The Fearless Classroom

A Practical Guide to Experiential Learning Environments

Joli Barker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317622802
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Students learn better when they aren't afraid to take risks and make mistakes. In this book, teacher and popular blogger Joli Barker shows you how to make K-8 students fearless in the classroom so they can engage in deeper learning. You'll discover how to abandon the notion of the teacher as the primary source of information, and instead create a classroom environment in which students can explore problems, test theories, and play games through curiosity, imagination, adaptability, and a passion for learning.

Find out how to…

• Create fearless learning environments
• Engage in fearless planning and lesson design
• Use fearless grading and assessments
• Teach fearless gamification
• Develop fearless parent relations and
• Get students to ask fearless questions

Throughout the book, you'll find suggested activities for science, social studies, language arts, and math, as well as tools such as rubrics to assist you on your journey.

^#1Defining Fearlessness

DOI: 10.4324/9781315754000-1

You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

—AMERICAN PROVERB

The Fearless Educator

As educators, we want what is best for our students. We also tend to teach how we have learned, through traditional teaching. Sure, we have come a long way from the old “lecture only, students in rows” kind of pedagogy, but consumptive learning is still the preferred method of most teachers. But as life has a special way of teaching us, our greatest lessons are often learned through adversity. So why, then, are we afraid to allow students to struggle and fail? We love them, that’s why! We want so much for understanding to happen for our students that we sometimes inadvertently can be the obstacles that prevent students from experiencing true learning. Our good intentions block the authentic learning from happening. I often tell my students that if they knew everything I had planned for them to learn then they would not be in my class. I want them to know that it is okay to say, “I don’t know,” as long as it is followed with, “but I can certainly learn it!” I want them to feel comfortable with struggle and failure, knowing that these are necessary steps to a deeper understanding and most certainly to a moment of self-confidence in achievement. I am their advocate, their facilitator, and their safety net. I am there to offer guidance but not answers, encouragement but not coddling.

Educators today must let go of the idea that they must be the sole provider of information and that all activities to reinforce that information need to be practice and consumptive. There is much research to show that discovery activities and challenging problem-solving activities that require collaboration and communication between students are more powerful in creating deeper learning than passive, consumptive activities. It is a beautiful thing to have a busy, engaged, lively classroom versus a quiet classroom. Students need to learn to communicate their thinking, negotiate learning from each other, and collaboratively engage in learning with other students. Fearless educators understand that functioning as more of a safety net and clarifier for students offers more opportunities for authentic intervention within the context of the learning activity rather than pulling students into isolated and more contrived small-group learning activities.

The Fearless Student

It is true that we educators should approach our responsibilities to our students fearlessly and that they, as students of the world, should approach their learning fearlessly. But there is another layer to the idea of a fearless classroom. As I walk the hallways of elementary schools around our collective communities, I often hear the following statements echoing within the walls of the schools, which are even more concerning in the hearts of the kids who learn there.

“You need to do your best on this test or you may have to repeat this grade.”

“If you don’t start working harder the next grade level is going to be even more difficult!”

“You need to sit down and be quiet! There is no talking in this classroom.”

“If you don’t get to work you will not have recess!”

I cringe when I hear those comments. Why do we feel that it is more effective to scare students into submission or conformity than to encourage them to do the right thing and have integrity in their work?

What if our principal were to conduct an observation of one of our lessons? And what if he or she came up to us after the lesson and said, “You’re not getting a contract next year because you didn’t try on that lesson”?

I know how I would feel. I’d feel defeated, then I’d get mad, then I would lose faith in him or her as a leader, and I would stop caring about what he or she had to say. I might decide to leave and go to another school, but, if I was cut from a different cloth, I might decide that I was not a good teacher and I would quit. I believe that I am no different than any other human. We all like to have praise for our efforts; recognition for the hard work we put in. Some of us need it more than others, but we all like it. So, perhaps a more accurate question would be, “How could we encourage students to do the right thing and to have integrity in their work?” How can we foster a classroom culture where students put their names on their work not because it is simply a means of identifying one’s work, or because it is an expectation of the teacher, but because they want to stake claim to the incredible effort that the work represents?

So how do we create a fearless classroom in these terms? How do we create a culture of supportive encouragement, praise, and validation?

The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.

—SVEN-GÖRAN ERIKSSON

Students respond to success much more readily than they do to failure. Behaviorally, the same sentiment rings true. We want children to find a competitive spark within themselves to set their own expectations and goals, and to work feverishly to achieve those goals. One of the ways I have successfully evoked this kind of climate in my classroom is to spend a few moments at the beginning of each day having students set their own academic goals. I keep them constantly informed of their academic achievements and areas of opportunity so that they can assess and evaluate for themselves what they need to do to reach their goals. At the beginning of the year, this is quite a teach piece, but by midyear they are exceptional at assessing their needs and writing reasonable and attainable goals for themselves. Additionally, through gamification, students are immersed in high scores, “unlockable” achievements, and level-ups, which add an engaging layer of commitment to producing their highest-quality work.

Another way I cultivate a fearless classroom is to always praise, even when disciplining or offering critical feedback. I praise effort and encourage brainstorming and risk-taking. When a student volunteers an inaccurate answer, I praise the contribution because it facilitates a discussion that leads to deeper learning. Without that student taking the risk and offering that inaccurate answer, the learning that takes place as a result might never have happened. So we celebrate it. This also provides that risk-taker with a pat on the back for trying, thus increasing the likelihood that he or she will try again. It instills a sense of fearless tenacity and determination to persevere.

If you were to visit my classroom and ask my students if they were scared or worried about the next grade, the state test, or their future, they would emphatically let you know that not only are they prepared, but also that they are excited about what the future holds for them. I want to make sure that this point is clearly stated: I do not fill them with ego-boosting coddling of empty compliments that have no validity to them. This isn’t about filling students with so much praise that they have a false sense of grandeur or arrogance. This is about helping students discover the genius within each of them and helping them realize that each of them has a gift that the world simply must experience.

Together, my students have developed the use of the cultural vernacular of OMG and LOL and BRB, which they coined to mean “Observing Major Genius,” “Love Our Learning,” and “Be Right-Brained,” respectively. The kids believe in themselves and compete only with their own accomplishments. We are a family that supports each other and will work together to make sure that truly no child is left behind.

Preparing students for school is far less important than preparing them for life. They need to feel that they can accomplish anything but that sometimes that means a lot of hard work and it may take years before they realize their success. They need to believe in their abilities and potential, and to have frequent and consistent experiences with struggle, failure, and improving reattempts. They need to know that every moment, every experience, is an opportunity to learn and that they should embrace it with wonder and eagerness.

Scaring kids into performing on a test, or working independently, or being quiet or anything else is not only counter-productive, but also can actually set them up for failure that they are not going to be able to handle effectively and which could potentially destroy their ambitions to succeed.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

—DOUGLAS ADAMS

Students of all ages need to believe that what they are doing matters. In every context, throughout every content and activity, what they are doing must matter to them, or they will never understand that integrity falls squarely on their shoulders. And that their work, no matter how minute or mundane it may seem, is crucial to their development as a significant person in this world. It is our job to help form those connections from one concept to another. We must help them discover how what they have done in previous grades or lessons were all precursors to what they are doing now, and how what they are doing now will ultimately help them find success down the line. But more important than any of that is this: We as educators must foster the idea that nothing is impossible when great minds believe in possibilities. Failure must become a welcome stepping-stone to success rather than a barrier. Many educators believe that failure can destroy self-esteem and the willingness to take future risks. So how do we do this? How do we help our students discover the “I’m Possible” within themselves?

First of all, just telling kids that they are incredible and that you believe in them is no longer enough. Kids are smart enough to pick up on lip service. We can be the kindest, most supportive teachers in the game and still have kids feeling unworthy of praise, incapable of success, and unwilling to try. Why is this? It is because we are the teachers and we present ourselves as the primary source of information and therefore know just about everything there is to know about everything. “Because I said so” can be readily used when we really don’t know, but what does that say to the kids? I try to interject something new into every class period—something new that I have never done before either. I call it my Genius Table and we work through the activities together. They see me struggle, adapt, adjust my strategies and thinking, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail … fail, try again and again … and sometimes still end up unsuccessful. That is until I am successful. Maybe it is a Sudoku problem, or a Mensa question, or a new task like needlepoint or even a tough jigsaw puzzle. Anything will do as long as none of us has a clue as to how to accomplish the task.

Their faces light up when they get farther in the task than I do. But even more impressive is the look on their faces when their “genius, award-winning teacher” struggles and fails right along with them. She doesn’t get upset, she doesn’t quit, and she doesn’t feel sorry for herself. She laughs, thinks, talks to them, and asks them for advice and help. This is where true learning happens. This is when the impossible becomes “I’m Possible.”

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

—CHARLES F. KETTERING

When a child believes that there is no such thing as failure, that every unsuccessful trial is simply data for how to succeed, then failure truly loses its power over them. They embrace it. They long for it. They know that if they are failing now it only means that they are getting closer to the solution. Students need to experience this feeling and feel it fully every single day. It starts, though, with you. You have to let go of the fear that a less than stellar grade somehow reflects poorly on you as the teacher. Take the lackluster academic performances and troubleshoot them with the student. Sit down and discuss item by item what went wrong. Allow them to explain their thinking and how they came to their answer. Listen. Take notes. Don’t speak other than to smile and say things like, “Ah, yes, I see how you could get that. That’s a very interesting and smart thinking process you had!” Say this because indeed it was. Then, in true fearless fashion, send the student back to try again by asking a pointed question like, “What if this question were about (something they are interested in and passionate about like baseball for example)? How might you have answered it then? What if you were to rewrite this question in terms of baseball? How might you answer it then?”

Impossible only means that you haven’t found the solution yet.

—MARK TWAIN

Engage students in global conversations. Connect with classrooms within your campus, community, state, country, and internationally. Have these same conversations with other students. Allow your struggling students to discuss and collaborate on solutions to problems with students from other classrooms and schools. We have successfully completed several international projects, which are highlighted later in this book. Students were required to learn from each other, collaborate with other cultures, be patient over time zones, and learn with and from others. What a fantastic way to show new ways of thinking and problem solving with empathy and global mindedness! It truly shows students that anything can be accomplished when we allow ourselves to ask for help and listen respectfully to others.

No one gets very far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.

—ELBERT HUBBARD

We need to facilitate student perseverance. We must give them frequent and purposeful challenges through which they will struggle, fail, try again, fail, and eventually come to a place where they either successfully find a solution or come close enough to a solution that adequately satisfies their thirst to succeed. We want their passions to be celebrated and taken seriously. We want them approaching their learning with as much determination and vigorous enthusiasm as they do their favorite games or other passions. In the first ten years of my teaching career I heard so frequently the following sentiments echoed in the voices of my students:

“I...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Meet the Author
• Table of Contents
• Note from the Author
• Preface
• Foreword
• #1. Defining Fearlessness
• #2. Creating Fearless Learning Environments
• #3. Fearless Planning and Lesson Design
• #4. Fearless Grading
• #5. Fearless Assessing of Skills
• #6. Setting Fearless Goals
• #7. Guide to Fearless Activities
• #8. Fearless Parent Relations
• #9. Fearless Gaming in the Classroom
• #10. Globalizing Your Classroom with Fearless Project-Based Learning