Method Man: Teaching Students How to Be Students

How do you teach someone who hasn't been in a classroom in decades?

When I've taught immigrant adults, that was my daily battle.  Some students' notebooks poured avalanches of unorganized papers.  Other students, coming late to class, executed preening runway-worthy entrance walks that might have made last night's Emmy ratings soar.  Others would circle multiple answers on a multiple-choice question on a test.

At least, that's what happened my first year.

So I watched, learned, and adjusted.  It wasn't enough to teach English, take students to the public library, and help them build career awareness.  I needed to teach them how to be students.  How to be students.  A dash of skills, a pinch of behaviors.  What do I mean?  Having all your materials--and only those materials--out before class.  Transitioning to group work.  Asking for help.  Finding directions on a worksheet--harder than you might think when it's not your native language.

The list goes on and on (as you'll see in a future post!).  And as any bedraggled kindergarten, 6th-grade, 10th-grade, or college-freshman teacher can tell you, teaching someone how to be a student is a must at every level of education.

So here are some general tips.  Look for a future post on ESOL-specific ideas:

• Wield Occam's Razor: Find the simplest way to teach the concept.  When I had my adult learners set up a desk-organization system, I showed them a picture of a messy desk, and a picture of a desk with a few key materials neatly organized.  "What's better?" I asked.  I guided them with questions.  They wrote rules.  It took all of 15, 20 minutes.  It was the right visual, and the right question.
• Speak their language: When I needed to teach my Latino immigrant students sequential goal-setting, I started with something they all understood: cooking dinner.  First a recipe, then ingredients, then pots and pans ... and so on.  They were hooked--more important, it helped them frame the concept.  
• Tap their knowledge: Introducing ninth-graders to a binder system?  They've probably done something like it before.  Or at least some have.  Make the connection.
• Target misconceptions: Asked to circle one of two options on a listening exercise, some of my adult learners, if they were having trouble, would circle both.  Hedging your bets--great for Vegas, perhaps.  Not such a great test-taking strategy.  Once I wised up to this, I started modeling exactly how to answer the question before the test.  I'd make a big show of circling both possible answers, then clearly demonstrate that you could not do that.
• Explain "why": Especially with adults.  With kids, depends on the situation.  If you're going to have systems and processes in class, it helps to lay out the reasoning.  Not always, under all situations.  But sometimes it can go a long way. 
•  Repeat, repeat, repeat--and gradually lessen your role: Call it what you like: At Bats.  Larry Bird taking 1,000 jump shots a day because he knew someone else out there was doing the same.  The first 80 times I had students put papers in their binders, I walked them through it while holding a binder and doing it myself.  Gradually I eased up and let them do it--but only when I knew they could.

Friends, we're not just teaching content.  Pick the key "student skills" and drive them home.  It'll make your class that much more efficient.  And your students' futures that much brighter.