The Rabbit-and-Log Syndrome

In my first year of teaching English, I had to teach prepositions to sixth graders. I fumbled around for an entry point and reached out to a more seasoned colleague, who suggested that I employ the analogy of the rabbit and the log.

He said the approach was simple: draw a picture of a log and a rabbit on the board, and place the rabbit at different positions in relation to the log. This would draw out the use of prepositions. For example, "The rabbit is on the log." It sounded like a sensible approach.

I went into the class and did as exactly as he had explained. The engagement of the students was off the charts. Kids were jumping out of their seats to place the rabbit in relation to the log. They seemed to be really getting it and understanding prepositions. I couldn't believe how easy this was.
I finished the class feeling rather good about myself and reported back to my colleague, who was equally pleased.

The next day, I had to leave early to coach a soccer game, so I asked my department chair if she could cover my class. She was happy to do so. She started by reviewing what we had done around prepositions the day before, and began by reminding the class of the topic of prepositions. She saw several confused and puzzled faces among the students. She too grew confused. "What's wrong?" she asked. One of the students replied, "We didn't learn anything about prepositions yesterday. We learned about rabbits and logs."
She chuckled and then moved into the lesson to drill down on prepositions to make sure the students understood what a preposition meant.

She approached me in a kind and gentle manner the following day and said, "I think you might need to review prepositions again," as she recounted what had happened in the class she taught.
That experience served as a major "aha" moment to me as a young teacher. I realized that I needed to have some way of assessing what students were learning both as the class was unfolding and at the completion of class.

This is the moment when I started using exit cards, a 3x5 notecard for students to write down something they had learned.

I used a variety of prompts, such as one word, a question, a phrase, a haiku, a quote, a picture, etc. I gained so much invaluable daily data through the exit card and recognized how critical frequent assessment is to ensuring understanding.

I pooled the data from the exit cards to figure out next steps and to revisit a topic that didn't quite hit the mark.

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