The 16 Week Challenge: Week 7

Welcome to week 7 of our Fall 2024 16 Week Teaching Challenge!

If this is your first time joining in, welcome! Take a minute and read The Big Launch post here. You can also get caught up on previous weeks by scrolling to the "Labels" section at the bottom right of this page and clicking "The 16 Week Challenge."

However, if you're ready to jump right in, here you go!

Week 7: Sept. 23 - Learn About Fostering a Cultulre of Grappling

I'm of the mind that our goal as teachers isn't to ensure that every student leaves a lesson perfectly completing the work in front of them (though that's nice), but it's to ensure that every student has had an opportunity to really and truly grapple with something. It's only when we push them to do the kind of work and thinking that they can't quite do yet that we are really successful in a lesson.

That can be hard as teachers, because it means that we'll face silent moments in our classroom. We'll see a roomful of students who look at us with faces full of cognitive wobble. They'll produce work that doesn't quite meet our expectations yet. And it's all too easy to revert back to thinking that success means a roomful of raised hands, neat papers, and quickly correct answers. 

So, this week, I encourage you to really ponder and consider what it means to foster a culture of grappling, and how that can be challenging - yet the most joyfully hard work - for teachers and kids alike.

1. Begin by reading (or reading) EL's 8 High-Leverage Instructional Practices, and read the row for Fostering a Culture of Grappling.
2. Read this blog post that answers a teacher's question: "How can I foster a culture of grappling in my classroom?"
3. Read this piece from a third grade teacher on the Open Up blog about empowering children to grapple.
4. Take 5 minutes and jot a few notes to yourself answering these questions: 1) When I'm at my teaching best, how are my students grappling? 2) Looking at tomorrow's lesson, where are places I would be tempted to take away the grappling, and why?

Completed that? Fantastic! You just completed your Week 7 Teaching Challenge. If you're working for that small prize, you can log your success here, and be sure to check back next week - September 30 - for Week 8.

Here's to simply teaching well,