-
Welcome to Teachers At Risk
-
Share/Save/Bookmark
Children's Mental Health Ontario
International Edubloggers Directory
The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada
Sep
17
At-risk students- from time to time I’ve wonder who coined the term at-risk students to identify kids who are in danger of academic failure. Where did that term come from? Well, I don’t have to wonder any longer because just last week as I was browsing through the shelves of our professional library at school, I came across Pamela N. Mueller’s book Lifers-Learning from At-Risk Adolescent Readers . When I first saw the title I thought “learning from at-risk students” . I’ve learned lots from my students and most of it invaluable to me as a teacher. So of course I had to check it out. I recommend that you check it out too. Its excellent, well worth reading and having in your own professional library.
Where does the term at-risk come from? Mueller suggests
At-risk is a term borrowed from the insurance industry to describe students judged to be highly probable to become a “loss” in terms of school success and achievement. They hover on the precipice of academic failure. Lacking the literacy and learning skills to succeed in the traditional secondary classroom, they generally get poor grades, have negative relationships with teachers, and feel alienated from a a place they see as unfair and a “boring waste of time”. (p.XIV)
She’s has hit the nail right on the head when she describes these kids. They do see school as a boring waste of time. They do lack the literacy and learning skills to succeed in the traditional classroom. They do get poor grades and have negative relationships with teachers.
Mueller continues
Acting out a particular role in the culture of failure in which they have cast themselves, these student “performers” do all in their power to live up to the low expectations that others have for them-and, indeed, that they have for themselves. Many are living in fractured homes that have victimized them emotionally and intellectually. Because their work and family often take precedence over a high school diploma, the idea of dropping out of school is never far away. (p. XIV)
Mueller has really captured the essence of at-risk students here. These kids see themselves as failures .Their families see them as failures. Last year I had a student tell me that his dad told him that the only thing he would be good for when he grew up was a door stop. Imagine-a door stop. Not even a person, but an inanimate object like a door stop. Talk about dehumanizing. How can an fourteen year old boy who has probably heard this for who knows how long overcome this negative role his dad cast for him. It wasn’t surprising that when his parents’ marriage finally broke down during the time he was in my class, school was the last thing on this kids mind. It’s so sad that kids have to deal with the negative fallout when adults can’t manage their own lives and continue to make one unfortunate choice after another.
I teach students from grades nine to twelve and know that many of the at-risk students have been identified before I ever see them sitting in front of me in my classroom. I’ve read countless school records of students dating way back to kindergarten and have often been impressed by how accurately the kindergarten teacher identified kids who were having difficulties. Often it seemed from those early comments not much had change. Those kids having difficulty in kindergarten were still having difficulty in my class ingrade nine. Now of course that’s probably not 100 % true because I don’t work with kids who don’t need support so I’m not really sure how many kids catch up to their peers. If anyone knows of a study that looked at this statistic, I would really appreciate hearing about it because the next thing I’m going to share with you is so depressing.
I was absolutely shocked to read that” Rist(1970) points out that a young reader’s journey through school is essentially pre-ordained by day eight of kindergarten! “
Oh my goodness! That is so disturbing. Apparently “the kindergarten teacher’s initial expectations, which are based on family history, physical appearance, and classroom behaviour rather than academic potential or performance,accurately forecasts a child’s future academic career.
It seems from this that once a student is cast as a member of the slow learning group, that’s it: he’s doomed to be in the slow reading group all through school. With all due respect to Mueller and Rist, I hope that’s not the case and maybe it isn’t the case in 100% of the time. I wonder what my kindergarten teacher thought of me, a rambunctious tomboy who lived on a farm in a home with no books to mention, just the weekly community newspaper. My family’s connection to the world came through our radio and our TV. I don’t know where my love of books and reading came from. Reading certainly wasn’t fostered in my home. In fact, it was considered a waste of time. I remember as a kid getting heck all the time because I would be reading instead of doing my kitchen chores. I had to smile when as an adult, I read a novel set in the prairies, or maybe it was a short story, it doesn’t really matter where a character had the sympathy of his neighbours because his farm wife read surreptitiously and hid books all over the place so she could read whenever no one was around. What was the problem with reading? Of course, when she was reading she wasn’t working. working was valued; reading wasn’t. The whole thing made me think of an alcoholic who hides her bottles all over the place so she could drink in secret. I certainly could identify with that bookaholic.
Ok, enough about me. Lets get back to Mueller’s research about kids and how they become at-risk of academic failure. She notes “Allington and Cunningham(1996) list four basic factors that early on put an elementary student at-risk of academic failure, factors over which a child has no control: family poverty, parental education attainment, gender, and perceived immaturity. ” (p. XV) I think this is really important to keep in mind before judging a student harshly. Kids don’t choose the family they are born into. Kids don’t choose how much formal education their parents have. Kids don’t choose their gender.
So what are we going to do to help these kids achieve better educational outcomes. Because my training and experience is with high school students, my solutions would speak to that age group. I’ve thought a lot about how to help my students get reconnected to school so that they can develop their potential to the utmost. When I’ve played the ” if I ruled the education world game”, my solutions for my at-risk students are mostly outside the box. Obviously, if something isn’t working, it needs to be changed. If the education system isn’t working for some students, it needs to be changed for those students. I read some where that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. What would you change? What would you do?
You know , that isn’t just a rhetorical question I’m please to say. Corrie Henegan, Chief Operating Officer of The Mind Trust, a non-profit organization got in touch with me to tell me about an exciting new initiative . The Mind Trust is offering educational entrepreneur fellowships to people who believe they have the answers to stop the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
What exactly is an educational entrepreneur
Education entrepreneurs are individuals who develop new approaches to tackle society’s greatest challenges in radically new ways. They are driving some of the most compelling improvements in educational outcomes for chronically underserved students. Ventures like Teach For America, College Summit, New Leaders for New Schools, The New Teacher Project and the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) are prime examples. The leaders of these organizations have transformed education for thousands of children and have changed our very ideas about what is possible in public schools. To access resources on education entrepreneurship .
You can check out the Mind Trust’s FAQ link here. Nicole Wiltrout was kind enough to forward it to me.
Offering these education entrepreneurial fellowships is a huge initiative for the village to take. I hope other organizations in other places will take the lead from the Mind Trust and find creative ways to enable positive change to happen so that students who are at-risk academically can get re-connected to school and develop to their fullest potential. Students will benefit by these initiatives because the new programs will be tailored to meet their needs; the village will benefit by these initiatives because its citizens will be able to contribute to their fullest. It will be a win-win situation. At least, the way I see it.
I want to thank B. Ziegier, Mathew, Joel, Craig, Jane, Liz, Ms. Whatsit, and Sukhdeep for their feedback. I really appreciate it. I think we all benefit from the input readers take the time to give. I know I do. It’s great that the technology allows us to develop into a community that shares and supports one another. So please, lets continue to develop this community by commenting, questioning and sharing. I think it exciting.
Sep
12
Emotions affect a student’s learning
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Special Education | 6 Comments
Those of you who have read my post about Nine things my students have taught me about classroom management and teaching will know that when I talk about classroom rules on the first day of class,I tell my students since they are in high school they are experts at knowing what behaviours make a classroom work well so that learning and teaching can go on. Then, I ask them to come up with a short list of rules for our class. Once that’s done, I have them create posters outlining the rules and put them up on the walls. The posters act like road signs on a highway reminding students how to behave.
I was delighted to learn that one of my students in my grade nine locally developed math class, a class for very weak math students, told another teacher that he liked my class because I thought he was smart. I had to smile because this is exactly what I hoped for when I told his class that they were experts at knowing what behaviours were conducive to learning and teaching.
This particular math class is for students who are really weak in math and often the kids think the class is for losers and don’t want to be in the class. It’s a self-esteem issue with them. They don’t want to be in what other students call the loser math class. I’m constantly challenged to find ways that boost my students’ self-esteem to the point where they will be open to learning and success. The negative emotions they bring to class really thwart learning.
No doubt about it. Emotions affect a students learning . The student who knocks on my door and asks me with tears in her eyes if she can talk to me about something, or the student who comes to me in a rage over something someone has done to him is not ready to learn . It doesn’t matter how great my lesson is, if a kid’s world is threatened there will be little learning going on. Given the emotional roller coaster that kids are on in their teens, emotions often get in the way of learning. That’s why it is so important for a student to have a good relationship with a adult at school. That’s why it’s so important for me to be sensitive to the emotional state of my students. I’ve found that a little empathy goes a long way and tomorrow will be another learning opportunity for my troubled student.
One way that I have found that I can be empathetic to my students is to respond to the journals I have them write. Sometimes I have students write journal entries every day, sometimes just on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I actually prefer to have them write everyday. Stuff happens everyday. It’s amazing what students will tell me in their journals. I’ve had wonderful two way conversations with students over the years who would never say anything in class but were willing to tell me about important things in their lives in their journals. I would simply read their journals and make comments. And yes, I even have my math students write journals. I think it’s important for students to be given the opportunity to reflect on their lives and tell someone what they feel.
Sometimes students have difficulty getting started when writing a journal or they worry about spelling, grammar or punctuation. When I see this happening, I get my students to write a timed journal. I give them a choice of topics and then tell them to write like crazy for five minutes not worrying about spelling, grammar, etc. After they have written for five minutes (I use a timer) I get them to count the number of words and record that number below the entry. Then I get them to create a bar graph for each journal entry. When they’ve completed five entries, I ask them to pick their favourite one and edit it and hand in a good copy to be marked. It’s amazing how the quantity and quality of their writing improves over time.
What I’ll do is share with you some of the journal topics I give my students. But since I don’t have them with me at home with me right now, I’ll bring the handout home and post the list of topics for you within the next couple of days. Maybe someone else can also share their favourite journal topics as well. The more choice kids have, the better.
Sep
3
Bookmark Meme
Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Ms. Whatsit tagged me for a Bookmark Meme. How intriguing-a bookmark meme. It would be interesting to see what people are bookmarking. Although my blog and podcasts are mostly about education the way I see it, I’m interested in a lot of other things that I don’t really bring into my blog. Here are some of my bookmarks that reflect my other interests. Interestingly, I am an avid gardener but haven’t bookmarked a site.
Knitting at Knoon - I’m a visual learner and the short videos on different knitting skills have been helpful over the years.
Brooklyntweed - I’ve recently discovered this knitting blog and really enjoy Jared’s creativity.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio One - I’m addicted to listening to the CBC. I even listen to it while I’m using my laptop. Now that many of my favourite programs are available as podcasts, I don’t have to miss them and can download them to my MP3 player.
A Buddhist Podcast- I find what Jason and Karen say often challenge me to think about things in a different way, a more helpful way.
Tricycle- the independent voice of Buddhism - I find this site also helps me deal with the craziness of life.
Fly Lady - This site is so interesting on many levels. It has all kinds of motivational tips for tackling all kinds of, dare I say distasteful, tasks.
Now I wonder what Jason and Karen, Jared, Lisa, and Chris have bookmarked recently.
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. -
