Chapter Two Summary

Teaching with Your Mouth Shut, by Donald L. Finkel

Chapter 2

Significant Points in the Chapter

Creating a classroom where books become the instructor is a worthwhile teaching activity.  They can provide a valuable learning experience without the teacher’s need for explanation.  If you can trust the book to move the student, the student will become curious as to what moves them, thus creating a personal learning experience.

The Parable

Parables are useful learning tools that should be considered for classroom use. They have used throughout time in many diverse cultures and religions; Christianity, Buddhism, and various native cultures just to name a few. Typically, a parable is a “story trying to tell us something” and they possess the following characteristics: they are little stories, they seem profound (have some bit of knowledge), and they are somewhat opaque.

Learning from Parables

These three features are what make parables so useful in the classroom: “Their concreteness, specificity, and narrative organization capture our attention” (p. 13).  When students are permitted to ponder the questions in parables and formulate and test their responses against their own life experiences and knowledge, it sets the mind to increasing its understanding. The question then becomes “Who taught me” (p. 14)? Most of the time, the teacher was a collaboration of several people; the author, the reader, and another person who is present. The teacher becomes a shared effort because a parable has no set agenda and the reader must teach themselves from it while others help him/her problem-solve. Parables are not considered to be teaching by Telling because they set an engaging problem, the reader encounters a problem they must solve, and the teacher did not interpret, or tell, them the correct response. Once again, it is important to remember that if we view learning “as the creation of those circumstances that produce learning in others” then teaching has taken place (p. 15).

Let the Parable Do the Talking

An educator can be an effective teacher regardless if they know, or don’t know, the “answer” to the parable: “The existence of the parable as a teaching device presumes that certain things can be learned only by figuring them out for yourself” (p.15). In addition, the skills a learner develops from examining parables can be transferred to other kinds of material.

Puzzle and Paradoxes

Puzzles are similar to parable in that they encourage discussion and provoke learning. However, puzzles are more effective when used collaboratively with the teacher and a group of students. The similarity these two teaching tools share is only meant to demonstrate methods for encouraging discussion and learning; it is not meant to be a universal model for all subject matter.  

Teaching through Great Books

The three features of a parable also apply to books. Books, though, provide a sequence of many situations to examine, as opposed to one problem. They can present a more complex process of problem-solving when the teacher lets the students attack the content directly. This does not mean the teacher is passive in the process; he/she must create the structure and activities to approach the book. There are several ways a teacher can stimulate learning through books and many specific examples are provided in this chapter ranging from Homer’s Iliad to Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Lastly, it is crucial to recognize that not all books have profound things to communicate so it is necessary to find exceptional books that can provide an educational experience without the teacher’s need for explanation.

Let the Books Do the Talking

When selecting a book there are several steps to consider. First, it is important to select the right book so you can “let the book do the talking” (p. 30). Teachers must learn to refrain from describing the significance of the book and trust the students to respond to it.  Second, you must get the students to read. Third, the teacher needs to arrange the circumstances and activities to examine its significance so that students can “read it well” (p. 30). It is this last part that truly tests a teacher’s “good teaching”.  

Finkel, D. L. (2000). Teaching with your mouth shut. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.