To Be Rather Than To Seem

On Thursday Morning, I was chatting with C, my assistant principal.  She mentioned that she had to go do some walkthrough observations.  I nodded knowingly.  "Don't worry," she said. "I won't bother you.  Your students are always on task, even when they aren't."

I found that statement interesting.  "How so?"  I asked.  C didn't hesitate.  "They are always having discussions related to what they are doing, and they are always listening to each other and learning from each other.  They help each other, they talk each other through issues, and they make sure that their groups understand.  In another class, that might be shut down as 'needless chatter' but, as I said in your evaluation, you encourage related conversations."

This, to me, was interesting, but not surprising. Too many of my students come to me from classes where they are chastised for asking a question, for helping a friend, for turning a lecture into a discussion.  Let's be fair here, even I would put an end to my students chatting, say, about their weekend plans, and sometimes they do need that direction.  But that is why listening to the conversations happening in your classroom is so important--so that you know when to let the conversations continue and when to end them.

But so many teachers have not learned to listen.  Their job is to dispense knowledge and the students' job is to passively absorb their words of wisdom.  The students can "look" On Task, with their noses stuck in packets and reading textbooks, but are they really?  What are they actually learning--not memorizing so that they can regurgitate it on a test--but learning so that they can use it in the real world?

The great Roman statesman Cicero famously wrote about Cato the Younger the words "esse quam videri," commenting that Cato preferred "to be, rather than to seem."  How can we make sure that On Task means that the students are actually working with the material?  What can we do to facilitate that transition from looking On Task to being On Task?