A Lesson in Creating a Lesson- Finding Four Leaf Clovers

Have you ever looked for a four leaf clover?  I have.  My yard is absolutely flourishing with the beautiful kelly green leaves.  Myself, I am never successful in my hunt for one.   In fact, I usually give up after about 2 minutes into the search.  My daughter, on the other hand, is a professional.  I mean if you could get paid for finding four leaf clovers, Torrie could live in comfort the rest of her life. 

Yesterday, when we pulled up in the drive, after our day at Folk Festival in Mountain View, her head immediately turned down to look and BAM! She found one.  I mean she hadn’t even been looking for 30 seconds and there was a four leaf clover!    I put in my 10 seconds and failed.  I headed on in the house and said something like, “I don’t know how you find all those.  I can never find one.”  She began to explain it’s all about the pattern.  “You’ve got to look for the break in the pattern.”  While inside, I heard her calling me to come there quickly.  I thought maybe she had been stung by a bee so I rushed outside.  I get outside to find her standing looking down.  She says, “Mom, look right here.  There’s a four leaf clover right here.”  I looked.  No four leaf clover.  So she narrowed my focus.  She limited my looking to a smaller area.  BAM! There was a four leaf clover.  “See, Mom, you found one.  Look at you!”

Oh now I am beaming as I can count on one hand the number of four leaf clovers I have found and I could leave off a few fingers at that.   My daughter got down on the ground with me and started to show me how the pattern breaks.  She pointed to a series of three leaves.  “Sometimes there is an evident white streak that connects them all.  You look for a break in the three leaves. Every once in a while you’ll be looking and then all at once, there is an extra leaf.  That’s a four leaf clover!  You can also look in the middle.”  I started to look and I soon got frustrated.  I pointed out that sometimes my three leaves borrow from another plant and it makes it look like there are four when there are actually three.  She agreed that she makes that mistake too but she just keeps looking. 

I moved over to a different patch of green because now she has me wanting to find my very own four leaf clover.  I looked and looked. I got down on the ground and started moving the plants to see.  “Now you’re looking too hard.  Just relax and look for the pattern.”  I quit moving the plants but I stayed close to the ground.   I am highly interested in finding my own four leaf clover.  It took a few more minutes and BAM! I found one! It had a nibble out of the leaf but it was still a four leaf clover.   I am beyond excited!  I call for Torrie to come over and look and bring the camera.  After all it is a pivotal moment in history!  I showed her the clover and took the camera.  I aimed at my four clover and began to focus on it through the lens and stopped.  That’s not the four leaf clover I found.  Mine had a nibble out of the leaf.  This one is near perfect.  Yippee!  I have found another four leaf clover!

 I snapped a few pictures of my prize clovers and then I got to thinking.  This whole process of teaching me to find a four leaf clover worked out just like a lesson that I would teach in school.  It had all the elements of a perfect lesson and Torrie got the behavior out of me that I want out of my students.  I mean I don’t know that I want them looking for four leaf clovers but I do want them to know what I am teaching and I want them to be successful.   Her lesson had learning, engagement, persistence, practice and success but how did she do it?   I began to analyze her process.

First-Know your content.   Study and be accomplished yourself in what is being taught.

Second- Present the lesson with enthusiasm and belief they can do it. Get your student excited. Make them want to accomplish the goal.    Torrie always looks for a four leaf clover and when she found one she called me to let me find it.  She knew I could find it.  

Third-Narrow the focus.  When I wasn't successful at first, she made the area I needed to look much smaller.

Fourth- Brag. She praised me for accomplishing the goal of finding the clover which increased my desire to find more.  What is that called?  It is engagement!

Fifth- Restated the lesson.  After I found the one she had for me find.  She restated the lesson and showed me  what she was talking about. 

Sixth-Reassured me. She let me know she faced some of the same struggles but she just keeps applying what she knows and keeps trying.

Seventh -Guided practice.  She watched me look on my own and gave me advice about how I was attempting to find the clover but never stepped in and found it for me.  She had already “helped” me find one.  It was my turn.

Eighth -Encouraged Persistence.  She encouraged me to keep looking. 

Ninth- Celebrate. She celebrated my success when I found my four leaf clovers with picture snapping and brags.

Ahhh – The elements of a perfect lesson.  I doubt the student will ever surpass the teacher in four leaf clover finding but this teacher has been reminded about what is necessary to teach the student.  What a Lucky teacher I will be if can create the same atmosphere when teaching that Torrie created teaching me to find four leaf clovers.  

P. S.  My mom would want me to tell you this four leaf clover finding is an inherited trait.  She can find them at a drop of a hat as well.  I guess it is one of those skills that have skipped a generation.  JA