We have been reading about and discussing how detrimental a deficit approach is in teaching. I've been inspired by all of the readings and have felt as though I have really been invested in seeing my student's strengths. I was really struck by Linsin's words "Whenever you let negative thoughts about students take root in your mind, you'll subconsciously act differently toward them, and they'll know it." I took those words to heart and have made it (one of my many) mission(s) to see behavior as a form of communication, to look deeper and find out what is really going on with my students. But, it seems that the idea of seeing their strengths has not completely sunk in yet.
This past week when were performing the math assessment with our first graders, I was carefully documenting what I was seeing. I was trying to capture all of the good math thinking and strategies that my math buddy was using. I took lots of notes and looked forward to reviewing the video of the interaction to be sure that I gave my buddy full credit for all of his great ideas. When we returned to the classroom, Allison reminded us how important it was for us to document what the student could do, not what the student couldn't do. At that moment, I realized that when we got to a portion of the assessment where my buddy did not come up with the "right" answer, I had seen what he couldn't do. I looked again at his work, and ran through our conversations in my head and realized that I had missed some really important successes in my notes. Had I not been reminded to look at what my buddy could do, I simply would have written "does not understand multiplication." He may not have shown me three groups of 5 and answered "15." But, he did show me another example of repeated addition. He used 3 blocks to show me the tables. He pulled over 5 more blocks to show me the children and said that there were 8 block altogether. He then said "If you turn the tables into children, there would be 8 children. If 4 more joined, there would be 12." I know that as soon as he began the problem with the 5 crackers, I thought "he doesn't understand how to do division." I did not stop paying attention. I watched and listened as he grouped the unifix cubes, but I know that as it was happening, I was not grasping the importance of what he WAS DOING. I was only seeing what he wasn't doing. He had displayed important concepts that I think I would have completely missed if Allison hadn't said those words so soon after the experience.
What a powerful tool to be able to see those building blocks and be equipped with good questions. If you acknowledge all the great things the students are doing and ask them about their thinking, I'll bet they will lead themselves right to the next step.
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