The first time I asked my students for critical feedback on my teaching, we were on our way back from a field trip to the National Portrait Gallery. As we rode on the metro, I seized the opportunity to ask them about what they like and don’t like about my teaching. I learned about this strategy in Christopher Emdin’s book For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too. His approach is grounded in Gloria Ladson-Billings’ concept of culturally relevant teaching. The idea is to consult with a small, academically diverse group of students during lunch or after school (or on a train) to discuss how you can improve their classroom experience. Students’ suggestions are put into action, and the teacher continues to meet with the students to receive further feedback.
As the teacher, you have to be ready to accept criticism from your students; you have to overcome pride, denial and anxiety. I was nervous that day on the train as I asked my students about my teaching.
“Do I talk too much?”
“What do you think about the vocabulary strategy?”
“Are students taking advantage of me because I’m too nice?”
The students told me they like my class because I encourage them to share their experiences and opinions. They criticized their peers who get off task when we use tablets. One student wanted more vocabulary practice. After just one meeting, I realized that there were needs and concerns that weren’t being met. My joy over this exchange was tempered by the thought of previous students whose needs I could have better addressed using this strategy.
Back at school, I was eager to hear from students in my most behaviorally challenging class, so I recruited four new participants. They were quick to raise the topic of disobedience during our first meeting. One student pointed to the classroom constitution on the wall and said, “You need to enforce those rules.” The other students nodded. They were concerned about a handful of their peers who consistently talk over me during class.
“You’re too soft.”
“You’re not hard on us like the other teachers.”
They were criticizing me for never yelling or punishing them. I have avoided such practices after learning that authoritarian discipline isn’t effective and is disproportionately used in high-poverty schools. During my first few years as a teacher, I would react angrily if a student’s behavior was excessively disrespectful, but it did nothing but create a stressful learning environment. My next strategy was to calmly send students out of class, but again, this didn’t address the root of the problem. This year, I vowed to keep all students in the room unless they were a danger to themselves or others. For the most part, I have won them over with humor and mutual respect. I try to preempt behavioral issues by planning engaging activities, but the reality is that some days are less engaging than others, requiring students to exercise more self-control.
From a classroom management standpoint, I can attest to improvements in student behavior that were a direct result of these feedback meetings. By simply asking students to talk about their experiences in my class, I have been able to better adapt to their needs. Critical thinking is a core value of my U.S. history curriculum, but I had failed to turn the critical lens upon my teaching. But in doing so, not only have I enhanced my practice, but also the student participants gained a deeper sense of responsibility by contributing to the successful reform of their classes.
Editor’s note: For more information on rethinking your approach to classroom management, see Reframing Classroom Management: A Toolkit for Educators and its accompanying free, on-demand webinar.
Seeger is a seventh-grade history teacher in the Washington, D.C., area and a doctoral student at George Mason University.
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