The Teacher as Screenwriter - Character Arcs
This scene plays out in classrooms around the world. We can infer that Stephanie and Mikayla were not “getting it” when the activity started and now, they are feeling triumphant that they understand it. At the beginning of the lesson, did these students tell the teacher either verbally or with body language that they weren’t getting it? What informal assessments did the teacher do prior to this lesson to know where her students were and anticipate areas of growth? Was the activity chosen thoughtfully to fit what all the students needed?
You could compare the above learning scenario to a character’s arc. A character arc is the path a character takes during the story. There are challenges along the way and the character will change in response to these. The arc ends with the resolution. Each students’ learning path is like a character arc and we as teachers can positively affect these arcs. There can be arcs in one lesson and throughout a unit of study, as well as a year-long character arc as well. It all depends on the students’ journeys.
As Tyler Mowery teaches in the video, there are different kinds of character arcs. My focus, in a simplified metaphor, is the change arc and flat arc for working with students.
Change Arc: The character first believes the lie. They encounter the truth and overcome the lie by believing the truth. They become balanced and whole. (see the Ironman example in video above). This description matches many of our students. Being aware of this positive or negative change arc can help us reach out to students, understanding that they may be in a place in their arc where they are telling themselves a lie.
Flat Arc: The character already accepts the truth. That character has no need and no lie. That belief is tested, and the character still believes the truth in the end. (see the Paddington and Juror 8 examples in video above). This arc could relate to a confident learner who stays confident all year despite the occasional struggle or it could relate to a frustrated, struggling learner who stays frustrated throughout the school year despite a success here and there. Unlike the flat arc description, these students still have needs, of course. I expand this flat arc metaphor to the teacher who, along with being the audience, is also a character in the classroom.
Understanding the truth about themselves as learners:
“It’s common for students to turn off to school and adopt an air of indifference, but we make a mistake if we think any student stops caring.”
The lie students have about themselves as learners may be created by an educational system that has failed them. Growth mindset is a piece that can’t be ignored, but without high expectations for all students, opportunities to learn from each other, and support from capable, open teachers, it is close to impossible. Get to know who your students really are. Respect and understand where they are in their own story arc. Help them move forward in a positive direction.
“For culturally and linguistically diverse students, their opportunities to develop habits of mind and cognitive capacities are limited or non-existent because of educational inequity. The result is their cognitive growth is stunted, leaving them dependent learners, unable to work to their full potential.”
Understanding the truth about themselves as belonging:
“Without this space for dialogue and questions, or this reassurance that we will listen, we send the message to kids that we must keep carrying on. That they must keep their hearts buried by a flurry of stereotypes, media-generated hype, and tragic events. That they must keep their heads down. Blinders on. That they must work harder toward personal happiness and success without considering the effects we have on others in the world. ”
It is the rare child who can be themselves and thrive socially, emotionally, or academically while feeling that they don’t belong. More often, we are seeing a façade of belonging. Open Circle, Responsive Classroom and other programs that help with the social emotional piece are there for a reason. Students need to be taught how to respect each other and enjoy each other. They need to role play what kindness looks like and be taught the language of including others authentically. We can be allies and help students be each other’s allies on their journeys or we can be antagonists and ignore the issues that are working against our students’ positive change arcs.
How can you help navigate your students’ arcs? Share the flyers for different contests/clubs etc. in your school, community and beyond. Then drop those comments like we always do, “You know, Adam, you draw all the time. I bet you would love this.” I had a third grader invite me to check out his Youtube channel in which he shares his love of hockey and flipping on the trampoline. The fact that he shared this with me felt great, but a bigger takeaway was that I already knew he had these passions because he had multiple opportunities to share his passions with the class during the valuable share time during morning meetings and in his informational writings where choice and voice is key. Do your students share their passions and what they are doing outside of your time with them?
It just takes one teacher to notice a student‘s passion for math and encourage him/her to join the Coding Club where he/she finds their tribe or allow a student to share their Lego project with his/her classmates even though it wasn’t in the plans for the day.
“We need to pay attention to bonding and the power of emotional commitment to our students. Worldwide, the strongest predictor of reading achievement is the quality of student-teacher relations.”
Understanding the truth about the content they are learning:
“When a task is presented as “solve this in your own way,” it has multiple entry points, meaning it can be approached in a variety of ways, some more sophisticated than others. Consequently, students with several different levels of prior knowledge or learning strategies can figure out a way to solve the problem. This makes the task accessible to more learners. Then, as students observe strategies that are more efficient than their own, they develop new and better ways to solve the problem. This approach also requires that the students, rather than the teachers, do the thinking.”
Like the classroom scene at the beginning of this post, it is important to notice when students are understanding or not understanding content. It is also vital to see how they think and what they are already bringing to their learning. I could write for pages on this topic and I will share more about peer collaboration and reaching learners where they are in this blog and on The Teacher As…podcast.
“Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves. Collaboration involves thinking about other people’s ideas and synthesizing them with our own.”
In “researching” each student’s truth/lie and figuring out his/her wants and needs, we can think about what Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter of A Few Good Men and creator of West Wing, said about researching for a screenplay. In his Master Class he states that there are two different kinds of research. The first is specific research to learn about a topic. Sorkin had to do a lot of this kind of research about technology to prepare for writing the Steve Jobs movie. The second kind of research is where you don’t necessarily know what you are looking for yet and this is like teaching. Sorkin said that he just talks to people. As they share their stories, he starts to see what he should focus on and use for his screenplay. In the classroom, we can’t successfully decide what to focus on and use from our resources until we understand our students. We do this by observing them and talking to them.
Figuring out each students’ story and how to reach them is a teacher’s superpower. How we learn about our students is dependent on many things. Some factors in getting to know students include a teacher’s personality, teaching style, classroom environment/culture created, teacher’s own biases, and interest level in his/her students’ lives.
Wouldn’t it be easier if, when school started and you met your new characters (students), they had a little movie screen above each of their heads showing flashbacks of all their major triumphs and hurts? It would be easier and faster, but not as much fun for you or the students. Getting to know students’ learning arcs, their passions and social, emotional, and academic strengths, as well as their quirks and faults, is one of my favorite parts of teaching. It’s like watching the greatest movie, with the most dynamic characters and plot, unfold each school year. A major reason why teaching is so rewarding is that while you are putting the puzzle pieces together about who your students are, you are showing them that you care and that they have a voice and belong.
In her amazing Master Class, Shonda Rimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, talks about characters having to develop naturally. This is an important goal in education.
“Think about the possibilities that a character can bring. Let stories unfold with that character. Where is their story taking you?”
Next up, I continue the screenwriting metaphor and focus on dialogue.
Resources Mentioned
Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Sara K. Ahmed Being the Change: Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension
Regie Routman, Reading Essentials: The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well
Paul Solarz, Learn Like a Pirate
John A. Van De Walle et al, Teaching Student Centered Mathematics: Developmentally Appropriate Instruction for Grades 3-5