Guerrilla Education: Teaching From the Trenches (Part 3&4)
There is something glorious about thinking logically. It’s fun because if A, then B. If B, then C. If C, then D, and way we go down the road. It’s glorious because if one knows that a person is starting off at A, then one can guess that they will eventually end up at Z because logic. I bring this up because when I read Gregory’s chapter on the third law of teacher, I didn’t know it at the time, but I connected the third and fourth law together in my mind and wrote about them together because they logically follow each other. Hence why this post is a day late. I wanted to think about doing one post or two on these two chapters. Because they are so related and it is easier on me, I have decided to go with simply one post on the two chapters and to more fully tie them together.
The title of this post comes from one of my favorite teachers in high school, Mrs. Frisk. Any time that she would mess up a saying or whatever, she would follow it with, “You mean what I know.” I have always enjoyed it, so I have adopted it with my students as well. The first time a new class hears it, they always sit and stare at me for a moment. I then have to explain it like I just did. It is all good fun. She is retired now, and it is fun to carry on a part of her in my teaching career.
While the saying is grammatical nonsense, it does communicate something to my students, but only after I have explained it. I have to build a bridge for them in order to understand. Once I do, they see that I am human and mess up my words, phrases, and saying just like the rest of humanity. It is a common thing and should not be a problem in conversation. It is merely a hiccup to the flow of thoughts.
So far, Gregory have established what a teacher’s and student’s role in education. The next law is meant to span the gap between them. The Law of Language is “The language used in teaching must be common to teacher and learner” (68). The law after this one is the Law of the Lesson and that is “The truth to be taught must be learned through truth already known” (84). While both of these should be obvious, it is actually difficult to follow, especially when one is trying to push the students.
The relationship between teacher and student is one of knowledge exchange. The way this happens should not be in standalone information nuggets like throwing boards in the air and hoping for a house to be built. Rather, information should be passed in a logical way, starting from the basic foundation and building up to the roof. There should be a logical progression in what you are doing.
A great example of this is Mathematics. I have taught 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, Pre-Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus over the years. I’ve gone through the gauntlet and lived to tell the tale of it. One of my favorite things to do for younger grades is to write long equations on the board from my older classes to show them what they will be doing when they grow up, or I’ll briefly explain factorials to 3rd and 4th graders because they are learning multiplication and a factorial is just multiplication shorthand. I do these things to the younger students not because I think they are going to understand anything that I am writing on the board, but to build wonder in them for what mathematics can do. It is a subject that can seem dry in the daily grind of it, so I like to cast a vision for what they are shooting for. Factorials are simple yet when used with probability, they become mighty powerful. With that statement, I have now lost the majority of my readers because you have no idea what I am talking about. When my students get to Algebra 2, we start off with different categories of numbers and which ones we will be using in the course. For example, we compare real and imaginary numbers. Imaginary numbers make zero sense if my students aren’t already familiar with squares and their roots. This is a common problem that I have because squares are covered at the end of Algebra, and most times not thoroughly because time. So, I start the year off with them speaking a language to them that is fuzzy at best. The sad part is, I am going into year 6 of teaching and I am only just now catching onto this problem in Algebra. If you noticed, it is the only class that I haven’t taught. Go figure.
So, how does one avoid this problem? For starters, a teacher must know what his student knows and start from there. Know what is covered in the curriculum the year before, review it at the beginning of the year, and then start with something that is new. Do not assume that a student knows or remembers what was covered in previous classes (this also relates to a later law but more on that when we get there). Mathematics is an easy subject to test this because one can tell what a student knows by simply asking questions and showing examples. The knowledge is easy to cover and review if one knows the questions to ask. Classes with hard skills like Mathematics are easy to test. The classes with soft skills are much harder to test. How can a teacher know if a student knows how to analyze a text? Form an argument? Win a person to their side of the argument? These are all soft skills that take time to develop and to test. Not only that but the subject matter that these assignments are based upon also adds a variant. A student may know how to do these soft skills, but if a teacher tests them on a subject that they do not know, they can’t prove that they have the skill. For example, if a teacher asks a student to write an argument to convince an atheist that abortion is wrong, and the student don’t know the argument for that particular discussion, the student could fail the assignment because they don’t know the arguments, not because they don’t have the skill to do the assignment. A teacher must know what their students know. It is also helpful for these standards to be solidified within the school so that this progression of skill is measurable throughout the course of study.
Once a teacher knows where his student is at, he should be able to progress through his lessons drawing upon what he knows his students knows and walking him along in what he does not know. It is a simple progression that does have a rigorously logical path that must be followed. Do not try to put the cart before the horse. That is going to end badly on both ends. It will frustrate the student and cause them to lose attention and interest in what they are doing because they will not be able to grasp what is trying to be conveyed. So, use a language that is common between student and teacher, and go from what the student already knows into the unknown.
Gregory, John Milton. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Veritas Press, 2004.