Pamelia Valentine: Practice Makes Perfect

Sometimes when I give homework assignments that many students do not complete, I get frustrated. I wonder why they don’t make the connection between homework practice and improvement. It seems like such a common-sense outcome. I work hard to make sure that the assignments are directly connected to the class work we are doing and I always give immediate feedback. One day I had an encounter with one of my art students who had not yet made the “homework-practice” connection. . .

“Hey Mrs. V­– look at this!” a young man showed me his detailed anime drawing– a swordsman with a wicked gleam in his eye holding a shining weapon slick with sticky oozing blood (a typical 14 year-old boy's subject matter). It was beautifully rendered with exquisite attention to light and dark– value and texture. I picked it up and before I had a chance to speak he cut in–“I was bored in my Science class, so I drew this.” I shook my head slowly and made eye contact. “When you draw, you are not bored- you are inspired.” I went on as he nervously looked away. “From inspiration comes creation– from boredom comes nothing. I told him this earnestly and he nodded and said, “uh OK I was 'inspired,'" he made the quote marks in the air around the word still hanging like a bridge between us–“yes I agreed”– inspired.

Since then, he has completed entire sketchbooks full of dark threatening soldiers and cowering defenseless minions. He regularly shows them to me and in turn I’ve shown him my sketchbooks full of animals and plants and pages of horse legs. “Why do you draw so many horse legs, he asks? “Well I had trouble getting them right so I kept practicing, I reply.” “YOU have to practice, he asks?” “Well, of course I do when I want to get better at what I’m doing. I also practice reading and writing.” My student is amazed- “But you’re a teacher and you’re already good at reading and writing and drawing and you still practice?”

The young man was puzzled by this idea because he had not yet made the connection between consistent practice (homework) and consequential improvement. Real mastery of a topic only happens with focused practice according to 2005 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory research.

As I looked through the latest work from my art student I reminded him about the drawings that he used to do because he was supposedly bored. Here’s the feedback I gave him: “This is inspired practice! Look, you’ve filled sketch book after sketch book with focused, inspired, practice- YOU are now the one assigning yourself to do more homework and this same approach will work in all of your classes. It will put you on the right path to a productive life.” He beamed.

He’s made the connection and he’s sure not bored now!

Pamelia Valentine is a guest blogger and teacher in the Shelton School District.

Previous Blogs:

Creativity Really Does Matter

Experimenting with Class Size