Some things my students aren't going to like this year

(But I'm going to do anyway... shh! Don't tell them!)

They’re going to have to read! A lot!

Every now and then I stumble across a headline/article that knocks me off my feet. This past semester, it was this one: “Stop Meeting Students Where They Are.” Among other things, Walt Hunter, a college English professor, suggests that we (teachers) do students a disservice when we meet them halfway, make compromises, let them get away with less than they’re capable of, etc.

The exigence of this article is, in large part, the shift toward SEL—social emotional learning—that many schools and classrooms have adopted in the past few years, especially since COVID. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with SEL: after all, we (teachers) should always have (at least a general) awareness of our students’ social and emotional situation, and we certainly shouldn’t do anything to worsen those situations in a malicious way. The problem, I think, is that SEL has at times taken up a central space in the classroom or curriculum at the expense of challenging work. In an effort to make sure all students are seen and heard, we (I’m including myself in the pronoun because I’ve done this) have gone too far in the direction of making school fun, safe, and entertaining to make sure that no student is ever upset.

I think this shift has created a vicious cycle where kids now expect to be entertained and catered to in the classroom. There is nothing wrong with occasional entertainment and student agency in the classroom—it’s totally possible to err in the other direction. But I will say that, for my part, I think the rigor in my classroom has slipped at times because I’ve wanted to appease students.

One of my goals for this year is to take a hard look at how I’m spending the minutes in my classroom, how I’m interacting with students, and ensuring that it’s all adding up to something good. Not that it’s making everybody happy in the moment—that might feel “good,” but it’s a fleeting diversion that doesn’t amount to much in the long run.

In this installment of Teaching Tuesday, I want to run down some things I’m going to hold myself accountable to this upcoming school year, things my students may not like, but I’m going to do them anyway because I know they’re worth it, if only in the long run.

Seating charts. I’ve gotten away from seating charts in the past few years for a few reasons. They’re a pain to enforce, they fall apart as absent students create vacant seats, and, frankly, kids hate them. Of course kids want to sit with their friends. And that’s not always a bad thing. But if the goal is learning as much as we can in the 50-odd minutes we have together, sitting with your best friend is not always going to achieve that outcome. I’m happy to report that, even without seating charts, my classrooms have run fairly smoothly with few outright disruptions, but I am certain that teacher-created seating arrangements have value. More than the academic piece, seating charts may have a massive SEL benefit: when students sit next to kids they don’t know, they have to introduce themselves, get to know each other, and maybe even form new friendships. Kids may say they want to sit next to their friends, but what they may not know is that they actually need to sit with the ones they don’t know yet.

Homework. I think there are good reasons for giving homework, and good reasons not to. For most of my career I have not given much homework, primarily because I know students have a variety of home-life situations, many of which do not leave much room for homework. I don’t plan to pile on much homework this year, but I don’t think I’m going to be as allergic to it. As much as I want to go bell-to-bell and fit all the learning in that way, it’s not always possible. Limiting myself to classroom time severely curtails the types of assignments I can have students complete. My tentative plan is to design assignments such that all students have the chance to get their work done in class, but not getting it done in class is not an excuse not to finish. The expectation will be that assignments are completed, with homework as an optional last resort.

Excellent work only. Speaking of completing assignments… it’s honestly impressive what some students consider “complete” work. In the past, I’ve accepted most work because, hey, at least they tried to get it done, and they cared enough to submit it. Not anymore. No more partial credit for lazy work. If an assignment is turned in and it doesn’t meet the standard for excellence, whatever that might be—word count, meeting criteria, etc.—I have no business grading it. This is the ultimate “meet students where they are”: accept the work, say they tried, and slap a grade on the assignment. I want to have the courage to tell a student this isn’t good enough and encourage them to try again.

“Boring” assignments. There are some assignments that kids famously hate. Answering questions after reading a text. Annotations. Any test or quiz. I guess these are seen as “boring” because there’s no immediate entertainment value or dopamine hit when you sit for a few minutes to think about a short story and then write down a few thoughts you have about it. But I have seen in my own life how valuable this processing work is. Philosopher Edmund Burke observed that “Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” When I reflect after I have read, I always gain a deeper understanding, and that understanding becomes more permanent and integrated into my life. I want my students to reflect much more on what they’ve consumed before we move on. The truth is that sometimes school is not entertaining. I will always do my best to make things engaging for students, but I make them no guarantees that they will be entertained. Boring is in the eye of the beholder.

There’s more that could be added to the list, but I’m going to cut myself off for now. At the end of the day, as much as it’s nice to be liked and appreciated, my job is not to make my students happy. I will always try to inject fun and energy into the classroom, but not at the expense of their long-term well-being. There is a time and a place for everything, including the stuff that will make them groan. It’s time I found more time for that stuff.