Lessons · Teaching · the illusion of fluency
A class that nods has not learned
Fluency is the feeling that something is easy, and it comes from things being familiar rather than from them being known, so a class that follows you perfectly may have learned nothing at all.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The observation said your questioning was strong because the answers came fast and the room nodded. Then the exit tickets came in and a third of them were blank. Nothing was faked by anybody. Watching a fluent person do something smoothly makes it feel easy, and that feeling is the most reliable way there is to be wrong about your own class.
How to think about it
Never accept a signal you produced yourself. Nodding, a chorus answer, a hand up and silence after 'any questions?' are all things a room can do while knowing nothing. Ask for something written, from everybody, that you did not just say.
Worked example
Signal: the room nodsCosts nothing and means nothing. Every class nods.
Signal: 'any questions?' and silenceSilence is the safest thing in the room. It is not evidence of anything.
Evidence: 30 whiteboards up, one answer each, 8 sEverybody, at once, in writing, before anybody can copy.
Evidence: 4 blank, 7 wrong the same wayA number you can act on. The seven wrong the same way are tomorrow's starter.
Your turn
Thirty whiteboards go up, 4 are blank and 7 are wrong. Write the line that gives how many were right.
30 - 4 - 7 = right
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reading your own fluency as theirs. You have taught this for years, so it is smooth because you are fluent, and that smoothness is exactly why it feels obvious in the moment and is gone by Thursday.