FILLER MOVES
It happens regularly during the course of a day that teachers are caught with groups of students for short periods (from 1 to 10 or 15 minutes) where nothing is planned. Sometimes this happens in awkward places where standard class- room resources are not available, for example, outside waiting for a late bus, in the hallway waiting for a late class to come out of a specialist’s room (gym, music), in an instructional group just ended where students have had it with work, yet when there isn’t enough time to assign them anything else or even to let them choose and start some other activity around the room before it will be time to dismiss for lunch.
T H E S K I L L F U L T E A C H E R 63
PART TWO | MANAGEMENT | MOMENTUM
In such situations, what does the teacher do to prevent the disruption of mo- mentum? Some may be inclined to comment, “Why does the teacher have to do anything? The students will just have to sit and wait, that’s all. Students should know how to wait: it’s an occasional and unavoidable occurrence in life. It’s not up to the teacher to entertain them at these times.” We would answer, “Yes,” a consummation devoutly to be wished. But it doesn’t always work that way.
For some groups, not so in command of themselves, and for some situations, relying on students to patiently sit and wait can be an unreasonable expectation and may result in disruptions. In such instances, teachers may pull out a filler to hold the class together for those few minutes, as these teachers did:
Example 1: Because the clock in her room is wrong, Ms. M arrives with her first-grade class 5 minutes early for gym. There’s no use trek- king all the way back to the room; they’d just have to turn right around and return. So she asks the children to sit against the wall and move close together so they can all see and hear her. “While we wait for the other class to finish up, raise your hand if you can think of a word that rhymes with fish.” She calls on three students who give different rhym- ing words. “You’re clicking this morning. . . . Now . . . one that rhymes with . . . lamp.” She calls on two more students.
Example 2: Surprisingly, lab teams 1 and 4 have finished their earth science experiments and write-ups early and put their equipment safe- ly away. Ten minutes still remain in the period. Mr. L knows the re- maining lab teams will be asking questions, and he’ll need to be avail- able for them. But to prevent downtime and fooling around for teams 1 and 4 (a distinct possibility with this class), he quickly writes eight science vocabulary words on the board and calls up those students. He gets them seated and started on a 20 questions review game and is then back circulating among the experimenters in a scant 45 seconds.
Sometimes fillers are not as directly curriculum relevant as in these examples. Primary teachers may just play Simon Says. A fifth-grade teacher may say, “Okay, without anyone looking at their watches, raise your hand when you think one and a half minutes are up. Go!” This game is a good way to quiet a noisy bus for a few minutes. Secondary teachers may begin chatting with a class about current events or school teams. None of these is necessarily a waste of time, but it is worth distinguishing between fillers that pass the time and fillers that bring in something of the current curriculum.