My Best Response to "I Don't Get It"

    "I don't get it."
    "Which part?"
    "All of it!"

    Is it just me, or does this happen in your classroom as well?  What is your response to this statement?

      I used to get so frustrated that my students couldn't tell me where their understanding started to fall apart when they were struggling to understand something.   I often felt like they were copping out, and that they just needed to try harder to ask better questions.

     My new approach is to explain to students what happens when they say I don't know.  What I tell my students is that when they say I don't know, my "teacher brain" goes into overdrive.  I immediately begin wondering what they didn't understand.  For example, if we are working on proportional relationships on a graph, is the problem that you don't know the difference between the x and y-axis?  Are you confused about where you should start when you plot a point?  Are you unsure how to plot a point with a decimal in it?  Are you having trouble with how to number the axes?  When I start to name off all of the possible questions a student might have, I see my students begin to understand why I don't want them to just say, "I don't get it".

      Now that students understand everything that is going on in my head, I lay out the reality for them.  If I think of 10 different problems they might be having, and if they give me more information about what they don't understand. then the odds are certainly not in their favor!  As I tell them, when I'm guessing, there's only a small chance that my answer will be the one that they need.  As I tell them, if you want the right answer that can help you, then you have to help me understand what your question is.

       This has really helped my students see that when I tell them not to just say, "I don't get it", I'm not being mean but that I'm really trying to help them actually get their question answered.  Usually now when someone tells me that they don't get it, I mention just one or two of the questions that my "teacher brain" is wondering about and they are able to tell me what the problem is.

What is your best strategy for responding to "I don't get it?"  Leave it in the comments below.