Unstoppable Learning by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey remind the readers that learning has to be goal oriented. Too often, the teacher’s curriculum doesn’t have a clear destination in mind, and that will obviously demoralize the students. When you teach children (or adults) there has to be a place where you want them to end up. What are the conclusions going to be? What will they come away with? Unstoppable Learning, another great book from Solution Tree Press, is a multi-chapter guide to teaching students with their abilities (or lack of them) in mind at all times.

Let’s start with the chapters called “managing Learning.” This one focuses on the teacher-student dynamic, and I stress the importance, because classroom management is the kiss of life or death. The chapter opens up with the famous “don’t smile until December” advice, which the authors make clear is not the best thing. They stress getting to know the students, finding out what’s going on in their lives, making time to speak to them one-on-one. That builds a sense of trust, and it prepares the students for the workplace.

Behavior in the classroom is discussed in the chapter as well. The authors break down the diagnosis into four categories; harmful, distracting, contagious, and testing the system. Dealing with the behavior does not need to be immediate, because the teacher can’t be expected to figure out the cure immediately. Afterward is where the teacher deals with it using the four categories. If the behavior is distracting, then who is distracted, the teacher or the students? Is the misbehaving student looking for attention? The authors give strict (and humorous) criteria for dealing with the behavior. One thing that is stressed throughout is that the teacher should not call out the student in front of others. It can make them defensive.

The book ends with sets of questions for the teachers and students. They include whether or not the students are ready to learn, whether the teacher is ready to teach, and if the students are using academic language. The best thing about this book, from beginning to end, is that it puts the accountability on the educator as a facilitator and manager, more than just a “boss.” Discipline is defined here as providing a safe classroom, not “getting the kids to follow instructions.” It’s certainly not classed as “making little children behave.”

After all, is the teacher’s job to punish, or to teach?