The Day I “Couldn’t Talk”

Posted in DemEd in Real LifeTeaching on Jan 02, 2010 - 02:15 PM

One recent Monday, I did what I usually do before school. I stood outside the main entry, and greeted the kids as they were dropped off at the curb. I walked through the cafeteria and said hello to the older kids, the younger kids, and the few parents who eat breakfast at school. I do this because I see my role at school as being much more than a classroom teacher. El Verano School is a community, and I feel that we all need to share in that community.

After the bell rang and I began to walk to class, I realized that I had not yet talked to any of my students. And I got an idea.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I don't do a lot of talking in the first few minutes of class. I have the kids read the cafeteria menu, the daily schedule, the daily objectives, etc. I do usually talk while taking roll, but this day I didn't. This day, I feigned laryngitis. I told them, or rather I signaled to them, that I couldn't talk because of a sore throat.

I had planned on starting the day by teaching the students what a quadrant graph is. There is an X axis, and a bisecting Y axis. Various points of the graph are named by where they fall with relation to these two axes. And as the name implies, there are four sections to this graph: x,y; -x,y; -x,-y; and x,-y.

After silently taking roll and sending the runner to the office, I called for the student's attention and drew on the whiteboard a large plus sign that would eventually become the quadrant graph. I began to tell the kids that the two axes are named X and Y. I slowly got around to telling them the names of the particular quadrants, and they began to catch on. I used hand signals. I jumped around. I pointed. I pretended to bang my head on the wall in frustration. I pumped my fist into the air when someone gave a correct response.

But what I did while not talking is not the important thing; it is what they did while I could not talk. They were totally engaged. Every child was trying to figure out what I was trying to tell them. Every one of them. The classroom was crackling with energy. There were hands shooting up left and right. There were kids yelling out what they thought was the answer. There were kids yelling across the room to other students that they were right- or wrong. There was laughter, there was much frustration, there was joy. It was the most spirited session that I had ever presided over, and I didn't say a word.

It was chaotic. It was crazy. It was memorable. It was exhausting. It was very effective. Every one of them can now name any point that I place on a quadrant graph. When it was over and I was satisfied that they understood, I sat down and said aloud, "That was fun.” Of course, they were all outraged and shocked and full of surprise.

Later, I had them write about what we had done that morning:

“It was fun because everyone was guessing what Mr. Curley was saying.”

“It was really fun. I learned a lot while having fun.”

“I thought I should really listen to him.”

“It really made us think about what he was trying to say.”

“…I thought it was intelligent of him to do that because it was making my classmates and I try to figure out what he was saying. He taught us how to use this chart without speaking!”

Karime added this, “Finally, everything was back to normal.” Whatever that is.

Tags for this entry:
community, curriculum, k-12 education, real-life learning, experimenting, improvisation, speaking

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