Developmental Designs approach

The Difference a Word Can Make

by Edna Attias

It never fails to amaze me how some words can be taken so literally by middle school kids. Yet, as a teacher, I don’t always think of capitalizing on it. Each year, when I start a new advisory I wonder how am I going to get my students to bond and connect with one another. How am I going to build a community in which they learn to care about each other rather than a fragmented group of individuals who end up bickering and then paying lip service during advisory? I believe cultivating a community is essential to meeting my students’ needs for productive relationships. My hope is that they will be able to work together across genders, race, and socioeconomic backgrounds without the need for cliques and bullies, and that they will come to accept each other without categorizing or making judgments. In other words, they become like members of a family.

Raindrops and Torn Flesh

Ann Larson Ericson

What power we educators wield in the words we choose and how we choose to deliver those words. Our words, tone, and body language have a profound positive or negative influence on our students. Developmental Designs names seven “raindrops” in teacher language—ways of speaking to our students that we try to avoid. These raindrops are guilt, manipulation, voice-overs, verbosity, excessive praise, blaming, and sarcasm. When we see ourselves using this language, we are open to working on our personal raindrops—except for one: sarcasm.

Using Nonverbal Signals to Help the Conversation Flow

By Eric Charlesworth

In my class, I love to discuss strategies that students use to solve problems or make connections between mathematical concepts. However, a whole-class conversation among 20+ students, however focused the crew is on a given day, is full of potential issues.

Diversity, Learning Styles, and Blurting

by Dr. Terrance Kwame-Ross

“Raise your hand, Terrance—and no blurting!” This is what I heard over and over when I was in middle school. I got in trouble again and again for calling out answers. I was surprised and confused about getting in trouble so often for “blurting” out. It seemed that my eagerness to engage was regarded as a behavior problem.

Engaging Class Discussions

by Ann Larson Ericson

I’ve been trying something this year that has really increased student engagement. In the past, my style for managing classroom discussions involved pulling sticks, cold calling, or hand-raising. After a conversation with Developmental Designs coach Scott Tyink, I realized that my method of managing classroom conversations was enabling students whose names were not called to check out of the discussion until the next random selection, and creating anxiety for those who were uncomfortable addressing the whole class. 

Keystone Habits and Turn and Talk

by Todd Bartholomay

In his book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and in Business, Charles Duhigg points to evidence that in business and in life we don’t have to get everything right as long as we get some essential things right.