Shower Skills

I don't remember exactly where, or from whom, I learned about the term "shower skills" but I'm actually surprised that I haven't blogged about it yet because it's something I've returned to again and again in my teaching career.  So here goes!  A few years back, and by now it was probably quite a few, I attended a professional development where the presenter shared about this concept:

You know how you can take a great shower on Monday, and be completely, thoroughly clean? And then you might not need to shower on Tuesday?  And then, depending on how active you are, and how hot it is, you could probably go another day or two without showering as well?  But, eventually, no matter what, you know you will need to shower again?

Well, some skills/routines/procedures we teach our kiddos are the same way!  We can teach them fully and completely on Monday, and they might stick through Tuesday, and even Wednesday or Thursday, but eventually we will need to review and even reteach them.

This can be hard to remember as teachers, especially when we feel like we did a really excellent job teaching something the first time.  Of course, not every skill is a "shower skill" -- many things, if taught well, can be mastered relatively quickly and never need to be fully re-taught again.  But there are a surprising number of routines, rules, and procedures in our classrooms that can fall under the "shower skill" umbrella -- skills like sitting correctly on the carpet, putting the heading on your paper, and lining up quietly.

Yet, too often, we get frustrated and annoyed, or even angry, with our kiddos when they don't follow through with the procedures that we know we've taught them.  We get indignant that they aren't tracking the speaker and nodding along, or they aren't responding to the quiet signal the way it was taught, or they aren't answering in complete sentences.

Now, before taking out my frustration on my kiddos, or reconsidering my career choice, I've learned to ask myself -- is this something that could be shower skill?  Maybe all I need is to do is reteach, remind everyone of the expectation, and do a little follow up.  It's surprising how many times a short reteach lesson will clear up the issue without harping, yelling, or punishing.

This approach also leaves more time and energy for really teaching well those skills that require more attention and differentiation. Win:Win!

NOTE: It's much easier to think (write) about this topic during the summer, but I'm hoping that this will be a good reminder once I'm back in the school year! 😎

Learning for Pleasure

For years, the debate about reading homework -- “daily reading logs” versus “weekly reading responses” versus “reading for pleasure" -- has raged among educators and parents. Each side has its own strong arguments and the truth is there is no right or wrong, so I won't even attempt to join the fight. However, I've recently been thinking about how our discussions about homework in other subjects differ from the reading conversation.

It is not uncommon for schools to assign 20-30 minutes of nightly reading, in addition to the standard "10 minutes of homework per grade." Even schools that don't assign "any" homework often still require some type of reading outside of the classroom. What message does this send to kids and families?

Math homework is easily as debatable as reading homework -- from “assign only review” to “provide immediate practice of the day's objective” -- yet I've never heard "math for pleasure” thrown into the mix.  In my experience, most writing homework is given a specific assignment, like writing a book report, biography, or research paper. And I've definitely never seen "nightly science, in addition to..." on any homework sheet. Why is this? What does it say about the purpose of homework?

Essentially we've created a narrative that reading doesn't count as homework, because reading is more important than the other subjects. Students should read for the sake of reading, to improve as readers, and to be more successful in their lives. Teachers, myself included, pass around infographics (like this one) about how far behind a student can fall if they "miss" those 20 minutes per night, but there are no infographics about the importance of getting 20 minutes of math per night. While I'm certainly not arguing that reading isn't important, it also isn't the only thing that's important.  

It's possible that the emphasis on reading started because as a society, we have traditionally accepted that some people are "just not math people" and "some people can't write."  Of course, as growth mindset work has taught us, there’s no such thing as a "math person" and anyone can learn to write. So I’ve been thinking... how we could apply the same line of thinking to math homework, writing homework, even social studies and science homework, that we're comfortable applying to reading.  

Math for pleasure -- whether logic puzzles, critical thinking tasks, or math games -- would be just as valuable for our students as reading for pleasure.  Writing, too, could be assigned with the same open-ended direction that we provide for reading.  Students could write fiction stories, poetry, editorials in response to topics they care about, or simply journal about what's going in their lives. What if we asked parents to check that their children had successfully "learned for 30 minutes" each night before they sign their agendas?

Obviously any homework debate will eventually come down to accountability, but here I think we can also continue the same logic we've used about reading homework for years. Teachers know some kids won't do the homework at all, some will say they did even if they didn't, and some will get too much parental support, but most of us assign homework anyway.  We know that if we let the pendulum swing too far to the “never assign homework” side then we risk sending the message that the academic work is not that important. Likewise, if we swing all the way to the other side, we risk sending a message that school work is only to please a teacher or earn a grade - which isn't right either.

What we really want is students who see that the things they learn in school don't exist only inside the four walls of their classroom, who recognize that learning, even learning for learning's sake, can be enjoyable, and who pursue their interests with passion and determination.  Listening to most homework debates, you would assume that homework will always stand in opposition to these goals, but could it be that rethinking homework could actually get us closer?  I think it's possible.