Letting Go

As a parent I wanted to do everything for my son, but I soon realized that I would have to teach and model for him, then I would need to let him explore and learn for himself.  This meant that he would fail, but it would be up to him to find solutions for his problems with little or no guidance from me.  For example, when he wanted to learn to waterski and wakeboard we taught him what to do, but it was up to him to refine the skills he learned.  He fell down a lot at the beginning.  Now he can ski on only one ski and wakeboard with ease!  As parents we had to let it go, and now we can successfully watch him do what he loves!

Teachers need to let it go!  It's probably one of the hardest things we will do as an educator.  We need to give students the skills that they need to be successful, then we need to let them figure a solution out on their own.   Students should use inquiry to find the skills they need to solve problems.  Grant Wiggins explains in his article "Great Teaching Means Letting Go" that teachers often prompt and scaffold learning, but then we we provide them with chances to think on their on and figure it out.  

"...unless you back off completely, on a daily basis, in scrimmages as well as games, to see whether or not students draw appropriately from the repertoire in a timely and effective fashion in challenges that demand it, you really have no idea what they can do on their own."

After reading this article I have realized that I need to adapt more of these theories into my own teaching. I teach 5th grade math, and I realize that I prompt and scaffold without requiring students to make their own decisions. I need to focus on providing the needed skills, then letting go a bit so the students can make their own choices on solving the problems. Wiggins explained that this could be why some kids fail when it comes to high stakes testing. Now I realize that the students who are better problem solvers are also better test takers. Chris Lehman even mentions that we need to use more Inquiry based instruction in our teaching. I have said many times that they kids may know the content, but they don't know how to think! I'm going to let it go so the kids start thinking and solving problems on their own.