Talk slower.

Aspiration #7: Talk slower.


I promise not all my goals will be school-related, but it is my focus at the moment...


I know I talk fast, especially in the classroom. I have a constant sense of 'Let's hurry up and do this,' and I talk at a breakneck pace. Actually, the more excited I am about a subject the faster I talk and the more Southern my accent (the accent deepens when I'm angry as well, a student once remarked to his classmates, "You all better stop. She's getting Southern," so I don't just imagine this tick).
This year, a student switched from one of my classes because he said I talked too fast and he couldn't listen as fast and understand so he'd stopped listening. Really, those are almost his exact words. At first, (in my head because you must be tactful dealing with students) I took the attitude of "Well, if you can't think fast enough, you must be too slow for my college prep!" But, then I got to thinking and realized he might not be the only student in this boat.

Then, I read the following "The average adult speaks at a rate of almost 170 words per minute...by high school, (the processing rate) grows to a rate of 145 to 150 words per minute" (NEA Today). Whew! My students are only able to process a fraction of what I say! No wonder I see their work sometimes and want to shout, "But I told them X!" Well, I told them, but they really didn't hear, not because they weren't listening, but because they couldn't process what I was saying. It's sort of putting to use the old adage, 'a little knowledge is dangerous.' They use the parts they understood to produce a mangled version.

I try to give them everything in writing because my personal learning style needs to hear and see instructions, but most students rely on one or the other and I'm probably confusing them.

So, I aspire to slow my speaking rate... I will probably tell each class this and have them devise a way to signal (politely) when I'm winning verbal NASCAR.


Works Cited


"Talk slower!" NEA Today. January/February 2009: 15.