Rachel Sarnoff
M.S. Ed. Candidate, May 2016 | The University of Pennsylvania
B.A. June, 2012 | Dartmouth College
In the Classroom
Factor 3: Verbal Persuasion
As a teacher, I see myself, in part, as a cheerleader for my students. As author R.J. Palacio writes in Wonder, a book we read over the summer for the course Literature for Children and Adolescents, “Everyone should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.” I firmly believe that there is something to celebrate in every child, and that I can encourage my students’ success by repeatedly telling them that they can achieve it. In the course of our day-to-day interactions, I frequently encourage my students to look at the positive side of their performance, both behavioral and academic, even when I have to acknowledge the negative, too. In one closing circle, for example, we needed to have a conversation about some challenging behaviors of the day; however, I wrapped up the talk with the following (Artifact 8):
Celebrate the things you did well this week. There were some really good times this week. The transition into SSR after science was awesome. The transition to morning circle this morning, fantastic. Think about those things, and think about how good it feels, for those things to go smoothly. Use that to think about what you can do to have every day feel like that.
Artifact 8: Closing Circle Selected Transcript, 3/11/16
In a similar “stay positive” approach, I also frequently tell my students (both verbally and in writing), “it is ok if this is difficult, but it is not ok to not try ” (Artifact 9). In my current classroom, I circulate during challenging morning work, encouraging students to attempt these difficult problems, and telling them that the only reason that I am presenting this work to them is because I believe they can do it. According to my Penn Mentor, my techniques seem to influence my students’ sense that they can succeed, as she wrote in my descriptive profile, “Rachel's strong point is her ability to build her student's confidence through verbal praise and constructive reassurance ” (Artifact 3).
I also tried to encourage students to praise each other, and structure lessons to include positive peer feedback. In one social studies lesson, my Penn mentor observed, “every student had the opportunity to share a sentence from their written response; even those reluctant to speak publicly participated, thanks to the tone of the complimentary feedback from peers ” (Artifact 10). In order to do this, we thoroughly established guidelines for supportive feedback, thus making it a safe space to share. This was my primary objective, however I recognize that this also meant that feedback was rather repetitive with common praise including “I liked how you used a lot of details," and it was not particularly constructive; so the next step I would like to pursue would be to build students’ skills in giving more specific and productive feedback in a complimentary manner.
Artifact 9: Morning Work Slide, 4/12/16
Artifact 10: Morning Work Slide, 2/29/16
Admittedly, it is often hard to see past the frustration, grumbles or even eye rolls that I receive when I give my students a pep talk about challenging work; but occasionally it truly pays off in rewarding ways. Most memorably, in January I received an email (Artifact 11) from a former student’s mother who thanked me for the “personal & encouraging note” that I wrote to each student at the end of my time in my first-semester classroom. In her household, my (in this case written) attempt at persuading a student that I believed in his ability was meaningful enough to him to earn a spot on their refrigerator!
Artifact 11: Parent Email, 1/3/16
“Verbal persuasion” also encourages perceptions of self-efficacy - that is, having others tell you that you can achieve a task makes you more likely to believe that you can do it (Bandura, 1994). This calls for ongoing affirmation of student ability, and invokes the role of cheerleader that I see closely tied to teaching. It also provides an important reminder that, conversely, even a slight indication from a teacher that a student cannot do something may dramatically and negatively influence their ability, as well. Next, I will describe the ways that I attempted used verbal persuasion to encourage students’ senses of self-efficacy.