Power to the Child [9:03]

https://players.brightcove.net/2566261579001/HyuWsfFhb_default/index.html?videoId=6265762439001

About

Learn about the seven Ps of coaching and how it relates to self-selected projects
Learn to allow creativity with providing a loose, open to interpretation, rubric
Learn ways to approach the struggling student and empower them in their research

Transcript

We're going to talk about how, so how do you give power to the child? Drawing out their interests for the majority of kids is absolutely unnecessary. They already know what they want to do. They already know what their hobbies are. They already know they're in scouting and that's what's important to them and their whole family. Maybe their family is like their whole world. And that's what's important to them. But some of the kids are going to give you a little bit of a hard time. So let's bring out our coaching skills. When I see that when people say coaching, I'm like, oh, no, it's terrible. It's so hard. It is hard. And you know what? I have evidence that it's hard. I went to a coaching PD and I was paired with the coaches right hand man and this man taught me everything I know, says the man. I'm like, oh, gosh, intimidating, right? I'm going to not ask the right questions. I'm not going to do the right thing. I asked one question and the right hand man did all the talking for the whole time. Never gave me a chance to ask a second question, and the time was up, I didn't even get a chance to share. So I was like, so disappointed, and yet, I feel justified to tell you that coaching is hard and it takes a lot of practice. Coaching is a practice, not a perfect. OK. So we know that every time we sit down with the student, we're going to have to work at our coaching skills and we'll get better at it as time goes by.

There are seven Ps that you would like to consider when you are coaching? OK, so we're going to paraphrase, pause, we're going to probe, we're going to place ideas on the table, we're going to pay attention to the student. We're going to presume positive intention and provide loosely framed rubrics. So let me go back. Those are the seven Ps, right.

Confirm what the student says, if the student says, I've got this project ID and I'm going to do this. And you're going to say, wow, you really want to do that? That sounds great. Tell me about it. OK, that's the first step. Then pause. If a student says, I think I want to do this and you want to jump in and like, OK, what exactly? But they sound like they're still thinking, give them a chance to think it out. Maybe they're just formulating ideas in their heads and we don't want to, like, squash the ideas it's trying to develop, right? We're going to probe, we're not going to ask yes/no questions, because all you're going to get is a yes or no answer. So, if you're really having to draw out a students ideas for them, help them draw them out, you can ask questions like, what is the best day look like for you? What if you woke up in the morning, you could do whatever you wanted. Tell me all about it. What would you do? And that might help. Or if you could learn more about anything you wanted, what would that be? And so maybe they have issues or something that they're, you know, kind of thinking about, so that might help. And then sometimes you're just so closed up that maybe you want to ask them, so what has you angry or what has you worried or what's making you upset? And maybe we can tackle that, you know, what are you fearful of? Fears, I think, are one of the favorite things to draw out. What are you afraid of? Because the best way to stop fearing something is to learn about it. Right so whatever fear you have, we can work with that. Put the idea on the table. OK, your fear. I actually will say, I don't talk about these fears about them or anything like that, you know what I mean? So what is your fear? Let's just name it, put it on the table. Let's have a good discussion about it, you and me. We don't even have to go anywhere with this until, you know, you decide this is something that you're ready to talk about. And then we can start, you know, working with it. Pay attention to the student, their learning style, their language, their perspective. I think I said this already, we don't want very shy people to be forced to get up and, you know, do a presentation, you know, in front of the world. I'm going to give them options. So I want their project to have a logical presentation that suits their personality. So if it's something they can do introspectively and create a web page on it or maybe write a blog about it or something like that, then I'm going to help them work through that. Maybe they. Yeah, that's it. Presume it's positive. Sometimes, you know, I don't want to do this project and I've got all these know, you're getting all this dragon reaction from this kid. Well, assume that we're going to know, we're going to keep working. The kid really wants to be successful. They really do. I think that kind of reaction is a fear of failure and so that that child is going to take a little more time. We don't want them to fear failure. We're going to do everything we can to help you be successful and it's not going to be that hard, really. OK.

And so we know we want them to be very creative, but people are going to expect rubrics. Give me, you know, what do I need to accomplish? OK, so we're going to give them, you know, I expect you to use a book. I expect you to use databases. I expect you to learn how to properly search the internet and come up with a good source. I expect you to present some way that makes sense. It doesn't make sense to, you know, bring cupcakes when your project is about what government or something like that. You know what I mean? It needs to make sense. And so that's what your rubric is going to look like. Very loose, open to interpretation, and open to a vast array of topics.

Look at Culturally Proficient Coaching: Supporting Educators to Create Equitable Schools and read it over and over and over again and practice it and go back and do it again.

We're going to approach the struggling student like this. We're going to show them lots of love, lots of love every day that they walk in and tell you they're frustrated or whatever's going on in their lives, we're going to do with empathy. Keep your heart open to them. At some point, you may get frustrated with them, but, you know, treat them like they're your own child and you will never give up on them. Don't judge where they're coming from. What's happened to you, you know, I'm going to treat that as you know, here you are now in front of me, and I'm going to do everything I can to help you do it right. And I'm going to listen to them. They could be saying, you know, I can't do this, but maybe it's because somebody in their lives has let them down, you know? So just listen, listen to those little words that they're saying that let you know what their lives are about. And then I'm going to ask you to show some tough love. Keep the expectations high. We don't want to give up on kids because they're just not going to be able to do this. And so, all right, just get away with, you know, whatever. No, because you do no child a service if you are not expecting them to learn and achieve because their achievement now sets the direction for the rest of their lives, right? So we want this to be not just a successful project, but an opportunity to practice resilience and to practice achievement and for them to know that you are not going to give up on them. OK, so keep it high. Keep them paced. Don't let them, you know, don't unleash everybody and let them just start researching at their own or expect that they're going to make it up at the end, you know, set those benchmarks that I expect to see, you know, this part of the project accomplished by this time, and so on until the very end. And require a final product. If they are not being held accountable by their peers that they're going to present to in some fashion, then, you know, then what's the point? Right, so we need to give them the opportunity to share and they'll love it. It's just it's so much fun.

Activities

The Seven Ps

Coaching a struggling student through a research project can take time and can often lead to frustration. Using the seven Ps that Elizabeth Rush discusses in this lesson will help you guide students back on track and get them fully invested in their research.

RESOURCES:

Course Packet

REFLECT & PRACTICE:

When a student comes to you with a research project idea, how do you know they're fully invested? In this lesson, we learn about the seven Ps of coaching a student through the situation. Using page 8 of the Course Packet found in the Resources above, reflect on each of the seven Ps and think about how you can implement these into your thought process when working with a struggling student. Do you already use these ideas in your teaching? Investing your time with the seven Ps will reinforce that you are invested in your students' learning and that you want them to be successful.

Entry ID: 2267676

Additional Resources

Bibliography.

About the Author

Elizabeth Barrera Rush is a library specialist for a school district in Texas. She received her BBA from St. Mary's University in San Antonio and her MSIS from the University of Texas, Austin. Elizabeth has spent over 20 years serving elementary and middle school students in private, charter, and public school libraries as well as the San Antonio Public Library. She is author of Bringing Genius Hour to Your Library: Implementing a Schoolwide Passion Project Program (Libraries Unlimited, 2018) and The Efficient Library: Ten Simple Changes that Save You Time and Improve Library Service (Libraries Unlimited, 2020). She has written articles for Teacher Librarian and School Library Connection. She has been an advocate for libraries speaking in a congressional panel in Washington, D.C., and a consultant for the National Assessment for Educational Progress in writing, and presented webinars and workshops for AASL, INFOhio, and ABC-CLIO. She is a member of TLA, and an active member of ALA's Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures Division as well as co-vice chair of the Cataloging Norms Interest Group and Member of the ALA/AIA Building Award Committee, and a proud ALA Spectrum Champion for the Office of Diversity, Literacy & Outreach.

Select Citation Style:

MLA Citation

Rush, Elizabeth Barrera. "Student-Selected Research Projects. Power to the Child [9:03]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2267005?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903.

Chicago Citation

Rush, Elizabeth Barrera. "Student-Selected Research Projects. Power to the Child [9:03]." School Library Connection video. August 2021. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2267005?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903.

APA Citation

Rush, E. B. (2021, August). Student-selected research projects. Power to the child [9:03] [Video]. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2267005?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2267005?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903

Entry ID: 2267005