The Power of Forward Momentum

Last year, I welcomed a new sidekick into my classroom. After only a few weeks of school, he had earned the nickname ‘Doc’ as well as the place of honor at my right hand in front of the students. In that short amount of time, it became clear to me that Doc had a natural ability to enhance my lesson material into a form more easily understood by the students. All I needed to do was place a copy of a student textbook or worksheet at my new companion’s feet, and he would immediately go to work to help all of us achieve greater levels of clarity.

Before I go any further, I believe that I owe my readers a description of Doc. When he is standing at his full height, he towers over my pencil jar at a staggering twenty-one inches tall. Most of his height, of course, is in his neck, which conveniently hinges in the middle to allow it to fold neatly in half when he is asleep. He has one large, bulbous eye with vision acuity that would rival that of an eagle.

To be clear, Doc is what one might call a document camera, representing a new generation of devices in the lineage of the overhead projector. As described above, these tools practically become an extension of the teacher’s presence in the classroom thanks to their ability to assist in displaying visual aids to help students learn.

While he may only be an inanimate object, Doc has demonstrated a knack for using examples of my own teaching to help open my eyes to some of the vital ingredients present in an engaging classroom. Unfortunately, Doc’s timing for these coaching sessions has not always been ideal, and on more than one occasion, Doc has interrupted the flow of my teaching to point out something that every teacher ought to consider – the power of forward momentum.

The first of these moments came on a sunny afternoon in September as I was preparing to project a social studies workbook onto the screen to give my class instructions for an upcoming activity. The lesson had all the ingredients to provide a high-quality learning experience for students: well-defined classroom expectations, a clear lesson plan, an exciting topic – yet Doc had other ideas. In mid-sentence, I paused for a few moments to watch the once crisp image turn blurry. I immediately pressed the ‘Auto-Focus’ button in hopes of a quick solution. Rather than clearing up the image for students, Doc began cycling rapidly back and forth between a focused image and something so hazy that nothing on the projected page could be recognized. All of a sudden, my group of engrossed students lost all attention and the lesson was practically ‘dead in the water’. It started with just a few students giggling in the back, but before long, most were talking and laughing as they watched their teacher struggling with an untimely technology problem. Fortunately, I was able to solve the problem but only at the expense of student focus and learning.

I have spent some time reflecting on that experience, and I believe that it demonstrates a sometimes overlooked element that I have found to be present in most, if not all, engaging classrooms – forward momentum. I would describe forward momentum in this context as the continuous, uninterrupted flow of a lesson that keeps students attentive and interested in knowing what will happen next. Others have attempted to describe this with more concrete terms like instructional pacing and student engagement (Danielson, 2007). Whichever term you prefer, Doc’s rude disruption to our lesson that afternoon highlighted what happens when that natural flow is interrupted: classroom management problems escalate quickly and students struggle to be fully in tune with learning.

Due to the nature of one’s work as a teacher, there will always be the potential for surprises in the classroom. Frankly, that is one of the aspects of teaching I find most appealing! However, there are several things a teacher can do to limit the number of ‘momentum killers’ at work in their classroom:

• Be familiar enough with your plans and teaching materials that you do not need to spend lesson time flipping through pages, searching for some necessary item, or processing and figuring out the content mid-lesson as you also attempt to teach it to others. Even brief interruptions lasting only a few seconds significantly weaken your connection with students and disrupt the lesson’s forward momentum. As adults, we struggle to remain alert and attentive when a speaker at a podium pauses to shuffle through papers in search of their next words, so it is only natural to expect that students, who are likely less mature and deferential, will struggle even more than us. I have both observed and been in conversation with frazzled teachers who were puzzled about why they needed to deal with so many student problems in their classrooms, and an abundance of these ‘micro-pauses’ throughout the day has often been the main culprit.
• Have a detailed classroom management plan that both you and your students know intimately. This plan will outline how both the students and teacher will perform classroom tasks, ranging from sharpening pencils to offering input in a class discussion. Without such a plan, the number of decisions a teacher must make in a day increases dramatically as they essentially need to treat every classroom activity or student request as a new situation to be thoughtfully considered. Not only does this kind of space create confusion for students, but the forward momentum of the school day is continually halted as the teacher considers answers to trivial questions such as where students turn in papers, if pencils can be sharpened during a test, or how many students may use the restroom at the same time. Instead, have a plan, make sure students know the plan, and be ready to offer quick feedback when anyone tries to deviate from the plan in a way that will kill your lesson’s forward momentum. This is not to say that a teacher cannot be flexible but is rather a challenge for us to be flexible at the right moments.
• Consider how you will approach ‘Doc’ moments that feel largely unavoidable. No amount of planning or knowledge on my part could have prepared me to deal with a technology problem. In the situation described above, I eventually pulled the plug on the document camera and allowed the system to reset before proceeding with the instructions. However, my experiences with the power of forward momentum have taught me to have something ready to keep students engrossed even when the unexpected happens. In fact, naming Doc and personifying him as a brilliant yet temperamental sidekick continues to be my approach in dealing with these occasional disruptions to class. It has normalized the occasional technology problem and students no longer seem to notice. Anytime the document camera needs to reboot, I simply say something like, “Well, it looks like Doc needs a quick nap…”, pull the cord, and proceed with the lesson by holding the book up so that students don’t have the downtime of watching me troubleshoot the technology.
• Plan independent warm-up activities at the beginning of lessons and reflection activities at the end. If done well, I have seen students come into class and immediately engage in the daily warm-up task, allowing the teacher to take care of incidental needs without disrupting students’ engagement. Similarly, reflection activities or informal assessments at the end of a lesson provide both meaningful learning opportunities to students but also allow a busy teacher a time to transition from one class to the next in a way that will not disrupt the class’s forward momentum. A teacher who has cultivated the skill of keeping his students’ minds intellectually engaged ‘come what may’ is ultimately one who will likely experience less classroom management problems, higher student achievement, and an overall more enjoyable classroom environment (Danielson, 2007).

Teaching is full of surprises – some support learning, some can be frustrating, and some (like Doc’s autofocus failure) threaten to derail an otherwise well-planned lesson. In spite of the variety of a typical school day, maintaining forward momentum is one of the most powerful ways to maintain both an orderly classroom and student engagement. By anticipating and preparing for potential disruptions and establishing clear procedures, we can minimize the stop-and-go feel of our teaching to help students remain in tune – even when things do not go as planned. So, the next time you have a ‘Doc’ moment, take a deep (but quick) breath, adjust as needed, and keep going. In the end, great teaching is not really about everything happening according to plan but rather maintaining a classroom rhythm that will keep students learning and wanting more.

References

Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching (2nd ed.). Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

Photo by Arūnas Naujokas on Unsplash