Fidget Spinners in the Classroom

Fidget spinners are everywhere, but do they belong in the classroom? Some say yes, as they are thought to help students with ADHD, anxiety, stress, or autism focus better on their lessons. The hard evidence is purely anecdotal, however, and teachers are likely to say they have the opposite effect, creating distraction instead of concentration. 

There is evidence that fidget devices can help a certain population. Studies have been done that show positive results with small, hand-held items such as putty, stress balls, or even a smooth stone. It stands to reason that fidget spinners could have the same effect, but who is to judge who truly benefits, and who is just playing? A second problem is that unlike these other objects, fidget spinners have a visual component. The spinning, whirring, colorful device is hard not to watch, and that's compounded by the fact that they are excellent tools for doing tricks.

Almost 11 percent of kids ages 4 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, and many more are undiagnosed. Add to that the number of kids with anxiety, stress, or autism who could also benefit from a fidget item, it's hard to dismiss the possibilities of improved focus for this many kids. Some teachers, however, think they amount to nothing but trouble. One sixth grade teacher famously called them "helicopters of distraction" in a blog post that went viral.

Whether or not teachers allow fidget spinners or other fidget items in the classroom is becoming a school- and district-wide issue, with some banning fidget spinners outright. Other schools are leaving it up to each teacher to decide what's best for his or her classroom. 

If you want to put the question to your students, I've created two non-fiction articles, pro and con, along with reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing assignments to help them come informed, reasoned opinions. The reading level is challenging fifth grade through standard seventh grade. 

Should Schools Discipline Cyber Bullies?

By some accounts, every day, around 160,000 do not attend school because they are afraid of bullies. Those who are afraid and attend anyway are distracted and can't pay attention. Clearly, school administrators need to do everything possible to quell bullying and provide a safe environment for all students.

More and more, however, the type of bullying these students encounter is through social media or other cyber media rather than physical confrontations, making it impossible for victims to simply avoid the perpetrator via school intervention. School administrators are in a tough position. What if all the activity takes place outside of school hours? Where does school authority end? How can school administrators have the resources to monitor students' social media, and do so without invading privacy? By the time someone reports the abuse, the damage is often already done. It is easy to argue that schools monitoring what students do outside of school hours is an obvious overreach of power.

The only easy answer is that schools can offer educational programs and teach students smart social media use. This is, of course, only part of the equation, and students set on bullying other students often need a deterrent or discipline to quit the behavior.

I don't envy school administrators in sorting out this thorny problem. I suggest this topic for a discussion or debate in the classroom. When I used it with my class recently, the opinions and ideas were eye-opening. There was so much fodder for debate, the students couldn't wait to get writing!

Pay for Grades?

Should kids get paid for good grades? As a parent, I did not offer any incentive for good grades, other than a trip out for ice cream on report card day. It was part of an overall philosophy about kids learning to be responsible without a dangling carrot. Along the same line, I never paid for regular chores, either. Doing well in school and pushing back your fair share of the dirt was just a basic expectation. This seemed to work, and I patted myself on the parental back.

Then along came some life experiences where I realized that my kids were a certain personality type that worked well with this kind of parenting. They had internal motivation to excel. I never had to remind them to do their homework, let alone nag, or come to the point where I considered offering incentives. Enter the life experience. What to do with students who lack the internal motivation? What to do with students who can't be encouraged or cajoled into doing their homework? What to do with students who didn't even care if they graduated from high school?

I started to read and study about motivation and incentives. The research is all over the place, and sometimes contradictory. Consider the different studies over the years cited by the good folks at Freakonomics. One study showed a program administered by a school offering cash and incentives for improved grades at the end of each term was marginally successful, at best. With only external motivations, and lacking intristic motivation, the incentives mostly failed. Another study showed that immediate gratification improved test scores. Dangle a $20.00 bill for a good test score, and scores improve. Better yet, tell the students they have $20.00, which will be taken away if they don't score well, and the improvement is even better.

The question remains, then, whether these immediate incentives pay off in the long run, or whether they damage the internal motivation. Many studies I've read, not related to grades, show that generally, when people think they are doing something to help someone else they perform better and complete the task more often than if they are receiving a cash reward.  I believe this, and I tend to think cash motivation for grades do more harm than good, for most kids, including the risk of creating a feeling of entitlement. I have learned, however, that one philosophy does not fit all. For students who lack the internal motivation, it might serve them best to offer the carrots to make some progress.

This is an interesting discussion to have with your students. I'm always curious to know what other parents do, and to compare and contrast how my students are motivated. When I've used this topic in my classes, I'm always surprised how much self-knowledge even younger students have about what makes them successful (or not).  I'm curious to know what you think, too. Do you reward your own kids for good grades? How about the students in your classroom? What works?

I've put together a packet with a pro and con article on this topic at the fifth through seventh grade reading level (Lexile leveled) if you think this would be of interest to your students.  It has plenty of options for classwork, group work, and writing assignments.

Opinion Reading and Writing - Improving Critical Thinking Skills

In teaching remedial composition to college students, one misconception that I am constantly correcting is that academic research papers should not have an opinion. Au contraire. Any paper worth its salt is presenting and defending an argument which, of course, is an opinion.

At first, I was surprised at this misconception, and chalked it up to simply lack of exposure to this kind of reading. After more experience, however, I found it's more complicated than that, and a large part of it is in the semantics.

First, when students are learning to write in the early years, they are encouraged to preface opinions with "I think," "I feel," and "In my opinion" phrases. This is important in the process when students are learning to distinguish between fact and opinion. As writing becomes more sophisticated in middle and high school, however, these phrases are eliminated, making statements of opinion less obvious.

The second issue is how students define the word "opinion." Often, they think if a statement is labeled an "opinion" it is something that can't be proven or disproven by facts, such as which is the best restaurant in town. More advanced critical thinking, of course, quickly shows that even solid facts and research rarely conclusively prove anything. Many opinions on the same issue can be supported by facts.

The later elementary grades are a good time to explore these critical thinking skills. My favorite way to facilitate this is to have students do a close reading of two short opinion pieces that are research and fact based, one pro and one con. This helps clarify that different authors reach different conclusions about the same issues, even though the authors are privy to the same facts.  I like to have the students answer questions about each article, learn the critical vocabulary, and then bring it all together by deciding which author they agree with. Group work and class discussions further promote the skills.

To take it one step further, it's helpful to introduce a writing project in the form of a short five-paragraph essay. With this early introduction, students are on their way to developing the critical thinking skills that will serve them all the way through high school, college and beyond.

I've put together some packets that go through the process I described above. These are common-core based, with challenging reading for fourth and fifth grade (in the Lexile stretch bands) and at grade level for sixth and seventh grade.