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Jan
31
Helping students find their way to success
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Evaluation, Special Education, The way I see it, motivating students, positive climate, underachieving students
Some students do not have the work habits that make it easy for them to be successful in school. In class, I talk a lot about the characteristics of successful people and the role that perseverance plays in their success. Unfortunately, perseverance is not the only thing some of my students lack. They lack another important characteristic that successful people share. They lack the emotional support they need to help them be successful. Some students don’t have anyone there for them when the going get tough or even to help them celebrate life’s successes great or small. That’s where I come in. I try to give them the emotional support they need to help them find their way to success at school.
Sometimes students will work on projects and assignments but for any number of reasons don’t submit the assignments for evaluation. They seem to run out of energy, interest or whatever and just give up. I’m always encouraging them to submit things so I can give them the marks they’ve earned. I’m constantly telling them if they don’t hand things in it makes it very difficult for me to find marks to give them. I don’t find it useful to tell them that if they don’t hand work in they’ll fail. They’re used to hearing that. They’re used to failing. I take a different approach. I tell them they have to help me find the marks they need to pass them. Yes, of course it would be nice if my students just wanted to learn for the sake of learning, but that’s not the way it is for some students. I have to start where from where my students are.
I used to get very frustrated when I would see my students working on assignments in class and then not submit them for evaluation. In fact, it used to drive me crazy. I’ve learned to observe and record their progress during the time they work in class so that if for some reason they don’t submit an assignment, I still have some sense of their progress and can evaluate what I have seen. Believe me, there are many reasons why assignments don’t get handed in. Not completing them is only one reason.
It’s important to know that some of my more reluctant/struggling students are not interested in getting high marks. They feel they’ve aced the course when they get 51%. I know because they’ve told me this. Of course I encourage my students to do more than the bare minimum and will often tell them they’ve made a good start. Then, I encourage them to improve their work by suggesting if they just changed this a bit here or expanded on that a bit there I could find more marks to give them. Believe me. It works.
I’ll admit this whole idea of finding marks to give students for assignments they have or have not submitted can seem a bit strange. But, and this is a big but, I teach students who are at-risk academically, and I need to think creatively to find ways to motivate them and give them the support they need so they can find their way to success. That’s what makes teaching so rewarding.
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- Motivating a struggling student by helping him start a personal blog.
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5 Responses to “Helping students find their way to success”
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I appreciate your blog, Elona, and I found this post on the creative ways that you approach classroom motivation very engaging. Sounds like your students really need someone who is on their side and you have learned how to be that person! Very thought-provoking and full of a great energy!
Excellent idea. Having worked with many at-risk kids at my alternative school I thought my staff and I have come across everything. But this is great! Thanks, I’m going to see how we can use this tomorrow.
dcollins´s last blog ..Philosophy and "The Big Picture"
OK, so I am doing this and feeling a little more encouraged and less like I am fixing the numbers. What about testing? They seem to know the material in reviews, but they have NO testing ability. I’m trying, but time is against me! Our school requires test grades to be 70% of their grade. We are setting them up to fail! So frustrated.
kontan´s last blog ..Poor planning
Kontan,
I find the same challenge. My students do extremely poor on tests. I now have them create review sheets of the material that they are expected to know prior to the test. Usually one 8 by 11 page. I allow them to use this page while writing the test. Other teachers do this too so it is an accepted practice. I find that this helps reduce the stress level for the kids. I also give a small mark for the review sheet that counts as part of their test mark to encourage them to do it- 5%. Some kids still don’t bother. But, I figure I can only do so much.
I also have a mini quiz almost everyday ( 3 – 5 questions) on the previous day’s work. I find this encourages most kids cause they get feed back really quickly. They need timely feedback frequently. Most kids want to do well I also call parents about kids progress to tell them the good news and the behaviour that is preventing their kids from doing his or her best.
I also change the seating plan frequently so that kids are in a spot that encourages them to focus and not get distracted.
No doubt about it, some classes are more of a challenge than others. You can only do so much because much is not in your control. I tell myself, tomorrow is another day and things will probably better. I try to remember to focus on the kids that are doing well too and not just spend all my time and energy on the kids who aren’t.
Thanks for the reply. I’m in a new school and finding the typical challenges are worse than normal. It seems that I’m doing all the right things, but am just not seeing the progress yet. Love your site.
kontan´s last blog ..Poor planning