Timers, Trauma-Informed Teaching, and Tiny Steps

December is "the silly season," when kids get silly for two reasons: 1) excitement for the holiday break and 2) dread of the holiday break.

Our students who have experienced or continue to experience trauma often have a different set of feelings about the holidays. The break is often unpredictable, lacking the routines, resources, and other safety found in school. Students experience more stress and in anticipation of the break, they are more likely to show the 4 Fs of stress response: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn--the last term implying the student clings tightly to the teacher and is overly dependent upon that praise. 

On a recent Melissa and Lori Love Literacy podcast, Dr. Melissa Sadin spoke in praise of timers as a strategy to help students who are being extra dependent or needy. In the example, the hypothetical student, Doug, can't/won't start his assignment because he perceives that he NEEDS the teacher by his side. The teacher then deploys a timer, starting small (i.e. 2 minutes) and asks Doug to take a small step, like writing his name on the paper and reading the directions, promising to return when the 2 minutes is up to check in. When the 2 minutes is up, the teacher returns and praises the progress. This timely behavior-specific praise (another proven strategy) gives the student the reassurance they need in a small dosage, while allowing the teacher to work with others. Then the teacher asks Doug to take another step, and sets the timer for 2 more minutes. This chunked process builds trust, as it reassures the student that the teacher will come back. This helps develop student executive skills, and eventually, will allow more time to be planned between check-ins.

This "predictable positive attention" strategy (Minahan, 2014) to create safety and discourage students from seeking attention through less desirable behaviors is reinforced in the research, as shared in the 2019 ASCD article on Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies [Warning, clicking this link will cost you one of your free articles for the month! You can ask TLI for a PDF if you want to save up]:

During independent work time, if a teacher says to a student "Great work! I'll be back to check on you," the student has no way of predicting how long they need to wait—and from past experience they know that the teacher may forget to return altogether. Using predictable positive attention, however, the teacher can say, "I am going to check on you in 10 minutes," put a timer on the student's desk, and add, "Come tap me on the shoulder when the timer goes off." If the teacher has many students in the class that could benefit from this, she could transfer the strategy to small groups: "I will check on this desk group at X time."

Research shows that using timers, agendas, and other predictable structures helps all students. Not knowing what is coming next can put anyone on high alert, so providing visuals (as with slides or ClassroomScreen displays that allow for multiple timers) and previewing any changes to the normal routine can help.

As you navigate the middle of the year, think about how you might use timers to help structure your class and support individual students. Sharing in the comments and with your colleagues is a great holiday gift!

For more background on Trauma-Informed Practices, check out this Edutopia video:

Pass the Vocabulary

This week, in speaking about the importance of building knowledge and teaching vocabulary as part of the science of reading, we were reminded of a favorite activity of students and several GHS English teachers: the "pass the vocabulary" story. Here's how it works: 

1. Using a given word list, each student would take a blank piece of paper and write the first sentence(s) or a story using one of the words correctly. (TIP: Have students highlight or circle the word, to make it easy to know what was used!!)
2. After the given time (1 minute), they passed the paper to the next person.
3. The next person would write the next sentence(s) of the story, using a different vocabulary word.
4. The process of writing and passing would continue until time came for all the words to be used.
5. At the end, students would take their stories and join a small group, which would share the stories for peer review for meaning, revise, and then share out the "best" story from the group.

Students LOVED this activity, as the stories often got very silly by the end, and it was a great challenge. They also loved that they had a chance to discuss and revise the stories, as it rewarded their growth. And teachers, well they loved that students had to discuss, correct themselves, and collaborate in a low-prep activity that the students themselves helped evaluate. 

So, aside from being fun and easy, why is this valuable?

The science of reading makes it clear that pre-teaching vocabulary is important; students need to build knowledge, especially knowledge of words, to be more proficient readers. But this applies beyond students learning to read, and continues as students read to learn across the content areas.

Learning science also shows that memorizing a list of vocabulary words and their definitions for a quiz--especially a matching or multiple choice quiz--isn't a great indicator of how well students have learned words. Most often, students cram, storing these words in their short term memory, but not making the connections that encode them into their long term memories in ways that make the learning stick. Students, especially struggling students, need a dozen or more exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them.

Research suggests that these things help students with vocabulary building:

• Explicit instruction of words and their meanings increases the likelihood that young children will understand and remember the meanings of new words.
• Higher frequency of exposure to targeted vocabulary words will increase the likelihood that young children will understand and remember the meanings of new words and use them more frequently.
• Questioning and language engagement enhance students’ word knowledge. This can include retrieval practice, scaffolding from low-demand questions (i.e. meaning) to high-demand questions (i.e. how would you use...?)

Now, this means that students can't just start by writing stories. Teachers need to make time for explicit instruction, be it reviewing the words with students in context, or reviewing the roots or related words, or to support students in making Freyer Models or semantic maps/word webs. But beyond that, students need time to work with the words.

But what if I don't want my students writing stories.

Another group activity that was relatively low prep was a card sort. Have student groups make index cards (or cut out card sets) of the vocabulary words. Then, have students organize them into 3-4 categories. This could be categories you provide, or categories the students create. They then have to explain why the words belong together, and how they relate.

Here are some other ideas:

1. Pass the Parcel: Review vocabulary in whole group or small group with a game-like atmosphere with some bags full of vocabulary.
2. Paper Plate Match Game: Have small groups cut paper plates in half, and write the word on one half and on the other, write a definition, synonym, antonym, example, etc. (whatever serves your purpose). Then have them shuffle them up and find a match.

Want more? Check out these ideas from We are Teachers and Gifted Guru.

But What if It Works?

There are a lot of misconceptions about personalized learning, like that this means we need to make a plan for each student each day. In reality, personalized learning can often be accomplished when we find ways to give students voice and choice. 

But this is easier said than done.

As the district moves ahead with blended learning and student-centered instruction, we have heard many teachers express very real concerns about using models of instruction that call for more student agency and choice regarding the pace, topics, and methods of learning. 

• What if students don't do the work? 
• What if we have a technical glitch?
• What if they can't finish in time? 
• What if they lost their Chromebook charger?
• What if I don't get the time I spent making instructional videos back with less time reteaching in the classroom?

But also, what if it works?

In a recent Podcast (which you can access with the accompanying blog post at this link), John Spencer shares:

Whether it’s a Calculus teacher in Australia or a first grade teacher in Hong Kong, we all have a certain level of fear of letting go of control. I’ve written before about the fears I had in empowering students with voice and choice and I thought I would share these fears here again. What about the noise level? What about classroom management? What will the principal think? Will we actually cover all the standards? How will I assess the learning?
But, honestly, each of these fears was a subset of a larger question. What if it fails?
As a new teacher, I was so consumed by the question, “What if it fails?” that I never even asked, “What if it works?”

What does this mean for my classroom?

Whether you are trying a hands-on, inquiry/project-based approach to a topic or you are thinking about how to change up your classroom structure, keep in mind that there is power in TRYING. While every minute with our students is precious and we want class to be perfect, we can give ourselves grace as we grow.

Positive risks are necessary for personalization.

There are so many reasons to take positive risks and use "versioning" in our classrooms: 

• We model for our students that it is not only okay, but normal to try new things and accept some level of failing as part of the learning process. 
• We grow through the process, and we find better ways of "doing" the work of teaching that sustain teachers and meet the need of students.
• Great, unforeseen opportunities often arise from risk-taking.

So start with one project. See how things go. Share with students if you perceive things aren't going well, and have them help brainstorm solutions for version 2.0 of the assignment. For as Robyn Shulman shares in "10 Ways Educators Can Make Classrooms More Innovative":

By giving students real-world problems to tackle, fail and try again, we are telling students that their voices matter.