The Apologetic Tone / Low Expectations Trap

Today I saw one of my CMs, Ms. Rogers, do well to introduce the final math diagnostic without hesitation or apology and it made me think of one of the greatest pitfalls first year teachers sometimes fall into. Read on:

No matter how committed a first year teacher may be to setting high expectations for students, it’s surprisingly easy to fall into the apologetic tone trap. Consider the following examples:

Pitying the class/fearing wrath of class and/or losing teacher popularity points:

1) Class, I’m about to pass out your unit test. I know its 50 questions long but I really couldn’t make it any shorter and still collect all the data I need to track your growth. I really wish I could have made it shorter but this is the best I could do.

2) Students, please bring in your completed form, which is due tomorrow. You’ll have to get your parents to sign it and I know this might be hard for some of you to do by the time it’s due tomorrow morning, but do the best you can, and if it’s possible, turn it in tomorrow.

3) Right now I’m going to ask that everyone please take out a sheet of loose leaf. We’ll be taking notes for the next few minutes. I know this isn’t your favorite thing to do, but it’s really important because note-taking is a skill you’ll need to succeed in high school and beyond. Do your best to get everything down that you’re able to write.

4) Guys I know we’ve been sitting still for a really long time but it would be really nice if everyone could stay silent until all students have had a chance to finish their math test.

Assuming something will be boring/blaming some external authority (the state, the district, the principal’s curriculum changes, the standardized tests):

1) Alright guys, I know poetry isn’t the most exciting subject but we have to get through this unit before AIMS testing so let’s all buckle down, work really hard, and this will be over before you know it.

2) [Or imagine a teacher deciding to teach poetry solely through popular rap songs, assuming that this is the only way to engage urban youths.]

One of the reasons it’s easy to accidentally assume an apologetic tone/low expectations is low teacher confidence. New teachers may have some anxieties over how they are carrying out their lessons, running their class or executing their management system and, in a way, feel sorry for subjecting their students to anything short of master teaching. Sometimes, because as adults, they wouldn’t want to go through some of the motions students go through, they assume that these activities must be a huge drag (like meticulous notetaking, or drafting and redrafting basic essays until the student meets the standard set out by the teacher), when oftentimes, students actually seek out this type of work if the task is marketed to them correctly. Students stand to benefit significantly from some of these seemingly drab activities—and even more, students can also truly enjoy completing some of the blandest tasks. (My sixth graders enjoyed notetaking, and were proud to exhibit how well-formatted and complete their “high school notes” were.)

New teachers may also take the struggles their students are facing to heart, and in doing so, lower expectations for the class. They know, for example, that many students’ parents work the night shift and aren’t always present for students to sign papers or review and sign returned tests. Or they know that students often lack homework resources at home if they get stuck. As a result, teachers might not press students if they aren’t returning their exams signed (on time) or if they are coming in with incomplete homework. Surely the teacher can be flexible and accommodating, by purposefully giving students two days instead one to turn in a signed permission slip, or by providing another avenue for students to receive homework help (assigning two students to be homework buddies by phone), but then still demanding that students meet the teacher’s expectations.

Another trap for incoming teachers is due to unfamiliarity with—or lack of favorable experiences studying—certain course content. Consider the science teacher about to teach a biology unit who had a terrible experience learning bio as a highschooler. Teachers nervously sense that students might not think biology/poetry/grammar (insert unit name in here) is all that cool and subconsciously introduce poetry in a really lame or apologetic way. Ironically, in doing so, they are fulfilling their worst fears about having to teach a unit kids “just don’t care about.” As Lemov says in Teach like a Champion, “There are teachers who make great and exciting and inspiring lessons out of every topic that some other teacher may consider a grind. Our job is to find a way to make what we teach engaging and never to assume that students can’t appreciate what’s not instantly familiar to them or what does not egregiously pander to them.” (See rap example above)

When considering how our student population might react to certain material we should also keep in mind the anecdote Lemov presents of Earnest Gaines, a highly acclaimed twentieth century African American author who grew up poor (one of twelve children raised by his aunt) in rural Louisiana, on land his family had share cropped for generations. Despite his background, which might imply a limited worldview, he readily recalled his earliest influences: Russian writers such as Tolstoy, Turgenev and Cherkhov as well as the Greek tragedies. In a modern context, imagine how sad it would be to deprive a student of yours the potentially earth-shattering poetry of Emily Dickinson or Edgar Allen Poe in favor of Young Jeezy lyrics, just because your student would supposedly identify more with rappers, or would show more immediate excitement over getting to listen to Jeezy during class-time.