Totally Positive Teaching

A Five-Stage Approach to Energizing Students and Teachers

Joseph Ciaccio

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781416612612
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Discipline problems, limited resources, crowded classrooms. Teachers face many issues each day that can wear down their love of education. How can they stay focused and energized day in and day out?

In Totally Positive Teaching, Joseph Ciaccio shares an approach that transformed him from a burned-out veteran teacher struggling joylessly through each day to a professional who has fun with his students, guiding them to success while enjoying the teaching process.

The conviction that people can adopt a new attitude is at the heart of Ciaccio's Totally Positive Approach. When teachers enter the classroom with an upbeat attitude supported by constructive teaching techniques, they can build trusting partnerships with students. Ciaccio describes five techniques for creating a daily positive learning experience that nurtures student achievement:

* Devising activities to meet the mutual needs of student and teacher
* Changing personal counterproductive feelings
* Responding to behavior problems with self-discipline
* Helping underachievers become self-motivated
* Developing instructional strategies to keep students engaged

Ciaccio provides plenty of examples to illustrate how these techniques actually work in the classroom. He also includes dozens of strategies and tips for introducing the Totally Positive Approach and making it take hold in your own work.

When teachers use the Totally Positive Approach, students gain confidence, take control of their lives, and feel that they belong. Just as important, teachers enjoy enormous professional and personal growth, seeing with new clarity how their own attitudes and actions help shape the next generation. Totally Positive Teaching is an inspirational guide to approaching each school day with new energy, insight, and satisfaction.

Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

Chapter 1

Meeting Mutual Needs

The first component of the Totally Positive Approach is meeting mutual needs. Using this technique, a teacher carefully devises classroom activities that meet the needs of both the students and teacher.

Meeting mutual needs creates a partnership between teachers and students—one that results in a mutually agreeable educational enterprise. This technique brings students and educators together so they work as a team. Meeting mutual needs is a powerful force because it connects the teacher and students on many levels—social, emotional, and psychological. This technique helps all involved gain substantially from their interaction. Four approaches to meeting mutual needs are discussed in the following sections:

• Having fun,
• Using the teacher's talents and passions in the classroom,
• Helping children, and
• Creating mutual needs.

By developing a mutual-needs partnership with students, educators can ensure a personally enriching experience.

Having Fun

The first strategy for meeting mutual needs in the classroom is having fun. Looking back on my own career, I see how my feelings were a central force, influencing my classroom teaching. I knew I had chosen the right profession for me, and I was enthusiastic and proud to be a teacher. I liked kids and looked forward to helping them. I was in love with my job, and all was well with my professional world.

But by my 12th year of teaching, my prized occupation had turned to drudgery. I was simply “going through the motions,” and my effectiveness in the classroom was minimal. I dreaded going to bed each school night because of the unpleasant experience awaiting me in the morning.

Still, every September, I felt renewed hope that this year I would transform my professional life into a positive experience. Would socializing with my colleagues make my job fun again? Yes, it made school a little more fun, but the basic problem remained. What if I enjoyed the kids? A survey of 1,350 teachers by John Goodlad uncovered the disconcerting reality that liking kids was not a major reason why teachers chose their profession (Johnson, 1990). I had discovered that it wasn't my own primary motivation either. I tried hard, but I simply found 13-year-olds hard to relate to.

What happened to my enthusiasm for my chosen profession? Reflecting on my life and career, I realized that I had to teach about 20 more years before I could retire. I decided that I could not live in misery for two more decades. I had to change. I had to find a way to deliver myself from this meaningless existence.

Finally, after years of trial and error, I discovered a technique that would emotionally bond me with my students, to the substantial benefit of all involved. By having fun and exhibiting enthusiasm, I enjoyed the kids and the kids enjoyed the class.

Cutlip and Shockley (1988) report that students who were asked about the qualities of their best teacher often cited enthusiasm. My need for joyful interaction was in sync with my students' need for a teacher who could demonstrate love for the subject and excitement for the day-to-day activities of the classroom. All at once, by having fun, I found a way to relate to 13-year-olds. This age group that I had thought I had nothing in common with suddenly became a source of great joy.

Jim McCabe, a social studies teacher in Lynbrook, New York, has taken this idea a step further. He told me once at the end of August that he was looking forward to going back to school. School for him is a “9” out of 10 (on the famous scale of 1 to 10). He enjoys his job. His goal is to go to school, do his job, and have fun. If he is not enjoying a lesson, he stops the lesson. (Can you envision the outcome if every teacher in the United States stopped every lesson if he wasn't having fun?)

Jim McCabe's attitude pays handsome dividends. When a student misbehaves, the other students often hush the kid up. His students “laugh a lot,” Jim asserted. When six special education students were experimentally mainstreamed into his class, they all passed history for the year. Creating a classroom atmosphere of enthusiasm, excitement, and just plain old enjoyment is an important part of great teaching.

Using Teachers' Talents

A second way to meet mutual needs is to bring your passion, burning interest, or talent to the classroom. According to Fried (1996):

You can be passionate about your field of knowledge: in love with the poetry of Emily Dickinson or the prose of Marcus Garvey; dazzled by the spiral of DNA or the swirl of van Gogh's cypresses; intrigued by the origins of the Milky Way or the demise of the Soviet Empire; delighted by the sounds of Mozart or the sonority of French vowels; a maniac for health and fitness or wild about algebraic word problems .... You can be passionate about issues facing our world: active in the struggle for social justice or for the survival of the global environment; dedicated to the celebration of cultural diversity or to the search for the cure of AIDS.... (p. 18)

As Fried observes, your interest in a subject can create a true commitment on the part of your students. Richard Cargill, an English teacher at Willowbrook High School in the suburbs of West Chicago, was passionate about protecting the natural environment. His students used on-campus wetlands as a laboratory for their environmental studies. When the school administration decided to eliminate the wetlands, his students (past and present) protested, and the administration had the wisdom to approve a nature sanctuary instead (Wood, 1992). These students—indeed, the entire school community—will long remember their teacher's burning desire to protect the environment and their own participation in preserving a nature sanctuary for their school.

At Lockhart Elementary School in Massapequa, New York, the principal, Clara Goldberg, has hired uniquely talented teachers who provide a rich and exciting experience for children. When you walk into Larry Laifer's 6th grade classroom, for example, you might be surprised to pass a piano in an integrated social studies/language arts class. This sensation quickly fades as Larry's enthusiastic students sing songs reflecting themes and events from the ancient world that he and another 6th grade teacher, Keith Stanley, wrote. Each week, Larry takes his 20 vocabulary and spelling words from two songs. The children sing their way right through the required vocabulary and spelling lists.

Every year the 6th grade teachers wrap the course content in an attractive package by having the students write a play about the ancient world that includes those songs. For months the students study ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and medieval times. Then they write their drama about the ancient world. Twenty years from now, these students will still remember much of what they learned about a place called Sumer. Larry's passion for music and Keith's interest in writing lyrics turn mundane subjects into an exciting adventure. What better way to learn language arts than to write a play? Most people are scared to death to get up in front of an audience, yet these kids each want the biggest part. Everyone gets a chance to perform. They will never forget 6th grade, and Larry and Keith will live in their memories forever.

Gail Mondshein's 2nd grade students serenaded me on the five-minute walk through the hallways of Lockhart Elementary from the gym to her classroom. Gail loves singing and dancing. She uses both to meet the curriculum goals for 2nd grade. Gail used to perform in musicals, but when her voice faltered, she discovered teaching as an outlet for her passion. “I refuse to let music out of my life,” asserted this former music major, “so I write songs and lyrics for my students. They love it.” Recycling is one of the topics for 2nd grade, so Gail wrote “Working on Trash,” sung to the tune of “I've Been Working on the Railroad.” She uses the songs both to give her students information and to teach skills such as vowel and consonant reinforcement (sound-symbol relationships) and left-to-right tracking.

Gail's love for dance is obvious in the fun that she and her students have during line dancing. Once a week, for 30 minutes, she teaches them listening skills through her constant directions, while they practice the fine motor skills required to carry out the directions. Gail radiates praise for the little ones, and they enjoy both the physical activity and the emotional boost they receive from the abundant compliments. I never saw a better example of a teacher having fun and the students being caught up in the shared enjoyment.

Diane Bacheller, a 4th grade teacher at Lockhart, loves to sketch. She spends much of her free time taking art classes and pursuing creative activities. Her lucky students benefit from her artistic interests. Diane says, “They'll look at a Picasso and see shapes like hexagons and trapezoids, as well as shapes that are more familiar, such as circles, squares, octagons, and rectangles.” Displaying a Picasso, Diane asks her students questions such as “Who can find a right angle?” and “Which shapes are congruent and which shapes are similar?” Questions like these, Diane says, help students learn math vocabulary through art.

Richard Cargill, Larry Laifer, Keith Stanley, Gail Mondshein, and Diane Bacheller all have talents that enrich their teaching and enhance the learning process. Thanks to a farsighted principal, Clara Goldberg, these teachers use their talents to motivate their students and to establish a partnership that meets mutual needs.

Helping Children

What if your personality doesn't lend itself to having fun in the classroom? What if your talents and interests don't help you connect with your students? You don't have to worry. A third approach to meeting mutual needs works for every educator who has a nurturing personality: helping kids who are in trouble.

It is a real irony that most educators will do almost anything to avoid teaching certain students. What they don't understand is that children who are behavior problems and kids who are failing can be assets. These reluctant learners don't make your job easier, but they do present you with an opportunity to protect and defend innocent victims of a society that may be destructive to them. Berla, Henderson, and Kerowsky (1989, p. 19) assert that a good middle school faculty sees their students as “treasures to be watched over, valued, and protected.” Having this kind of nurturing attitude helps the educator see difficult students in a new light.

The following story illustrates an important mutual-needs concept. On July 10, 1999, I attended a Yankees versus Mets baseball game at Shea Stadium. Paul O'Neill homered, and the Yankees took a 2–0 lead. Then the Mets scored four runs, putting the underdogs on top. After this, the Yankees took a 6–4 lead, and all seemed lost for the home team. Mike Piazza hit a three-run homer, and the jubilant Mets fans enjoyed the 7–6 score and a feeling of certain victory. But after two more homers by the Yankees (six in all), an emotional dark cloud thrust the Mets fans into shadows. When the Mets failed to score in the bottom of the eighth inning, all seemed lost. Mariano Rivera would pitch the ninth inning, and the Yankees had 124 consecutive victories going into the ninth with the lead. But the Mets loaded the bases and Matt Franco, a reserve player, pinch-hit a single to right field, scoring two and giving the Mets an improbable 9–8 victory.

If the Mets had won 9–0, it would have been nice but not the great game I witnessed. This come-from-behind triumph was sweet. The same is true of teaching. If you have all honors classes, it's a nice, comfy schedule, but 30 years down the road you may not have enriched your students' lives—or your own—with golden memories of great achievements. You need behavior problems, and you need kids who are failing. You can relish them because they're a come-from-behind challenge. When you succeed, you'll add meaning to your professional life. You will help them, and they will inadvertently help you. This is meeting mutual needs at its best.

Recognize the profound influence you can have on your students. You are likely to encounter children who face serious difficulties in their young lives. Randi Azar, who teaches at the Lawrence Public School on Long Island, New York, tells a heartwarming story about a 2nd grader, Eddie, whose mother had died the previous summer during a gallbladder operation. At school, a boy taunted him by calling his dead mother big and fat. Eddie had picked up a chair and was about to finish off his tormentor when Randi intervened. She explained to Eddie that he had every reason to be angry, but she encouraged him to express his anger verbally, not violently. Randi and Eddie had a quiet conversation while the other children were at lunch, and the bond between them was formed.

In the 3rd and 4th grades, Eddie continued to be a behavior problem. But when Randi taught him again in 5th grade, he was delightful. That year, he would tell her his most personal feelings about his mother's sudden death and his father's remarrying. He now had a teacher who could demonstrate, on a day-to-day basis, how much she cared. This sympathetic adult, in whom he could confide, changed his life. When the kids performed a play, The Trial of Goldilocks, Eddie played the defense lawyer, the most important part in the play. (You can guess the occupation he chose as an adult. He's a lawyer, of course, and even went to the same college as Randi.) Every couple of years, Eddie would visit his marvelous mentor, giving her hugs in the hall, bringing her roses, or placing a birthday card on her car's windshield. “I love that kid,” Randi said to me many years after she had bonded with her student. “That child has a permanent place in my heart.”

Too many of us struggle each day just to make it to Friday. Many of us perform our craft without a clear vision of what we want to accomplish. But Randi had a vision. So did Mr. V and Mary. As you shall see, they added enormous meaning to their personal lives by their professional actions.

On December 15, 1999, Luciano J. Veneziano died of a heart attack suffered in his classroom. His picture appeared on the front page of Newsday, a newspaper with the eighth-largest circulation in the United States. The Luciano J. Veneziano scholarship fund was established. The gym at Plainview-Old Bethpage High School is now called “the V.” Why was Luciano so noteworthy? What was his great achievement? He helped kids! Giving of himself gave great meaning to his life, and his devotion to his students was widely recognized.

Darren Pfeffer, a former student at Plainview-Old Bethpage High School, tells a story of how he wanted to organize a rock concert when he was a freshman. He had no idea how to do it. Mr. V came to his rescue. He helped arrange “permission for Pfeffer and his amateur rock band to use the school gym and helped him get lighting” (Ramus, 2000, p. A34). Mr. V's lifetime spent doing these “little things” added up to a monumental outpouring of respect and affection by students and colleagues. By helping his students, he attained greatness in the present and a place in Plainview-Old Bethpage history. Every one of us has the potential to follow where Mr. V led.

In 1971, Mary replaced a teacher who was taking a six-month leave. This teacher told Mary that one of her students, Tony, was a bad kid, a stupid kid. Mary stopped her. She did not want to know in advance about Tony. She wanted to judge for herself. She looked at Tony and saw a diminutive, adorable boy. Because he was so small, the other kids made fun of him. She sent him out of the room and told the other 4th graders that Tony was off-limits—no more teasing, no more ridicule.

Tony failed his first test. Mary decided to give him an oral test, and that's how she discovered he had dyslexia. Still, he could succeed on oral tests. After this, he began to thrive in Mary's classroom, and his behavior changed. Satisfying Tony's emotional needs put an end to his interest in being disruptive.

Besides laying the groundwork to end behavior problems, helping kids can create a classroom environment where students are enthusiastic, cooperative, and inspired. Underachievers who frustrate the teacher can become students who are a pleasure to teach. Underachievers like Tony, who rise above their “station in life,” enjoy the wonderful satisfaction that comes with competence and achievement. Mary's supervisor gave her kudos for her outstanding achievement. Tony's mother appreciated the success Mary had with her son. Yet Mary herself was perhaps the most grateful. Tony's success was the highlight of that school year.

Eight years later, Mary visited the high school because her own daughter was in a play. There was Tony, the star of the show, singing and acting his way through the evening. She went backstage, and Tony remembered her. They had a wonderful reunion. Mary had already received her reward for helping Tony. His behavior had changed, and he had become a hardworking, cooperative student. She had received recognition from her supervisor and praise from his parent. Now she had a double payoff. That meeting filled her with great joy. Many years later, she told me, “I just feel good. That's what my profession is all about.” Can it be that Tony did as much for Mary as Mary did for Tony? When we look back on our lives, it is the memories that we cherish. They light up our lives. Helping struggling children gives meaning to the present and opens the door to a more glorious future. Your students will never forget you.

Creating Mutual Needs

Meeting mutual needs should be the foundation of every teacher's approach to her profession. This fourth strategy is called creating mutual needs because the teacher creates, through her ingenuity, a mutual-needs experience. When creating mutual needs, teachers focus on the particular needs of that class. When the students' needs are fulfilled, then teachers will find their own needs also satisfied.

I had a creating-mutual-needs experience when I had my worst class. I'm going to tell the entire story because most teachers, at least until they become skillful at creating mutual needs, are likely to find themselves in the same confused situation.

It was 1990 and the results of the first 8th grade New York State Program Evaluation Test (PET) had arrived. The social studies students in the school where I taught on Long Island made such a dismal showing that I resolved to prepare my students in a direct way during the next school year.

I had three 8th grade New York State Regents level classes in the fall, and the vast majority of those students were underachievers. It was obvious that traditional teaching methods were not going to work, so I tried to prepare these children emotionally for the educational process. You will see, as the story unfolds, that even the most difficult class can be brought into the academic mainstream if the students' basic emotional needs are met.

It was the second day of school. I looked out at the sea of faces staring at me. I had an uneasy feeling as I realized that my third-period U.S. history class was largely composed of nasty, angry students. These students were totally uncooperative, and I could see that they had no intention of mending their ways. Almost 15 percent of the class had been retained at least once, and the rest of the class seemed determined to follow this ignominious path. “I don't know how I'm going to make it to June” was the thought that reverberated in my mind.

After days of emotional turmoil, a bold idea began to emerge from my tangled web of thoughts. Teachers know that to affect children's minds, they must capture their hearts. Only then will the students be receptive to the educational enterprise. “Why not make the class so needs-satisfying that the students' learning readiness will increase, helping to prepare them for the rigor of academic schoolwork?” I asked myself. “Chalk and talk is dead! This class will be student-centered and activity-oriented.”

We all know that having fun is a basic need, so I devised fun activities: puzzles, short plays, active-learning experiences, as well as games and contests. I searched for visual programs and changed the content of my lessons. For example, when I taught immigration, I previously had shown a video that spewed forth facts covering more than 100 years. Now I decided to show the story of an Eastern European boy who came to America and was the victim of discrimination. The class loved this heart-wrenching show, and I would stop, when appropriate, for a “commercial.” The commercials were my attempt to put the boy's experience in context, thereby giving my students a broad understanding of a few major immigration themes within an entertaining framework.

My 8th grade students responded well to my “puzzle” homework assignment. The students were asked to create a question-and-answer puzzle (usually a word search) based on the content we were studying. The best puzzle would be photocopied so all the children could enjoy working on it. (It is good to make sure, over the course of the year, that you have as many winners as ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Introducing the Totally Positive Approach
• Chapter 1. Meeting Mutual Needs
• Chapter 2. Changing Counterproductive Feelings
• Chapter 3. Ending Behavior Problems
• Chapter 4. Offering Total Acceptance
• Chapter 5. Helping Underachievers: Whole-Class Strategies
• Chapter 6. Helping Underachievers: Strategies for Individual Students
• Chapter 7. Using Active-Learning Strategies
• Chapter 8. The Totally Positive Approach in Action
• Appendix: Sample Active-Learning Lessons
• References
• About the Author
• Related ASCD Resources
• Study Guide
• Copyright Page