact I am increasing student learning. I feel empowered, I hold the secret of student learning.

Future blog posts will delve into the details of my execution of each of these themes. 

Re-framing Failure

 I want to re-frame failure. Without knowing it, we as a society are stuck in an antiquated cognitive theory environment on learning that focuses on outcomes, like grades, SAT scores, and prestigious colleges. Ironically this focus on outcomes is actually making our kids less motivated to learn. Research by Dr. Carol Dweck is actually demonstrating our student's intelligence can increase merely by focusing kid's attention on the belief that intelligence can increase if we focus of the process. When students struggle in their learning, we shouldn't tell them the answer, or blame outside factors, or say well you are just bad at that subject. Instead we should show enthusiasm for the difficulty. This embracing of challenges is referred to as a "growth mindset." True learning cannot happen without errors or failure. So when a student struggles, this is an opportunity to strategize. 

The act of strategizing is the learning.

                                                       Image Source: http://webcobblers.com/services/consulting

Your brain is like a muscle, and like a muscle when you stretch it or flex it with weight, the muscle tears a little bit and new cells are built in new empty space. The brain actually gets bigger, heavier, and more efficient when it is exercised with difficult thinking tasks.

So the next time your children/students get frustrated, you need to get enthusiastic, and let them know this the opportunity for some deeper learning, brain growth and strengthening. Don't tell or show them how to do it, say let's brainstorm some strategies to get over this hump? What resources are available? What are your options?

                                                                                   Image Source: http://iconicontent.com/blog/money-enthusiasm

Eventually, strategizing will become their default setting, and cut you as the adult out of the process. That sounds scary, but ultimately that is our job as parents and teachers to get our children/students to be independent, problem solvers.

Resources for deeper learning...

Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn

Mindset: The Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

Teacher Evaluation is an Opportunity to Fuel Your Professional Curiosities and Passions.

My mindset shift around educator evaluation grew organically out of disappointment related to our ninth grade research paper. First, let me outline our research process. The ninth grade social studies teachers and I (school Librarian) co-teach the research process, and co-assess the research papers. We have done so for 10 years even through staff changes. The research assignment was created collaboratively, and we tweak it each year. I teach several lessons “How to Find and Use Databases and E-Book Resources,” “Paraphrasing: The Hardest Skill to Master in High School,” “21^st Century Search,” and to kick off research season, I do a two-day “Anti-Plagiarism” lesson. The social studies teachers reinforce these lessons in class, and students are given multiple days in the library to do research. I offer to edit any student’s rough draft if they give me at least three days before it is due. On the due date we have students peer edit with an editing sheet, and then they get two more days to make changes, and pass in the next draft for teachers to assess. After we edit, comment, and grade it, it’s returned to students and they are required to revise again for another grade.  We want them to really learn how to apply the skills we have taught, because this is the first of many research papers in their High School career.

 

Image Source: https://www.study-in.de/en/plan-your-studies/application_27435.php 

For the last three years I have been very frustrated with student’s research products. It began when several students asked me to edit their drafts, which I did, thoroughly. I commented on their history (I’m also a certified history teacher), grammar, spelling, flow, and I also corrected all internal citation and Works Cited Page errors. It’s my gift to students, I want them to learn the proper way to do research and have the best chance at getting a good grade on this  heavily weighted project. My frustration came after I did all this work to help these students and they did not make one correction, and in one case they turned-in their paper with all of my suggestions still showing. I was so upset. It felt they did not value my time to help them learn. In order to improve student papers, we added the peer-editing piece, and we stopped announcing they would have another opportunity to make changes after the teachers corrected the papers. The first drafts of their papers submitted to teachers did improve dramatically, but for the last two years the majority of students have not bothered to make the corrections or all the corrections to their final drafts, resulting in stagnated learning.

Graph created by Rachael Costello with data collected from student work

 I see this as part of a bigger and increasing problem of a lack of student perseverance and resiliency toward their learning.  We provide detailed corrections on their rough drafts, and invite students to get clarification, and yet as they pass in their final draft they say things like “I didn’t know what ‘ditto’ meant,” or I didn’t know what “It” (abbreviation for Italicize) meant.” Kids are given a metaphorical knee high wall and they cannot get over it.

Image source: http://mapio.net/pic/p-67347133/  

My exasperation led to me start thinking about how and why students learn. As the fall of 2016 arrived, requests for SMART Goals and Educator Evaluation forms, led to me to approach my evaluator (my assistant principal), about some of my out of the box thinking. I was in the middle of a two-year technology goal, but I felt like I was just going through the motions, “Just Doing Ed Eval” because it was required. I wasn’t inspired. My first evaluation meeting was to pitch the idea of using my library/classroom as a research lab. I wanted to do a Grounded Theory Research Study on how and why students learn. The first step would be to interview/survey students, then find themes from their responses, collate the themes, and do a literature review on topics for which I needed more information. I would then use the student’s data and the ideas from the literature review to create strategies that I would use in my classes to improve student learning. I explained that I expected it would take two-years, the first year would be the interviews/surveys, collating of themes, and the literature review. The second year would be the applying the strategies to improve student learning by executing experiments i.e. tweaking lessons, assessing student progress, recording success and failures along the way.  

When I stopped “Just Doing Ed Eval” because it was required, and started thinking about my classroom/library as a laboratory, and doing something I was passionate about; it changed my attitude toward the educator evaluation process. I am driving my principal and my assistant principal crazy talking about what I am learning, and how I want to apply that learning.  Our district spends a lot of time talking about student agency, choice and voice, but teachers need to be encouraged to exercise their own agency when it comes to teacher goals and evaluation.

Our educator goals should be something that is deeply personal, based in curiosity & passion, and the belief that as an individual teacher you can facilitate change if only within your classroom’s four walls.

This is the first of several posts about my professional journey.