Teachable Moments

For this blog post, I have reviewed the article Teachable Moments: Linking Assessment and Teaching in Talk about Writing, by Kathryn Glasswell and Katy M. Parr. In this article, the authors observed the writing instruction of a Year 1 and 2 teacher in New Zealand. They observed instructional routines, talked to students, and interviewed teachers about what they did and why. In the course of the article, Glasswell and Parr describe different types of assessment, define that watchword of education, “teachable moments”, and outline three hallmarks of teachable moments. Then they give the example of a teacher-student interaction in a writing conference to exemplify one teachable moment using their hallmarks.

There are basically two types of assessment according to Glasswell and Parr: summative assessment, which shows evidence of learning, and formative assessment, which requires gathering information about  what teachers do and why. In formative assessment, they further break it down into planned and interactive assessment. Planned assessment is, obviously, planned. It is, by nature, much more structured than interactive assessment. Interactive assessment is more dynamic; it is based on teacher-student conversations and on teacher observations of student behavior and progress within the course of a lesson or unit. In this case, it is important to keep quality notes of observations because there is no other proof of assessment. (I, personally, do not see why interactive assessment could not be used summatively as well, but it is not mentioned by the authors of this article.

Teachable moments are “times when we have found a valuable and authentic way to teach something useful.” It is not a split-second opportunity that occurs and passes but is, rather, based on interactive formative assessment, on the teacher knowing through experience exactly where a student is and where they need to go next in any particular moment. The three hallmarks of a teachable moment are the following: a meeting of minds, a knowledge of possible futures, and an application of proper scaffolding.

The “meeting of minds” describes the student-teacher relationship. A teacher cannot force students to learn; no matter how much we may want to, we cannot simply cram information into children’s brains. Students need to be active participants in their own education. They need to question the method of their own learning and be self-motivated and proactive in pursuing it.

The “knowledge of possible futures” refers to the shared goal of the teacher and student. An example was given of Driver’s Ed. Both the young driver and the driving instructor are aware of the planned outcome: that the student will be able to drive independently and safely. Student awareness of goals is incredible important for progression because the student is as important as the teacher in the learning process. If they do not know the end goal, how can they strive for it? This section also discusses the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) of the student. This simply means, in fancy, scientific terms, that if the lesson being taught is to easy or too difficult, the student will not progress efficiently. Like with Goldilocks, the lesson must be “just right”

The final hallmark of a teachable moment is the application of proper scaffolding. Glasswell and Parr state that students need “the right amount of the right kind of support at the right time, for the right period of time.” They say that “parents, teachers, and more skilled peers create a support system for learner that enable her to perform tasks and be more skillful than if she were attempting to perform independently.” (I was a bit iffy on the “more skilled peers” part – why can all peers not support each other in learning?) Scaffolding should be as-needed, flexible, temporary, and diminishing over time. There should be a transfer of responsibility from the teacher (or parent or peer) to the student.

The example given by Glasswell and Parr of these three hallmarks of a teachable moment was of a student named Charlie and his teacher, Eleanor. It only lasted 1 minute and 47 seconds, but is crammed with useful information. During this short time, the teacher devotes her full attention to the student, compliments his brave use of invented spelling, and gives him one thing to work on: making clear to the audience the sequence of events in the story. The following day, Charlie independently worked on his writing piece and, instead of reciting Eleanor’s suggestion for clarity verbatim, experimented with the idea she was promoting. Thus his story “I hurt my leg because (Eleanor’s suggestion) I fell down in the driveway” became, “This week I was walking on the driveway. Then I fell over.” In a different way, it still communicates causality and a sequence of events to the audience. This independent work shows the results of a well-taught moment, in which the teacher saw where her student was, what he needed to do next, offered guidance, then stepped back to let him take command of his own learning when he was ready.

I would like to conclude, not with my own words, but with the authors’ own concluding remarks.

Teachable moments are more than spontaneous occurrences that happen when gifted teachers are listening carefully to their students and responding intuitively. Rather, we suggest that teachable moments are grounded in a deeper understanding of formative assessment (assessment for learning) and its place in the instructional fabric of classroom interactions. We have proposed that to be effective in teachable moments, teachers need to know where their students are in their learning, where each student needs to go to become more skilled, and how classroom talk can create a meaningful scaffold. Without such foundations, the conversations that take place - no matter if they emerge from the student's own initiative or interests - will be "fleeting" and will not necessarily accumulate to support sustained learning in writing.