Teaching is Like Growing Plants

As an educator, I like to think of teaching as planting trees in the minds of our beloved young learners. Before I start teaching anything, there are three kinds of trees I want to plant in their minds: knowledge, skills, and character. So, before I begin a new topic, I will think about what knowledge the students are required to learn, what skills I perceive each of them need to hone and what area of character development I think is essential for each of them. The learning outcome is the final appearance of "the trees". I know the trees are rightly planted and matured by the fruit my students bear.

One of the reasons I really love the International Primary Curriculum more than IB PYP is because the approach to teaching in IPC is very similar and every task has been planned out for teachers and students, with teachers being allowed to play around with each task according to the resources they have available and the needs of each class and student.

I will share the four stages that I observe as a teacher. I liken this to a plant's life cycle and hence will break my points into four parts, using a plant's life cycle as an analogy: The Seed Phase, Germination Phase, Seedling Phase, Maturity Phase.

The Seed Phase

Beginning in the seed phase, I will start by planting a seed of knowledge, a piece of information that would capture their attention. I will use narrative writing lessons as an example of this.

Knowledge Tree: Theoretical part of narrative writing -> Structure, Organisation, Use of Language, Show-not-Tell etc.

Skill Tree: Applying the knowledge in writing -> Show-not-tell techniques, clear structure, story is fluid (little to no plot holes), sophisticated vocabulary, able to grab and retain a reader's attention, creativity, critical thinking etc.

Character Tree: Moral values and virtues arising from the stories they right. Often, when students write the moral of the stories, they take time to introspect to think about one lesson the main characters of their stories would be learning and those are the lessons that students take away. For example, maybe the story is about a boy who was playing with his sister in a supermarket and accidentally made a mess. A student (the writer) would then write that the lesson for the boy and sister was to never play in a supermarket ever again. In order for the student to write that, the student will need to put himself/herself in the shoes of the characters and think what the lesson would be if he/she were stuck in that situation.

Once I have identified these trees, I plan my lessons accordingly. I scaffold my lessons, means i teach in layers.

I start with the theoretical part and I demonstrate how narrative writing is done. Then, I get the students to follow my model. I also differentiate my students when it comes to writing - beginner, intermediate, advanced. Beginner-level students often focus on simple vocabulary, a three to four-paragraph story (with a clear problem and solution to the story), and very simple ideas. Beginner readers are more guided. Intermediate-level students will work on developing techniques such as showing, sophisticated vocabulary, expanding the story etc. Advanced-level students are challenged on creativity, to think about ideas that others might not be thinking about.

When teaching the theory, I demonstrate at the same time and get the students to follow. Thereafter, I continue the guided lesson and get them to practise writing new stories, based on new questions/topics, on their own and I lend them my support. Each time we come to the conclusion of the stories, I often encourage them to think of a lesson readers can learn from the story. I do not make it compulsory for them to do that, but I encourage them to reflect on the lessons in their own stories.

The Germination Phase

At this point, the seed is meant to take root. Ensure that there is enough soil and nutrients for your plant. Ensure that what you teach the students has space to germinate, has nutrients and has soil to take root. When roots grow without soil, they die very quickly in the heat. What this means is that as the knowledge and skills start to take root in the minds of the student, we want to make sure the knowledge and skills stay rooted in their minds. We need something to keep the knowledge and skills rooted and grounded in their brains. The way I do it is by giving them writing assignments to complete independently at home.

In the case of narrative writing, I give them a writing assignment to complete and I often give them a week or two to finish it. I encourage them to use what I have taught them and challenge them to think creatively. I will only help them when they have completed their tasks. If they plagiarise or don't do their work, they will have to redo the whole task in one sitting in my presence, like in an examination. The reason I give them two weeks to write a draft is to allow time for them to develop their ideas and write without the stress caused by temporal constraints. The method of discipline for plagiarism or not doing their homework, making them sit in my presence for 2 hours to write, is to show them that they can actually achieve something on their own if they had just tried.

I never condemn my students for poor writing skills, but I do rebuke them for plagiarism. I never put them down for mistakes. I show them what they do well and how they can improve. Till date, I have only had two cases of plagiarism out of hundreds of students. My students work diligently to get the work done and would often chase me when I don't finish grading their work within a week.

During the germination phase, I focus on giving moral support to my students. I become a cheerleader during this phase and only step in to give advice when they've completed their tasks or when they desperately need help.

The most important part about the germination phase is patience. During this phase, you will feel like your students keep repeating the same mistakes or they might feel afraid to do things on their own. As a teacher, you must learn to be patient and gently guide your students through this phase. Don't rush it. A lot of schools, teachers and parents make the mistake of expecting their children to get it right very quickly. It is not always the case. Some will take a while to learn. So, patience and faith are essential during this phase.

The Seedling Phase

By this time, I am more hands off. I will resume guided lessons to help refine their writing. This is the phase when students are much more independent and they start producing results. In the case of narrative writing, their stories have a decent structure, they use big and catchy words and expressions in their writing, the stories make sense, they have fewer problems with conventions etc. During this time, I just reinforce the obvious, follow up on what they don't know, and then I continue to give writing tasks ad-hoc (once a month or once every two months). I do encourage them to practice writing on their own at home. Last year, I produce my own booklet of narrative writing questions/topics for my students. The booklet had a few different questions, along with the notes I gave them at the seed phase. The booklet was like an assessment book. They did not have to do them but they could if they ever felt the need to practise on their own. At least, they would have something to use for themselves.

To make the seedling phase more fun, I would show off the good parts of EVERY student's work. I would remind the class, "Look at Max's work. He did really well showing to us what happened during the climax. When I read it, I felt like I was watching a movie. Keep up the good work Max. If the rest of the class needs ideas for a good climax, go to Max." Keep reinforcing the good stuff. Give students a strong sense of assurance of what they have done well while guiding them through their areas for improvement.

The Maturity Phase

This is the part that makes every teacher proud and happy. This is when you see all the qualities you had been hoping to see in your students. Not only are they independent enough to do their work, they are able to produce strong qualities. It is not just about examination scores but their confidence and inpendence.

However, as a teacher, I still play my role in this phase by reminding my students to never be complacent, to keep practising and to keep doing better, that life is always about finding new ways to improve, to progress.

The Story of My First Public Speaking Student

In 2018, I met my first, ever, public speaking student. I will use a pseudonym to protect my student's identity - Jamie. Jamie was 8 years old and she was as timid as a mouse, despite her temper. After assessing her confidence level, I thought of a good way to help her overcome fear. The seed phase began. I got her and some other students, who were also in the classroom, to each come up and introduce themselves. I did the same thing and demonstrated very simple hand gestures as I introduced myself. I modelled it for them. When each of them came up to speak, I stood next to each of them and walked them through how to introduce themselves. Finally, I got each of them to introduce themselves to the class, on their own. Each of them did it. After all had finished introducing themselves, I told them, "Congratulations, you've completed your first public speech - self-introduction."

I continued to scaffold my lessons as I taught the skills of public speaking and repeated the modelling process at the same time. Week after week, Jamie and her classmates would come in going through the same thing to learn new techniques and to prepare for their end-of-month speeches. At the end of the first month, Jamie did her first speech with an audience of only 5 people. She cried and was still very shy, but she pushed and overcame her fear of speaking on stage. I told her, "Well done. Now, you've really completed your first official public speech. You did great. You're going to do so much better."

Jamie's confidence was boosted. After her first speech, she kept practising for her subsequent speeches independently while she continued to attend my lessons to practise the acquired skills and to learn new skills. I taught her how to refine her script and be creative with public speaking. At this time, I thought of the germination phase, how to get her to be even more enthusiastic and independent. For her next three speeches - the professional speech, the teacher speech and the salesperson speech - she talked about art, her biggest interest at that time. She started coming up with her own ideas, she became more excited and would not stop practising her speech. Her parents even complained that she was spending more time doing public speaking than learning her core subjects.

During the professional speech, she had an audience of slightly more than 10 people. She spoke about the different types of materials that artists use to do art. For this speech, I did a lot of guided learning when she was crafting her script, but she was more confident and applied the techniques taught to her. During the teacher speech, her audience had grown to a size of about 20 people. She taught the audience how to paint. For this speech, she wrote her own script and only came to me when she needed confidence and approval for her ideas. She did everything herself. She had reach the seedling phase. During the salesperson speech, she had an audience size of almost 30 people. She did everything herself and even volunteered to be the first speaker from her class. She was brilliant. She had reached the maturity phase.

Sadly, we were both very sad that she had to withdraw from the academy because she needed to commit to other classes that she had been neglecting before. Her final speech was a storytelling speech. It was not related to art, and I could tell she was slightly nervous again but she still volunteered to go first and made it through. Because of her and some of her other classmates, we had more parents signing their children up for classes after their speech. Parents were so impressed and gobsmacked.

Jamie remains my brightest and top favourite student today. Everything I do as a teacher, today, is because of my encounter with Jamie. She remains a cornerstone in my teaching profession. I owe a lot to her because I learnt many things as a teacher when I was teaching her. Her family and I are still in touch and I am aware that while she is still on her journey of self-discovery, she remains a confident orator and is working towards growing her confidence in herself even more.

What I had set out to accomplish with my student, I accomplished. From the seed phase to the maturity phase, the cycle was complete and she bore fruit. I have been doing the same with all my students ever since. I hope this encourages teachers and parents out there to do the same. I believe other teachers and parents have been doing what I have been doing but with a different analogy or slightly different processes. Teaching is like growing plants or trees in the minds of students. Sometimes, the students themselves can be the plants. I believe that as long as we stay faithful through the process, and believe in our students, they will thrive.