Tuesday, August 30, 2016

What is Productive Struggle?

A teacher and I today were reviewing Student Achievement Partner's Instructional Practice Guide. "Hmm," she said, "Productive Struggle," I like that." I do too. In fact, though I have been hearing the term for some time, it has mostly been in relation to mathematics. Only recently have I begun to consider its implications for literacy. I think it's all-encompassing.

What is Productive Struggle? What does Student Achievement Partners mean in their Instructional Practice Guide when they state that teachers consistently provide and students consistently engage in "challenging questions and tasks that offer opportunities for productive struggle"?

Struggle by itself is rife with negative connotations, and for good reason. According to Marriam Webster it means, "to try very hard to do, achieve, or deal with something that is difficult or that causes problems." Most of us spend our lives working to avoid things that are difficult and especially things that "cause problems." Who wants problems? So it's oxymoronic to couple that with Productive: "doing or achieving a lot: working hard and getting good results; producing or able to produce something especially in large amounts; causing or resulting in something." This is all so good!

Though, so many of us at the top of the mountain, at the end of the race, upon achieving a new degree understand that the most daunting and discouraging struggles can provide our greatest growth. And so shall it be for the students in our rooms.

"Oh, but they are not going to stand atop a beautiful mountain at any point during my instruction." "They don't care enough about school to struggle." "They don't want to work that hard!"

While it is cliche to say that "Every kid can learn" (this is really a No Shit! statement), what we need to know is, "Every kid wants to learn." It's true. Ask any kid if he or she wants to be smart. Most will say yes and the rest are being obstinate.

We all want to be smart. Inside, we all know we have potential. Kids are no different.

And that's why productive struggle has it all. In order to learn, we have to face challenges, move away from what we know to what we don't know. We have to struggle.

In order to reach all kids, however, we have to make that struggle seem worthwhile, meaningful. We have to tap that desire to learn. It has to have value. Of course, there are many paths to this, but for most kids, authentic learning experiences - reading so they can do something, writing so they can convince or entertain, add meaning.

Beyond making it relevant, we have to know our kids. What's a struggle for one is too easy for another. As my friend Kenny McKee points out, we won't get stronger if we never lift heavier than a 2lb. dumbbell. Our work requires that we push each of our students every day.

Further, struggle can very easily become unproductive. This happens when the task is unachievable - either because it is so far beyond reasonable or because of a lack of support. This happens because the goal is not clear; because the definition of success or the criteria of "good results" is not defined; or because we don't have check-points along the way to make sure we are on the right track, to make adjustments.

On the other hand being clear about the outcome, defining what a successful close examination of a text will produce, what a high-quality written product looks like, what happens when we work together and think critically to answer a hard question, fosters productive struggle. Demanding high quality work because we believe that the students are up to the task; providing support - by teaching and reinforcing, day in and day out, the strategic steps one takes when approaching a challenging text or writing task; and then constantly stepping up the level of challenge fosters productive struggle. By consistently, both formally and informally, checking for understanding and providing focused feedback and support we make the struggle productive.

Think about it, if every student in our class engages daily in productive struggle, so many things are going right in our class and we will feel our students learn!

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