Teacherscribe's Teaching Thought #39

Teaching Thought #39

The four Elements of peak moments for your classroom.

In The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, they explore how businesses and teachers can cater to the customer service experience so that your business or classes are filled with great experiences.  They examine ‘peak’ moments; their research has revealed that there are four elements inherent in peak moments. Element #2 – “Insight.”

INSIGHT - Remarkable moments re-wire our understanding of the world around us.  I call these “epiphany” moments. Or as Gru, from Despicable Me, would say, “Liiiiight bulb.”  This type of moment still occurs in class.  If you read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, you’ll have a moment of insight in your class.  But if you pair that with this fascinating read, “Body Ritual Among the Nacerima,” you’ll pair one epiphany moment with another, even more shocking.

So how can you offer “insight” to your students?  Don’t trust the text book. I think of it like this – Kristie and I just get home from Lowe’s.  We’ve just bought a new book shelf. This is not what a proud indoorsman like me wants to spend his weekend doing.  Once the box is open, all the pieces are organized, all the Styrofoam deposited (why does everything have to come with so much cardboard and Styrofoam?), and the instructions are found, I try to make sense of the instructions.  First I have to find the English section. Next, I have to try to make sense of the “instructional-jargon.” Finally, I have to match the pieces up and try to decipher the crappy little drawings. OR, I can just go to Lowe’s website and watch a video tutorial.  OR, odds are I can head to Youtube and watch someone else build the same bookshelf.

What one is more insightful?  Certainly not the textbook version!  Plus, kids will appreciate it. Just poll your kids in class.  They know when were relying on the formulaic textbook stuff that has nothing to do with the 30 kids in our classes!

How I try to build in the element of ‘insight’ is to simply let the stories/readings do the real work.  I just look for the moments where I can offer some ‘insight’ to rock my students’ worlds.

Some examples – the conclusion of “A Rose for Emily.”  Or, having students re-lot “A Rose for Emily” in chronological order.  Talk about insight! The final passage of “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Here I actually have one student mimic what the narrator is doing.  I have them – in front of the whole class, many of whom are Snapchatting the whole event – get down in ‘creeping’ stance. Their shoulder is fit right into the corner where the wall and floor meet.  Then I have them look back at me and utter the narrator’s final words “I’ve gotten out at last. You can’t put me back.” I play the role of John, her husband, who has just found the key to their room and entered in.  I take time to explain how the narrator’s teeth are bloodied from biting off a piece of the bed frame, maybe she even has splinters in her teeth. She must have a wild look on her face. Her clothes have the yellow smooches all over them.  The wallpaper is torn down and hanging all over. As a doctor and man of science who foolishly believed his wife was getting better, I can’t fathom what I’m seeing. I mean if I’m a doctor that is any good at all, the one person I should be able to save and cure is my wife.  Yet, here she is clearly insane. I argue to the class that thoughts like that must be surging through John’s mind before his rational mind shuts down and he collapses. And his wife continues to creep right over him.

Now if I stage this correctly, as I utter those words, the bell rings and the kids are rocked.

Once, as I had my students (Kade Nelson) in prime creeping position, I opened my door and stepped out . . . right into Laine Larson, our superintendent.  She was just stopping by to see what I was teaching that day.

The class was riveted.  I was a bit shocked as the lesson was a bit unconventional.  But, in hindsight, I couldn’t have asked for a better time for Laine to stop by.  The kids were fully engaged and gaining insight into the story that they never did by simply reading and discussing it.

Teaching Thought #40

The four Elements of peak moments for your classroom.

In The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, they explore how businesses and teachers can cater to the customer service experience so that your business or classes are filled with great experiences.  They examine ‘peak’ moments; their research has revealed that there are four elements inherent in peak moments. Element #3 – “Pride.”

PRIDE.  These moments catch us at our best.  Moments that involve pride take a lot of prep and building up to.  In other words, a goal has to be achieved. Seeing kids after a play, performance, or concert illustrates this well.  One thing I discovered about this was on the choir trip when I was visiting with Megan. She was talking to some sophomores who would be taking College Comp in the fall.  Megan talked about how much pride she took in her final paper, which she did a great job on. She said that when I tell kids that they have an 8-12 page paper due at the end of the course, she was horrified.  But the way the curriculum is structured, you start small and before you know it, you’re cranking out 4 page papers and then you’re cranking out a 6 page paper, so the last 8-12 page paper is do-able.

So how can you build “pride” in your students?  Make them aware of their own work and growth.

I saw how this was done first hand when I observed Coach Mumm’s strength training class a few years ago.  During class the kids were finding their maxes, or how much they could lift. They were then measuring how much they have grown over the quarter.  One student, who happened to be wheelchair bound, was doing pull ups. When he finished and collapsed into his chair, I thought he’d rest a bit, but, no.  As soon as his butt hit his wheelchair, he was wheeling over to Coach Mumm. Though he was breathing heavy from his feat, he couldn’t wait to tell Coach how many pull ups he had done.  The pride was all over his face.

I saw this too just last week on our way home from the choir trio to San Francisco.  Reese encouraged the seniors on our bus to come up and talk on the mic about their experiences.  Time and again, the students talked about how proud they were of their hardwork with Steve in the studio and how that all would pay off on their CD.

The keys to both of these prideful moments is to allow students to reflect on their hard work and accomplishments.  But if we’re chained to your curriculum, too often we just move on to what is next. And that doesn’t inspire anyone at all.  That just covers material. We want to craft amazing moments.