Oregon state Teacher of the Year Jackie Cooke often uses stories to help her young students learn how to confront and solve problems. She began writing her stories to help her own grandchildren through a difficult time, and then integrated them into her classroom.
She often frames her classroom stories as a "story within a story," including tales about herself as a young girl. She encourages parents to share stories of their own childhood with their young children.
Here is one example of a story she wrote to help her students understand the value of sticking with a task:
Perseverance
His eyes had a look of panic as he entered our first grade classroom midway through the school year. "This is Billy," our school secretary said. "Billy, this is Mrs. Cooke. She'll be your teacher for the rest of the year."
I bent down to greet him. "Hi, Billy," I said as I shook his hand, "Welcome to our school. Let me show you where to put your backpack and then I'll have you come sit at this table next to Michael. He can be your guide for the day in case you are confused or not sure where to go. Feel free to ask him any questions."
Things settled into the morning routine and I became busy with the myriad of tasks a teacher needs to take care of each morning. Everything was humming along, when out of the blue, I heard a commotion from one side of the room. Looking over, I saw Billy lay his head down and begin to wail. “Wow!” I thought, “Who would have guessed such a little guy could make such a big noise?” I went over to his table, knelt down, and asked Billy what was wrong. He only wailed more loudly. Michael turned to me and explained, "He said he doesn't know how to write. He didn't have to do journals at his old school."
At that, Billy attempted to speak between gulps and hiccups. "I don’t know what to write about. I can't do it. I don't know how to write. I'm only a first grader, you know."
I coaxed Billy to at least try to start the assignment by drawing something. "Maybe you could draw a picture about coming to your new school? Once you have the picture done, we'll see what we can do about turning it into a story," I encouraged.
"You can do that?" Billy asked in amazement and picked up a blue crayon and began to draw. And that's how things went where Billy was concerned. It seemed as if every new thing was an occasion for tears. His "no-can-do" attitude defeated him before he ever started.
One day, as the ear splitting wails again pierced the air in our classroom, I went over to stand by Billy, as he sobbed, "I can't do this math problem. At my old school, no one ever asked me to explain my thinking. I'll never get this finished. I'll probably still be working on it when the class goes out to recess. It's too hard!”
In desperation I said, "Billy, we've got to find you a new Can Do attitude. Believing in yourself and sticking to the job even when it gets hard, is what is needed here. Would you like to hear a story about a time when I was a first grader like you and I was having trouble getting a job done?"
Billy sniffed and scrubbed at his eyes. "I guess so," he sighed.
I invited everyone to come to the Gathering Spot and while my students wer seating themselves on the carpet, I walked over to the chalkboard. I picked up a piece of chalk and began to write. I called out each letter name as I wrote it on the board. "P-E-R-S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E. Does anyone know how to read this word?” No one had a clue, so I pronounced it and asked my class to repeat it after me. Then, I asked if anyone knew what it meant. Again, no one raised a hand. " If you stick with a job that's really hard for you to do and you get it done, that's perseverance. Listen now as I tell you how I learned about perseverance when I was a little girl just about the same age as all of you."
Can Do
Jackie and Terry loved their bedroom. Since they were only eleven months apart, they had shared a bedroom for as long as they could remember. One Saturday afternoon, they were playing in their room. Color books and crayons that had spilled from the box were lying in a corner over by the window. Dirty clothes were scattered all over the place and their dresser drawers were opened with clothing items hanging out over the sides of the drawers. Dirty dishes and wrappers from snacks they'd eaten over the last few weeks were interspersed with the clothing, books, shoes, a doll or two and little game pieces from a board game that had been set up and then abandoned. Right now, they were in between their two unmade beds, building a city out of Lincoln Logs.
Mom poked her head in the door and said, "Girls, I asked you yesterday to get your room cleaned up. This is not acceptable. Clean your room up right now or you will be sent to bed by 6:00 p.m."
stood up and eyed their room with dismay. "Jeesh. What a mess. I hate going to bed early but this room is a total disaster. How are we ever going to get it cleaned up in time?" Jackie thought for a minute and then said, "Aha! I've got it." Grabbing a pile of dirty clothes off the floor, she tossed them out the door into the middle of the hallway. Then, she picked up a stray shoe and chucked it out the door. Terry, understanding Jackie's plan, grabbed handfuls of crayons and they followed the path the clothing had taken. Books, dolls, dirty dishes, snack wrappers, old smelly socks, everything went flying out the door as the girls got into the rhythm of the task at hand. "Shooooom, shoom, shoom shoom, shoom," Jackie called as she tossed Lincoln Logs out the door one at a time."
"Hey, Jackie," Terry called out, "Watch this." Terry began to strip her bed and threw the bedspread, blankets, sheets, and pillow onto the growing pile outside their door.
"That's nothing," Jackie replied, "get a load of this." Jackie walked over to their bookshelf and grabbed an armload of books and then walked out the door and dumped them on the pile. Terry, not wanting to be outdone by her big sister, grabbed handfuls of clothing from their dresser drawers and they too found their way to the pile in the hall.
Sometime later, sweating and panting, Jackie stopped and said, "Wow, it's so clean in here you can hear an echo."
Terry said, "Yeah we did such a good job. Mom is going to be really proud of us."
With satisfaction Jackie turned in a circle surveying the room. As she turned toward their bedroom door, she caught sight of the huge mountain of their things that had been removed from their bedroom. She staggered toward the gigantic pile and collapsed on top of it, crying in desperation, "Oh no! We have to put this all back. We'll never make it by 6:00 p.m." Terry threw herself next to her sister and both girls began to wail.
Just then, the girls' big sister, Stefani, walked up the stairs. "Girls, what are you doing? You've totally blocked the hallway with this pile. I can't get to my room. Why are you guys crying?"
Between sobs, Jackie explained about Mom, the 6:00 p.m. bedtime, and trying so hard to clean up the huge mess they'd had in their room.
"Well, there's only one thing to do," Stef said. "I'll help you put all these things back. I can't get to my room until they are out of the way. What should we start with?"
"Well, all the bed clothes take up a lot of room. Maybe we could start by making our beds?" Jackie asked.
" Good idea," Stef said.
Stef helped the girls approach removing things from the mountainous pile in small steps. She suggested they look for one kind of item at a time and to put then away and then start on another kind of thing. Slowly the pile began to diminish.
"Done," Jackie proclaimed as she finished mopping the last section of the tile floor. She looked around and saw that Terry was just finishing up arranging the last few books that needed to be put back on the bookshelf. Stef was wiping off the last few streaks of window cleaner with a paper towel.
"This room really is clean now and smells good, too," Jackie proudly stated.
"See, I told you girls you could do it," Stef said. "The hardest part of a job is getting started. You just have to roll up your sleeves and start somewhere."
Jackie replied, "Thanks Stef. It really helps that we have a nice big sister like you to show us how to do it."
"And so class, that was the day when I learned all about the meaning of the word perseverance," Mrs. Cooke finished. "Now, everyone return to your tables. You have about 15 minutes to finish up your math before it's time to clean up to go to recess.
Just as the bell rang fifteen minutes later, Mrs. Cooke caught sight of Michael giving Billy a high five. She overheard Michael say, "Way to go Billy, good pefeversince or whatever that word was that Mrs. Cooke was talking about. Look, you stuck with it and now you are done. Let's go out and play together on the Monkey Bars.
"Hooray, we're free," the two boys shouted as they headed out the door.
More from Mrs. Cooke: Since perseverance is a necessary ingredient for student achievement, it needs to be encouraged. Helping children learn to be patient and to persist in spite of failure are attributes that will contribute to their future success.
Mrs. Cooke's "Discussion Starter" questions for students about the story:
- Have you ever had a job to do that was really hard? What was it? Did you stick with it until it was finished? Why or Why not?
- Do you know someone else who has a hard job? How do you think they get their work finished?
- What do you think Jackie's older sister Stefani meant when she said, "The hardest part of a job is getting started."?
- Stefani also suggested that the girls break the job apart into smaller pieces by sorting for one kind of item at a time to put away. What other strategies could be used to help with tackling a big job like this?
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