On a recent drive on a suburban street in upstate NY this sign caught my attention. I was very confused - should I be looking out for ducks crossing the road? turtles crossing the road? or is this what a turtle looks like?
It struck me that students who are learning our language may spend much of their school day confused about what we are telling them. For example, a few weeks ago I heard an Algebra teacher repeatedly saying "it's a piece of cake" as he walked students through their math equations. And I am guilty of often saying things like "aim higher" or "it's time to ratchet it down a notch."
My goal this week is to be explicit in my directions and verbal interactions with students. I hope to:
It struck me that students who are learning our language may spend much of their school day confused about what we are telling them. For example, a few weeks ago I heard an Algebra teacher repeatedly saying "it's a piece of cake" as he walked students through their math equations. And I am guilty of often saying things like "aim higher" or "it's time to ratchet it down a notch."
My goal this week is to be explicit in my directions and verbal interactions with students. I hope to:
- add visuals on the board to support my written directions
- catch myself using idioms and teach the meaning of these
- ask co-teachers to help me be explicit
- tell students my goal so that they can point out when my directions are unclear
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