Final Summative Memo: Stories — Observations on How Not To Teach

What happened that impacted you and your teaching? What happened that has helped you become a more aware, humane, attentive, happier, critical teacher?

For my final summative memo I’d like to explore my negative observations about teaching and turn them on their heads to find the lessons.

As a Student of Cultural Studies

The Situation

In Chiapas, Sarah and I went on a tour of two pueblos, led by a guide who was an expert in the local culture. As it turned out, however, he was far from an expert in teaching. Here is one of many examples:

During a pause in his monologue to the group about an aspect of Maya religion, Sarah asked a question. Brusquely he replied: “Let me finish. I’ll get to that later.” It had been a “teachable moment,” but it had been lost. After several such reproaches our enthusiasm and our attention had dissolved; each time it felt like a slap in the face to have our interest rejected and our instruction only on his own terms. Had it been a large and unruly group I might have understood, but we were quiet, respectful adults with a deep fascination for indigenous culture.

Some Lessons Learned

Seize opportunities to expand on what you’re teaching. Follow the students’ interests as well as your own. Be flexible. Rearrange — or even cast away — your lesson plan when appropriate. When time or situation prevent that, at least honor the students’ queries and let them know how and when their questions will be addressed later. Furthermore, recognize that how you treat one student reverberates throughout the entire class. Finally, determine who are your students, and tailor your teaching accordingly; we were not a bunch of twelve-year-olds who needed crowd control.

As a Student of Spanish

The Situation

I had two Spanish language classes while in Mexico.

• A week in Oaxaca: In this small class (two people) the teacher was spirited, responsive, spontaneous, smart, encouraging, funny, interested in us and open about her own life. She varied her curriculum based on our preferences, while simultaneously moving us forward toward her own grammar goals. It was thoroughly positive.

• Two weeks in Pachuca: At the other end of the spectrum was the class in which Kim and I enrolled at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo. We had to take an evaluative test for proper placement. I tested into Level 3 and was pleased to find out that was the level being taught. So it took me by surprise to discover that the small class consisted of one person who didn’t know a single word of Spanish and four others who were advanced.

  It was a difficult situation for the teacher, but the way she handled it highlighted another aspect of how not to teach. Though the course was designed for intermediate speakers, she immediately started teaching to the high end, which was also the majority (despite its being a Level 3 class).  I was in the right place with the wrong group.

Within an hour I’d become discouraged. If she bothered to acknowledge my presence at all, it was only to single me out as the one who didn’t understand. (She taught the one newbie separately.) As the classes progressed, I began to lose interest, and was  frankly a bit angry that I’d paid money for one thing and gotten another. I dropped the class after ten days, when I’d walked and bussed through driving rain to get  to school, arriving literally drenched, only to find the teacher absent.

Other negative factors involved her teaching style. She worked directly from the textbook: in sequence, with no embellishment or enrichment. She also spoke and worked quickly, having us do exercises with inadequate explanation of directions (at least for me) and then failing to review the answers afterwards. When other students answered questions, I couldn’t hear. The teacher acted as though it were a conversation between the two of them, She didn’t ask the student to repeat the statement for our benefit, nor did she repeat it herself.

Lessons Learned

It is obvious what the first teacher did right: get to know and to care about your students and their learning goals. Enthusiasm, creativity and variety are key, and as a teacher you can have all those while still adhering to a curriculum.

The second teacher was in a difficult situation, I recognize. But I think it’s important to teach to the middle, even if the middle is in the minority — especially if the textbook and class description are designed for that level. Had I been the teacher, perhaps I could have given the advanced learners additional tasks more suited to their ability. And if I decided it wasn’t viable to teach to the middle, I would be sure that I had that middle “in tow” along the way: being inclusive, making sure instructions were clear and checking to see if lessons were being learned.

It is obvious to state the working directly from a textbook — no matter how wonderful the book — is ineffective, I expect that this teacher had a full curriculum with no time to prepare, and a hard-driving curriculum to maintain.  Sadly, that is counterproductive to learning, and it seems not to be an unusual situation. But students need time not just to be presented with new material, but to practice and produce it. In that environment (which was similar to my own) I would look for expansion opportunities, even if they were only thirty seconds here and there.

Interestingly, the teacher’s tendency to treat students’ answers as personal dialogs between her and the student is something that Elka pointed out in her evaluation of my own children’s class. Having experienced that sense of confusion from the students’ end, it is even clearer how important it is to make sure everyone can hear, and that everyone feels a part of a cohesive (not divided) group.

Finally, it’s important to get students’ contact information to inform them of any change of plan. And I think it’s wise to give them some way to contact me as well.

As a Teacher within a School System

The Situation

At ABC, the teaching methodology and philosophy run strongly against what I believe is effective. I saw few if any benefits to either of the textbooks I had to use. The one for adults was published in the early ‘90s and is significantly outdated topically and culturally. (It talked about MC Hammer, and drew him as a white guy.) However, I took advantage of this obsolescence and the inaccuracy to talk about contemporary culture. The children’s book was content-based rather than language-based, and at a level well beyond that of the students.

The prescribed methodology — which I had to infer since Magda was neither forthcoming nor consistent — appeared to be similar to that of the university where I briefly studied Spanish: stick to the book, use the audio tapes, don’t diverge, and race through the material as quickly as possible, regardless of student comprehension.

For example, Magdalena had told me that I had five class sessions in which to complete a unit: an unrealistic goal that I nonetheless tried to meet. Yet after three classes, she reprimanded for not having finished the children’s unit yet, saying she planned to test them the following class. I successfully fought for two extra hours of instruction first. Then I witnessed an unpleasant sight: the ABC testing process.

Like a rider with a whip, Magdalena raced through a test well beyond the children’s capability. She didn’t explain instructions clearly. I’d known that she has favorite students, and this became painfully apparent during the test. She gave almost no attention to the child whom she’d told me was “hopeless.” The test results in the auditory section were highly subjective and skewed in favor of the children she liked most. She’s setting up the students to fail.

Lessons Learned

In this case, most of the “lessons learned” are actually “lessons I learned a long time ago, during my own early education.”

• No student is destined for failure unless you assign him or her that role, in which case they will likely fulfill your expectations.

• A curriculum needs to be relevant, current and of interest to the students.

• A textbook needs to provide clear explanations, and the teacher should expand these as much — and as creatively — as the situation calls for.

• Learning can’t be rushed.
• Learning needs to be tailored as much as possible to each individual learning, addressing the gamut of learning styles and honoring the multiple intelligences of the students.

New to me was how critical it is to find a teaching situation that is compatible with one’s nature and one’s philosophy. It was also interesting to note how important it is that there is a sense of community among teachers. I had none; I was the outsider, and as an intern not respected. I contrast that with the experience of my peers at the university. One of the highlights of their teaching was their camaraderie with the other teachers, which enhanced their sense of happiness and what they learned from one another as teachers.

By bending some of the established rules — providing multiple modes of learning, expanding on content that confused students, developing creative and varied activities, planning well for contingencies — one can ameliorate the situation. But I learned that the culture of the educational institution and one’s peers are critical for effective teaching and personal satisfaction.