Where could you find out for sure?
PART TWO | MANAGEMENT | MOMENTUM
Example 1: The teacher, seeing a student nearing the end of an art proj- ect, says, “Where are you going to put it to dry, Jimmy?” Jimmy replies, “Under the woodworking table.” The teacher responds, “Okay, fine. Af- ter that, you can finish the book you started this morning.” The teacher has provided a focus for the closure of the activity and the transition to the next activity.
Example 2: As a pupil across the room appears stuck on his lab experi- ment, the teacher says, “Mark, ask Jane for some help if you’re stuck.”
Example 3: As the teacher sees a child using the last of the paint, he gestures for her to come over and reminds her to refill the paint jars when she’s finished.
Example 4: When the teacher sees a group arguing over the position of a senator on a bill, she says to them, “Where could you find out for sure?” This is a way of directing the students back into constructive in- volvement.
The point of overlapping is that all of these moves to maintain the momen- tum of groups and individuals are made while the teacher may be instructing a punctuation-skill group, listening to students in a group explain their think- ing behind the math problem they are solving, holding a reading conference with an individual student, inspecting a pupil’s lab report, or engaging in some other primary focus. The teacher makes the management move without leav- ing, interrupting, or seeming to remove attention from the primary focus but for an instant. It is an accomplishment to perform overlapping effectively at any time, and especially so when the teacher has a primary active role in a particular learning experience.