Module 3 > Topic 3-B > Key Information >PP 9: I Can't Antidotes
Personal Power Strategy 9: I Can't Antidotes You may hear “I can’t” from students when they’re faced with a challenge. What do most teachers typically say to a student who says “I can’t”? “Sure you can” or “Sure you can; come on, try.” Then what does the student say? “I am trying” or “I tried!”
As Yoda said: “Do or do not. There is no try!”
Trying doesn’t work. Doing does. Trying is a cop-out. Anybody busy trying is not busy doing. Trying is a red flag word. If you hear someone say they will try, you know you have no real commitment. Some things you can say instead of “try” are the following five Teacher Talk “I Can’t” Antidotes.
1. Act as if…
When using this antidote, the dialogue goes like this:
Student: “I can’t do it.”
Teacher: “Bill, just act as if.”
Student: “Huh?”
Teacher: “Act as if you already know how. Just act as if you’ve done this ten times already.”
After you have said this, move quickly away. Go somewhere else in the room and watch from a distance. You will be pleasantly surprised.
This technique won’t work with every student, and it won’t work every time. Yet, these may be the most powerful three words you learn in this course.
2. Pretend…
This is another way to say act as if. Say, “Just pretend you can” or “Pretend that you already know how.”
“Pretend that you have done it five times already” and “Pretend you are a pro” work also.
[Note: Some teachers report that the word pretend does not get the hoped-for result from some of their students. They say “Pretend you know how to color,” and the student just waves the crayon over the paper, pretending to be coloring. Clearly, you need to try different words with such students.]
3. Play like…
This phrase is similar to the previous antidotes. When using it, one kindergarten teacher reported the following: “I just tell my struggling students to play like they can. For example, I had a young girl who was having trouble tying her shoes. She looked up at me and whined, ‘I can’t do it.’ I told her, ‘Susie, just play like you can.’ Two minutes later she had done it successfully by herself.”
4. Fake it ’til you make it.
A high school Spanish teacher taught a folk dance that students needed to demonstrate to earn participation points in her class. A senior, acting without confidence, stood in front of the class and announced, “My feet forgot.” This teacher replied, “Fake it ’til you make it.” The student did and his feet remembered. Kinesthetic memory is pretty strong. If he went through the steps a few times, chances are the memory was there.
5. If you could do it, what would you do?
You don’t know for sure whether or not you can do something until you actually do it. Everything up to that point is an act. Basically, students have two acts from which to choose: They can act as if they can or act as if they can’t. It’s their choice.
“You don’t have to get it perfect, you just have to get it going.”
Mark Victor Hansen (co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul)
A seventh-grade math teacher had students working in cooperative groups. One group wanted to ask a group question. She approached the group members and asked for their question. One student said, “We can’t go on. We don’t know what to do next. What are we supposed to do now?”
Her response was brilliant. She replied, “If you did know what to do next, what would you do?” They gave her an answer!
She told them, “Well, do that then,” and walked away.
Interestingly enough, what they chose to do was incorrect. The teacher let them do it anyway. Here’s why: You can correct what is done incorrectly, but you can’t correct what is not done at all.
“If you could do it, what would it look like” are words do get students doing something, and you can adjust from there.