“Slow Play” vs. “Show Call”
Posted: December 6th, 2012 | Author: Michael Goldstein | | 2 Comments »
And recently we had the devastating realization that our kids weren’t doing as much writing as we thought during writing time. First we noticed that they sometimes appeared to be doing something we called the “slow play.” During the first minute of independent writing time they would laboriously begin to repeat the question, writing the first half of their first sentence. Then they would pause. Perhaps they’d go back here and meticulously erase, scrubbing the original introductory clause clean. Then write it again, verbatim. Pausing to think. Adding a word. Three minutes gone and not a sentence completed or an idea wrestled with. Maybe they weren’t writing so much after all.
To test this we collected notes and packets from classrooms-from some very good classrooms, by the way, where teachers engaged students in lively discussions of literature, where students engaged energetically, appeared to write with vigor for sustain periods and then discussed their thoughts with insight. Again these were classes that, from just watching, would have made you feel like success was near. Truly, though, it was in many cases a mirage, as we knew when we looked at what kids were actually writing all that time — half sentences and stilted thoughts and error after error.
What to do?
Read the whole thing here.
Provided that this practice–”cold calling” student work–is an explicit expectation, I like it. Problems might arise when:
a. a teacher attempts it for the first time without setting it up as something students should expect
b. a teacher confuses it with a behavior management technique
Even if “a” is taken care of, “b” always presents a dilemma. A skilled teacher will select an example, like the one shown in the video, that provides some kind of instructional value. A less skilled teacher might use it to shame.
(I’m ignoring and rejecting the possibility that a teacher would make a random choice; teachers “work the room,” so they should have some knowledge of what kind of work is out there before selecting a student’s paper.)
Allison should tell you about the 3rd grade writing workshop class she visited in a local ‘burb where the kids wrote for 5 minutes out of the 45 minute period.