Absence of Planning

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5 thoughts on “Absence of Planning”

  1. “It’s either stories or a reading.”

    This comes as a breath of fresh air, Ben. I have been wrestling with this all year. All of my classes really seem to fly off of the rails when I depart from the “stories and readings” path. I see my classes 4 days a week and this is the sequence that has been working for my 7th graders.

    Day 1: Story
    Day 2: L+D, ROA, Quick Quiz
    Day 3: ROA cont…, Retell or Timed Write or Listen and Draw
    Day 4: Translation Quiz, WCTG or Kahoot

    No planning required and class is fun and lively.

    I have tried novels and more planning for my 8th grade classes and they HATE it! Everything seems to pale in comparison to stories in the eyes of my students. I was always afraid that kids would get bored of stories, but it hasn’t happened yet!

    Thanks for this post, Ben. This is so liberating.

    1. I agree. I am glad I found Ben and followed his lead to make my teaching day easy, happy, and free of a lot of the shit that used to drive me wiggy, in my former life outside the wonderful world of storytelling and reading. Even on the worst day, I am still happier than I used to be because I feel that what is going on is truly authentic, responsive, and unique to our class community, so it feels special and easygoing.

    2. And John sometimes we just have to formally slay all those old internal self-admonishing thoughts that we have to use ideas that neither we nor the kids enjoy. They enjoy stories and readings.

      Please don’t tell anyone, but I don’t even write up the readings much any more. Every day is story day. I no longer feel any need to “challenge” my students. What does that mean? They challenge me! They should grade me on happy I make the class.

      And John get this: no quizzes in the past six weeks at least. No tests. No made up grades even. NO assessment. Why lose time to stories and laughter? Does that make me a bad person?

      Granted, I’m leaving the school this year and that helps. But it’s not just the nagging thought in our ear that we need to b “mixing up our instruction”, all those thoughts that guilted us about how the brain craves variety – I don’t even know what that means either.

      Dude – stories are plenty varied, right?

      How many of us will let our freak flags fly, but then the stern presence of the grade books in our computers shames us into grading stuff that neither we nor the kids give a rip about. That is no way to live.

      Related: https://benslavic.com/blog/this-is-your-gradebook-speaking/

      1. “…but then the stern presence of the grade books in our computers shames us into grading stuff that neither we nor the kids give a rip about.”

        Exactly.

      2. Tina and John feel “liberated” and “happier” because they are using a more natural Natural Approach. I do too.

        If only more teachers could hear this; maybe collecting data could strengthen Ben’s rare voice encouraging LESS planning.

        I agree that grades based on inauthentic assessments can be aweful. Maybe we need to start collecting authentic assessments to prove growth so other teachers will be brave enough (and administrators will be onboard) with non-planning planning as a preferred means of teaching. Just a thought.

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