Typically this time of year, as we approach LGPE, my students start to get scared, and so they start to get “lazy.” Every year around now I’ve always had one“blow up” moment where I read my students the riot act for completely giving up and wasting our time. This year I wondered if I could forestall that.
So I gave them a survey. Can you believe it? As if we haven’t had enough surveys?
I asked them to write a number on a piece of paper. “1” was “I want the best scores possible. You will not have to push me.” “2” was “I cannot
always push myself. Sometimes I expect you to push me.” “3” was, “I cannot motivate myself. If you want excellence from me, you will always have to push
me.”
I told them to leave their answer anonymous. I told them it didn’t matter to me which number they chose, and that I only wanted to know what I could expect from
them and what they expected from me. I let them put little pieces of paper in a box and I tallied the results.
What do you think happened?
Well, first of all, they were dying to know what the totals were. So by simply
asking the right question I had already unified the Chorus. The results were also encouraging: About half chose “1” and half chose “2.”
By examining the results, I was able to reflect back at them that we had a very motivated chorus, which makes them feel good. We also have a good sense of what to what to expect going forward, so when I have to push them, no one will be surprised and no one will be angry. Finally, this is a good use of data, which should make my administrative team happy!
There were a couple of unexpected turns. One of my best students did sign her
name, and yet she gave herself a “3.” That suggests that there may have been a disconnect between their self-perception and their actual behavior.
Even though the survey has its limitations, the activity was a terrific way to regain focus on the goal: a successful performance, however we have to get there.
What do you think of my idea, and how might you have done it differently?
So I gave them a survey. Can you believe it? As if we haven’t had enough surveys?
I asked them to write a number on a piece of paper. “1” was “I want the best scores possible. You will not have to push me.” “2” was “I cannot
always push myself. Sometimes I expect you to push me.” “3” was, “I cannot motivate myself. If you want excellence from me, you will always have to push
me.”
I told them to leave their answer anonymous. I told them it didn’t matter to me which number they chose, and that I only wanted to know what I could expect from
them and what they expected from me. I let them put little pieces of paper in a box and I tallied the results.
What do you think happened?
Well, first of all, they were dying to know what the totals were. So by simply
asking the right question I had already unified the Chorus. The results were also encouraging: About half chose “1” and half chose “2.”
By examining the results, I was able to reflect back at them that we had a very motivated chorus, which makes them feel good. We also have a good sense of what to what to expect going forward, so when I have to push them, no one will be surprised and no one will be angry. Finally, this is a good use of data, which should make my administrative team happy!
There were a couple of unexpected turns. One of my best students did sign her
name, and yet she gave herself a “3.” That suggests that there may have been a disconnect between their self-perception and their actual behavior.
Even though the survey has its limitations, the activity was a terrific way to regain focus on the goal: a successful performance, however we have to get there.
What do you think of my idea, and how might you have done it differently?