So you’ve got this awesome science lesson planned.
The materials are all laid out. Your lab coat is hanging on a hook behind your desk. Your fake horned-rims are dangling conspicuously from the breast pocket.
Your students know they’re in for a cool learning experience, and all morning the classroom has been abuzz. Smartly, you scheduled the lesson for the afternoon.
The building of anticipation is fun and helps students appreciate these moments.
But inexplicably, when they return from lunch, they don’t seem so appreciative. It’s as if you’ve switched classes with the rowdies next door.
They enter the classroom noisily. They slouch chatty and unfocused in their seats. And when you give a direction, it’s loosely followed. You send them back to perform these routines over again, but still they persist.
It appears that, at this moment anyway, they’re taking you and the special classroom you’ve created for granted.
You glance over at your carefully arranged materials, your freshly pressed lab coat, your well-thought-out lesson plans . . . then up at the clock on the wall. It’s time for science to begin.
You ponder your options.
You could give a rousing lecture and express how disappointed you are. You could delay the lesson and reteach your rules and expectations. You could press on and hope the allure of the lesson will shake them from their apathy.
Or . . .
You could call off the lesson altogether.
Whether it’s canceling a cool science experiment, a special activity, a holiday party, or an outdoor learning game, hard lessons—those that profoundly disappoint students—can be the best medicine for your classroom.
Here’s why:
Your classroom is a two-way street.
Hard lessons send the message to your students that your classroom is a two-way street. You give your best for them. That’s a given. But the expectation is that they must give their best for you.
The most successful classrooms have a balanced teaching/learning relationship, with both parties feeling obligated and appreciative of the other. When this relationship becomes lopsided, often burdensomely weighted toward the teacher, complacency and entitlement arise.
Hard lessons remind students to appreciate their teacher and the remarkable classroom he or she has created, thereby restoring equilibrium in the relationship.
Excellence is expected.
When you let things go, when you accept less than what your students are capable of, in effect you’re telling them that mediocrity is okay, disrespect is tolerated, and half-efforts are acceptable.
When your first attempt at holding your class accountable (i.e., performing routines over again) is taken with a shrug, it’s a clear sign that something more drastic is in order.
Taking you or the classroom for granted is not okay and cannot be ignored. Hard lessons bring students back to reality, respect, and appreciation and make an unspoken but emphatic statement that excellence is expected.
It won’t happen again.
Hard lessons, both for individuals and whole classrooms, result in a humbler attitude more attuned and eager to make amends. If the disappointment is strong enough, students will bend over backwards not to make the same mistake twice.
They become sharper and quicker to listen and hop-to the direction you ask them. And the next time you have a similar lesson or activity, you’ll discover in your students a very different attitude.
After a hard lesson, they know that with you as their teacher there are no threats, no negotiations, and no second chances. Just action. And action alone, supported by the leverage of a classroom they enjoy being part of, sets fire under their feet.
An Enduring Lesson
Hard lessons are best left for your students to process on their own. So avoid explaining, lecturing, or trying to tell them how they should feel. Your words will only lessen the weightiness of the experience.
You can, however, make your actions more impactful.
Before making your announcement, go ahead and slip on your lab coat and nerdy glasses. Stand expectantly in front of your neat display of materials. Pause a moment until every eye is on you.
Speaking softly, say:
“Because of your behavior today—walking into class noisily, following directions poorly, side-talking—I’m canceling the science lesson.”
Then calmly take off your glasses and lab coat and place them both back inside the closet.
It only takes a moment.
But the lesson will stay with them long after you close the closet door.
Note: If the activity you’re cancelling is a lesson, it’s perfectly fine to teach it on another day.
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I get this and agree that the future will be better. But what should the teacher do now for the rest of the lesson time? What’s the substitution? Can’t be anything rewarding. Silent reading time? Catch up on other odds and ends from the day? Just go on to the next lesson like Math or Social Studies?
Hi Deb,
Good question. I probably should have anticipated it and included something in the article. It’s best to move on as if nothing happened, with no additional consequences. A typical subject-area lesson or academic practice would fit well.
:)Michael
I have to disagree with you on this. What lessons are they going to learn, truly? Its the afternoon, after lunch and personally I’m more tired in the afternoon especially after eating. Why not instead ask if the students are still interested? Ask why they may not be interested? What has change since the morning? Have a discussion with the class instead of punishing them for being tired and uninterested after lunch? Maybe they’re not uninterested? Do you know why they are acting in such a way? Was there any investigation? Do your students understand your feelings about how they are acting outside of taking away an exciting project.
Instead you give a message of I don’t care how you feel, what you feel is irrelevant what is relevant here is that you know I’m the boss and its my way or the highway no matter how gentle and calming you may sound in getting this message across. What balance are you taking about here… this to me is not balanced? The lesson learned here is compliance over all things in spite of 20 or so students acting in a manner one teacher finds annoying. Think how much more students could learn with a discussion on how you feel as a teacher and what you expect. Heck you might just spend the whole afternoon discussing this without ever getting to the lab… wow what a discussion that would be? How much more would they have learned from you and each other?
You may think its a wasted afternoon discussing how students should act but truthfully what you have done is have students ‘not think twice in acting out because of fear losing out on something fun’; No, they’d think twice because they’d understand how you feel, how they feel, perhaps there is better time of day to due such a fun project etc.
One thing I think teachers miss out on is you not only teach but you learn from your students as they are teachers to. The learning should be both ways, don’t you think?
I hope I don’t sound over bearing here but its just another way, another perspective. What you are advocating above as always been the way IMO. I don’t think there is anything new here. I remember being taught this way as most would and the first thing out of our mouths would be “we turned out alright”… I will then state “compared to what?”
One final note is you stated above the kind of remarkable class he or she has created… there in lies the whole problem… shouldn’t it be the remarkable classroom the we the students and teacher created? Perhaps if that foundation was laid out from the get go, so called hard lessons wouldn’t be needed at all.
With respect,
Gavin
We had a kermess, and I found my third grader students throwing some food to each other for fun. I gave them some warnings. Later in the classroom I asked them to raise their hand if they knew they were doing wrong and still wasted food. All of them knew it indeed. We use to play with animal puppets, I told them that as a consequence… puppets wouldn’t come out. I wondered what would you think about this. This article helped me a lot. You know I need some advice to help a new student in an already integrated group who is bothering them… he had some time-outs, he is proud when he doesn’t even get a Warning, rapport is in a good level with him. Thanks a lot again =)
Thank you for this advice. I used to lecture, discuss, and explain to my students how I felt, how they should feel, behave, etc. I might get half-hearted cooperation and complete what should have been a fun and exciting lesson. I would feel like I had “won” because I did after all get to teach the lesson as planned. But, this also seemed to empower them so that the next time they didn’t feel like participating enthusiastically…..once again I would find myself repeating this same mistake, only it would be so much worse. The lecture sounded like nagging and the students complaining and whining! Lesson learned-if I forget who is in charge, the students will be happy to take over.
Indeed, Kathy. Thanks for sharing!
Michael