Part 1: When More Explaining Leaves Less Time for Practice

Teachers are already working hard to plan meaningful lessons and support all learners. Chunking makes that work more effective by breaking instruction into smaller, purposeful sections that give students more chances to process, practice, and succeed.

Teachers ask me all the time, “How can I make lesson planning faster?”

My answer is usually not what they expect.

I don’t tell them to find a shortcut that waters down the lesson. I don’t tell them to lower the bar. I don’t tell them to create three completely different lesson plans for one class period. Who has time for that?

Instead, I ask them to look at the structure of the lesson.

Because often the problem is not the teacher’s work ethic. It is not that the teacher does not care enough, plan enough, or try enough.

The problem is that the lesson is planned as one long teach instead of a series of smaller, purposeful chunks.

And that matters.

When I work with teachers in inclusive classrooms, I see the same pattern again and again.

A Typical Scenario

A teacher starts with a clear objective. The lesson begins well. The teacher explains the concept, gives examples, asks questions, and checks faces around the room.

Then the teacher sees it.

Jessica has that glazed look in her eyes. David is looking puzzled. Rob, who is on an IEP, is just kind of “out there” at this point.

So, being a caring teacher, the teacher keeps teaching.

They give another example. Then another one. They ask more questions, hoping to pull students in. They try to get participation going, but it feels like pulling teeth because the same students are answering over and over again.

By now, 20 minutes of class time has gone by and they still are direct teaching. Maybe they’ve included visuals or used dramatic role-play to engage. Maybe they’re doing outstanding direct teaching.

Still, some students are lost.

So they keep going.

Now 25 minutes are gone. In a 45-minute class, that leaves only 20 minutes for practice, application, grouping, reteaching, enrichment, closure, or whatever else was supposed to happen.

So, here is the question that stopped me in my tracks when I first started thinking deeply about Chunking Lesson Plans™:

Probably thinking, “Oh, geez. I’m bored.”

And who knows? They may have even begun to act out their boredom and frustration.

At the same time, after 25 minutes of direct teaching, there are probably still students who need more practice. There may still be a handful of students who have no clue what the concept means.

So, weren’t we in almost the same place after 10 minutes of direct teaching?

Why did we spend 25 minutes only to be at the same place we were in after ten?

What an epiphany this was for me.

That realization is the heart of Chunking Lesson Plans™.

The goal is not to teach less. The goal is to use whole-group teaching where it helps most, then give students time to process, practice, and apply.

Direct teaching is a best practice technique. Ten minutes, done well, is powerful. But after that, we need to do something different.

We need to chunk the lesson.

Why Lesson Planning Feels So Overwhelming in Inclusive Classrooms

Inclusive classrooms are complex.

In one room, a teacher may have students who are reading above grade level, students reading two or three years below grade level, students with IEPs, students with ADHD, students with auditory processing difficulties, English learners, anxious students, gifted students, students who need movement, students who need visuals, and students who need time to think before responding.

Teachers are expected to teach the grade-level standards, provide accommodations, keep students engaged, manage behavior, assess understanding, provide intervention, enrich advanced learners, and document what is happening.

No wonder lesson planning feels overwhelming.

Teachers do not need one more complicated form to fill out. They need something that visually cues them into remembering the methods they might use to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom.

That is where a planning tool matters.

The goal is not to make teaching mechanical. The goal is to reduce the mental load.

Instead of sitting there thinking, “What am I forgetting?” the teacher can glance at a visual planning reminder and ask:

• How will students access the information?
• How will they practice?
• How will they show understanding?
• What supports will help students who struggle?
• What options will keep students engaged?

That saves time.

Not because the teacher is doing less thinking, but because the teacher is not starting from scratch every time.

What Often Happens: Direct Instruction Expands, and Practice Time Shrinks

This is where lesson planning can get tricky:

A whole-class lesson often assumes that everyone needs the same amount of direct instruction, even when students are starting from different places.

Then, when some students do not get it, the teacher gives the whole class more direct instruction.

That feels responsible. It feels caring. It feels like we are not leaving anyone behind.

But in reality, we may be holding some students back while still not giving struggling students the kind of support they actually need.

Some students do not need another whole-class example. They need a smaller group. They need a different modality. They need to talk it through with a partner. They need to manipulate something. They need vocabulary clarified. They need the steps color-coded. They need to see the concept mapped out. They need guided practice.

Other students already have it. They need acceleration, enrichment, application, or an opportunity to go deeper.

When we keep reteaching the whole class, we often create two problems at once:

• The students who understand become bored.
• The students who do not understand still do not get enough targeted support.

What Chunking Lesson Plans™ Solves

Chunking Lesson Plans™ helps teachers use class time differently.

Instead of thinking, “I have to explain until everyone gets it,” the teacher thinks, “I am going to teach the core concept clearly and briefly, then use the rest of the lesson to find out who needs what.”

That one shift changes everything.

Let’s use the example from my book: teaching genre.

If I have five on-grade-level capable students with no learning disabilities in a small group, and I want to teach them the concept of genre, not to be experts on it, but to know what genre is and identify three types, most teachers would agree that I could teach that concept in about ten minutes.

So why do we often take 25 minutes in a whole-class lesson?

Chunking helps us stop doing that.

Instead, how about we teach the core instruction for about ten minutes and then stop. No matter how many glazed looks we see, we stop.

Not because we are abandoning students.

But, because we are moving them into a structure where we can actually help them better.

The Takeaway for Part 1

Faster lesson planning should not mean weaker instruction.

It should not mean copying a worksheet and hoping for the best.

It should not mean lowering expectations for students who struggle.

It means designing the lesson so that the teacher is not trapped in 25 minutes of direct instruction when 10 minutes would have been enough to launch the learning.

My whole philosophy is built around the idea that strategies can be good for all and critical for different learners.

Chunking Lesson Plans™ is one of those strategies.

It helps the teacher stop reteaching the whole class longer and longer and start using class time more intentionally.

In Part 2, we will look at how to plan the 10-minute core teach, what to do after that first chunk of instruction, and how to use the Lesson Planner Idea Jogger to make differentiated planning faster and more manageable.

Podcast: Stop Overexplaining with Ten Minute Chunks

Source note: Adapted from Susan Gingras Fitzell, Special Needs in the General Classroom: 500+ Teaching Strategies for Differentiating Instruction, especially the sections on Chunking Lesson Plans™ and the Differentiated Planning – Lesson Planner Idea Jogger.

FAQ

How can teachers make lesson planning faster without lowering expectations?

Teachers can make lesson planning faster by changing the structure of the lesson, not the rigor of the content. When instruction is chunked into smaller, purposeful sections, teachers can spend less time overexplaining and more time giving students opportunities to process, practice, and apply what they are learning.

Why does direct instruction sometimes take too much class time?

Direct instruction often stretches too long because teachers are trying to meet individual learning needs through whole-class teaching. When some students look confused, teachers naturally keep explaining. The problem is that this can reduce time for practice and still fail to provide the targeted support struggling learners actually need.

What is the benefit of chunking lesson plans in inclusive classrooms?

Chunking lesson plans helps teachers use class time more intentionally. A short, focused core teach gives students the foundation they need, and the rest of the lesson can be used to identify who needs practice, reteaching, enrichment, or a different way to access the content. This makes differentiated instruction more manageable in inclusive classrooms.

Want more practical support for teachers?

I offer professional development for schools on co-teaching, collaboration, learning strategies, and supporting students who learn differently.

Education Programs & Workshops
Co-Teaching Training / Consulting
Free educator download
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School administrators often ask me what co-teaching should look like. It is a fair question. Assessing a collaborative classroom is especially challenging for administrators who are new to the concept of co-teaching.

Too often, schools use what I call the dumped-in method of co-teaching. Teachers are simply dumped into it without support or training. The result is predictable. You walk into a classroom and see one teacher teaching while the other teacher stands in the background waiting for permission to work with students. Some specialists feel like they are just holding up the wall. 

That is not co-teaching.

Administrators need to view co-taught classes as classes taught by two essential teachers working as one team.

To help school leaders observe and support these teams, I have developed the 2026 Walkthrough Form. It provides a non-evaluative snapshot of classroom practice for administrators. It moves beyond vague theories and focuses on the practical realities of the classroom.

Here is exactly what you should look for when you walk into a co-taught class.

Specific Implementations

Observers should look for clearly defined roles. General approaches are no longer enough. I have detailed two dozen specific co-teaching implementations. Look for targeted strategies like Two Facilitate Speed Partnering or One Teach and One Summarize. There should be absolutely no doubt as to what each person is doing during a lesson.

Shared Ownership and Parity

Both adults must actively contribute to instruction and student engagement. They do not have to look identical to demonstrate parity. They also do not both need to be content experts. You should see them share ownership of the class through their actions, language, or leadership. Both names should be displayed, and the physical space must be shared. Furthermore, both adults should interact with a range of students, not just one subgroup.

Chunking Lesson Plans

Look at the clock. Teachers should transition smoothly between short chunks of instruction. Ideally, these chunks are ten minutes or less. The most effective time managers use timers to stay on track. This maximizes student engagement and keeps both teachers actively involved. 

Stop Guessing, Start Teaching:
Introducing the Co-Teaching Lesson Plan Builder

Student Access and Differentiation

Are students engaged and clear on what they are expected to do? Teachers need to provide multiple ways to learn content. This might look like visual interpretations, graphic organizers, or technology like backchanneling. Students must also have choices in how they demonstrate their learning. Furthermore, teachers should be using formative assessments, like exit cards or Oral K-W-L activities, to guide immediate instruction.

Data and Flexible Grouping

Notice how the students are grouped. Students should work in intentional mixed-ability groups for practice. They might also work in targeted same-ability groups for review and enrichment. You should also see teachers collecting objective data on student behavior and understanding to guide future instruction.

Effective co-teaching is a partnership. It requires communication, persistence, and mutual agreement. This new walkthrough form gives you the framework to support your teachers in that work. It helps you focus on what matters most.

Access the  2026 Walkthrough Form by clicking here. 

It is imperative that administrators understand what co-teaching is and what it is not. Also, it’s important to coach and mentor your staff in a positive, productive way to achieve the best possible results while making it clear that collaboration is not optional. 

In this age of testing, fear, and reprisal, teachers need to be motivated and taught how to best utilize their time and efforts to help students succeed. Co-teaching, done well, is one of the best ways to make a difference for students. 

I encourage you to download the 2026 Walkthrough Form and take it on your next classroom visit. Look for specific implementations and shared ownership that accelerate learning. Try the form today. Observe your collaborative teams and give your teachers the practical, targeted feedback they need to thrive.

Frequently Asked Questions About Co-Teaching

What does effective co-teaching look like in a classroom?
Effective co-teaching involves two educators actively sharing instruction, planning together, and engaging students through clearly defined roles and strategies.

What are the most common co-teaching mistakes?
The most common mistake is the “one teach, one assist” default, where one teacher leads and the other becomes passive. Lack of planning and unclear roles also limit effectiveness.

How can administrators evaluate co-teaching?
Administrators should use structured observation tools that focus on parity, student engagement, differentiation, and data-driven instruction rather than general impressions.

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of co-teaching strategies and resources to maximize student success!. Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Best Practices in Co-teaching and Collaboration: the HOW of Implementing the Models

The post What Should a Co-Taught Class Look Like? Introducing the 2026 Walkthrough Form appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

The Importance of Unified Training

During my coaching work, I often see the high cost of having teachers attend training without their principals or department leaders. For example, I did long-term coaching at a high school that started co-teaching to meet AYP goals with their subgroups. We focused on differentiated instruction strategies and collaborative techniques. I led initial trainings that teachers were required to attend, but no administrators or departmental leaders were present. These leaders were also responsible for evaluating the teachers.

The Impact of Absent Leadership

After the initial training, I worked in-house with the school, observing teachers in the classroom and coaching them to improve their teaching. On one visit, I observed a teacher in the morning and then waited for our debriefing session in the afternoon. When she arrived, she seemed upset. As I gently asked how things were going, she stayed silent. I had seen some great activity in her classroom and started to share my positive feedback. Instead of brightening up, she burst into tears.

Misalignment and Misunderstandings

I asked her what was wrong. She said she had implemented many of my suggestions and strategies from the training and coaching sessions. She felt good about the changes in her classroom. However, her departmental coordinator evaluated her and criticized her for having “too much fluff” and not enough rigor. He also said she lacked good classroom management because her class was too noisy. She had been using color and visual images to enhance her instruction and incorporated group work into her lessons. The group work was noisy, which he didn’t like.

The Need for Administrator Training

I was outraged. This teacher was doing what the latest brain research shows increases student achievement. Yet, she was being chastised by an evaluator who hadn’t attended my training and didn’t understand the latest educational research. I realized I couldn’t make progress in this district unless the administrators understood differentiated instruction, knew what to look for in a differentiated classroom, and were familiar with the latest brain research. So, I developed a training for administrators and strongly suggested that all school administrators and leaders working with me in the district attend.

Defining Rigor and Effective Instruction

Many school leaders know they should require rigor, but the definition of rigor is often confusing. Rigor is the high standard or level of knowledge we expect from our students. How we achieve that rigor, the methods we use, and the brain-based research we apply in our classrooms are crucial. If a teacher requires students to understand high-level content and use critical thinking, and they use methods like nonlinguistic representation and cooperative learning, it might look like fluff to an onlooker. In reality, it is excellent instruction.

The Path to Success

In my 25 years of experience as a consultant and coach, I’ve seen that there is success when principals, assistant principals, and departmental coordinators are on board with an initiative. When everyone is on the same page and committed to coaching and supporting teachers, success is inevitable. Schools fail when leadership expects a consultant to coach and instruct teachers on best practices while doing nothing to support that process. Successful schools have strong leaders who know how to motivate people positively and constructively. School administrators who leave the hard work to others rarely succeed long-term. There are some teachers who will succeed despite the odds, but most will wait for their leadership to move on to another district and continue as they always have.

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Sometimes it’s hard to know how best to work together in support of students when you and your co-teacher seem to be so different.

There are almost always things that you can do, or ways to make the co-teaching relationship work, even when you and your partner appear to be operating from different planets.

In this podcast episode, I share a story about one such team and how we found ways for them to work together and support each other in ways that still helped all the students in the classroom.

Bring Susan to your campus!

The post What Do I Do When My Co-teacher is Completely Different Than Me? appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

In my coaching work, the price the district pays for having teachers attend training without the benefit of having their principals or department leaders attend that same training becomes glaringly apparent. For example, I was doing some long-term coaching at a high school that had initiated co-teaching as a solution to meeting AYP with their subgroups. We were focused on differentiated instruction strategies and collaborative techniques. I presented initial training in the district that the teachers were required to attend. However, there were no administrators present. Nor were the departmental leaders present who were responsible for evaluating the teachers. After the initial training, I worked with the schools in-house by observing teachers in the classroom and supporting their efforts to reach all students by coaching them to take their teaching up a level.

On one of my visits, I observed a teacher early in the day and then waited for our debriefing session in the afternoon. When she entered the room, she seemed distraught. As I gently questioned her to find out how things had been going, I found her to be strangely silent. I had seen some wonderful student engagement in her room and started to share that with her. Rather than brighten up at my positive comments, she burst into tears.

I asked her what was wrong.

She explained that after I left the last time, she had taken my suggestions and incorporated many of the strategies I shared in the training, as well as in our coaching sessions. She was feeling good about the strategies she was using in her classroom. However, during that time, she was also evaluated by her departmental coordinator. Rather than being pleased with what he saw, he chastised her for having too much fluff in the classroom and not enough rigor. He complained that she did not have good classroom management skills because her class was too noisy. Umm… group process, cooperative learning, and flexible groups are supposed to be noisy! She had been using nonlinguistic representation via color and visual images to enhance her instruction as well as incorporating group work into her lesson plan. The group work was too noisy as far as he was concerned.

I felt her pain and realized that I would not be able to make any gains in this district unless the administrators understood differentiated instruction, what to look for in a differentiated classroom, and the latest research on how the brain learns. Consequently, I developed this training for administrators and strongly suggested that all school administrators and leadership working with me in the district attend this training. To their credit, they did.

Rigor vs. Teaching Methodology: They are not the same thing!

Many school leaders know that they should be requiring rigor. However, the definition of rigor is often confusing. Rigor is the level of knowledge, or the high standard, to which we are holding our students. How we reach that rigor, the methodologies we use, and the brain-based research implemented in our classrooms are critical to the process. So, if a teacher is requiring students to understand high-level content and using methodologies that include nonlinguistic representation (visuals) and cooperative learning, it may appear to an onlooker that fluff is happening in the classroom when what is occurring is really terrific instruction.

In my experience working with schools as a consultant and coach for over twenty years, it has become clear to me that when I work with a school where the principal, assistant principals, and coordinators are on-board with the initiative, there will be a return on their training investment.

Where schools fail is when school leadership expects that a consultant will come in and work with the teachers to coach and instruct on best practices while they do nothing to support that process. Successful schools have powerful and successful instructional leaders who understand how to motivate human beings in a positive, constructive manner. School administrators who leave the hard work to others are rarely successful in the long term. There are pockets of teachers who will succeed despite the odds, however, the majority will simply wait for their leadership to move on to another school district, and they will continue to do as they have always done.

Explore even more tips, tools, and resources for collaboration at TheHowofCo-teaching.com!

Bring Susan to your campus!

Featured seminar – Co-teaching and Collaboration

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I started teaching in 1980 and, over the years, I became increasingly aware of the large number of students who were labeled special needs who probably did not need nor deserve that stigma and lifelong label. A consequence of that label is often a blow to the student’s self-esteem.
So often, I would work with students who, on-record, had learning disabilities, yet, when they were given strategies that honored their learning style, these students had the potential to be successful. I often thought that these students were unjustly labeled simply because at the secondary level, we primarily teach to verbal linguistic auditory learners.

John’s second grade teacher suggested to his parents that he had Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). His parents, unwilling to wait for the public school evaluation process took it upon themselves to have him evaluated. He was diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder. In the fourth grade, his parents and teachers noticed that his reading test scores were going down.

Although the teachers weren’t too concerned at the time, his parents once again had an outside evaluation done by a behavioral optometrist. It was determined that he had significant under-convergence of his eyes. His parents provided him with vision therapy. In one summer, he went from reading “Magic Tree House” books to “The Lord of the Rings”.

As John went through the school system on a 504 plan, his parents supplemented his education with metacognitive strategies provided by SuperCamp, sent him to immersion language programs during the summer to prepare for high school foreign language classes, and engaged an academic coach to support him in developing writing skills and preparing for state tests.

John, who by traditional academic standards would have been considered a candidate for special education without the support his parents provided, was able to be successful in school because he had a lifetime of ‘interventions’. Those ‘interventions’ responded to his academic struggles in ways that honored his strengths and learning style.

This student is now in an engineering program at private university on a scholarship he earned because of his success in honors level and advanced placement course work in high school. John’s eye-doctor, fifth grade teacher and academic coach expressed that what John accomplished was amazing considering his Central Auditory Processing Disorder ( CAPD) and vision issues.

Instructional leaders and educators may not be able to provide special camps or private coaches for students; however, the moral of this story is: A student who without interventions, would have started second grade in the lowest reading group and would have stayed tracked at that level through his school career would not be where he is today if his parents had not intervened. Providing intervention strategies to students, double dosing instruction (as John had with camps and tutors), frequently monitoring progress, and adjusting interventions will allow other students to have the same opportunity as John to reach the stars.
Resources for students with vision related problems are addressed here: https://susanfitzell.com/teaching-strategies-for-tackling-vision-related-problems/

And here: The College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) is a non-profit, international membership association of eye care professionals including optometrists, optometry students, and vision therapists. https://www.covd.org

This article is an excerpt from “Special Needs in the General Classroom, 500+ Teaching Strategies for Differentiating Instruction, 3rd Edition.

Explore even more tips, tools, and resources for collaboration at TheHowofCo-teaching.com!

Bring Susan to your campus!

Featured seminar – Co-teaching and Collaboration

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I was co-teaching biology and working with a teacher who could say the meanest things with a smile on his face. One day, I was teaching the parts of the heart. When I finished explaining the difference between the inferior vena cava and the superior vena cava, he told the class, “Yes, it’s just like Mrs. Fitzell and I. She’s the inferior vena cava, and I’m the superior vena cava.” The class laughed.

He repeated the analogy again, months later, when reviewing the parts of the eye. The eye has an inferior oblique and superior oblique, so he said it again. He thought it was funny. I thought it was mean. These were two of the most humiliating experiences I had while co-teaching because he said these things in front of the entire class. I still feel a flush of humiliation as I recall those two events.

How to build positive relationships with your co-teachers

Co-teaching and collaboration is challenging because it requires educators to stretch out of their comfort zones and embrace an initiative that they may have had no say in. Many teachers are forced into co-teaching and find themselves paired with another adult in the classroom without any training in the people skills part of the process. They just don’t know what to do or what to say. Yet, what we *say* to each other can make or break our relationship before we even begin.

If I was asked the question, “What would you say, is one thing that you should never say to your co-teacher.” My reply would be, “Don’t announce to the class that you are superior and your co-teacher is inferior.” But, not everyone is like me. So, I asked my teaching colleagues what advice they’d give their peers working in co-taught classrooms.

Here’s what they said:
1. “You are the content specialist, I’m just here for special ed support.”
Your co-teacher hears: I’m really not interested in working harder than I have to.

2. “You can’t see the answer key.”
Your co-teacher hears: You’re going to help the students cheat. I don’t trust you.

3. “Are you sure you get this?”
Your co-teacher hears: I’m the one with the ______________ (fill in the blank) degree. You’re not smart enough to do this job.

4. “We don’t do it that way!”
Your co-teacher hears: Your expertise doesn’t matter.

5. “Your input isn’t ____________ (fill in the blank: needed, valuable, relevant.) You have nothing to offer.”
Your co-teacher hears: I don’t respect you or your teaching skills.

6. “That’s not right. You are wrong. My way is better.” in an accusatory tone.
Your co-teacher hears: I don’t respect you or your teaching skills.

7. “I can’t plan with you during our planning time. I have to write IEPs.”
The problem with this statement is that even if you do have IEPs to write, your co-teacher could probably give you as long a list of what they need to do during that time.
Your co-teacher hears: Planning with you to benefit our students is not a priority of mine. You and the students are not important.

8. “This is an AP class. We don’t make accommodations in this class!”
Your co-teacher hears: It doesn’t matter how smart your students are, I’m not willing to teach them if they don’t learn the way I teach.

9. “That student isn’t one of “mine” so I won’t work with him”
Your co-teacher hears: I’m not interested in being collaborative.

10. “I didn’t like your lesson, so I had “my” students do it “my” way.”
Your co-teacher hears: I don’t respect you or your teaching skills.

11. “I’ll do my thing, you do yours.”
Your co-teacher hears: I’m not interested in being collaborative.

12. “You take your students and I’ll take my students.” within student earshot.
Your co-teacher hears: I’m not interested in being collaborative.
Your students hear: That teacher doesn’t care about me.

13. “I can’t teach your special ed students unless you’re physically present in the classroom.”
Your co-teacher hears: Your special ed students aren’t my problem. I only teach kids that aren’t on an IEP.

14. “This is my classroom. Take care of your kids. I am the real teacher.”
Your co-teacher hears: I not only don’t respect you or your teaching skills, I have no interest in being collaborative.

15. “I don’t know why they are in this class. Those SpEd students can’t do this.”
Your co-teacher hears: I’ve made up my mind that the SpEd students can’t learn and that they don’t belong in this class.

16. “I am so lucky I don’t have your class this year!”
Your ex-co-teacher hears: I hated working with you.

17. “Thank you but I don’t need your help, I can handle this myself.”
Your co-teacher hears: I don’t respect you or your teaching skills.

18. “Mrs/Ms./Mr. will be assisting me today.” said in front of the class
Your co-teacher hears: I don’t respect you or your teaching skills.
Your students hear: The SpEd teacher isn’t my/a real teacher.

19. “Anything you need from me today?”
Your co-teacher hears: Being in class with you to benefit our students is not a priority of mine. You and the students are not important.

20. Never start any statement with the phrase, “I know…,” and never use the conjunction, “but”. Example: I know you worked hard on that lesson, but some kids seemed confused.”

The How of Co-teaching® the Six Co-teaching Models

Two teachers in the classroom can, and has been proven to be, good for ALL the students in the classroom – when both co-teachers respect and work well with each other. Most of us teach because we want to make a difference for kids. Consider how much more impact you can make with another teacher’s skill set available for you to partner with and capitalize upon.

One co-teacher sums it up with, “If you have a trusting relationship, you can say almost anything because your co-teacher trusts you.” Yet, we know that the words we choose can make or break that trusting relationship. Now that we know what not to say to our co-teacher, what CAN we say that would still express what we need to say, yet, in a way that builds trust?

Bring Susan to your campus!

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Have you ever heard of the “Knowledge Doubling Curve?” First described by Buckminster Fuller in 1982[i], this curve notes that, until 1900, human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the middle of the twentieth century, knowledge was doubling every 25 years. As of 2013, human knowledge was doubling every 13 months on average – faster in some industries like nanotechnology research. Now, human knowledge is almost doubling every day[ii].

Think about that: for eons, knowledge grew among humans at a pace that allowed societies to process, access and utilize that knowledge in a fairly smooth way. Entire societies grew up and trades were developed as knowledge inspired new technologies. At the peak of the Industrial Revolution, knowledge still grew at a reasonable pace. And then the Information Age began. Now knowledge is outpacing our ability to understand it fully. We’re launching our kids out into this world.

It may seem improbable now, but the careers that we as teachers are trying to prepare our students for – accounting, law, computer programming – may radically change within the next few years. Some careers may not even exist within a decade.

What Skills Will Students Need in the Future?

What that means is that students today will constantly need to learn and relearn skills as their career paths change. 21st century learning must find a way to keep pace.

“Coping with this knowledge tsunami may require new leadership in firms, new ways of working and studying, and alternative methodologies for quickly processing, comparing and evaluating information sources,” said Tim Sandle in an op-ed about the rapid rise in information.[iv]

Preparing Students for Future Jobs

We not only need to teach children how to learn and motivate them so that they want to learn – we now have to teach them how to continue learning and growing for their entire life. The days where a person could just go to high school and then get a bachelor degree, and then start their career and never worry about school again – those days are gone. Today, adults in every career field have to continuously train and retrain to stay on pace with the technological changes around them [v].

The thing is, we can’t just throw more information at students than they can handle. We can only give them new tools – and teach them how to use those tools to learn, and keep learning.

I’m passionate about making sure children know how to learn, and more importantly, how each of them learns. Because they need to know how they learn when they’re on their own in the world. There isn’t room for struggling learners out there. They need to be motivated to learn, and to do that they need to know what methods work for them so they can learn and retain information more easily.

Obsolete Technology Example – and it’s Personal

My son is a great example of what his generation faces with knowledge expanding so rapidly. He’s an engineer who works on diesel and gas engines. His field is constantly changing, and he has to learn along with it. In fact, he predicts that, within five years, he won’t be working with diesel and gas engines; everything is shifting toward electric motors and hybrid engines.

Now, my son was a struggling learner early in his school career. But he learned how he learns, and that made all the difference in his school performance and in his career. When he’s faced with new information or a new process, and realizes he’s not processing and retaining that information correctly, he knows how to approach it from a different angle so that he can learn it. You’d be surprised how many kids are never taught this or encouraged to find the approach that works best for them.

I introduced this post with a reference to Buckminster Fuller – an unorthodox learner if there ever was one! His own path to knowledge was indirect and riddled with challenges, yet he became a noted futurist and inventor, achieving success in several different fields because he approached new knowledge in a different way.

21st Century Learning Classrooms

We’re going to need a lot more motivated, out-of-the-box thinkers over the next few decades, as technological knowledge continues to gallop forward. It’s the biggest challenge that teachers face – and one we can’t afford to lose.

As 21st century educators, this is important for us to understand, not only for our own classrooms, but for the future of our 21st century learners.

References for 21st century learning

[i] David Russell Schilling, “Knowledge Doubling Every 12 Months, Soon to Be Every 12 Hours.” IndustryTap, April 19, 2013.
[ii] Feras A. Batarseh, “Thoughts on the future of human knowledge and machine intelligence.” LSE Business Review, Sept. 20, 2017.
[iii] Omni Legal, “Artificial Intelligence Won’t Replace Lawyers – It Will Free Them.” Law Technology Today, Feb. 27, 2018.
[iv] Tim Sandle, “Op-Ed: Knowledge Doubles Almost Every Day, and It’s Set to Increase.” Digital Journal, Nov. 23, 2018.
[v] Marc Rosenberg, “Marc My Words: The Coming Knowledge Tsunami.” Learning Solutions Magazine, October 2017.

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In a performance-driven school culture, how do you keep kids motivated?

I’ve always believed that there’s more than one way to motivate students. The key is to make them feel that they have control over their destiny. If that sounds like a reach, think about what we as adults work for.  We don’t just work to pay the bills: some of us work to gain autonomy over our lives, some of us work for the challenge, and some to achieve a higher goal.

Children may not be able to articulate why they’re motivated to do assignments just yet, but they have similar goals. To most of them, a good grade is a reward. But a good grade is only one piece of the puzzle of how to motivate students.

Most schools are part of this country’s test-driven educational culture and are set up so that students earn grades for performance. Consequently, the grade is the reward. But think about the student who isn’t motivated by the promise of a good grade – who believes he is stupid and destined for poverty or failure. That student doesn’t care about grades at all. How can teachers motivate him to do assigned work and boost his grades? How do we make him care?

A game-changing idea

What if you could ignite a student’s motivation, and build their confidence, by associating them with an identity and its specific behaviors and motivators? For teachers in crowded, time-crunched classrooms, this could be a game-changer.

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, authors of What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work, detailed five different identities of people that are motivated in different ways. These identities were given the titles of Builders, Caregivers, Reward-Driven, Thinkers, and Achievers. Now, Gostick and Elton surveyed adults, and their identities were built from this study of 850,000 adults and what motivated them. Much, if not all, of their findings applies to children, also.

Builders, for example, like having a purpose, and like it when their work matters. They tend to work well in groups, too. Likewise, caregivers, may like working in groups for a different reason: They are very social and are motivated to make things better for others. Achievers may pick the toughest goals, with an eye on accomplishment; they see the achievement as their reward. Thinkers like to solve problems on their own.

Teachers who are challenged to motivate their students in new ways may find effective solutions in studying these traits and applying these identities to students – without telling them directly. For example, give a thinker a choice of assignments so they feel more in control of their environment. A builder may get a huge boost of confidence by being asked to help a fellow student with an assignment during class. Place a caregiver in charge of distributing materials for a lesson and see how positively they react to this new responsibility.

A builder at heart

I had a student in class who would never get his homework done. He was up out of his chair constantly. You know these kids: They’re really smart, but they’re not turning their work in. One day I had the class doing independent work, and I was going from student to student to help them out. One student, Danny, needed extra help, Jimmy was already bouncing around the room, and there was only one of me. I said, “Jimmy, I know you know how to do this. Would you mind helping Danny? Would you show him how to do it?”

What happened next was incredible. It was one of those things as a teacher where you go, “Wow!” Jimmy immediately sat down with Danny, and he performed like the best teacher in the world. The two of them sat there, completely focused, for the rest of the period. He helped Danny get all the work done – the whole assignment, even though he didn’t do his own.

It left me with a bit of a dilemma in grading Jimmy. Should I give them the same grade? Both their names were on the paper; they both did the assignment. Ultimately I gave Jimmy the same grade because I felt it would be a real motivator for him, although other teachers might answer that question differently.

That AHA! Teaching moment happened before I’d read What Motivates Me, but after reading the book I realized that Jimmy was either a builder or a caregiver. And on that day, I’d hit on exactly what motivated him to do the work.

Trying new motivational tools

Gostick and Elton’s book includes a motivator assessment, which is also available online – so teachers can try it out for themselves and look over the detailed descriptions about each personality type. It could help foster some ideas on motivating students with different personalities. (I’m including a non-affiliate discount code for the assessment at the end of this article.)

In a time-starved classroom, trying out new motivational tools may be difficult. Teachers might work in alternative creative assignments and responsibilities as best they can. Possibly, motivate and engage students by providing optional assignments or responsibilities as extra credit.

Remember that no child fits exactly into one motivator identity, and each will respond differently to assignments. They may not blossom when peer tutoring, for example, but might show real confidence and motivation when participating in a group assignment.

If you have students that you know are smart, but aren’t working for the grade, can they be motivated another way that doesn’t revolve around testing and grades? Is there some other way to reach them? It’s worth a try. And now, finally, there’s a tool to help you get a better handle on what motivates your students. 

For a $5.00 discount, use the coupon code: Fitzell5

Sources:

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work (The Culture Works, Sept. 2014)

Susan Fitzell, Motivating Students to Achieve Success (Cogent Catalyst Publications, March 2014)

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The post Why Grades are the Wrong Motivator: Motivate Students According to Who They Are appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

When new initiatives run into problems in our classrooms, we tend to go back to old ways. But sometimes, if we stick to something we believe in, by going through the problem solving process, your students can learn unexpected lessons. This story from Darcy Salvadore (@drcyslvdr or https://www.facebook.com/darcy.salvadore/timeline?lst=1469544636%3A1234687062%3A1551557003) illustrates the value of this approach: http://ow.ly/5c3a30nONPw

As technology and work continue to evolve, now more than ever, we need to teach our students creativity, flexibility and a willingness to adapt to change. John Spencer (@spencerideas or follow on Facebook) offers wonderful ideas to help your students start thinking outside the box: http://ow.ly/brCl30nOOg2

To help our students to be nimble in an ever changing economy, we also need to stay flexible in how we teach in our classrooms. Cory Orlando (@CoriOrlando1 or follow on Facebook) reminds us that not every student is the same, therefore we should be flexible in our teaching strategy:
http://ow.ly/s1FB30nOOtm

What are some of your favorite articles or resources that help students prepare for the real world? Leave your comments below!

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