“F” is Like a Bad Boyfriend…
Yes, this has become my classroom philosophy since I discovered my students' absolute fear of failure/fear of not getting the "right" answer--a condition some French researchers are calling "intellectual timorousness" (read this article for more information on the French's "Festival of Failures").
Out of 130 students, 127 of them have "F's" in my class three weeks into the school year. As my last entry explained, the default grade in my ELA class is a "C"; however, after my first pre-assessment, it was discovered that the majority of students have skills below grade level or worse, are limited to basic memorizing and regurgitation. In other words, they lack critical thinking skills.
But this is all fine and dandy! I've worked with gaggles of students several grade levels behind in ELA and in one semester, they were right where they needed to be or better yet, well beyond their perceived potential. I put my sights on getting them to be expert critical thinkers, rolled up my sleeves, asked them to do the same and went to work.
And then I noticed it--the reason for my new "LOVE THE 'F'" philosophy which has got parents in a tizzy. When students would come in to write their 10 minute journals, pens and pencils would hover over their pages for more than half of the allotted time. When students were asked to brainstorm (no right or wrong answer--just spitting ideas on a page), pages would have 1 or 2 words after 3 minutes around loaded words like "American" or "Culture." When students were invited to share their unfiltered thoughts as a discussion warm-up, students would raise their hands enthusiastically and then drop them right down like a lead hammer--thunk--right back onto their desks.
And whenever I asked them why they hadn't written anything, spoken up, shared their ideas, the response was always the same: "It's wrong, Ms. Saidi." How do they know it's wrong? "Because--I don't know--I just know it is." Students have been conditioned for so long to think that there is always one, single right answer and that they MUST get it right on the first try that they have become timorous thinkers, never ever daring to transcend the boundaries of general statements or equivocal answers beginning with "I think..." or "In my opinion..."
"That's it!" I start one day. "How will you guys ever know if your thoughts are right or wrong if you don't put them out there? And so what if you're wrong?! Be honest--don't you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes?" Students nod in unison. "And great thinkers of the past--great scientists--if they did a hundred experiments to discover something, how many of the experiments are wrong until they get it right?"
"Umm--," starts a student, who then shakes his head no and shyly smiles avoiding eye contact with me.
"'Umm' what? Come on! This is what I'm talking about! How do you know you're wrong before you put it out there? How many of this scientist's experiments are going to be failures out of the hundred he conducts towards a great discovery?"
"Umm--99 of them?"
"Say it like you mean it!"
"99 of them!" he says smiling while other students chuckle.
"Yes! Every other experiment will fail somewhere until this scientist gets it right! And after every failed experiment, he'll take notes, make changes and do it all over again. And even when he gets it right, who is to say he'll be right forever?! Remember when the earth was thought to be the center of the universe? WRONG! Duh, it's not the earth, it's the sun, silly people. WRONG, again! And these theories were held for hundreds of years--some came with the threat of death if you challenged them (ask my ol' friend Copernicus, he'll tell you)."
So, I have a running joke with my students which helps them understand that failing is part of the process of authentic learning. I give them this speech:
"You have to learn to love the 'F' because the 'F' teaches you valuable information. The 'F' is like a bad boyfriend: he doesn't beat you or anything. He just isn't the right fit for you. But he's easy to get along with and he doesn't bother you or make you do anything you don't want to do. However, you look around and you see there are better boyfriends out there. Nicer ones who support their girls into getting into college or get them through difficult times. You've learned from 'F'--you've learned what you DON'T want in a boyfriend and you learned to appreciate those other boyfriends when you're finally ready to meet them. 'F' deserves some love like all the other letters, but you don't want to move in with the 'F', get a timeshare with him and most definitely don't want to marry the 'F'. So you thank him for his time and move on."
This speech goes over amazingly well with my students but not so well with parents. What puts the parents at ease is the fact that grades, like learning, are fluid in my class. If a student fails at a skill multiple times, but finally gets it in the end, his/her last grade replaces all previous grades. So the "F" is no longer a threat, but rather, as parents hope bad boy/girlfriends become, a passing phase.
Posted in on Oct 04, 2010 - 08:40 PM
"What do you mean my child needs to love the 'F' she has in your class?" asked a very concerned parent of mine last week.Yes, this has become my classroom philosophy since I discovered my students' absolute fear of failure/fear of not getting the "right" answer--a condition some French researchers are calling "intellectual timorousness" (read this article for more information on the French's "Festival of Failures").
Out of 130 students, 127 of them have "F's" in my class three weeks into the school year. As my last entry explained, the default grade in my ELA class is a "C"; however, after my first pre-assessment, it was discovered that the majority of students have skills below grade level or worse, are limited to basic memorizing and regurgitation. In other words, they lack critical thinking skills.
But this is all fine and dandy! I've worked with gaggles of students several grade levels behind in ELA and in one semester, they were right where they needed to be or better yet, well beyond their perceived potential. I put my sights on getting them to be expert critical thinkers, rolled up my sleeves, asked them to do the same and went to work.
And then I noticed it--the reason for my new "LOVE THE 'F'" philosophy which has got parents in a tizzy. When students would come in to write their 10 minute journals, pens and pencils would hover over their pages for more than half of the allotted time. When students were asked to brainstorm (no right or wrong answer--just spitting ideas on a page), pages would have 1 or 2 words after 3 minutes around loaded words like "American" or "Culture." When students were invited to share their unfiltered thoughts as a discussion warm-up, students would raise their hands enthusiastically and then drop them right down like a lead hammer--thunk--right back onto their desks.
And whenever I asked them why they hadn't written anything, spoken up, shared their ideas, the response was always the same: "It's wrong, Ms. Saidi." How do they know it's wrong? "Because--I don't know--I just know it is." Students have been conditioned for so long to think that there is always one, single right answer and that they MUST get it right on the first try that they have become timorous thinkers, never ever daring to transcend the boundaries of general statements or equivocal answers beginning with "I think..." or "In my opinion..."
"That's it!" I start one day. "How will you guys ever know if your thoughts are right or wrong if you don't put them out there? And so what if you're wrong?! Be honest--don't you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes?" Students nod in unison. "And great thinkers of the past--great scientists--if they did a hundred experiments to discover something, how many of the experiments are wrong until they get it right?"
"Umm--," starts a student, who then shakes his head no and shyly smiles avoiding eye contact with me.
"'Umm' what? Come on! This is what I'm talking about! How do you know you're wrong before you put it out there? How many of this scientist's experiments are going to be failures out of the hundred he conducts towards a great discovery?"
"Umm--99 of them?"
"Say it like you mean it!"
"99 of them!" he says smiling while other students chuckle.
"Yes! Every other experiment will fail somewhere until this scientist gets it right! And after every failed experiment, he'll take notes, make changes and do it all over again. And even when he gets it right, who is to say he'll be right forever?! Remember when the earth was thought to be the center of the universe? WRONG! Duh, it's not the earth, it's the sun, silly people. WRONG, again! And these theories were held for hundreds of years--some came with the threat of death if you challenged them (ask my ol' friend Copernicus, he'll tell you)."
So, I have a running joke with my students which helps them understand that failing is part of the process of authentic learning. I give them this speech:
"You have to learn to love the 'F' because the 'F' teaches you valuable information. The 'F' is like a bad boyfriend: he doesn't beat you or anything. He just isn't the right fit for you. But he's easy to get along with and he doesn't bother you or make you do anything you don't want to do. However, you look around and you see there are better boyfriends out there. Nicer ones who support their girls into getting into college or get them through difficult times. You've learned from 'F'--you've learned what you DON'T want in a boyfriend and you learned to appreciate those other boyfriends when you're finally ready to meet them. 'F' deserves some love like all the other letters, but you don't want to move in with the 'F', get a timeshare with him and most definitely don't want to marry the 'F'. So you thank him for his time and move on."
This speech goes over amazingly well with my students but not so well with parents. What puts the parents at ease is the fact that grades, like learning, are fluid in my class. If a student fails at a skill multiple times, but finally gets it in the end, his/her last grade replaces all previous grades. So the "F" is no longer a threat, but rather, as parents hope bad boy/girlfriends become, a passing phase.
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Shawn Strader
Oct 07, 2010 - 08:38 PM
Ammerah, you are freakin’ awesome.