Teach the student, and teach the student well. A teacher who understands how to teach students well makes decisions in the classroom to implement “best practices” that maximize student learning and achievement. Differentiated instruction, learning through inquiry, multiple intelligences, integrated curriculum, cooperative learning . . . these are among the “buzz words” educators use to define effective methods of instruction that help ALL students experience success in school and ensure that they are learning well. Are these instructional strategies, then, the secret to effective teaching? Is a teacher’s presence in the classroom and willingness to adapt these methods and approaches enough to teach all students well?

If only teaching were this simple. If only teachers could open up a toolbox of tried-and-true methods and materials, and with the stroke of a crayon, the turning of a page in a Big Book, and the manipulation of a handful of Unifix cubes, sprinkled with a little bit of chalk dust . . . Like magic, all students are learning well.

As I have stepped into different teaching roles, I have learned from my experiences that there is more to the work of teaching and learning well than a little bit of magic. Teachers who teach students well know that standing in front of a group of students and delivering instruction that is aligned with best practices is not enough. It is important to teach the subject, but in my experience, it is even more important to teach the student. I believe that effective teaching and learning begin with a relationship.

Imagine a group of twenty-some students who enter the classroom, each with their own individual personalities, families, cultures, strengths, wishes, fears, and ways of expressing the core of who they are. Throughout the school year, an effective teacher finds ways to reach this inner core of each individual student, to find the answers to questions such as “What kind of books will really get John motivated to learn to read this year?” or “Why does Maria seem to “get it” one day, but seems totally lost on the next?” For the teacher, nurturing a positive relationship means asking the right questions, noticing the right moments of success, and caring enough about the relationship to take the time to connect with each student each day. Rather than create relationships based on power or control, I am a proponent of relationships based on mutual respect and genuine care for each person who walks into my classroom.

For students, positive relationships in school are crucial factors that contribute to their success. A study on ways to prevent adolescents from developing unhealthy behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse found that the two strongest protective factors were positive relationships with parents and teachers. “Positive relationships with teachers were more important than class size, amount of teacher training, classroom rules, and school policy” (Cummings, 2000). Meaningful learning does not happen in isolation; it occurs in the context of positive relationships, and these relationships were a central priority in my classroom. Because of a relationship, I was able to encourage a struggling reader to read a favorite book aloud to the class, comfort a student who missed his dad out at sea serving in the U.S. Navy, elicit a quiet student’s individual voice to shine in his writing, and help a student for whom math seemed impossible realize math is possible with an appropriate level of challenge. I can say that I know my students, and that I know my students well. I do this because it has a purpose: teaching and learning well begin with a relationship.

To teach the student well, I believe in teaching students to have courage. Learning is a high-risk endeavor. It takes courage to try something new that you can’t yet do, or to practice something you are not good at, especially when you are surrounded by others who may be more experienced or more developed in that skill or knowledge of that concept. If we always settle for what comes easily or naturally to us, then we will never grow, change, and develop in the ways that we can. “It is within schools that we can teach children to act in solidarity, teach children to have the courage to step away from the crowd if that crowd is hurting someone, and allow children opportunities to take risks and act courageously” (Sapon-Shevin, 1999).

In my classroom, a student with courage is a second grader with a reading disability who reads the first page of a beloved Statue of Liberty book aloud to the class. A student with courage is a third grader from Somalia who reads a poem about Harriet Tubman and has the courage to ask questions such as, “If I were born in the time of slavery, would they have made me be a slave, too?” A student with courage is a second grader who struggles with writing but writes in a poem, “The important thing about my bed is that it takes away my madness.“ When a classroom environment is created in which students are encouraged to be courageous, the work of real, authentic teaching and learning can begin.

Teachers who teach students well understand that teaching and learning require purposeful, deliberate thinking. As I teach, I constantly think about the question, “Who am I teaching to?” Just as skilled writers consider the audience for whom they write, effective teachers thoughtfully and purposefully consider the students they teach. When I plan, teach, and assess, I think about ways that I can engage as many students as possible, how to effectively scaffold learners and gradually release responsibility, and what a student’s performance shows about what the student has or has not yet learned.

Throughout the day, I constantly challenge students to THINK. You will often hear me say in the classroom, “Wow, that’s so smart. Tell us how you knew that!” or “Tell the person next to you why you think that, or how you solved that problem.” When students share their writing with the class or explain something they learned while reading, I almost invariably follow up with, “Tell us what you learned about yourself as a writer/reader today.” When I am teaching, I don’t settle for simple yes or no answers; I push students’ thinking and teach them to explain their thinking in all academic disciplines so that others can understand, and so that the student who is sharing can understand well.

I believe in these three core values – relationships, courage, and purposeful thinking – because I believe that they enable effective teaching and learning. The truth is that there is no one best way of teaching all students, there is no magic chalk dust, apple-adorned magic wand, or amazing technicolor sweater that allows one to hold tricks up the sleeve. At the end of the school day, the teacher who understands how to teach students well can ask: Did I build and nurture relationships? Did I enable students to be courageous in their learning? Did I help students to think about something in a meaningful, relevant way? These are the questions that essentially drive the teaching and learning that happen in my classroom, and I believe that the answers to these questions will determine if all students are truly learning, and learning well.

References

Cummings, Carol. (2000). Winning Strategies for Classroom Management. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Sapon-Shevin, Mara. (1999). Because We Can Change the World: A Practical Guide to Building Cooperative, Inclusive Classroom Communities. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.