Student: Negative seven plus two, it’s two—

Student: Yeah.

Chris Grunert: All right, guys. I want to stop you really quick. Let’s look at number one. There is this misconception, and I completely understand why.

Gabrielle Schorr: If things aren’t going well in a lesson and students aren’t grasping what I had hoped, I use the tactical pause. I can make adjustments real time for that period or the next period when I do the same lesson. All students will benefit if I’m being reflective of my own practice.

Grunert: And so four minus seven is negative three.

Schorr: The mission of our school is to create critical thinkers, help students develop their skills and understanding of the world, so that they can then be active participants in their communities and the world at large.

Schorr: And the enduring issues should be themes that are relevant throughout history that we see over and over again. All right, head to your groups. Let’s put the desks together.

Schorr: The tactical pause is a formative assessment that’s well-suited for group work.

Stefan Singh: It’s a strategy that can be used to either correct a misunderstanding that students may have or to spotlight a student who is doing an excellent job at whatever the task may be.

Schorr: In my global history class, students were reading and analyzing excerpts from the Declaration of Human Rights; students were tasked with identifying what enduring issues relate to that source.

Student: The main idea of this article is that everyone should be treated equally, and I quoted from Article 9, which is, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest.”

Schorr: I listen, I circulate the classroom, and I write things down that I see, hear, and observe students doing.

Schorr: I just want to highlight something that I noticed Daniel doing. He wrote about something specific, the Right to Freedom, as stated in Article 5. So, that’s a really great way to make what you’re saying even stronger.

Schorr: One of the main focuses for this lesson was clearly identifying enduring issues. When I didn’t hear so much of a focus on that, I took a moment to, again, bring the whole class together.

Schorr: I hear a lot of discussion about the articles in the document, but let’s make sure that we’re also addressing enduring issues. So, let’s refocus.

Student: It’s useful when she stops us, because it helps us identify what we were missing and make it a bit better.

Singh: I think it’s really important for teachers to be able to do this while the activity is happening. A lot of times, teachers will give an exit ticket, but then, now you have to wait till tomorrow to act on that information.

Grunert: So, tactical pause—it’s just part of my routine during group work and partner work in math. One misconception can result in all of their answers being wrong for the entire day or their test. So, it’s important that we’re able to stop right when it happens and address it, and it’s really great to get the voices of students that do understand the concepts to teach each other.

Grunert: Let’s stop one more time. Mark, can you talk to me about the base of Z, what you did?

Mark: And that explains I had negative four plus three.

Grunert: Why are you making that a plus sign?

Mark: Because there’s two negatives, so I changed it to a plus.

Grunert: Exactly.

Student: He stopped the class so he could show us, like, how to do it, because some of us weren’t, like, really understanding it. It really helps.

Grunert: It gets me really involved. I’m not just standing at the front, kind of waiting for the time to be up and waiting for them to finish. I’m able to stay active, so students know I care about their work and care about their success.

Grunert: Excellent work, everybody.

Schorr: Using the tactical pause in class, I get to see that light bulb moment where they realize they actually do understand something and they know how to move forward in an assignment. So, giving them that feedback during class, it allows them to feel successful.

Schorr: You guys did an awesome job—awesome, awesome, awesome job.

Maspeth High School