The Right Next Step

Yesterday, in his post, Justin asked:

"Is it possible to build learning communities strong and vibrant enough to overwhelm the factory mindset? To burst the confining factory walls in a blaze of the Fire of Truth? If so, sign me up now … but if not, what’s the next right step for community builders?"

And Laura, responding to my post yesterday, said:

" I wonder if teachers don't realize how much impact their criticism has on students - not to mention how grades are just about the worst possible form of feedback ever invented! Again and again in my classes, every semester, year after year, I hear from students who thank me for my classes because it helped me to get over some bad writing experience like the ones you two have described - either in college, or high school, or some experience even farther back in elementary school that derailed them as writers. How do we go so wrong with that as teachers? For me, it's easy - there's always SOMETHING good in a piece of writing that a student does, and even if it is just one aspect of the writing, I focus in on that to praise, while also giving lots of feedback about how to improve things that are not working so well. If teachers are giving their students writing assignments in which they cannot find something to praise in the work that their students do, they should CHANGE THE ASSIGNMENTS. That's what I did when I switched from traditional essay writing to storytelling. Although it is long ago for me now, I can indeed remember reading essays that were completely boring, impersonal, writing with which I could connect as a reader in any meaningful way... and I suspect that is the case for lots of teachers - but they MUST do something about that and change the assignments. What a terrible waste of time it is for both student and teacher alike if they are all just bored and frustrated...!"

So, I thought about this.  What if the next right step IS to change the assignments?  To praise the good things, even if there is only one tiny good thing about something a student does.  We are so trained and conditioned to focus on the negative.  However, amazing results come to those who focus on the positive!

What if the next step for community builders is to change the mindset, at least in their own classrooms, to the positive focus?  To finding that one good piece?  This is HARD to do in a factory setting, where your classroom may be the only place where students see this mindset.  However, it can be managed, even when you sit on committees.  (I often find myself pushing for positives on the committees I sit on!)  It is the positive focus that burst the factory walls within my own classroom this year, especially with my Latin II students, so disparate and disconnected, both from the school and from each other.

With that said, how do we change our own outlook to focus on the positives?  To find and praise that one good thing, while offering constructive feedback?  Is that the Right Next Step for the community builders?