Wayside Teaching: Connecting with Students to Support Learning

By Sara Davis Powell

Wayside teaching is about intentionally practicing what educators do every day in perhaps unintentional ways: relate to students. This practical, research-based guide illustrates how wayside teaching—the informal curriculum, implicit instruction, and mentoring that happens in sometimes unintentional ways—can be intentionally practiced across grade levels to enhance learning and boost student outcomes. Through a framework focused on attitudes, approaches, and actions, and using vignettes that illuminate wayside teaching in action, Sara Davis Powell demonstrates how reaching out to students in formal and informal situations helps create a culture of belonging and safety that strengthens a student’s self-image, confidence, resiliency, and cognitive processes. Offering invaluable resources, including student surveys for learning more about your students and an annotated booklist for promoting acceptance and compassion, Wayside Teaching reflects the powerful influence that teachers’ actions can have on their students’ academic and personal lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Release date: Mar 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781634507295

Sara Davis Powell

Sara Davis Powell is a teacher— from elementary, middle, and high school classrooms to teacher preparation as a professor and chair of the Department of Education at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. Her most recent books include An Introduction to Education: Choosing Your Teaching Path (2009) and Introduction to Middle School (2nd ed., in press).

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Copyright © 2010 by Corwin Press.

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2018

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Scott Van Atta

Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-728-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-729-5

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

List of Figures

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction: What Is Your Current Wayside Teaching Profile?

Graphic View of Your Current Wayside Teaching Profile

1.   What Is Wayside Teaching, and Why Does It Matter?

What Is Wayside Teaching?

We Teach Who We Are

Context for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Unconditional Teaching

Wayside Teaching Leads to a Strengths Focus

Defining Strength

Teaching With Our Strengths

Teaching to Student Strengths

Care, Community, and Belongingness

Why Does Wayside Teaching Matter?

Wayside Teaching Supports Student Learning

Implicit Teaching

Teacher-Student Relationships

Sense of Self

Wayside Teaching Supports Positive Student Behavior

How Students See Themselves

How Students See Situations

Concluding Reflections

2.   12 Components of Wayside Teaching: Attitudes, Approaches, and Actions

Component 1: Know Your Students

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 2: Practice Little Gestures That Matter

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 3: Reveal Your Personal Self

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 4: Create and Maintain an Inviting Classroom

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 5: Promote a Culture of Acceptance and Compassion

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 6: Help Students Find Their Voice

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 7: Learn to Listen

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 8: Speak Carefully

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 9: Teach Skills That Help Students Become Autonomous, Not Anonymous

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 10: Build Resiliency

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 11: Encourage Imagination and Creativity

Attitude

Approach

Action

Component 12: Infuse Humor

Attitude

Approach

Action

3.   What Does Wayside Teaching Look Like in Elementary School?

Development of Elementary Learners

Physical Development of Elementary Learners

Cognitive Development of Elementary Learners

Emotional Development of Elementary Learners

Social Development of Elementary Learners

Character Development of Elementary Learners

Wayside Teaching Practices for Elementary Learners

Component 1: Know Your Students

Component 2: Practice Little Gestures That Matter

Component 3: Reveal Your Personal Self

Component 4: Create and Maintain an Inviting Classroom

Component 5: Promote a Culture of Acceptance and Compassion

Component 6: Help Students Find Their Voice

Component 7: Learn to Listen

Component 8: Speak Carefully

Component 9: Teach Skills That Help Students Become Autonomous, Not Anonymous

Component 10: Build Resiliency

Component 11: Encourage Imagination and Creativity

Component 12: Infuse Humor

4.   What Does Wayside Teaching Look Like in Middle School?

Development of Young Adolescent Learners

Physical Development of Young Adolescent Learners

Cognitive Development of Young Adolescent Learners

Emotional Development of Young Adolescent Learners

Social Development of Young Adolescent Learners

Character Development of Young Adolescent Learners

Wayside Teaching Practices for Young Adolescent Learners

Component 1: Know Your Students

Component 2: Practice Little Gestures That Matter

Component 3: Reveal Your Personal Self

Component 4: Create and Maintain an Inviting Classroom

Component 5: Promote a Culture of Acceptance and Compassion

Component 6: Help Students Find Their Voice

Component 7: Learn to Listen

Component 8: Speak Carefully

Component 9: Teach Skills That Help Students Become Autonomous, Not Anonymous

Component 10: Build Resiliency

Component 11: Encourage Imagination and Creativity

Component 12: Infuse Humor

5.   What Does Wayside Teaching Look Like in High School?

Development of Adolescent Learners

Physical Development of Adolescent Learners

Cognitive Development of Adolescent Learners

Emotional Development of Adolescent Learners

Social Development of Adolescent Learners

Character Development of Adolescent Learners

Wayside Teaching Practices for Adolescent Learners

Component 1: Know Your Students

Component 2: Practice Little Gestures That Matter

Component 3: Reveal Your Personal Self

Component 4: Create and Maintain an Inviting Classroom

Component 5: Promote a Culture of Acceptance and Compassion

Component 6: Help Students Find Their Voice

Component 7: Learn to Listen

Component 8: Speak Carefully

Component 9: Teach Skills That Help Students Become Autonomous, Not Anonymous

Component 10: Build Resiliency

Component 11: Encourage Imagination and Creativity

Component 12: Infuse Humor

6.   Wayside Teaching: The Power of One

Looking Back at Theory and Practice

Reform in Perspective

Goals for Wayside Teachers

Goal 1: Be a Reflective Teacher

Goal 2: Be an Observer of Students

Goal 3: Assume the Best

Goal 4: Be a Positive Role Model

Goal 5: Make Wayside Teaching Habitual

Goal 6: Experience the Joy of Teaching

Final Thoughts

Resource A: Surveys

Resource B: Annotated Book List for Promoting Acceptance and Compassion

References

Index

List of Figures

Figure I.1:   Teacher Self-Analysis

Figure I.2:   Margaret’s Wayside Teaching Profile

Figure I.3:   My Wayside Teaching Profile

Figure 1.1:   Organization of Chapter 1

Figure 1.2:   Building Wayside Teaching on a Foundation of Effective Practice

Figure 1.3:   Strengths = Ability + Knowledge + Skills

Figure 2.1:   12 Components of Wayside Teaching

Figure 2.2:   Self-Esteem, Effort, Success Cycle

Preface

Wayside Teaching: Connecting With Students to Support Learning defines the most important relationship in education—the relationship between teacher and student. This relationship is unavoidable and can be extremely powerful. One more certainty: Our relationships with students are up to us. Making the most of these relationships is what wayside teaching is all about.

Wayside teaching is not an add-on, not a program, not fluff, and—very important for teachers, students, and schools—wayside teaching is not anti-accountability. On the contrary, wayside teaching practices enhance academic learning and complement academic rigor because they build student self-concept, motivate learners to engage in the curriculum, and provide a sense of belonging and safety that help free learners to participate more fully in their own education.

Multiple research studies verify the link between what this book calls wayside teaching and student learning. The benefits of wayside teaching span physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and character-building aspects of teaching and learning. Through Wayside Teaching: Connecting With Students to Support Learning, we come to understand that the connection between teacher and learner is a major factor in student achievement. Once this is established, we go on to explore how to expand our influence through wayside teaching practices. What we do beyond the structured lesson plan, and who we are as individual role models and mentors, matter to both affective and academic student development.

WHO SHOULD READ WAYSIDE TEACHING: CONNECTING WITH STUDENTS TO SUPPORT LEARNING?

This book is for teachers of all levels of experience and expertise.

•   For those with flourishing, successful careers in the classroom, this book is an affirmation of their practice, with no doubt more than a few new ideas. We can always get better!

•   For those who are not so sure their classroom skills and methods are where they should be in terms of connecting with kids to support learning, this book will help bring clarity and new dimensions to practice with strategies that can be immediately put into place.

•   And for new teachers, this book provides insights and rationale for the value of developing strong relationships, based on the undeniable fact that we teach who we are. New teachers will understand and acquire skills and strategies for making the relationship connections that lead to higher levels of learning.

HOW IS WAYSIDE TEACHING: CONNECTING WITH STUDENTS TO SUPPORT LEARNING ORGANIZED?

Teachers know that activation of prior knowledge is a vital part of learning. The Introduction serves this purpose. Teachers are asked to complete a 70-item self-analysis that gets to the heart of attitudes, approaches, and actions that make up wayside teaching. The results of the self-analysis are then plotted on a grid to provide a starting point for thinking about how to enhance the tremendous potential of wayside teaching.

Because the phrase wayside teaching may be new terminology to many, Chapter 1 centers on defining aspects of the attitudes, approaches, and actions of teachers who practice it. Research is presented that supports wayside teaching as a vital contributor to academic success and to improvement of behavior.

Chapter 2 is the how to of wayside teaching. Featured are 12 components that teachers can make realities in their classrooms, all framed in the attitudes, approaches, and actions of wayside teachers. Here are the 12 components:

  1.   Know your students

  2.   Practice little gestures that matter

  3.   Reveal your personal self

  4.   Create and maintain an inviting classroom

  5.   Promote a culture of acceptance and compassion

  6.   Help students find their voice

  7.   Learn to listen

  8.   Speak carefully

  9.   Teach skills that help students become autonomous, not anonymous

10.   Build resiliency

11.   Encourage imagination and creativity

12.   Infuse humor

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on elementary (Chapter 3), middle-level (Chapter 4), and high school (Chapter 5) classrooms. These chapters show what wayside teaching looks like at each of the levels, with strategies tailored to correlate with student development. Each of these three chapters begins with a refresher on developmental characteristics of the kids we teach, with graphics that make the points easily and quickly comprehensible. In each chapter, the 12 components are then addressed with these developmental characteristics in mind. So elementary teachers can home in on their particular kids and classrooms in Chapter 3, while middlelevel teachers do the same in Chapter 4, and high school teachers concentrate on Chapter 5.

Chapter 6 pulls it all together with a summary of what we’ve discussed in the first five chapters, followed by a perspective on the typical ways education leaders have approached reform. Quite opposite to the one-size-fits-all methodology, wayside teaching is an individual-based reform that maximizes the Power of One … one teacher, with his or her own classroom of children or adolescents. Six goals for wayside teachers are presented, including:

1.   Be a reflective teacher

2.   Be an observer of students

3.   Assume the best

4.   Be a positive role model

5.   Make wayside teaching habitual

6.   Experience the joy of teaching!

Resource A provides eight classroom-ready surveys to help teachers get to know their students’ interests and learning preferences. Resource B provides 36 recommended books with brief descriptions that will help teachers decide on books that specifically suit their learners’ needs.

WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL FEATURES OF WAYSIDE TEACHING: CONNECTING WITH STUDENTS TO SUPPORT LEARNING?

This book is interactive, with concepts illustrated by real teacher experiences and insights.

•   Readers complete a personal self-analysis in the Introduction and plot their results on a chart, the process of which activates what we know about our own attitudes, approaches, and actions regarding wayside teaching.

•   Wayside teachers in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms are highlighted through scenarios about teaching practices that help illustrate important concepts.

•   In Chapters 3, 4, and 5, teachers are encouraged to write about how they will increase the power of their presence with regard to each of the 12 components of wayside teaching, with space provided for reflection.

•   Resource A provides eight student surveys teachers may use to get to know their students and their learning preferences.

•   Resource B provides 36 recommended books that promote acceptance and compassion for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. Each book is briefly described to introduce it to teachers.

Acknowledgments

Wayside teaching, while encompassing practices as old as teaching itself, was named and explained only two decades ago by a man to whom I owe much appreciation. Thank you, Dr. John Lounsbury, for making wayside teaching part of your relationships with children and adults alike. I also want to thank all of the wonderful teachers who have touched my life with your encouraging personal attention to relationships as part of the teaching and learning process. Special thanks to my husband, Rus, and my four sons, Jesse, Cody, Travis, and Noah. I continue to learn from each of you every day.

To my editor and friend, Debbie Stollenwerk, thank you for your enthusiasm, thoughtful guidance, and inspiration. Thanks also to Julie McNall, Jane Haenel, and Terri Lee Paulsen for prompt and helpful attention to the details of the writing process. My gratitude extends to the following reviewers who took their time to make helpful suggestions incorporated in this book:

About the Author

Sara Davis Powell is a teacher—from elementary, middle, and high school classrooms to teacher preparation as a professor and chair of the Department of Education at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. She is an advocate of active student engagement, emphasizing a balance of theory and developmentally responsive and academically rigorous practice. She is involved in local classrooms through the facilitation of professional development, supervision of clinical interns, and research and writing about a variety of education issues. She is also a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences, where her enthusiasm for teaching and students has proven contagious.

Sara’s PhD in educational administration, supervision, and curriculum development is from the University of Colorado at Denver. Her most recent books include An Introduction to Education: Choosing Your Teaching Path (2009) and Introduction to Middle School (2nd ed., 2011).

Married with four sons, three daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren, Sara enjoys watching the sun set over the lake with her husband, Rus, and spending time with her sons and their families. When not on her dock, with her family, or writing at home, chances are