Achieving Quality by Slowing the Pace of Work
Classroom teaching is demanding, even for the most capable teacher, as many children do not have appropriate social or independent learning skills.
Often in classrooms the demands of teaching a range of activities can become so great that getting through the day in itself is a major achievement. Many children seem to think that 'first finished is best' and that 'quantity is more important than quality'. It seems that many children in this media age are hooked into instant success.
One way to help students achieve a quality mindset is for teachers to deliberately introduce the idea of the importance of 'slowing the pace of work' so that students can be helped to achieve work they are proud of.
The advantages of 'slowing the pace' are:
- If children are encouraged to take their time this allows 'space' for the teacher to come alongside the learner and to think of ways to help.
- If children are taught to 'slow their pace' and to do things well this has the effect of quietening the frenetic tone some classrooms get into. If children haven't been taught this expectation then rushing their work to finish first is not their fault.
- Slowing the pace provides an opportunity for the teacher to suggest, to teach skills in context, and to suggest options and alternatives for students to consider. With time as students learn gain success they will come to realise the need to persevere at a task and not 'give up when things get tough'.
- If appropriate help is given, students will also become aware of the skills and strategies (the 'how to do it' aspects), implicit in each task and this will seem all the more worthwhile as they experience the thrill of a job well done.
- Slowing pace provides the opportunity to develop old fashioned values such as the importance of the need to apply effort, to practice until the new skill is in place and most of all to feel a sense of pride in a job well done. As teachers gain the 'time to teach' they gain the opportunity to give praise for any small areas of growth, and to celebrate achievements by displaying results carefully on the class walls.
- Most importantly slowing the pace of work clarifies the teacher's role in assisting all students achieve quality work. The teacher is able to help children define their tasks, challenge them to think deeply, help them focus on the important aspects, and in the process extend and elaborate their thinking. Teachers are able to 'scaffold' learning by demonstrating, modelling and 'thinking aloud'. Slowing the pace allows for a positive interactive and diagnostic role for the teacher and in the process empowers students to become independent learners. An appropriate metaphor for a teacher is that of a coach.
Some practical ideas to develop quality work through slowing the pace:
- In personal and research writing emphasise the writing process from idea generation (through 'mind mapping'?), to drafting, editing to the finished product. By focussing on the process students have time to think deeply and produce focussed writing. Teachers need to develop the expectation of each page to be qualitatively be better than the one before in some aspect that the student can articulate e.g. quality of ideas, interesting first sentence, handwriting, illustrations etc. Teachers could develop a set of quality criteria for students to self evaluate their own work - this could apply to any task.
- The process above applies to each progressive page in any exercise book. If expectations are clear students will be able to see their own progress, as will their parents. This 'message' of continual improvement should eventually become part of the class culture. If this is done then exercise books can be regarded as a form of student portfolio to share with their parents to illustrate student achievement.
- To achieve quality work students need to be 'taught' a range of presentation skills. They need to be aware of simple layout formats, how to create simple headings, use appropriate borders and know how to place illustrations etc. Children enjoy 'illustrative' tasks as they fulfil a human need to decorate as long as they are not overdone -the message must be worth the time spent.
- Perhaps the best way to develop the importance of slowing the pace of work is in the field of observational drawing. Teaching students to look carefully, to learn to observe, to look for patterns enables children not only to notice things but to learn to reflect, to think of questions (if a science study) but most of all to make interesting connections that might result in poetic writing. Learning to observe and to pay attention is an important skill in all areas of learning.
- To teach observational drawing teacher's need to be aware of the strategies involved. The key to quality drawing is to encourage the students to, 'look - imagine - draw - look - imagine - draw'. As they draw encourage them to invent marks for all patterns that they can see. Show them examples of artist's work. The immediate environment is a rich resource for observational art and language development. Drawing is a task that can be integrated into a range of studies. Students can draw from real life while on a field trip. They can also copy from illustrations as this process will assist them develop ideas. Social studies and science books are good resources. Drawings, particularly copied ones can easily be extended into the imagination by adding action, background and foreground details. For example, a drawing of a real snail as part of a science project can be re-created as a 'magic' one, or a person drawn as part of a historical study extended into an action painting.
- Creating a crayon or paint picture are other ideal means to develop the slowing the pace of work to develop quality work. The process is similar to the writing process in the assisting the student from idea generation to realisation. The key idea is to develop in the students is that their finished piece of work should be focussed. First get them to plan a draft idea on a small piece of paper say 8 cm x 8 cm. Using a biro or pencil but no rubbers- just draw over mistakes. Teachers interact with students checking at first for focus for focus and action and then to details and background. When this stage is complete students enlarge their draft drawing onto a large piece of paper with light crayon. When this stage is complete the works are coloured in. Start with the main focus. Insisting if crayon all colours should be mixed over each other to give depth and that no white paper is finally to remain. This process could take several sessions over several days. The quality message will become clear!
- Planning a booklet/chart before undertaking the last detail e.g. cover, page etc. If each page is clearly defined, children will know what to do. Students need templates to help them plan their work.
Teachers need to develop an organisation to assist students with particular needs.
Although the idea of teaching the skills of slowing the pace of work can be introduced to the whole class, (teaching skills explicitly), with experience a system of group work can be introduced allowing the teacher to work in depth with a new process, or with children with special needs, while the others can continue with tasks they can do independently.
The point of slowing the pace of work is to achieve both Quality teaching and learning.
For every task students undertake the teacher should ask, 'How can I help students, focus, extend or elaborate this piece of work?' 'What options and choices do the students need to be aware of?' With time and experience the goal is for students to understand the need to do their best work and not to rush to be first finished, to understand the creative process and to be aware of the strategies involved in any task. The vision is that if students can gain these understandings and have the skills to be able to control of the process not only will they be able do quality work automatically but the teacher will have even more time to assist those in need.
Slowing pace contributes to children achieving quality work.
|