Planning for the Fall? Listen to Students First.
Schools face an uncertain fate this fall. Whichever of the swirling options for reopening your district lands on, there is one key thing teachers and school leaders can do right now to prepare for the fall: take time to listen to students and families.
In my experience as both a parent through this crisis and in my work with teachers and school leaders from across the country, I’ve been coming back to this idea again and again. As we search for answers to our schools’ challenges and plan for the fall, meaningfully and intentionally including student and parent voice is key.
When schools first closed because of COVID-19, I found myself jumping into action, trying to come up with the best plan, procedure and resources. We all saw great needs become apparent as issues of inequity were brought to the forefront. My mindset was to solve the problem. With the helpful rebuke of one of the coaches on my team, I realized I was approaching this challenge with deficit-oriented thinking and I had missed one of the greatest assets that we all have: the students themselves, and their families.
Missing student voice in this crisis reminds me a bit of what often goes wrong with culturally responsive teaching: teachers look for a bag of tricks, or a pack of posters of Black and Brown heroes, when really cultural responsiveness has to do with deeply knowing and being in relationship with the students who are right in front of you, so powerful learning can take place. Being culturally responsive is different in every classroom because the students are different in every classroom. The same goes for our response to this crisis. There is no bag of tricks. There is no cookie-cutter response. Instead, to respond well, we have to take time to really listen to and grow in relationships with students and families to make it possible for all students to thrive.
Schools have spent a lot of time communicating to parents over the last few months, but many have put in little effort to build relationships with students and their families. In her book Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain, Zaretta Hammond explains that the first step in building a learning partnership with students is to build rapport and trust, and trust begins with listening.
One of the greatest challenges for educators is that listening, really listening not just hearing, involves humility. Inspired by Christopher Emdin’s work, one teacher that I coached this spring began to implement cogens (a diverse group of four students who provide feedback on the class that the teacher implements). He established a cogen with his 5th graders in February and continued it remotely, making space to intentionally listen to students to inform his instruction. He reflected that it took a good deal of humility for him to position himself as the learner from his students, but that the impact of the cogen on helping students thrive in his class was invaluable.
Here a few examples of the types of questions I’ve heard over the last week from teachers or district leaders, all of which could be answered with “First, listen to students.” (I know it is much more complex, but go with me for a minute.)
“How are we going to run school this fall logistically? For example, how long should a Zoom meeting be for kindergarten compared to 3rd grade?” First, listen to students. Ask families, “What has worked for you this spring? How long can your child typically stay engaged in a Zoom class?”
“How am I going to build relationships with new students in the fall?” First, listen to students. Ask students how they feel most connected and ask parents what would help their child transition into a new class.
“How are we going to increase engagement on X platform?” First, listen to students. Ask families, “What particular challenges have you found with using X platform? What other learning resources are working for you that we could share out?”
We are quick to look for answers and to try to solve these problems, but we need to prioritize hearing from students and their families first. And when we do hear from students and families, we need to have the humility to respond. We may also need to step away from a mindset of compliance, where we expect kids to log onto a certain site or complete a certain assignment by a certain time, in order to ask the right questions.
Here are 3 practical ways teachers or school leaders can include student and parent voice right now:
Surveys: Before the school year ends, encourage both students and parents to engage in a survey that specifically reflects on what worked and didn’t from remote learning this spring. Spend some time crafting your questions that get at the heart of your current questions and that value student and family expertise. If you give a survey, also plan for how the results will be analyzed and used. Make sure that the results of your survey inform the decisions you make for the fall.
Focus Groups: Just like a cogen, pull together several small groups of students or parents (depending on the age group) to give feedback on remote learning this spring. By having multiple people speak together, you may hear ideas and stories surface that won’t come out in a survey. Plan to have no more than 5 participants on a call, and keep the meeting to 30 minutes or less. Plan and share focus questions ahead of time.
Mini Interviews: Make some phone calls to ask students and parents for feedback. Parents are used to getting phone calls telling them something, but instead take the opportunity to build relationships and listen. Plan a few key questions that multiple people on your team can ask. Set up a spreadsheet to track and analyze your answers.
For each of these scenarios, be intentional to include a diverse group of students, especially those whose voices are often left out. Make sure you aren’t just talking to the parents who always show up to every event, or whose kids are thriving right now. We want to include students who typically have a one-on-one behavior support person at school, who find Zoom calls overstimulating, who are caring for their siblings, or who are themselves essential workers. Listening to a diverse cross-section of the school community will significantly impact what you will hear.