On Being Explicit

As the students walked in from recess, they lined up to go to the bathroom or to get a drink of water before going back to class for snack time. Two boys, Frank is jumping up to touch the frame of the door as they are waiting for students. They do this repeatedly, each jump getting higher. Meanwhile, there are students walking in the hallway that must maneuver around the jumps. This goes on for about 2 minutes until I decide to have a conversation with them.

Me: Should we be touching the frame of the door?"

Frank: Yes... (seems to say in a very matter of fact way)

He then looks away and continues to jump. We then had to head back to the room.

The next day.

Frank continues to jump to touch the frame of the door today.

Me: Frank, please do not jump. Don't jump. It's unsafe behavior and we are not modeling good hall behavior for other students in the school, like the first graders.

Frank: Well, yesterday, you didn't say we couldn't jump. You said "Should you jump?" and I said yes, so I jumped. And now, you said 'don't do it' so I won't do it.

Me: Frank, I think maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I should have said "Don't jump" from the beginning. I asked you the question because I wanted you to think about it and come up with an appropriate answer. Would it be better for me to just tell you and not explain the reasons, rather than asking you to think about it and then discuss it together?

Frank: Well, yea, it depends...

While this incident was a, perhaps, trivial, I was able to see how my instruction and prompts affected the thoughts and behaviors of one student, Frank. Initially, I ideally thought that students should be taught to self-regulate their own behavior by self-reflecting about it. I realized that his developmental process of regulating one's behavior and thoughts requies explicit teahcing. In fourth grade, many students are making this develomental leap and learning to think more abstractly and to perspective take alot more. I realized by telling a student "don't jump", I was not necessarily impinging on their ability to think independantly, but in light of the needs of each student, could be a scaffold to devleop this independant thinking. Many instances like this have been apparent in my teaching, and overall, I have learned to be more explicit in my expectations of behavior, assignment, and perhaps, even thought processes. In Teaching Children to Care, the author talks about creating a community that will learn to care for each other, the class as the whole, and their learning. This may be a small part of this, being explicit about the appropriate, thoughtful behavior that I hold the students accountable to, while providing a nurturing and caring environment students will thrive in.