Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone)

by Elizabeth Green

Doug grouped possible responses into six accelerating options, each one slightly more invasive than the last. Just one step above “nonverbal intervention,” a nearly invisible hand gesture like the ones Colleen Driggs used, was “positive group correction.” By positive Doug meant constructive—describing the desired behavior, rather than the problem. “We’re following along in our books,” a teacher could say, posing the statement like self-evident narration, even if it also contained a hint of aspiration, serving to remind the boy in the back that he shouldn’t be looking out the window. To make the point slightly more clear, a teacher could shift to second person: “You should be following along.” Level three, “anonymous individual correction,” was Patrick’s move. “We need two people,” a teacher could say. Often, “it” teachers even fudged numbers, optimistically declaring they needed two when really the number was four or five, a purposeful misstatement designed to create the illusion that the order under request was in fact happening now. Act as if it is already so, and before you know it, it will be.