Here is a scenario that occurred in a classroom:
Student teacher: I am asked to plan a unit and schedule two weeks to teach about the unit. Would you suggest a good topic for my unit?
Cooperating teacher: That will not be done till the end of the semester. Right? Let me start thinking and I’ll get back to you as soon as I figure out how it can fit in my current schedule and curriculum.
The student teacher waited and waited until it was very close to the time for unit teaching and she got really panicked. She was hesitant to push because she did not want to jeopardize the good rapport with the cooperating teacher.
When working with the cooperating teacher, this student teacher should really take charge of her planning and take a pro-active approach. Of course, she should not be too pushy. However, she should be more organized and proceed with caution and strategies. She could propose some possible unit ideas and seek her cooperating teacher’s feedback, instead of leaving everything to the teacher by asking an open-ended question.
She could come up with a more specific proposal, with several options in terms of topics, lessons, and activities. She could even map out the date and time for the proposed unit lessons to be taught. When the plan is reasonable and concrete, her cooperating teacher will most likely accept her proposal.
Similarly, if you want to set a time to discuss something with someone, don’t ask, “Could we meet sometime to discuss about this?” Instead, give a specific request, “Let’s meet and discuss about this matter in detail. Does Tuesday morning, at 9 am work for you?” The former question was intended to ask the other party to accept the invitation for chatting; while the latter set the tone that it’s essential to discuss about the matter, and go directly to set the schedule.
If you think about this situation in a question-answer term, most people would be able to respond to the multiple-choice questions easily while they would have to agonize a good answer for an essay question. My advice is that you should make it simple for people to make a quick and easy decision.
