David and Goliath Applied To Education

David and Goliath Applied to Education

by Jill Jenkins

My stepson, Braden fills my I POD with books that he thinks I will enjoy listening to or that the two of us might enjoy discussing.  One book that he strongly recommends is David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants  by Malcom Gladwell which discusses how a weakness can be used as a strength and a strength can be used against a person.  Gladwell uses examples from biblical times to modern times  to support his premise.  For example, David uses Goliath's mammoth size and cumbersome armor to defeat the giant, Goliath. Goliath's armor restricts his movement.  His size is likely due to Gigantism which has many related health problems including problems with vision even double vision. Since David uses a sling-shot instead of arm-to arm combat, the giant is caught off guard.  His inability to move quickly coupled with his visual disorder meant he neither saw nor expected the rock flying at 90 mph towards his unprotected face; as a result, he was defeated.

One of the modern examples the book explores is class size.  The book claims that even though many prestigious preparatory schools claim to be superior because they offer small class size, class size does not effect learning.  At that, I shut off the tape grumbling expletives and complaining to my husband that I was not going to listen to such nonsense, but I did.  It turns out Gladwell was comparing class sizes of ten students to those of 15-20 students.  There is no difference.  I am not surprised.  If he had taught in any urban school in the country, he would have known that 20 pupils is not a large class; its a dream.  Most urban class sizes have forty or more students and can only dream of classes of 10-20 students.  Furthermore, it not just the class size, it's the diversity.  Finland and South Korea, nations he compared his data with have homogenous groups of students attending their public schools.  Schools in the United States accept all students mainstreaming intellectually handicapped students, N.E.P. and L.E.P. (No English Proficiency and Limited English Proficiency), emotionally handicapped students, advanced learners, and the ordinary students.  Meaning most teachers face classes from 35-45 students packed with every kind of need imaginable.  Does class size effect the teacher's ability to meet the individual needs of each student? Yes, it does.  Mr. Gladwell claims that teachers with smaller class sixe simply don't work as hard.  I was off in a tirade yelling expletives at my poor husband again.  In my 39 years of teaching, I have seen a few lazy teachers, but most teachers arrive an hour before the students and stay hours after the students leave taking boxes of papers home to correct late into the night, over weekend and I remember correcting research papers as my husband lay unconscious in the ICU after a massive heart attack.  Finally, the book admits that even though small class size from 10-20 had no significant difference, class sizes above 30 did and class sizes over 40 had devastating results.  Now, he was talking my language.  However, his first remarks were not seated in reality when one considers the number of students in each class.

Mr. Gladwell's next examples were three college students who according to him made the mistake of attending an ivy league college and changed their majors from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) after each received a "B" in a course.  Personally, I would call that lack of grit.  Something that Gladwell may be unaware of is the difference in how public school students are graded from how students are graded in college.  Students in public schools are graded against a set standard so that any student who earns 94% of the available points earns an "A." The teachers are encouraged to assist with each student's success and are chastised for any student who fails by earning less than 60% of the available points.  Parents negotiate with teachers and administrators to change grades or enhance them with extra credit to improve their child's GPA. In my last teaching assignment 700+ students of the 1500 students enrolled earned a GPA of 3.75 or higher.  Which means teachers are making classes easier to relieve pressure from pushy parents.  The students expect continual success and have no experience competing for high grades.  Ivy league schools accept only the best students and provide them with a challenging curriculum.  The faculty grades on a curve meaning only the top students earn the top grades.  No one coddles the students like the public schools.  However, the student who are selected to go to ivy league schools not only have high grades but high test scores.  Perhaps the ivy league schools should take a lesson from public schools and change their grading?  Better yet, perhaps students should be challenged.  Rather than getting perfect grades, learning difficult material should be the goal.

Next the book,  David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants  by Malcom Gladwell  discusses the value of struggling. To exemplify this, it uses examples of students who overcame dyslexia or poverty to become successful C.E.O.s and doctors.  As an educator I have witnessed this.  If an individual has grit and the support of a positive adult, whether that is a parent of a teacher that child can turn that disadvantage into a strength and perform some amazing feats.  For example I had a student, Dante, whose dyslexia was so severe that reading was impossible.  His parents and friends would read him the material aloud and he would memorize it in one reading.  The book describes people with similar skills of adaption.  However, few students with this type of handicap have either the ability to compensate as Dante did or the support system to help them continue their education.  The reality is most students need a great deal of help to overcome obstacles.  There are exceptions, but their numbers are negligible.  The book analyzes the connection between a child losing a parent during childhood and becoming successful.  It seems that 2/3 of those incarcerated have suffered the loss of one parent in childhood and 67% of all of the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during its world domination also lost a parent as a child.  The old adage "that which doesn't destroy you, makes you stronger," seems to be true.  Gladwell's book compares this to the blitz in London during World War II.  Although Britain feared that German's attack of London would demoralize citizens, instead it made them stronger.  Those that were hit directly died; those who witnessed their loved ones killed or maimed were emotionally crippled; nonetheless, the majority of the population witnessed the explosions of a near miss and felt emboldened and stronger.  Perhaps when Native Americans made young boys face their fear by hunting and killing a bear alone, they were preparing them for a future by arming them with courage. 

 

 

Finally the book discusses what gives one the authority to rule.  Anyone who is being ruled expect the rules to be fair, that the rules be consistently applied and that those ruled be treated with dignity. Those are my words interpreting his ideas.  I couldn't agree more. As a supervising teacher, I have heard more than once a novice explain, "I could not believe those students turned on me when I was being evaluated!"  Students protect teachers who create a warm environment where they feel safe and feel when they make a mistake they will be treated fairly.  Brut force backfired when the English tried contain the IRA during the 1970's according to the book and neither will brut force help a teacher control a classroom of seventh graders.  Teachers must have reasonable rules that are clearly communicated, consistently enforced and enforced without malice.  Teachers have to help students understand the importance of behaving within the norm.
 

 David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants  by Malcom Gladwell  may not be a book that I agree with completely, but it opens many avenues for interesting dialogue so it is worth the read. As an educator, it pitched me into a rage, but many of the ideas are sound and well supported.  After my tirade, I would recommend it.  Maybe schools need to help students overcome with fear to face their bear alone and defeat it.  Courage is the key to greatness.

Three Methods To Engage the Quiet Student

Three Methods To Engage the Quiet Student

by Jill Jenkins

 

Teachers modify lessons to accommodate students who are visual learners, kinetic learners, students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, students with autism and students with varying degrees of language acquisition. Is there a larger group of students that we are ignoring?  How do teachers make adaptions for introverts? To accommodate larger class sizes, teacher rely heavily on large class discussions and small group activities.  For many students having an opportunity to articulate and move in the classroom not only relieves boredom, but increases retention of the learning material.  For the shy or quiet students, these activities can be intimidating and terrifying.  Regardless, students need to master the skills associated with oral communication.  Being able to communicate ideas effectively in a group or to a group is an important skill for students to acquire to insure their success in the business world.   How can teachers help the shy student overcome fear of speaking publically?  Here are three methods: first, use task analysis to break public speaking into small teachable skills and have students practice them; second, have student solve problem independently before pairing them with another students to share; third, avoid extemporaneous speaking by allowing students time to prepare before presenting. 

Break the Speech into Small Teachable Skills and Provide Practice 

When I taught speech and debate, I encountered a lot of students who would rather face open heart surgery than speak publically.  During one competition one girl fainted when she stood before a class of students.  After reading Doctor Madeline Hunter's  research on "The Mastery of Learning " I learned to use task analysis to break learning into teachable skills which allows scaffolding for struggling students.  Shy students are often struggling because of their emotional state, so teaching the specific skills in small bites improves every student's performance.  First, I began by talking about speaking anxiety and I asked students to write in their journals how they felt when they were asked to speak before the class.  They shared their writings with a partner.  Second, I taught them breathing and visualization techniques used to calm students and I had students practice each technique.  Third, I modeled how to walk from their desk to the podium with poise, stand at the podium looking at the audience from the right to the left and center and smile before dropping my head, stepping away from the podium and returning to my desk with my head held high and with proper posture.  Each student practiced this with their partner before performing it before the entire class.  Each performance was rewarded with applause and praise.   After each student had mastered walking to the podium, I instructed and modeled other skills including:

1. eye contact
2. articulation
3. gesticulation
4. projection
5. pronunciation
6. annunciation
7. poise
8. and the structure of speeches

Each students practiced each skills with their partner and then before the class in a series of short exercise.  Finally each student was ask to compose a 1-3 minutes speech and present it to he class.  Regardless of their performance, I slathered them with praise to encourage them to keep working. 

 

Adding visual aides like a Power Point Presentation allows shy students to hide behind technology and gives them a real world skill.  Don't forget to model standing before the audience, but not in front of the screen, pointing to objects on the screen while facing the audience and correctly using the remote control.  Allowing students to present in pairs will further increase a shy student's confidence.

 

 

Small Group Discussion

With class sizes growing to above forty in some schools, teachers rely on group discussions and activities to increase retention.  Shy students who may have great ideas are often intimidated in this setting and their ideas are often lost.  Having students respond in a journal first allows these student the time and space to compose their ideas making them less hesitant to share.  According to Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain  quiet students respond better in pairs and trios than larger groups.  I found this was true in my own classrooms,  Also sliding two or three desks together was less time consuming and cumbersome than creating larger groups; thus, increasing learning time.  The few dominate students were less likely to silence the less aggressive students because more students felt comfortable.

Avoid Extemporaneous Speaking

Quiet students are often more intellectual and reflective than their talkative counterparts.  These student feel uncomfortable sharing an idea that they are forming or is not completely formed. As a result speaking extemporaneously is terrifying. Allowing students time to think and to write ideas in journals increases the likelihood that they will share them orally with the rest of the class or collaborate with others orally. Using alternative forms of communication before the students speak publically encourages quiet students to more freely share their ideas. For example, sharing ideas electronically can decrease their apprehension .  Other students who dislike this preparation will probably "wing it" anyway, so you are not reducing their performance.  However, giving shy students an opportunity to prepare will greatly increase shy students' participation.  Above all do no push them.  According to  Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, encourage them to stretch their experience and praise them for their efforts.