Dialogue #2: Discussion, Lesson Structure, and Error-Focused Practice

For the evidence selection discussion, I thought that I had an idea of what I wanted the students to learn, but when they began to ask me questions I realized that I wasn’t comfortable with the material at all; I didn’t know how to explain it to them! During your lesson, you took the discussion in directions that I wouldn’t have thought of using explanations that I hadn’t thought about. I liked those explanations over my own but when I tried to implement them the way you did, I simply couldn’t. I felt myself mentally and physically tensing up. I was afraid; I didn’t want to fail the students.

Discussion may be one of the most difficult, but also most productive, skills that I’ve developed as an educator. 

I do think the base of success with discussion is an understanding of the material that is automatic – you have to know what you’re teaching so well that when you apply the skill, it’s almost instinct.  The trick is then HELPING the students perform the same skill – figuring out the particulate steps, how to ask questions that lead students to make those steps (not taking the steps for them, or carrying them on your back, but actually SHOWING them where to place their metaphorical feet and encouraging them to hop, even if they’re scared they’ll fall), and helping them up and putting them back on the path when they fall or make a wrong turn.  

Again, the trick is not just picking content you have mastery of, but examining your own process closely enough that you can take the mystery out of it.  You can fail at discussion in a number of ways.  One, you can fail because your own mastery isn’t up to the task – you don’t know what you’re doing well enough to explain it to someone else.  Two, you can fail because you can’t explain what has become an instinct for you; in effect, you perform a magic trick but can’t reveal to anyone HOW you did it.

In your case, you had the first problem, and I apologize again for putting you in that situation.  You’ll get better at guiding students through questions as you grow as an instructor and practice the process.  Part of it is looking at the skill from a student’s perspective: what steps will be too far apart for them, and require you to point out an in-between spot they can use to make the jump?  You won’t, of course, be able to predict every mis-step, so the other piece has to do with grading: use their scores to target their weaknesses, and don’t hesitate to tackle the same skill again and again from different directions, using different strategies, until you find a way that works for both YOU and THEM.

Finally, I want to re-emphasize that discussion and Socratic questioning are a strength of MINE, one I’ve developed over the past nine years and now can lean on in the classroom as an instinctive skill.  My failure as your mentor was in failing to:

1. Evaluate YOUR strengths and weaknesses with the skill in question (check your understanding so I could differentiate for your needs as a student);
2. Figure out some specific, concrete, step-by-step procedural directions I could give to help you practice that skill;
3. Monitor your progress, jumping in to help you make particularly difficult jumps when necessary and encouraging you when you needed it.

I suppose the big take-away for me is in approaching mentoring you in a more purposeful and procedural way; just because you’re an articulate, responsible, committed adult doesn’t mean I get to pretend you don’t need instruction!  The big lessons I’d like YOU to remember are:

1. You and I should work to be more structured in approaching planning;
2. Let’s try out a lot of strategies, so we can find what works for YOU;
3. Figure out what you’re excited to teach and skilled at doing, so you’ll be best able to help the kids learn how to be excited and build skill;
4. Don’t be hard on yourself – mastery comes from 10,000 hours of ERROR-FOCUSED practice, and you’ve only taught for less than 10! 

Enjoy the process, and don’t sweat the scrapes – they come with the territory.