A few years ago, I was talking to a colleague about a student who struggled to stay on task and consistently focused throughout the day. We’ve all had students like that. They are easily distracted and have trouble even staying seated for more than five minutes.
As I was talking my colleague began to smile. “What?” I asked.
“Keep teaching and you’ll be surprised how much they’re still absorbing.” I looked at her unconvinced. She continued to tell me a story about a former student. In the middle of a lesson, the student, we’ll call him Billy, would often wandered around the room.
After numerous attempts to get Billy seated, she decided to let him move around the room for the remainder of her idiom lesson. Idioms are phrase whose meaning is different from the literal meaning (i.e. in a pickle, put your foot in your mouth).
She was almost through the mini-lesson on idioms when Billy started to turn the classroom water fountain off and on. The teacher tried to ignore him, but other students were visibly distracted.
She walked back to him, positive he hadn’t heard a single word of the lesson, and said, “Billy, I know it is hard for you to stay in your seat for the entire lesson. I often let you go get a drink and take some movement breaks, but your behavior is really distracting to your peers.” She admittedly used a poor choice of words as she continued, “Not only are your classmates having a hard time concentrating, but, honestly, it’s driving me up a wall.”
Billy looked at her and smiled. “That’s an idiom.”
“What?” She was baffled by his response.
“You said ‘driving me up a wall.’ That’s an idiom. It means it’s driving you crazy,” Billy explained matter-of-factly.
The teacher simply smiled and said, “Absolutely right, Billy. That’s an idiom. How about you come back and join the lesson.”
Billy came back to his seat, and she always remembered that learning doesn’t always look same for all students. To make a long story short, Billy learned about idioms and the teacher learned a lesson she would never forget. It was as if that lesson killed two birds with one stone.