Today, I was thinking back to this blog post that I wrote last week about the 7 Crippling Behaviours of Teachers. The behaviour that was really in my head today was that we “rescue too quickly.”

With the cold and snowy weather this week, I’ve had lower numbers than usual on most days — often less than 10 students — and I’ve been trying to take advantage of these numbers by spending even more time observing and working with students. We’re just starting to learn about structures (as connected with our Science expectations), and as you can see in the Storify Story below, today we had a special Structures Day that capitalized on reading, writing, science, and math expectations.

After the students created many of the buildings this afternoon, we explored some different building materials that I purchased over the Winter Break. To get the students really working with the new materials and thinking about the properties of 2-D shapes and 3-D figures, I took away the instructions that went with the toys. I had them work together to create their own shapes or figures. This was truly a lesson in perseverance and problem-solving.

For about the first 20 minutes, I stood back and observed the students working together. I watched them struggle.

• The materials wouldn’t fit together properly.
• The shapes kept breaking.
• The spheres kept rolling away and were difficult to contain.
• Other students were using the pieces that a different group wanted/needed.

And then I made the choice about which students to help and why. 

• One group I helped because it looked like the learning had stopped. I asked some questions to get them to think about how to attach the pieces. I sat down with them as they worked through the problem, and I waited until they made a shape. Then when I saw them celebrating success, I moved on.
• One group I helped because they had split into two partner groups, and both needed the same materials. They were getting frustrated. Again, I helped with a question. I got them to think about how to solve the problem, and then when they did, I let them continue working on their own.
• One student my EA helped because she had all of the ideas, and knew exactly what to create and how to create it, but she wasn’t strong enough to push the pieces together. My EA helped with the pushing part, and then worked with her to show her what to do and how to gain more strength to push the materials together. Then she ended up going and helping another group that was struggling.

On my drive home from school this evening, I couldn’t help but wonder if I “rescued” these students. Maybe I did, but not by giving them the answer. I gave them a question that eventually allowed them to get to the answer. In the case of the third example, my EA gave the student some help, but ultimately, “support for independence.” It’s hard to watch students struggle, but I think we need to “watch” this struggle, and then decide if we need to offer more support. Observation’s key, but it’s hard to just observe when our instinct is to jump in. How do you decide when to intervene? What counts as “rescuing students,” and are there times when they should be “rescued?” How do you offer support while still allowing for some independent problem-solving? Whether at home or at school, I’d love to hear more about what you do. 

Aviva