Kids lie. They really don’t all have 8’s on those hand comprehension checks. They have 6’s and, were some of them to be completely honest, much less. It’s because we go too fast. But we accept that lie and go on. Silly us. SLOW takes that lying factor out and so guarantees inclusion by all kids in the class. I’m not talking about Story Listening here. That is a whole new pacing thing. Faster. Magically faster.
But I don’t believe I have ever done a comprehension check when I haven’t said to myself, “So and so’s lying there with that 8.” 8 is merely the cut off number for avoiding the radar, for flying under it. In that way, ten finger comprehension checks are flawed and why I stopped doing them four years ago.
Not only do kids lie because they want to fly under the radar, they also don’t want to be identified by us as slow processors, which to them means that they are stupid. Can you imagine? We go too fast in PQA and stories and our kids walk out of class feeling stupid. How’s that for a good reason to slow down naturally when doing stories?
We get four kinds of responses in hand comprehension checks:
1. Many tell the truth that they get it.
2. A few tell the truth that they don’t get it. (thank goodness for them)
3. Many lie that they get it.
4. One or two refuse to listen because they want to conjugate verbs. They put up four or five fingers in a sad attempt to turn the blame around on us, to guilt us.
So the results of those hand comprehension checks can be skewed. Better to teach to the eyes, to the whole child – the best form of assessment possible. When we teach to the eyes and enforce jGR (and now Tina’s new kick butt rubrics), we guarantee inclusion of each kid in the class.
It is in the non-robotic periodic data gathering of looking for the observable non-verbal behavior our kids display in class that we know if we are going slowly enough. Teaching to the eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Zk8M-uXcU) is the best way to determine if our speed is producing the desired result of inclusion of each kid in the group, which is the most important thing. jGR is the best way to assess what we see in their observable non-verbal behavior.