Key Concepts Key Concepts♦ Great teachers have a plan and purpose for everything they do. They reflect on what did and did not work and adjust accordingly.
♦ Great teachers take responsibility for what happens and plan for success. Less effective teachers allow classroom events to happen randomly and then blame others when things do not work out well.
♦ Great teachers expect and plan for appropriate student behavior by ensuring that certain students do—or do not—work together. Great teachers pro actively anticipate student misbehavior and plan to eliminate it before it occurs.
♦ Great teachers intentionally arrange, rearrange, alter, and adjust the structures that frame their teaching. Their classroom setup, their instructional approaches, and their time management are all carefully planned to promote an optimal learning environment.
♦ Great teachers do not try to prove who is in charge of their classrooms; everyone already knows.
♦ Great teachers make decisions based on three simple factors: (1) What is the purpose? (2) Will this actually accomplish the purpose? (3) What will the best people think?
♦ Great teachers always treat students as if the students’ parents were in the room. They deal with students who disrupt learning, but they do it respectfully.
♦ Great teachers do not “teach to the middle.” Instead, they ensure that every student is engaged. They ask, “What will my best students think?” and teach all students accordingly, considering the best, most well-rounded students at the forefront when making decisions.
Discussion Questions1. What is the most important idea communicated in these two chapters? How would you implement this idea in your classroom? Are there any ideas in these chapters with which you disagree?
2. How do great teachers respond when classroom events do not occur as planned?
3. How do great teachers differ from ineffective teachers in preventing and dealing with student misbehavior?
4. What are three simple guidelines great teachers use in making decisions?
5. Why is it important to focus on the purpose, and not the reason, when making decisions?
6. Why should teachers avoid “teaching to the middle” of the class?
7. How do great teachers change the dynamics of a classroom without engaging in power struggles?
8. What do the best students expect teachers to do about student misbehavior?
Journal PromptThink of a teacher you know—or who taught you—in whose classroom events always seemed carefully planned. Was this teacher effective? Describe a teacher you had or know who always considers her very best students when making decisions regarding teaching and learning.
Group ActivitiesOn page 87 of the text, there is reference to a school whose principal ordered the bathroom stall doors removed in order to prevent students from writing on the stalls. Divide the participants into small groups and have them discuss the following questions: What was the purpose of this decision? Will this decision accomplish the goal? How will the best students feel as a result of this decision? What other steps could the principal have taken to eradicate the problem of graffiti on the bathroom walls, keeping in mind whether the proposed action will accomplish the purpose and what the best students will think of the plan? Have each group share their ideas with the whole group.
Ask participants to imagine that they are teaching at a school in which recent standardized assessments suggest that students are performing well below average in math. As a result, the principal has directed all teachers to assign more math homework daily. Accepting the assumption that all teachers must comply with this directive, ask participants to think about the best way to move forward, keeping in mind the purpose of raising test scores, whether or not more homework will accomplish the purpose, and what the best students will think. Next, have participants pair up with a colleague and share what they decided with each other. Have several pairs volunteer their insights to the entire study group.
On page 79 of the text, the book discusses at length the “structural” things that teachers can do to plan for success, such as grouping students together, using seating charts, and maintaining proximity control. Divide participants into groups of three to five and have them create a list of ten specific classroom occurrences that may result from a teacher’s failure to plan carefully for a successful lesson, situation, or behavior. Then have participants create a second list of ten classroom occurrences that may result when a teacher carefully plans for successful learning and behavior. Place these brainstorming lists on two pieces of chart paper labeled “Random” and “Plandom,” respectively. Have each group post their chart on a wall. One person from each group should present their lists to the whole group.
ApplicationChoose one concept from these two chapters that you find laudable as well as transferable to your own classroom and incorporate it into your daily professional life. Record your progress toward this goal in your journal over the next few weeks, noting specific occasions when you utilized this concept in your classroom. Arrange through your principal and a colleague you respect to observe in that colleague’s room for twenty minutes one day. Identify ways in which this colleague practices the tenets of “plandomness” over “randomness.” Write these down and share them at the next session.