OVERLAPPING MOVES
We borrow the term “overlapping” from Kounin (1970) and expand on his definition: overlapping is the ability to manage two or more parallel events si- multaneously with evidence of attention to both. “Manage” here includes two aspects of teaching performance. First is keeping in touch with what is going on in several groups, areas, or activities at once (the teacher may be involved in one, more than one, or circulating among several sites). It implies knowing the nature of the activity, the appropriate pupil behavior within the activity, and the current quality of the pupil’s performance. Second is making moves to help pupils over blockages. Blockages may come from pupils’ not understanding di- rections or not knowing what to do next, their inability to resolve interpersonal disagreements (for example, about sharing materials or about how to proceed next as a group), their encounter of material above their frustration level, atten- tion wandering, or finishing an activity and needing help making or planning transitions to the next activity.
Overlapping requires something Kounin (1970) calls “Withitness,” meaning that a teacher always knows what is going on in the room and shows it. It is a prerequisite for overlapping. This withitness—a form of radar or “eyes in the back of the head”—is necessary for noticing and responding to misbehavior in its early stages. But in contrast to its disciplinary application, it is also the basis for overlapping several simultaneous instructional events, as it enables teachers to keep in touch with the flow of all of the events.
Building on withitness, teachers make moves to keep momentum going when they notice a blockage or potential blockage. Here are a few examples of moves that maintain momentum by helping students avoid or work through blockages:
T H E S K I L L F U L T E A C H E R62
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.