Do you ever give instructions for a task to a class full of students, only to have a bunch of hands go up or confused faces looking back at you? Maybe you have low level behaviours buzzing and a disengaged hum the moment you send them off to do their task? Teachers, the answer to tackling these things could be in your clarity of instruction.
This episode is designed to arm you with practical strategies to enhance clarity of instruction and student engagement. I delve into the complexities and challenges of teaching in a room filled with 30 different humans with diverse needs and learning styles and uncover strategies to overcome hurdles that can impact a student’s ability to follow instructions. From demonstrating tasks to scaffolding, using real-life examples, encouraging questions, and reflecting on our practice, this episode has you covered.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Untiegibles podcast.
I'm your host, claire, and I amabsolutely no stranger to the
challenges and let's face it,sometimes carnage, of being a
teacher.
And if you found yourselfyou're listening with me I'd say
that you might know a bit aboutthat as well, because being a
teacher is friggin hard, andthis podcast is dedicated to
making you feel a hell of a lotless alone, whilst giving you
(00:33):
the knowledge, support andstrategies that you need to not
just survive the chaos of beinga teacher but truly thrive.
Think about it as getting aweekly dose of relatable,
actionable and, most importantly, enjoyable professional
learning straight into your ears.
So hit the subscribe button,download me for your commute and
let's get into it.
Hello, hello, another weekendof the episode of the
(00:56):
Untiegibles podcast, and what afriggin honour to have you here
listening and taking your timeto be with me.
So thank you so much.
If this is your first timelistening, then welcome.
Welcome to my little patch ofthe podcasting world.
This applies to all of you.
If you are listening in to thisepisode but you haven't
listened to the previous twoepisodes, I suggest you go back
(01:18):
and do that first, unless youare really clued up with the
concepts of co-regulation,regulation and dysregulation and
they're like really kind of upto speed with what the
fight-flutter-freeze response is.
Then you can listen on.
If not, I recorded an episodeas like a bit of a pillar
episode to direct people to,because these kind of things
(01:38):
really underpin the strategiesthat I'm talking about and if
you listen to that first, thenyou'll have a better
understanding contextually ofwhat I'm about to talk about.
When it comes to classroommanagement, the why behind the
strategies are why it's what'sreally powerful.
Because when you can understandwhy we're doing something and
why it works to reduce thebehavior, then it becomes much
(01:59):
more natural.
It becomes something that canbe more hardwired into your
practice.
So head back and listen to thatpillar episode where I talk
about those strategies thatreally the concepts are, really
underpin the strategies that I'mtalking about.
So let's crack into the episode.
Today I'm going to be talkingabout something that will
further increase the felt safetyin your classroom to reduce
(02:21):
those dysregulated behaviors andwhen I talk about dysregulated
behaviors I mean all thosethings that add to like the
really unsettled vibe of theroom.
It could be that they'retalking over you or being rude
and getting out of their seatsand walking around and throwing
things around and ripping uptheir book and putting their
head down All of those thingsthat suggest to us that there's
(02:43):
something going on with theirfight-flutter-freeze response,
that they're not in a place ofconnection, they're in a place
of protection.
So I'm going to be talkingabout how the clarity of
instruction that we use.
So when I'm talking aboutclarity of instruction, I'm
talking about how we yeah, justwe're standing up the front of
the room and we're explainingsomething.
We're explaining what to do,we're explaining how to do it,
(03:05):
we're explaining what comes nextin the lesson.
Anytime we're up the front andgiving teacher-led instruction.
If we don't do that properly,we could potentially be pouring
a bit of fuel on the fire ofthose behaviors and
inadvertently just confusing thehell out of some of our
students, which leads to moredysregulated behaviors as well.
But no wonder we do this right,because let me start by
(03:26):
painting a picture of therealities of trying to
communicate a task and thechallenges behind that.
Every single time you have toput together a task or need to
give instructions, a few thingsare happening at once, right?
Number one you are talking to30 students at a time.
The sheer volume of that initself is so hard, then let's
layer on the fact that some ofthose 30 have additional needs.
(03:48):
Some students might have speechand language needs, which makes
it much more challenging tofollow multi-step instructions,
particularly when you're givingthem verbal instructions.
Some might have learningdisabilities.
Some might have dyslexia,auditory processing disorder or
specific language impairments,and they may struggle with
processing and understandingyour verbal information.
(04:08):
So we're already putting themat a disadvantage if we're not
really paying attention to howwe're providing our instructions
.
Some students might have ADHDor other neurodivergence and may
find it really challenging tomaintain focus and attention
during verbal instructions.
It might lead to difficultiesin understanding and remembering
information provided.
Some might not speak yourlanguage as a first language and
(04:31):
adds enormous barriers inunderstanding complex verbal
instructions and particularacademic keywords or meta
language.
There might be this massivebarrier there linguistically,
and that's not their fault.
So again, we're putting them atthis huge disadvantage if we're
not considering how we aredelivering our instructions.
Some might be experiencinganxiety or stress and might find
(04:53):
it difficult to process theverbal information due to
heightened emotions.
It might impact their abilityto concentrate and follow
instructions.
I'm sure that you haveexperienced this at least a few
times in your life Most of uswould have, where we're feeling
anxious, we're not feelingourselves, and you could sit
there and watch a televisionshow or read a book and then 10
(05:15):
minutes will go past and you'verealized that you haven't taken
in a single thing.
You have to rewind the program.
You have to flip back threepages.
That can be because you're inanother world, you're feeling
anxious, you're feelingdistracted.
Of course it's not the onlyreason why that might happen,
but particularly when we'reexperiencing stress or anxiety,
we can start to shut down.
(05:36):
It might really be hard toconcentrate and follow those
things.
Then think about the fact thatall 30 students in front of you,
even if they just say if noneof them have additional learning
needs, they are still allindividual learners.
Some might really thrive onteacher-led instruction.
I've taught those students.
They could sit there and listento me somehow talk for an hour
(06:00):
if I wanted to talk for an hourand just absolutely lap it up
and make notes and love it.
Others might have a preferencefor visual learning and might
struggle to retain informationthat we have spoken to them
verbally.
Then let's layer on top of thatthe fact that the 30 students
you have in front of you arehuman beings and not robots, and
they're not just sitting therewith their heads open, ready to
(06:22):
listen and learn.
Their children, whose brainsaren't fully developed, so
they're more impulsive, theyhave different things going on
outside of the classroom.
They might not have buy-in orbe interested in anything you're
about to teach them.
So you have this immense uphillbattle of needing to actually
get them on board, needing toget them to have some buy-in,
trying to make it relevant tothem, make it enjoyable and
foster that love and enjoymentof learning and keep their
(06:43):
attention.
All of these things to be ableto deliver a task or instruction
to those 30 individual studentsin a way that doesn't leave any
of them behind or confused,that is tough.
No wonder we can really strugglewith this.
I mean, I have been in hundredsof staff meetings and even with
a smaller number of adultlearners, we still get people at
(07:04):
the end of the school dayzoning out and asking what we're
doing, and these are childrenwho are not paid to listen to us
.
So I find this with adults atfour o'clock, and we're talking
about students here, children.
So what happened is we ofcourse aren't magic and we do
end up, leaving some studentsbehind.
We don't, you know, have allthe students understanding the
(07:26):
task.
Some don't hear us and we sendthem off to get started and they
sit there the whole lessontwiddling their thumbs and going
what the hell am I doing?
Some are left feeling confusedand not really engaging in the
way that we want them to engage.
Some of them aren't achievingat the level that they should be
achieving at because theyhaven't really gotten it and
they kind of just zone out of it.
And we get so frustrated asteachers because we think oh, I
(07:49):
just friggin went through that,why don't you get it?
What is happening here?
That every time I giveinstructions, I repeat my
instructions, I repeat themagain and there's still some
students in the room who don'tunderstand it.
Well, that's why they don't getit right.
There are a multitude ofpotential reasons that aren't
related to them being lazy,aren't related to them not
listening to us on purpose, andthat also, mind you, doesn't
(08:12):
reflect on us as the teacher.
The reason I've started withthis is to just explain how
complex even just the idea of uscommunicating a task to
students is we as teachers.
My goodness.
It is so nuanced and so complexand it's just immense, it's
just mammoth, the task of havingto get 30 students in front of
(08:32):
us, on board with the same taskand achieving it in the way that
we want them to achieve itright.
So what to do?
It is all about embedding asmuch clarity as humanly possible
.
Embedding greater clarity inthe teaching instructions that
we give to them cansignificantly reduce the
confusion that they're feelingand just help them understand
the expectations of the task andstop us from having to repeat
(08:55):
ourselves over and over again.
It's just good for us as well.
Bye, the big thing that Ialways say to myself is I wanna
make myself in the classroom asredundant as I possibly can.
I want to be able to step backfrom what I'm doing and have the
lesson run itself.
If I can achieve that to somelevel, I know that I've got
enough clarity in my instructionand my tasks that I can remove
(09:18):
myself as much as possible.
So here are some ways toincrease that clarity and really
communicate our instructions ina way that students are gonna
get.
The first is to be clear andconcise, whether it's through
verbal or written instructions.
Make sure the language thatyou're using is really
student-friendly.
Avoid jargon, avoid ambiguousterms, clearly state the
(09:40):
objective of the task, reallystate what the students are
expected to accomplish inlanguage they understand.
You can present theseobjectives as something like a
success criteria, a checklist,something that helps them to
understand what the finalproduct is going to be.
To complete, I don't know ifyou can hear my baby.
She is at that stage where allshe wants to do is scream in
(10:02):
your face.
So my partner's he's a stay athome dad now, which is the most
amazing thing.
It's so nice of him to be ableto do that but I can hear her in
the lounge room doing her,doing her hourly screams, anyway
.
So breakdown complexinstructions is the next thing.
So, when it comes to tasks thatare more complex, when there's
(10:22):
things that require multi-steps,breakdown those instructions
into smaller and more manageablechunks.
Present each step reallyclearly before moving on to the
next.
So instead of students gettingto write a full essay, for
example, in one sitting, whichis like just the most massive
task for some of our students tobe doing in English, I'll sit
them down and I might step themthrough the planning phase first
(10:45):
.
I might give them really clearand concise instructions on the
introduction and give them someresources around that I might
give them a success criteriajust for that one part.
I then might move on to writingthe first paragraph and again,
I'll give them some resourcesand I'll give them some you know
sentence data and I'll givethem some things that make it
(11:06):
really clear what they need todo to achieve that particular
part.
So if you think the studentsaren't gonna cope with a whole
big task, I would break thatdown into really manageable
chunks, for that's calledchunking down.
The third thing you can do toincrease the clarity in your
instruction is use more visuals.
Make it as visual as possible.
Incorporate visual aids thathelp to communicate what you're
(11:28):
trying to communicate to them,no matter what your subject.
Things like charts and diagramsor illustrations, things that
will supplement your verbalinstructions in some way.
Timers are one really crucialthing to reinforce the
expectations of the task, forexample, so students are able to
stay on track.
It makes it really clear whatyou're expecting of them.
(11:48):
Have you ever had a situationwhere you've gotten to the end
of a task and a student insteadof doing an essay, for example?
I'm just on the essay train nowbut instead of doing something
like an essay, which is alengthy piece of work that
requires a lot of time.
They've just done a couple ofsentences.
I'm not saying that.
There's a whole bunch ofreasons that that might be, but
one of the reasons that thatcould happen is because we
(12:11):
haven't been as explicit as weneed to be around the amount of
time they've got to completethat task.
And it happens with me as wellin my own training.
Like if I haven't said to start, if I because sometimes I can
forget that, like I'm stillteaching humans and everyone
needs clarity and instruction ifI've accidentally created a
(12:32):
session where I haven't given aparticular time to reflect on
something or to write a responseto something, you will have
people in that session reallyconfused and just doing a couple
of dot points or doingsomething a little bit longer
and you've got to stop and thinkokay, well, if I haven't given
them a time to do that, how thehell will they know how in depth
to go?
(12:52):
How will they know what I'mexpecting of that task?
So, as much as possible, usevisual aids, and timers are
massive ones for clarity ofinstruction.
Number four model the task.
If you want a student to beable to do something, if you
want them to do it in aparticular way.
They need to know what it lookslike.
So provide some kind ofdemonstration model, the task
(13:13):
Students should be able to seewhat that end result should look
like.
It reduces the confusion.
Students need to see wherethey're going.
And again, it's the same.
As an adult, if somebody asks meto do something, I need to see
what they envision for it.
So I'm gonna ask for a sampleoutline.
I'm gonna ask for somesubheadings that they want me to
focus on, or a word count or apage number or whatever.
So if my head teacher said tome Claire, I want you to write a
(13:35):
report for how the HSE studentshave gone for the last year, I
will say to them what do youwant from me here?
Like, do you want it just to bea set of data?
Do you want me to just to do acouple of annotations on the
data?
Do you want me to write a fullblown report?
Do you want it to be a thousandwords?
Like, what do you want from mehere?
Because then I know whatthey're expecting and it's the
(13:55):
same for us and the same for ourstudents.
So I might provide them withsome scaffold so they know what
steps to take towards achievingit.
I might write it up on theboard for them, I might join
construct a task so they cancontribute to that.
So it's all about modeling whatwe expect for them.
Number five is ask for questionsand clarification.
So always trying to encouragethat active participation and
(14:18):
just checking for understandingthrough questioning.
But try to flip your languagearound it.
So what questions do you have?
Or I want three questionsbefore we move on instead of are
there any questions, because ifyou say are there any questions
, more often than not iscrickets.
If no one does have anyquestions, just say no worries
at all Once we're cracking onwith the task.
(14:40):
If you do find that you have aquestion or you get started and
you know 100%, sure, please popyour hand up and I'm going to
quietly come over to you andgive you a hand.
That way you're still openingthe door for those questions,
you're not shutting it down.
Students know the other supportthem still.
Number six use real lifeexamples.
This links into concept basedteaching, but just by making it
(15:01):
relevant to their real world itreduces their mental loads,
their cognitive loads, even ifyou can get them to think about
how it relates to them in theirlives.
It just increases that buy-infor them.
It makes it clearer what you'reexpecting of them, because they
can have some connection to itand they're going to be
listening to you a little bitbetter.
And, most importantly, ifstudents aren't getting it, if
(15:21):
task completion is low, ifthey're rushing it, if they're
not doing the job you envisioned, just use that as data.
Use it as a point forreflection.
What is going on for thatparticular student?
These are a particular supportyou're gonna put in place for
them that will increase thelikelihood of them completing
that task to the standard thatyou want to see from them.
What you don't want to do isget precious about your practice
(15:41):
.
Reflecting on your practice isnot personal.
It just is how we become betterteachers.
It's how we realize thatsomething's not working and we
can then shift ourselves in adifferent direction and try
something new.
If you want to hear more aboutthis, I also touch on a few of
these things in episode 16.
Do you feel like you'reconstantly repeating yourself
how to minimize the dreadedquestion?
Do you feel like you'reconstantly repeating yourself
(16:03):
how to minimize the dreadedquestion?
What are we doing?
But just summing up what we'vespoken about today getting 30
students to understand a taskand not be confused.
That is a fricking tough task,but by focusing on embedding
pedagogies that are going toincrease the clarity in your
instruction, you're going tohave a far better chance of
bringing students along for theride.
(16:24):
And when you're increasing thatclarity, when you have a lesson
where all of your students feellike they can achieve and
understand and do the best thatthey can, you are then, of
course, increasing the feltsafety for every single student
in that room, and you can alsosee through this how incredibly
and absolutely interlinkedteaching and learning is with
(16:45):
behavior.
When we talk about this stuff,too, you cannot separate the two
of them.
Ok, champions, have a wonderfulweek.
If you really enjoyed today'sepisode or you got like a little
nugget of something from it'staken to your practice.
I'm so bad at this part, aren'tI?
And, please, it would be solovely if you popped over to
whatever platform you'relistening to this podcast on and
(17:07):
left me a review.
This is how I reach moreteachers, and this work that I'm
doing means a lot to me, and Ihope that I'm able to support as
many teachers as possiblethrough it, and also, as always,
you can pop me a message onInstagram letting me know if
you've gotten something from theepisode or send me an email.
I'm always open for that backand forth conversation rather
(17:28):
than this weird void that Ispeak into.
So please reach out.
I'm always happy to have a chat.
Also, I want you to remember, ifyou're listening to this
podcast, in terms of classroommanagement, you are ahead of the
game with so many things, andif you do have something that
has been particularly helpfulfor you in your practice you've
heard on the podcast, share thatwith a colleague.
(17:49):
Like it doesn't have to comefrom me.
You don't have to say go listento the podcast.
This is all about the kids andyou and feeling empowered in
your practice, and you can be aleader in this stuff as well.
So if you've got somethingthat's working, share it with a
colleague, share it with yourleaders, share it with somebody,
and I don't care if you've beenteaching for a year, two years,
(18:09):
five years.
You can be a leader in thisstuff as well, and I think that
needs to be more productive,open, really supportive dialogue
amongst teachers when it comesto this stuff and just kind of
normalising the challenges thatwe all have.
So that is my last littlethought.
Have a lovely week and I'll seeyou next time.
Welcome to the Untiegibles podcast.
I'm your host, claire, and I amabsolutely no stranger to the
challenges and let's face it,sometimes carnage, of being a
teacher.
And if you found yourselfyou're listening with me I'd say
that you might know a bit aboutthat as well, because being a
teacher is friggin hard, andthis podcast is dedicated to
making you feel a hell of a lotless alone, whilst giving you
(00:33):
the knowledge, support andstrategies that you need to not
just survive the chaos of beinga teacher but truly thrive.
Think about it as getting aweekly dose of relatable,
actionable and, most importantly, enjoyable professional
learning straight into your ears.
So hit the subscribe button,download me for your commute and
let's get into it.
Hello, hello, another weekendof the episode of the
(00:56):
Untiegibles podcast, and what afriggin honour to have you here
listening and taking your timeto be with me.
So thank you so much.
If this is your first timelistening, then welcome.
Welcome to my little patch ofthe podcasting world.
This applies to all of you.
If you are listening in to thisepisode but you haven't
listened to the previous twoepisodes, I suggest you go back
(01:18):
and do that first, unless youare really clued up with the
concepts of co-regulation,regulation and dysregulation and
they're like really kind of upto speed with what the
fight-flutter-freeze response is.
Then you can listen on.
If not, I recorded an episodeas like a bit of a pillar
episode to direct people to,because these kind of things
(01:38):
really underpin the strategiesthat I'm talking about and if
you listen to that first, thenyou'll have a better
understanding contextually ofwhat I'm about to talk about.
When it comes to classroommanagement, the why behind the
strategies are why it's what'sreally powerful.
Because when you can understandwhy we're doing something and
why it works to reduce thebehavior, then it becomes much
(01:59):
more natural.
It becomes something that canbe more hardwired into your
practice.
So head back and listen to thatpillar episode where I talk
about those strategies thatreally the concepts are, really
underpin the strategies that I'mtalking about.
So let's crack into the episode.
Today I'm going to be talkingabout something that will
further increase the felt safetyin your classroom to reduce
(02:21):
those dysregulated behaviors andwhen I talk about dysregulated
behaviors I mean all thosethings that add to like the
really unsettled vibe of theroom.
It could be that they'retalking over you or being rude
and getting out of their seatsand walking around and throwing
things around and ripping uptheir book and putting their
head down All of those thingsthat suggest to us that there's
(02:43):
something going on with theirfight-flutter-freeze response,
that they're not in a place ofconnection, they're in a place
of protection.
So I'm going to be talkingabout how the clarity of
instruction that we use.
So when I'm talking aboutclarity of instruction, I'm
talking about how we yeah, justwe're standing up the front of
the room and we're explainingsomething.
We're explaining what to do,we're explaining how to do it,
(03:05):
we're explaining what comes nextin the lesson.
Anytime we're up the front andgiving teacher-led instruction.
If we don't do that properly,we could potentially be pouring
a bit of fuel on the fire ofthose behaviors and
inadvertently just confusing thehell out of some of our
students, which leads to moredysregulated behaviors as well.
But no wonder we do this right,because let me start by
(03:26):
painting a picture of therealities of trying to
communicate a task and thechallenges behind that.
Every single time you have toput together a task or need to
give instructions, a few thingsare happening at once, right?
Number one you are talking to30 students at a time.
The sheer volume of that initself is so hard, then let's
layer on the fact that some ofthose 30 have additional needs.
(03:48):
Some students might have speechand language needs, which makes
it much more challenging tofollow multi-step instructions,
particularly when you're givingthem verbal instructions.
Some might have learningdisabilities.
Some might have dyslexia,auditory processing disorder or
specific language impairments,and they may struggle with
processing and understandingyour verbal information.
(04:08):
So we're already putting themat a disadvantage if we're not
really paying attention to howwe're providing our instructions
.
Some students might have ADHDor other neurodivergence and may
find it really challenging tomaintain focus and attention
during verbal instructions.
It might lead to difficultiesin understanding and remembering
information provided.
Some might not speak yourlanguage as a first language and
(04:31):
adds enormous barriers inunderstanding complex verbal
instructions and particularacademic keywords or meta
language.
There might be this massivebarrier there linguistically,
and that's not their fault.
So again, we're putting them atthis huge disadvantage if we're
not considering how we aredelivering our instructions.
Some might be experiencinganxiety or stress and might find
(04:53):
it difficult to process theverbal information due to
heightened emotions.
It might impact their abilityto concentrate and follow
instructions.
I'm sure that you haveexperienced this at least a few
times in your life Most of uswould have, where we're feeling
anxious, we're not feelingourselves, and you could sit
there and watch a televisionshow or read a book and then 10
(05:15):
minutes will go past and you'verealized that you haven't taken
in a single thing.
You have to rewind the program.
You have to flip back threepages.
That can be because you're inanother world, you're feeling
anxious, you're feelingdistracted.
Of course it's not the onlyreason why that might happen,
but particularly when we'reexperiencing stress or anxiety,
we can start to shut down.
(05:36):
It might really be hard toconcentrate and follow those
things.
Then think about the fact thatall 30 students in front of you,
even if they just say if noneof them have additional learning
needs, they are still allindividual learners.
Some might really thrive onteacher-led instruction.
I've taught those students.
They could sit there and listento me somehow talk for an hour
(06:00):
if I wanted to talk for an hourand just absolutely lap it up
and make notes and love it.
Others might have a preferencefor visual learning and might
struggle to retain informationthat we have spoken to them
verbally.
Then let's layer on top of thatthe fact that the 30 students
you have in front of you arehuman beings and not robots, and
they're not just sitting therewith their heads open, ready to
(06:22):
listen and learn.
Their children, whose brainsaren't fully developed, so
they're more impulsive, theyhave different things going on
outside of the classroom.
They might not have buy-in orbe interested in anything you're
about to teach them.
So you have this immense uphillbattle of needing to actually
get them on board, needing toget them to have some buy-in,
trying to make it relevant tothem, make it enjoyable and
foster that love and enjoymentof learning and keep their
(06:43):
attention.
All of these things to be ableto deliver a task or instruction
to those 30 individual studentsin a way that doesn't leave any
of them behind or confused,that is tough.
No wonder we can really strugglewith this.
I mean, I have been in hundredsof staff meetings and even with
a smaller number of adultlearners, we still get people at
(07:04):
the end of the school dayzoning out and asking what we're
doing, and these are childrenwho are not paid to listen to us
.
So I find this with adults atfour o'clock, and we're talking
about students here, children.
So what happened is we ofcourse aren't magic and we do
end up, leaving some studentsbehind.
We don't, you know, have allthe students understanding the
(07:26):
task.
Some don't hear us and we sendthem off to get started and they
sit there the whole lessontwiddling their thumbs and going
what the hell am I doing?
Some are left feeling confusedand not really engaging in the
way that we want them to engage.
Some of them aren't achievingat the level that they should be
achieving at because theyhaven't really gotten it and
they kind of just zone out of it.
And we get so frustrated asteachers because we think oh, I
(07:49):
just friggin went through that,why don't you get it?
What is happening here?
That every time I giveinstructions, I repeat my
instructions, I repeat themagain and there's still some
students in the room who don'tunderstand it.
Well, that's why they don't getit right.
There are a multitude ofpotential reasons that aren't
related to them being lazy,aren't related to them not
listening to us on purpose, andthat also, mind you, doesn't
(08:12):
reflect on us as the teacher.
The reason I've started withthis is to just explain how
complex even just the idea of uscommunicating a task to
students is we as teachers.
My goodness.
It is so nuanced and so complexand it's just immense, it's
just mammoth, the task of havingto get 30 students in front of
(08:32):
us, on board with the same taskand achieving it in the way that
we want them to achieve itright.
So what to do?
It is all about embedding asmuch clarity as humanly possible
.
Embedding greater clarity inthe teaching instructions that
we give to them cansignificantly reduce the
confusion that they're feelingand just help them understand
the expectations of the task andstop us from having to repeat
(08:55):
ourselves over and over again.
It's just good for us as well.
Bye, the big thing that Ialways say to myself is I wanna
make myself in the classroom asredundant as I possibly can.
I want to be able to step backfrom what I'm doing and have the
lesson run itself.
If I can achieve that to somelevel, I know that I've got
enough clarity in my instructionand my tasks that I can remove
(09:18):
myself as much as possible.
So here are some ways toincrease that clarity and really
communicate our instructions ina way that students are gonna
get.
The first is to be clear andconcise, whether it's through
verbal or written instructions.
Make sure the language thatyou're using is really
student-friendly.
Avoid jargon, avoid ambiguousterms, clearly state the
(09:40):
objective of the task, reallystate what the students are
expected to accomplish inlanguage they understand.
You can present theseobjectives as something like a
success criteria, a checklist,something that helps them to
understand what the finalproduct is going to be.
To complete, I don't know ifyou can hear my baby.
She is at that stage where allshe wants to do is scream in
(10:02):
your face.
So my partner's he's a stay athome dad now, which is the most
amazing thing.
It's so nice of him to be ableto do that but I can hear her in
the lounge room doing her,doing her hourly screams, anyway
.
So breakdown complexinstructions is the next thing.
So, when it comes to tasks thatare more complex, when there's
(10:22):
things that require multi-steps,breakdown those instructions
into smaller and more manageablechunks.
Present each step reallyclearly before moving on to the
next.
So instead of students gettingto write a full essay, for
example, in one sitting, whichis like just the most massive
task for some of our students tobe doing in English, I'll sit
them down and I might step themthrough the planning phase first
(10:45):
.
I might give them really clearand concise instructions on the
introduction and give them someresources around that I might
give them a success criteriajust for that one part.
I then might move on to writingthe first paragraph and again,
I'll give them some resourcesand I'll give them some you know
sentence data and I'll givethem some things that make it
(11:06):
really clear what they need todo to achieve that particular
part.
So if you think the studentsaren't gonna cope with a whole
big task, I would break thatdown into really manageable
chunks, for that's calledchunking down.
The third thing you can do toincrease the clarity in your
instruction is use more visuals.
Make it as visual as possible.
Incorporate visual aids thathelp to communicate what you're
(11:28):
trying to communicate to them,no matter what your subject.
Things like charts and diagramsor illustrations, things that
will supplement your verbalinstructions in some way.
Timers are one really crucialthing to reinforce the
expectations of the task, forexample, so students are able to
stay on track.
It makes it really clear whatyou're expecting of them.
(11:48):
Have you ever had a situationwhere you've gotten to the end
of a task and a student insteadof doing an essay, for example?
I'm just on the essay train nowbut instead of doing something
like an essay, which is alengthy piece of work that
requires a lot of time.
They've just done a couple ofsentences.
I'm not saying that.
There's a whole bunch ofreasons that that might be, but
one of the reasons that thatcould happen is because we
(12:11):
haven't been as explicit as weneed to be around the amount of
time they've got to completethat task.
And it happens with me as wellin my own training.
Like if I haven't said to start, if I because sometimes I can
forget that, like I'm stillteaching humans and everyone
needs clarity and instruction ifI've accidentally created a
(12:32):
session where I haven't given aparticular time to reflect on
something or to write a responseto something, you will have
people in that session reallyconfused and just doing a couple
of dot points or doingsomething a little bit longer
and you've got to stop and thinkokay, well, if I haven't given
them a time to do that, how thehell will they know how in depth
to go?
(12:52):
How will they know what I'mexpecting of that task?
So, as much as possible, usevisual aids, and timers are
massive ones for clarity ofinstruction.
Number four model the task.
If you want a student to beable to do something, if you
want them to do it in aparticular way.
They need to know what it lookslike.
So provide some kind ofdemonstration model, the task
(13:13):
Students should be able to seewhat that end result should look
like.
It reduces the confusion.
Students need to see wherethey're going.
And again, it's the same.
As an adult, if somebody asks meto do something, I need to see
what they envision for it.
So I'm gonna ask for a sampleoutline.
I'm gonna ask for somesubheadings that they want me to
focus on, or a word count or apage number or whatever.
So if my head teacher said tome Claire, I want you to write a
(13:35):
report for how the HSE studentshave gone for the last year, I
will say to them what do youwant from me here?
Like, do you want it just to bea set of data?
Do you want me to just to do acouple of annotations on the
data?
Do you want me to write a fullblown report?
Do you want it to be a thousandwords?
Like, what do you want from mehere?
Because then I know whatthey're expecting and it's the
(13:55):
same for us and the same for ourstudents.
So I might provide them withsome scaffold so they know what
steps to take towards achievingit.
I might write it up on theboard for them, I might join
construct a task so they cancontribute to that.
So it's all about modeling whatwe expect for them.
Number five is ask for questionsand clarification.
So always trying to encouragethat active participation and
(14:18):
just checking for understandingthrough questioning.
But try to flip your languagearound it.
So what questions do you have?
Or I want three questionsbefore we move on instead of are
there any questions, because ifyou say are there any questions
, more often than not iscrickets.
If no one does have anyquestions, just say no worries
at all Once we're cracking onwith the task.
(14:40):
If you do find that you have aquestion or you get started and
you know 100%, sure, please popyour hand up and I'm going to
quietly come over to you andgive you a hand.
That way you're still openingthe door for those questions,
you're not shutting it down.
Students know the other supportthem still.
Number six use real lifeexamples.
This links into concept basedteaching, but just by making it
(15:01):
relevant to their real world itreduces their mental loads,
their cognitive loads, even ifyou can get them to think about
how it relates to them in theirlives.
It just increases that buy-infor them.
It makes it clearer what you'reexpecting of them, because they
can have some connection to itand they're going to be
listening to you a little bitbetter.
And, most importantly, ifstudents aren't getting it, if
(15:21):
task completion is low, ifthey're rushing it, if they're
not doing the job you envisioned, just use that as data.
Use it as a point forreflection.
What is going on for thatparticular student?
These are a particular supportyou're gonna put in place for
them that will increase thelikelihood of them completing
that task to the standard thatyou want to see from them.
What you don't want to do isget precious about your practice
(15:41):
.
Reflecting on your practice isnot personal.
It just is how we become betterteachers.
It's how we realize thatsomething's not working and we
can then shift ourselves in adifferent direction and try
something new.
If you want to hear more aboutthis, I also touch on a few of
these things in episode 16.
Do you feel like you'reconstantly repeating yourself
how to minimize the dreadedquestion?
Do you feel like you'reconstantly repeating yourself
(16:03):
how to minimize the dreadedquestion?
What are we doing?
But just summing up what we'vespoken about today getting 30
students to understand a taskand not be confused.
That is a fricking tough task,but by focusing on embedding
pedagogies that are going toincrease the clarity in your
instruction, you're going tohave a far better chance of
bringing students along for theride.
(16:24):
And when you're increasing thatclarity, when you have a lesson
where all of your students feellike they can achieve and
understand and do the best thatthey can, you are then, of
course, increasing the feltsafety for every single student
in that room, and you can alsosee through this how incredibly
and absolutely interlinkedteaching and learning is with
(16:45):
behavior.
When we talk about this stuff,too, you cannot separate the two
of them.
Ok, champions, have a wonderfulweek.
If you really enjoyed today'sepisode or you got like a little
nugget of something from it'staken to your practice.
I'm so bad at this part, aren'tI?
And, please, it would be solovely if you popped over to
whatever platform you'relistening to this podcast on and
(17:07):
left me a review.
This is how I reach moreteachers, and this work that I'm
doing means a lot to me, and Ihope that I'm able to support as
many teachers as possiblethrough it, and also, as always,
you can pop me a message onInstagram letting me know if
you've gotten something from theepisode or send me an email.
I'm always open for that backand forth conversation rather
(17:28):
than this weird void that Ispeak into.
So please reach out.
I'm always happy to have a chat.
Also, I want you to remember, ifyou're listening to this
podcast, in terms of classroommanagement, you are ahead of the
game with so many things, andif you do have something that
has been particularly helpfulfor you in your practice you've
heard on the podcast, share thatwith a colleague.
(17:49):
Like it doesn't have to comefrom me.
You don't have to say go listento the podcast.
This is all about the kids andyou and feeling empowered in
your practice, and you can be aleader in this stuff as well.
So if you've got somethingthat's working, share it with a
colleague, share it with yourleaders, share it with somebody,
and I don't care if you've beenteaching for a year, two years,
(18:09):
five years.
You can be a leader in thisstuff as well, and I think that
needs to be more productive,open, really supportive dialogue
amongst teachers when it comesto this stuff and just kind of
normalising the challenges thatwe all have.
So that is my last littlethought.
Have a lovely week and I'll seeyou next time.
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