This book provides practical tools for educators who work with disenchanted and disengaged youths. It offers clear, research-based, and explicit strategies for motivating, connecting, and intervening with these students. The practical wisdom in this book demonstrates what you can do to connect these students to their schools and to a promising future.
I think the first thing I thought as I began reading this book was "Wow, someone has been videotaping my classes!" The kids profiled are exactly like my students. I knew that this would be relevant.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can easily recognize the issues that I am reading about, I question why we have so many more kids like this now than we have in past years. There seems to be apathy coming out of their pores this year. What has caused this steady rise in laziness and uncaring? And, why do the kids take it out on their teachers? SO, I asked my class! THeir response: Why should we work so hard to learn things that we can just find on the Internet? Why should we respect teachers when they don't have to respect us? Why should I listen to you when you have no authority over me? These were real answers from OUR students....so what do we do with that?
Those are some pretty powerful questions. I do see a lot of the apathy you are talking about. It seems that each year breeds more and more at risk students and I am curious to find out why. I have a theory, which goes along with your question, "Why shoud we work so hard to learn things that we can just find on the Internet?" I think we have bred a generation full of "intstant gratification" children and when it comes to old fashioned learning, there isn't an instant gratification like there is with the internet. Because of this reason I think a lot of students are giving up because, "it's just too hard" especially when the answer isn't instantaneous.
Delete-Sutton
I felt this book was a perfect example of many of my classes, as well. This is my first year teaching, and it is disheartening to see so many bright children who simply do not care about school. My class is much like a large family and we have open discussions quite often. Therefore, just after beginning to read this book I asked my students, “why don't you care about school?” Although I heard a variety of responses, the one that stuck out the most was from one of my brightest students, she asked “Why should we care? Half of us are going to stay right here in the country and we know it, and are happy with it, and most of what you are teaching we'll never use again. So, you tell us why we should care.” As a first year teacher, my jaw dropped. After quickly gathering my thoughts, I simply replied, “Although you may not like every subject or care about any subject in school, your education will give you options. Rather it is to work at McDonald's or become an underwater welder, education can give you options for the rest of your life. Because I know each of you care about yourselves, I feel like you should care about what you get to do in the future...no matter how big or small.”
DeleteAt first, I was kind of offended when I read the quote on page 4, "Students who are facing significant life changes require a teacher who has a strong, consistent, positive self-image." My feeling was "What does my self-image have to do with these kids having a bad life?" and "This is just one more thing that teachers have to fix or they will be blamed for the mistakes of a student's family!" But, I do understand that the kids need to see someone who is positive and portrays that image as a role model that they can overcome. But would that require us to share those life struggles that we have overcome with those students? Or will that make us vulnerable...give themm ammunition to use against us later?
ReplyDeleteI agree that we have to find some sort of balance. I think that they do not need to know all of the details but should know that we have struggled and have overcome. I tell the students that I am dyslexic and have ADD and it is not an excuse not to learn. I teach them how to work around it.
DeleteSapp said,
ReplyDeleteStudents come to school with various backgrounds and have many different experiences to share. Some of these experiences may have given them a bad taste of school and often the student gets the tag of “At Risk.” I feel we as educators, must make every effort to reach out to every student and help them feel a sense of belonging. I do realize this is easier said than done. I think relationships continue to be the single most important factor in success in education. I think we can all agree that a student who finds his or her “nitch” tends to be more successful in school. Our ultimate aim should be the student who is proud of their school and the accomplishments they are making. The student who demands a large amount of our attention is most often the student who needs it the most.
Sapp said,
ReplyDeleteMany of our students can be at risk and need our attention. The expectation for these students must remain high and not waiver. As was already mentioned, I feel too many times we have a tendency to make excuses for the at-risk student instead of pushing them and not settling. There is a fine line between having patience with a student, but at the same time holding them accountable. The central theme continues to focus on the relationship between the teacher and the student. If the teacher/student relationship is healthy, the teacher can challenge the student and help them feel pride in their accomplishments.
Sadly, many of our students see those high expectations as just another person nagging at them. They think that we "don't like them" because we set boundaries and hold them accountable.
DeleteI agree that these at risk students should be challenged and held accountable. I see so many that have just been passed along over the years because it was too much trouble to deal with them. We, as the system that passes them should also be held accountable. The message we have been sending to kids has led to believe that they can miss as many days as they want, do nothing in school or out of school, and we will send you on to the next grade. We do this because we either don't want to deal with them because of the behavior problems or we make excuses for them and hope that the next grade can fix the problem. If I had made it to 8th grade without being held accountable then I would probably have developed the same attitude. It has to start from the beginning in the lower grades to get their attention. I believe, that is one of the many reasons that we have more apathy each year. It is being breed in the lower grades and it is snowballing and it continues to snowball until they get into highschool. We thought that TAKS was going to do away with social promotion in Texas but I don't think that it has really worked that way. Yes, we have held some kids back that could not pass on an accountability year but we have passed many that should not have gone simply because of age or behavior issues. The whole system has to change or we will continue to see more and more of at-risk students.
DeleteSo I finally got a change to sit down and read, and the first chapter just blew me away. It is as though someone is using Moorhead as their field of study for this book. As I was reading I was able to apply the types of students they were talking about to specific students in our school by name. What I have a hard time with is how the majority of the categories listed are entirely out of the students' control. These are very difficult hurdles to jump even for the most well equipped and intelligent person. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it is for some students. On another note, I'm not sure some of the students at risk know how or why they are at risk. You know they are bound to identify that something isn't right. However, until someone can step in and help these students, they will always be lost. That is why I think the mentor program is so wonderful. It helps some of these students find a sturdy ground to kick off of.
ReplyDelete-Sutton
My thought is "Haven't the kids had these same problems for years"? Why are they so at-risk now, when kids have faced these problems for years and been ok? What has changed?
DeleteYou have to think about today's economy though. There may have been the same situations in the past. However, the volume of unemployed parents has gone up. This has created a higher volume of students without the proper support at home because mom or dad are struggling to make ends meet. Therefore resulting in more at risk kids than before.
Delete-Sutton
Neal says,
DeleteMy opinion on this runs deep and I will only share a small part of it. I beleive that you should still instill values and be a parent no matter what your situation at home is. The parents need to make sure that they are still being parents. That is what is sad and that is why SO MANY of them are "at risk" is because society today has very low expectations.
The section on "Identification by Teacher Talk" made me realize the one thing that I really miss about teaming. It is nice to know that I have a group of fellow teachers who have the same students as I. It helps to know if a student acts the same in other teachers classes as they do in mine.
ReplyDeleteBecky Pickett writes:
DeleteI agree. It has been harder to get in touch about a student when we don't have the same students. As a team we were able to catch problem behavior faster and discuss ways to make the learning environment a more positive place for at risk students.
That is also one of the things that I miss the most about teaming also. My team met all the time so that we could talk about the kids and what one teacher might be doing in her class and how it is or isn't working. We called parents as a team and also had conferences as a team. When we had a problem with a student in a class that wasn't mixing well with the other students it was easy to just figure out how their schedule could be changed with a simple flip and get them in a more positive environment. It is so hard now to coordinate parent teacher conferences or do a simple schedule change with the students when needed. Thats just one of the things I miss about teaming.
DeleteD. Reagan writes:
ReplyDeleteI also feel this book knows our student population. The book states that just moving from elementary to middle school can put kids at-risk. Bring in the adolescent changes and all the other factors, and it explains why they are not focused in class. In the book it stated, "...that too often the required content does not match what they need and want to learn". I know students need essential life skills, but the other side of that is what they want to learn. Kids have always faced some of these issues, but I think instant gratification has caused frustration with school. With the age of technology, teachers are just not that exciting. With 25+ kids in the classroom, questions can't be answered fast enough. I agree high expectations should remain, but the book says these high expectations can also be a risk factor for some students. The essential life skills of decision making and problem solving that the students need take too long and are not fast paced enough for these "techies". I'll keep reading and hope for some suggestions.
D. Reagan writes:
ReplyDeleteIn the identification process of at-risk students, the book states several ways to do this. While we have a great mentor program, it only helps a handful of our students and we have so many at-risk. On page 18, team meetings in middle school were mentioned as the most effective method to communicate about students. I agree with this because there are several eyes on the students, and students can be discussed during this team time. Is there any way to return to teaming on our campus? I also liked when they said to reward the effort not praise a student’s performance. It is true that other students who don’t come out on top will get discouraged and give up on a task. On another note, I like the quote, “Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something you can get.” (pg. 33) This would be a good expository writing activity for the students to analyze. It may help open up a great discussion with students.
Sapp said,
ReplyDeleteI agree totally with the point made on page 32 that at-risk students will not be motivated because the material will be on the test. Many students are not motivated by grades, but more because they are truly interested or intrigued by the material. In today’s day and age, students have become accustomed to being entertained. As educators, it takes a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm to consistently motivate our students. The reference to self- perceptions on page 35 makes me think of several students that have little or no confidence in their abilities. The challenge for us is to set up opportunities for these students to experience small victories or achievements to help build them up. It is also very important for the at-risk student to see others they “hang out” with having success.
Becky Pickett said,
DeleteI agree that it is important for at-risk students to see their friends be successful. I have a class period this year where it is "cool" to be smart - and I have students in there from all backgrounds, social groups, and school organizations. It amazes me the difference in class climate when the studnets encourage each other and celebrate each other's success. I have watched several at-risk students be moved into this class period and have a change in performance just by watching thier peers be successful.
Page 32 addresses at-risk students as not being motivated by tests or scores, yet by intriguing subject matter or educators with some kind of entertainment value. The truth is, however, this observation does not solely pertain to only at-risk students, rather nearly all students in the modern classroom. Moreover, entertainment ability is highly valued by children from poverty. Although it can be taxing, in order to engage these students an educator must sell his/herself before expecting to be able to sell the lesson.
DeleteWhen introducing a new concept or topic, I first research all of the ways in which the topic can be related to the majority of my students' lives. Secondly, I find a uniquely intriguing story from current media or a film clip from a relatable film to peak the students' interest. Lastly, when I present the lesson, I do it in a high-energy manner that combines the aforementioned practices with comedy, elaborate visual examples and concrete references. The more energy and relatable examples I integrate into a lesson, the more engaged and productive students become.
Sapp said,
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to read about the at-risk definition of dignity. The at-risk student not wanting to be hassled when they don’t know something really hits home. I do believe this student wants help, but does not want the spot light on him or her. The most important point made in my opinion was that of the student being good at something others are not. To focus on what a student is strong or good at is sometimes a challenge when discipline problems are at the forefront. I do feel the at-risk student must know that we as educators value his or her strengths and celebrate in those. All people like to hear good things about themselves and the parents of students certainly need to be made aware of their strengths and accomplishments. The idea of a school committee to investigate our community of caring and support is a great idea.
This comment by Sapp is timely for me. I was planning to commit to write a personal note to each of my kids over Spring Break letting them know not only what they need help with and what to study for, but what I think they are really good at. I think that this will give them PRIVATE feedback and encouragement. I see them bristle when they are asked a question that they don't understand. They also won't ask questions, because they think others will judge them.
DeleteD. Reagan writes:
ReplyDeleteWhen reading Ch. 5, it said that learning not only falls on the teacher, but also the students. I see “the four behaviors behind the students who disrupt the classroom” in every class. One of the first things it says to do is keep positive. When dealing with constant disruptive behaviors, it can be a struggle to keep positive. Every class has great students that need to be acknowledged for their accomplishments, and others that need to be praised for their effort. It’s easy to get distracted by the less desired behaviors since they take up most of our time. Looking for small accomplishments can help build a student up, and being positive plays an important role.
I agree with the recommendations for a successful classroom and have implemented some and struggled with a few. For a while I was doing groups, but I moved away from them because the groups became more social and work was not being completed unless I was with the group. Groups are very effective with learning if they run the way they should. My classes will be working in groups more, but we will rotate members and discuss group expectations and interpersonal skills more.
Jackson, I think that is a great idea about feedback and notes of encouragement.
I think pg 38 - 39 "Implications for Educators" is one of the most important aspects of this book, especially in terms of our role with these at risk students. It is very easy to become motivated by the words on these pages but implementing is the hard part. The amount of effort we put into some of these actions is often overlooked and the student misses the 'lightbulb' moment we are striving for. I think for some of us we try a couple of these techniques and become so frustrated with the lack of change in the student's perfomance that we almost want to give up. If the teacher stays persistant in trying every option listed on these pages the chances for success are so much greater. However, in terms of student motivation, in the previous pages, the student has to meet the teacher halfway. As teachers we can sometimes feel like a failure when it comes to unsuccessfully inspiring a student to do better for themselves. What I gathered from Chapter 3 is that we can only do so much. We can lead the horse to water with every trick in the book but it's up to the horse to drink it. We need to hope for the best and prepare for the worst and know that you did everything in your power to help the student achieve. Unfortunately, some slip through the cracks. But we can't stop trying.
ReplyDelete-Sutton
I have read the first 4 chapters and realized that many of my students fit into these catagories, particularly the ones that don't have discipline or attendance issues. I particularly liked the idea of a list of 5 students that each teacher thinks fits into these catagories and then use these students as mentees. Knowing they have these issues and researching them would be more fulfilling and then the teacher can begin using positive feedback, topics the students are interested in, and perhaps they wouldn't slip through the cracks as Ms. Sutton stated. Barbara Hasara
ReplyDeleteI think many people make assumptions that the GT and Pre AP kids are a “cakewalk”. This opening chapter really drives home for me what I have always said, that our kids are just like the others. They fit into many of these different categories. I did like how the authors broke down kids into easy to understand different groups. The real interesting point is how many of our kids fit into several of the different categories. Janek
ReplyDeleteBreaking down students into groups which are easily recognized gives a teacher an opportunity to reach those students on a positive relationship and perhaps change their way of thinking about themselves and education. Barbara Hasara
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first chapter and going through the different at risk groups that the authors have labeled our children in, I am drawn to two different at risk groups. One that is discussed and one that isn't. The first is the group of children that come to us lacking the basic skills needed to succeed in math. Curriculum mandates that concepts are taught in an order and at a speed that a child can not keep up with becasue they do not know basic multiplication or dividion. Some still do adding and subtracting on their fingers! And we look at these children and say, we need to do soemthing for them, but what happens...cirriculum changes pushes concepts that were once taught at higher grades to the lower grades and the student is now required to learn these concepts without having proper background knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThe second group that I am drawn to are the group of students that do not fall into the catagories that are labeled. These are the students that could learn and learn well if actually given the opportunity to do so. These are the students that fall behind every year because their teachers time and energy is being monopolized by students that are labeled at risk and are acting out and/or just don't care. What are these students suppose to do, especially when multiple versions of these students are placed together in the same classrooms?
After reading through the first chapter and realizing that this book does describe our kids, but not just some of our kids, but just about all of our kids. You can take almost any student and place them into one group, but to see the 9 different groups that students are placed in and realize that so many students will fall into 1,2 3 or more of the groups. I think we as teachers should work to connect with the students and find out their intersts or goals and work on creating that bond. I have found that working with some of the students that others find so difficult and close off, that sometimes it is finding that common interest or showing an interest in their activities, and once a bond is established the students may try harder in class.
ReplyDeleteBeau Pickett
Becky Pickett said,
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about all of the different at-risk groups that a student could belong to. As I was reading I had a list of names of who could belong into each category and how I can already see their at-risk behaviors in my mind. I have only read through chapters 1 and 2 but I can already see that this book challenges the concept that we are only there to teach a curriculum. One of the most important parts of our job is to develop a relationship with our students so that we can meet them where they are educationally and emotionally. With having worked with the special education and academically at-risk population for the last few years it is very common for my students to come to me with academic deficits. I have always attributed these to lack of ability or the presence of a disibility. I think that this book will give me some insight into the other ways that students become unsuccessful, some of which they can not control. This book seems to focus on transitional ages and puberty which is a daunting reality as a 7th grade teacher. I hope to get some good ideas on how to address those areas in realation to academic progress.
As I went through chapter two I start thinking not again. As they talked about shadowing students to study them I was thinking about time and cost and everything that goes with it. We know that often the writers of these books don’t always understand the “reality” of being in classroom. It was a great joy when the chapter switched to the real need for community involvement. We know that our community is lacking in many areas. We love what we have, but would love to see more. Janek
ReplyDeleteAmen!!!! We should get the author to come and observe our classes! And we do need to get our community more involved!
DeleteFuhrmann
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI would agree that we should find some more ways to involve our community in the school. We always seem to have a certain group of kids and parents that are involoved in every activity and those same parents attend, and we tend to label these as the good kids, and parat of that is because their parents are visible at all of their activities. I think if we could develop some new activities that reach other groups of students and parents, we might be able to get those parents involved to.
DeleteBeau Pickett
Definitely. We do have a certain group of students who have involved parents, outside of parent meetings when even the most difficult students have involved parents. I think that if we had more parents involved in the everyday of school and not just the difficult side of it (parent phone calls, emails, and conferences concerning grades or behavior) when the problem has gone too far, we may just have far less instances where the involvement is dealing with negative issues.
DeleteI have to agree with you on the lack of community support at this campus. I have been here a long time and have questionsed why we have never had a very strong PTA.
DeleteJ. Raverty
Finally, I can read! Where do we find these books and are they hand picked because of our student population? I understand that most of our students are at risk and there are different groups to place them in, and we, as teachers, need to reach out to them. But what about those who are unreachable? Every year, I have one or two students who just don't care and aren't afraid to tell you so. Where is the book for overcoming those who already know they want to drop out? These are the very few students with blank stares and absolutely no cares. I have not given up on them and I won't because that is who I am. I do have to say though that in my 6 years of teaching, I have had more interest from the parents this year in their students than in years past. We should find new and exciting ways to get our community and parents more involved in their student's education.
ReplyDeleteFuhrmann
I one hundred percent agree with you about getting the community involved. In the beginning of the book the author talks about how the idea of "it takes a village" is truly effective in creating successful students.
DeleteUnfortunately, with such limited resources it's very difficult to find the time or money for outside events. The things like powderpuff that go on at the high school would be great for our junior high though.
In regards to what you said about the unreachable kids; I like what the guy said at Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. He said there are 3 levels of students. Level 1 are your gifts from God. They are teacher pleasers, always do their work, and participate in class. Level 3 students are your kids who act out, don't care and don't just push the boundaries but stomp all over them and throw them back in your face. Level 2 kids are the quiet ones. The kids in the middle who barely get by and fly under the radar. We spend the majority of our time with Level 1 or level 3 kids. We should be focused more on our level 2 kids. They are the ones who are capable of bringing around your 3 kids and giving level 1 kids a different perspective.
I agree with the need of more parent involvement. I fight the "well my mom/dad was bad at math in school so..." attitude every year. Parents don't realize that 1) math is not hereditary and 2) you don't have to understand it to show them you care that they get it. Our math book works wonders to help that. I always make sure both parents and students are aware of the online videos and parent cheat sheets that are available to them. We are all guilty of getting home and just being too tired to help our kids with their homework, but parents need to understand that they are the ones who the kids learn perseverance from. When I have parent conferences I am always amazed when a parent tells me that their kiddo never has homework, and that they believe him/her about it. Even with all of the tools that we have available to them to use, View it to keep up with grades and homework sites to let them know what their kiddo should be doing. We need more commitment from our parents to ensure that all of our kids truly succeed.
DeleteSapp said,
ReplyDeleteI thought Chapter 5 was a great summary of several key components of being effective as a teacher and mentor. An excellent point was made about the fact that teachers cannot assume what is relevant to them is also interesting to their students. We as educators must grab the students attention and make the learning relevant. As we make the instruction motivating and interesting, we must continue to review in a way to engage all students. As we work with the “at-risk” student it is very easy to become frustrated when we see little or no progress. It is important to look for the little signs of progress. There is a fine line between challenging the at-risk student and losing them. We must be cognizant in the fact that they may put the wall up and close off any chances we have to reach them. As said before, it all starts with listening empathetically and showing them we care.
I totally agree witht he part about what is relevant to you might not be to them. One thing I always try to do when I talk about "me" is to make sure to allow "them" time. I also make sure that the more at risk kids get involved. If they feel comfortable being involved then they will be more comfortable being involved in classroom activities. It is another way to open a door.
DeleteSapp said,
ReplyDeleteWhatever the intervention is, the student must be allowed to help develop the plan. The first mention in Chapter 6 speaks of classroom interventions. I thought a great point was made that removing the difficult student from the classroom could be a positive reward as it could be just what the student wants. A bigger problem is that removing a student from the class does not solve the problem, but only avoids it. The story of Kyle in this chapter is all too familiar as we have all seen the student who is underperforming. The teacher is normally the first to realize the ability of the student and it is imperative to keep the student engaged. I thought it was interesting how this chapter distinguished between different kinds of at-risk students. Reaching the high ability at-risk student can also be challenging. Alternate assignments to challenge these students is a fantastic way to motivate. I also like the idea of having student write a test and then practice taking their test. The test will tell a teacher what the students see as important. Several interventions seemed very intriguing, but the one that really caught my attention was the idea of setting up opportunities for students to witness and practice compassion. I realize there is no magic button that will work for all at-risk students, but I do feel that the idea of playing on compassion could reap great rewards.
Santangelo:
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that stood out to me in this book is the discussion of at-risk students, and how difficult it can be to help them. This book describes that parental involvement and outside intervention are crucial in helping these students, but often times it is the lack of parental involvement that is the main factor to these students being at-risk. How do we bridge that gap? How do we help those students when it's a struggle to inspire them to help themselves? How can we help them personally when the entire day is filled with academics? I'm not sure the answer, but I do think we will see more and more students falling through the cracks if we can't reach them.
Santangelo:
ReplyDeleteBrough et al (2006) talk about misconceptions of student behaviors, and how talking out, for example, is a girls way of masking their lack of involvement in school (Brough et al., 2006). The authors go on to discuss how "frequent offenders" are sent to the office (2006). If we are finding that being sent to the office is not only not helping the problem, but further exasperating it because the students are out of class, then what school wide classroom procedures and management programs can we implement that will take care of these behavior in the classroom? How can we teach these students to be intrinsically motivated rather than being "rewarded" by getting out of class? How can we all get on the same plan so that we are providing our students with consistency that they can count on?
D. Reagan writes:
ReplyDeleteIn the chapter about intervention, it mentions many different ways and methods of intervention. One way was to help academically with creating a textbook shelf at the local library. The library is too far for our kids, but I wonder if there will be a day that CISD issues students a laptop since textbooks are or will be online. Many textbooks are already available to download to tablets, but not all students have the technology at home to access this.
I strongly agree with the statement that when students feel like their parents care, they are more apt to care about their work. It is the key to success. At the end of the day, we can only do so much and have to send them back home---good or bad. We can only hope that they get the help they need at school and the help they need outside of school that goes beyond our training. As teachers with many required responsibilities, time makes it difficult to do what should be done to help these at-risk kids.
I do like how different parts of this book deals with motivation. I think that is such a key to what we do. It does not matter if it is at-risk, GT, special ed, or whatever label we use. I have always tried to have a motivating style of teaching. You have to make the students feel that they are part of the class. One of the biggest problems we face is that today we have so so so many different kids. It is just so hard to get to them all. This book like others gives us great examples of kids we need to reach. Problem is finding time to get to them all. That is often the weak point with the “research” books. How to merge all these different kids in need of motivation…..
ReplyDeleteI really liked the category break down in this chapter. I gain great insight to use on students that fit into one or several of these stages. Category I, dealing with students in transition, is one that I feel will help me relate better to some of my students as they are preparing to enter high school. Some of the other categories that I found useful where the students at risk, students that lack social skills and the high risk students. I feel that after reading this chapter I can relate more to these types of students and have a better teaching skill set to help them learn and overcome the preset notions that some students have about school and learning.
ReplyDeleteJ. Raverty
I have a question about the information presented regarding "The Task", beginning on page 29. This section is discussing ways that teachers can motivate students to be interested in the lesson by making it about their interests and engaging them in higher thinking activities. The authors go on to discuss that teachers aren't spending much time teaching standards required by the state or federal government, nor are the things we are teaching necessary for success (Brough et al., 2006). To continue, the authors suggest that we use what the students are interested in to meet objectives, like the example given with Charlie (Brough et al., 2006). But what if the Car and Driver Magazine that Charlie is interested in isn't on his grade level? That isn't meeting standards. And I am always hearing teachers say that they don't have time - time to wait for the students who are behind, time to elaborate on concepts that need more work - because they have to keep up with the scope and sequence so that all standards are covered for the state test. Is there something I am missing here? I am not denying the importance figuring out how to motivate the students, and I am also not denying accessing what the students are interested in in order to motivate them - I just don't think that the authors are making fair statements. Am I wrong here?
ReplyDeleteI do think it is great that the authors encourage us to challenge the students with new information that builds on their prior knowledge, and to design instruction around their interests (Brough et al., 2006).
Santangelo.
DeleteI like how the second chapter deals with the different ways that we can identify the students. I believe that our campus does a very good job of teacher communication about the students and the way that they behave and act in class and through these discussions we can find common behaviors and discuss what we see in the students and share the ideas that work well with the students and place them in a learning environment that they will be best for them. I also think that we have at times misinterpreted some students, students that act out and get in trouble, and we have all had these students and labeled them as bad kids, but they were actually talking to us and trying to get our attention. This was there way of getting the attention and be noticed because they may not be getting that attention at home and they really just wanted someone to care about them.
ReplyDeleteBeau Pickett
D. Reagan writes:
ReplyDeleteAs I come to the end of the book, I think it expresses the needs of our students cover to cover. Its suggestions require much time to be dedicated to talking about students in a team setting. I’m not sure that is possible on our campus without teaming or having that team time. We can meet some of the needs through the mentor program and the counselors. Both are great sources. Other times, we can email another teacher to find out how a student is doing in their class, but it doesn’t consistently cover as many students as needed. Again, time seems to be the big issue. Our population has so many at-risk students. It is really sad to see so many students that have such a variety of needs. My hope is that one day they may realize the value of an education and change their future situations in life. For many, all they know is what they are living now. I will continue to try and stress the importance of getting an education, but many can not see that their life could be different or that they have control of their future even though they may not have any control right now.
Motivation... what really drives people and students to do the things they do? This was a great chapter for me professional and personally. I have often asked myself, “What is this person/student thinking right now to make them do, say, or react toward a certain situation.” Were they scared, excited, or perhaps just bored because my approach was the same and did not vary over time? No one lesson, subject, or topic will reach a classroom full of kids equally every day. We all know that each student has his/her unique style of learning. So the challenge really is how to develop a lesson that will pull as many motivational interests into it, so students can have a chance to react and relate to it.
ReplyDeleteJ. Raverty
I was surprised to see that they had gifted students as one of the at risk categories. The truly gifted student is quite often overlooked or seen as something different from what they actually are. These are the kids that can sit in your class, not do any work, appear totally disinterested and yet still do well on your tests. They are frustrating, but they pass and normally are not discipline problems, so we don’t know what to do with them. They don’t do the work because it is too easy and they see it as a waste of time. I have only taught maybe 8-10 truly gifted students in all my GT\Pre-Ap classes, so if 1% of your population is gifted, we have to be missing some.
ReplyDeleteH.Hankamer
We also have so many children that do not want to do the work. How many students are in our regular classes and should be in Pre-AP but aren't because they do not want to do the work involved. I think we see it more in math than in other subjects, because students don't want to be pushed or the extra work involved. I have students in pre-Algebra that are willing to redo the class because they feel that Algebra will be too hard for them, and no matter what we say to them about how they can do the work and that it will help them in high school and that they will succeed in the class, they just don't want to.
DeleteAs the book states, a big part of identifying those students at risk is teachers talking to each other about students. I think we really lost the ability to do that effectively when we stopped teaming. I don’t know who a student’s other teachers are unless I look it up. We don’t have a set time off together to discuss student issues. The only time we seem to get together to compare notes is normally a parent conference when the problem has gone too far.
ReplyDeleteH. Hankamer
I agree. When we were teamed it was easier to determine the cause of the student behavior and how to correct it in order to make the student more successful in class. Now that there isn't as much consistency between classrooms, environments, or groups of students it has been very hard to intervene.
DeleteBecky Pickett
I also agree. I know some schools have two conferences, one for teaming...that way we can "team" up on any of our at risk kids...or any of our kids for that matter. Like you said, now we have to find who the other teachers are and try to get together, and most of the time, we don't because of our off times. It has been a difficult year with our students.
DeleteFuhrmann
I understand that is necessary to motivate students to want to learn, but with the broad spectrum of concepts that you have to cover in each class, it is often hard to keep all students engaged throughout the course of a year. Part of what you have to do is entertain and open yourself up to them so that they can see that you care about them and their grades. They need to understand that all concepts in math build and connect. It may take some tedious work at times to get a satisfying solution. After all, most of these kids have no idea what they want to do for a career, so isn’t it our responsibility to expose them to as many things as possible so as not to limit their future career choices.
ReplyDeleteH. Hankamer
Santangelo:
ReplyDeleteI remember learning in high school that one of the best ways to catch the readers attention is to begin your paper with a captivating quote. I almost always begin my papers with a quote that gives my paper purpose and the reader a reason to read my paper. The book talks about how we need to make the lessons relavent to the students, and even though we may be excited about the lesson, the students may not be. Perhaps this can be done by beginning class in a different way each days that really gets the students attention and lets them know that what they are learning today is exciting! Certainly not every day is exciting, but if we are excited, and engage the students early, maybe they will get excited and want to participate. Perhaps the warm-up can be moved to the end of class as a cool down and begin the class in a more engaging way!
The book also talks about peer tutoring, which is a great thing we have started here at Moorhead. I would like to see more interaction between the general ed students and the life skills students. It think it would be good for our society if we had more exposure to more kinds of people. Everyone always harps on diversity, but we look at diversity as skin color, not physical or mental ability. There is tremendous value for both the life skills and general ed student when they have to learn how to interact in a way that makes sense to both of them. I think it would also be motivating to the general ed student to be the leader and have a special role in the lives of our life skills students.
I wish I had Chapter 5 when I was a first year teacher. This chapter has outlined so many useful tools that took a lot of sweat and tears to stumble on over the past few years. The one element I see that requires a lot of extra planning is gaining their attention. You really have to plan out different stradegies of attack to capture the attention of the entire class. I'm not sure I will ever perfect this element, but I won't ever stop trying. If you think about it, A lot of the at risk students who are catagorized with a difficult home life would benefit from an attention grabbing teaching style. A lot of these kids want to shut out the world because they seem to think everywhere they go will be as bad as home. Grabbing these student's attention and reeling them in will get them excited to come to school, especially since it's an escape from home.
ReplyDelete-Sutton
It is never easy to try to keep students focused when they are dealing with emotions, families issues, or smart phones for that matter. We as educators have to be raising the bar and coming up with new ways to center them and redirect them with lessons. At times I lose my focus after teaching the same lesson for two days.
DeleteJ Raverty
I really liked the story of the school that had 100 rules and a discipline problem out of control. The kids were breaking rules just to show they could. They reviewed it and finally made 3 rules instead that were general but covered everything. Their discipline problems went down.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great illustrations of showing that less is more. In my class I have the students do a social contract the first few days of school. They make their own set of class rules that are special to their class. During the process of the social contract students will bring up every little thing they can think of that would be an issue. But, as part of the process, we go through and decide if some of the rules might actually be similiar enough to combine or just might mean the same thing. For instance, they may say "Be respectful. Don't talk while teacher is talking. Don't call other's names." etc. We decide as a class if these things all have to do with being respectful. I let them decide. Generally, we are able to bring our list of class rules down to 4 or 5 total. This makes it easier to keep up with but it also clarifies for some students a good definition of respect. After they have developed thier class rules we write it up and everyone signs it including me and agree to hold each other responsible for keeping them. I have a lot less discipline problems when I use a social contract.
I love chapter 5 and all the the stories and ideas of how to get the students to be involved in their own learning. I have taken so many professional development classes on how to motivate students, how to differerentiate my instruction, cooperative learning, etc. I always come away with so many great ideas that I want to implement. The problem is time.
ReplyDeleteI do not seem to have the time to implement many of these ideas or use many of the cooperative learning ideas. I don't know about other subjects but with math the scope and sequence is very rigid. We have a certian amount of topics that have to be covered in a certain amount of time before the state testing and it leaves very little room for anything else. In addition to that we have a district mandated warmup each day that eats up our time. I am not saying that the warmup is not needed or that I don't like it, just saying that this again cuts into the amount of time we have to cover the curriculum.
I have cabinets full of manipulatives and access to a math closet full of them also. But, I rarely have the flexibility in our schedule to use the manipulatives in a meaningful way. When I do try to play a math game or use manipulative, it seems that I just get finished passing it out and giving instructions and 5 minutes later I am having to start collecting them again. Now we will go to shorter periods next year and it will prove even harder to get in these extras that make the math more interesting to the students.
Neal:
ReplyDeleteWell after procrastinating as long as possible I am finally sitting down to post a comment. I decided to post my initial opinion first before reading any of the other posts. I feel as though this book is painting the picture of “our” students. I think that the majority of the teachers at our school have a very good understanding of what an "at risk" child is. Although, I think that our definition of at risk is very different than an at risk student from other schools in our district. I also think that my definition of at risk may be different from others. The hardest part about "at risk" is identifying them. I agree 100% about what it says on pg. 12, "Most classroom teachers have not been trained to identify or remediate special needs students." There is a common misconception about students with special needs. Special needs are not just limited to the label special ed. or 504. I myself have a hard time determining what a child needs even though I have been to several trainings. The fact that students are not made from the same mold and are all very different is what makes meeting the needs so challenging. Like it says, just because a child struggles in one area does not mean they will have difficulties in all areas. Typically the problem area is only in one area. So the question I asked myself is where do I change ME to help better support and teach THEM?
I really enjoyed in chapter 4 when it discussed the idea of connecting to our learners. I think that we as a staff do a great job of connecting with our students. The idea is to make our campus and classrooms safe learning environments, because we can not control what takes place in the hours that they are not in school, but while they are in school, it should be a positive and safe environment. I like to think that my own classroom is safe for my students, one where they feel that it is ok to make mistakes and be wrong and it not be the end of the world. And when they do make mistakes, we work to find the mistake and correct it. I feel that by doing this, I have a better relationship with my students and as the year goes on I am able to read my students attitudes and know just by how they enter the room if they are having a good or bad day, and then knowing how to handle the students behavior in a positive manor in class. I do think that this is where the idea of teaming was good for our campus, like the book stated, the teachers on a team can talk about students and certain behavior or grade trends of a student or group of students and see if the other teachers are seeing the same problems. And as a team they can talk and discuss and come up with strategies that are in the students best interests.
ReplyDeleteBeau Pickett
I struggle with some of the ideas presented in chapter 3 about motivating students. I like to learn new things, and I try to model that to my students. I tell them about new things I learned (even if it's how to use a new app on my phone) and make sure to point out when they teach me about something that I didn't previously know. I also understand that not every person feels that way, and that sometimes it takes more effort to entice someone into learning about a topic that doesn't interest them. If you wanted me to learn how to rebuild a carborator, you'd have to give me a pretty good reason why that knowledge was important. Hoowever, I feel somewhat hesitant to push myself to the extreme to make an education "convenient" to a student when that doesn't model what real life is going to look like. No boss out there in real life is going to change the job description, tasks, or goals to fit what an empoloyee "likes" to do. Now granted, we get to choose our jobs and we tend to lean toward our strengths and interest, but there are parts about every job that we don't enjoy and that we would prefer to do differently than assigned by our boss. If we jump through hoops to make our subject areas tailored to each student and "beg" them to learn, isn't that setting them up for failure when they get into the real world? I do think it's important to make learning fun and I try very hard to make sure that my lessons are engaging and relevant, but in the end they still have to learn the material being presented whether they like it or not. I think that it's more important to let them know how thier success now fits into thier success in the future.
ReplyDeleteBecky Pickett
While I do agree with most of what the book is saying, I think that Becky is making an excellent point. Are we setting them up for failure academically and in their future career? Most of my son's high school teachers are not catering to their individual students wants. They are not concerned if you like or are motivated by one of their assignments. You are just expected to do it. I did not have any college professors that were willing to individualize the curriculum for me. I don’t see very many companies that are concerned if you don’t like a particular task that you are assigned, you just do it. The best we can do is show our students all that is available to them and let them know they are going to have to work hard to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
DeleteH. Hankamer
I also agree with what Becky and Hank are saying. It's engrained into our beings as teacher's that we don't want any kid, at risk or not, to fail. We give our kids so many opportunities to "succeed" by allowing them tons of chances to improve from turning in missing assignments 8 weeks late, when it no longer helps them educationally, to correcting test that if they had studied the first time they would have passed. Are we really teaching them to succeed or showing them how to fail.
DeleteI guess coming from a private school, my classes were set up to get us in college (College Prep classes) and help us to succeed there. I feel like here, I have so many grades just to help "push along" our students because of their lack of motivation,and really all we are doing is setting them up to expect that. That is why they expect it know. My very first year teaching I was not as easy on them. My certification evaluator once told me that I should be teaching in high school or college because of how I had my lessons set up for my students to do the work and not for me to do the work for them. That is what they expect because it is what we are doing. We need to change that so we can better prepare them for their upcoming years.
DeleteFuhrmann
On page 47 it says "to teach the at-risk student is to model for them what is appropriate behavior in a variety of social settings". One things that shocked me when I first started teaching is that, even as a 7th grader, some of these students don't have any idea how to act appropriately in the classroom. I figured that by now they could "do school" because they had been in the system for at least 7 years by the time they set foot in my room. What I finally realized is that each classroom looks different and the expectations are different. What is acceptable in another teacher's classroom may not be acceptable in mine (such as choosing where you sit) or what may be acceptable at home may not be acceptable at school (such as asking repeatedly until you get the response you desire). I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year modeling and discussing appropriate behaviors with my students in order to get desired responses. The ability to behave appropriately is not one that is intrisic and is increasingly becoming one that is not taught directly at home.
ReplyDeleteI also have to teach them how to do my subject area in my room. I have to tell them what they need to do in order to be successful - and show them thier deficiency in order to help them become a better student. I could have three students failing in my room all for different reasons and they all need different interventions. Student #1 could have average tests scores but do no homework. Student #2 could have all of their homework done but have very low test scores. Student #3 could have slightly failing test scores and only 50% of thier homework turned in. Each student needs to be directed down a different path in order to find success. If we keep giving them a general outline to follow then they will never be able to fix their problem becuase they could be focusing on the wrong intervention for thier problem.
Becky Pickett
On page 35 in paragraph two it says, "Many of our students have learned over the years that they will fail, regardless of any effort they may expend." I disagree with this statement. I beleived this to be true when I started teaching. The past four years of talking to the students and trying to figure out why they don't try, I've learned that many of our students believe they will pass "regardless of any effort they may expend." They say this right out.
ReplyDeleteThe "all I have to do is go to summer school" attitude has taken them over. There is an overwhelming sense of defeat when so many of our students are passed along even when they're not ready. Overall, I think the quote on page 36 that's suppose to sum up the author's opinion on this, "If I don't try, I can't fail," is accurate in many cases.
How true! I have found also over the past four years that many of the students feel that they can sit back and do nothing and still go to the next grade. Too many times they have been right! Then when they get to high school they are shocked when they have to repeat the same subject 3 times because they are just given a free pass for it. I don't just blame the schools for this problem, I also blame the parents. I have students that have gone to summer school every single year. As a mother, I never gave my children that option. My rule was that if you couldn't pass during the school year when you had a whole year to learn the material,then I sure wasn't paying for you to try to learn it in a month. When you take out the option, it is amazing how hard they will work.
DeleteAs a teacher, I have very high expectations for my students. I have always felt that if my expectations for every student is very high then most will at least fall into the average area. I tell the students all year that everyday they make the choice whether they are going to pass or not based ont their choices. Every year I have students who make poor choices. But, I also have students who are challenged by my expectations and end the year learning more than they ever thought they could. My thanks is when I see former students who tell me how prepared they felt for Algebra or how well they are doing. I had a teacher tell me recently that two of my current students were telling her how much "math" they have learned this year. That made my day.
In chapter 5, the authors talk about effective sending skills when speaking to others. Two of these skills, I believe, greatly impact the atmosphere of your classroom and the behavioral expectations between student and teacher. The first skill is speaking courteously. It is amazing the response you get when you answer your students with sir or ma’am. Some are taken aback at first, but when they see that this will be the norm, they begin to respond in kind. It is a simple way to let them know that you respect them and care about what they have to say. Another effective social skill, is accepting and taking responsibility for your mistakes. We all make mistakes and it is important as a teacher to acknowledge these mistakes and make every attempt to rectify the problem. The kids will see you as more “human” and help them to see that it is okay to take risks and possibly be wrong. The best lessons are often learned from our own mistakes.
ReplyDeleteH. Hankamer
On page 59 under Maintaining the Dignity of Students it outlines a great way to maintain the dignity of the school by turning attention to positive things that happening in the school.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very difficult thing to do as a teacher, since the bad overshadows the good things happening. It's difficult to find the time to make the positive phone calls.
The idea of making place mats with statistics on positive improvements in the school is a great idea. On page 60 it says that the local media picked up on all the positive things going on because that's all that given out. This changed the perception of the school.
"Expanding recognition programs" is something we definitely need to look into doing. The negative perception of our school is not coming from the outside, it's coming from the inside. If we're sending out the positive, this is what people will see and hopefully in return we will have more positive things happening.
I have never seen the reasons behind students who disrupt the classroom until chapter 5. The strategy table for handling each reason is fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteAs teachers I know we look behind the behavior and come up with our own theories about why they do this, because we talk about with one another on our breaks.
Before the table at the beginning of the section titled Learner Considerations to Ensure Success, it explains that there is a gap between the student and the content and this is what causes the gap between the student and the teacher. It is difficult in math to find ways to relate the material to their lives outside of school and this is how we're going to grab the students who aren't motivated by grades or competitions.
As I read through the book, the idea of teams is still the most powerful group to help at risk students. The four teachers are the constant in their lives and able to begin a relationship with the students. They can plan together to help the students carry information from one subject to another rather than disjointed learning. Some kids see us as the only stable connection in their uprooted lives. Barbara Hasara 26 April 2012
ReplyDeleteTeaming is a great concept and you make some great points about the positives from it. One of the downsides of teaching a non-core class is the fact that my kids come from all teams. It was hard to get the true teaming feel when you are not set up that way.
DeleteJ. Raverty
Knowing the at-risk students' background is not all bad. It can help understand why a student behaves as he/she does. Alterations in time limits could avoid the student's feeling overwhelmed particularly if they take care of younger siblings after school and couldn't stay for tutorials. This shows the teacher is concerned and understands other issues in the student's life. Barbara Hasara
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. In order to be successful in every other career industry that relies on personal relationships, e.g. marketting, sales, public relations, etc., it is essential to understand the people you are dealing with and teaching isn't any different. One of the things I have realized as a first year teacher is the need to build genuine relationships with your students in order to gain their respect, attention and the ability to postively affect their performance within the classroom.
DeleteIt is true...I have struggled with a couple of my students this year, and their parents. Finally after the year has passed and after reading this book, I decided to take a different approach with the one student who just didn't care and wasn't ashamed to say he didn't. Right now he has a 74 or something in my class....this is the HIGHEST score he has ever had in my class and all it took was for me to sit with him and find out his interests and talk with him about it...now he is doing well, high-fives me in the hall and smiles in class while actually doing some work!
DeleteSorry...the one above is Fuhrmann...forgot to put my name!
DeleteThe school culture is discussed in chapter 6. Our school's culture is certainly unique. I love that our kids are different. They bring a fresh excitement and sense of accomplishment in our lives that most people don't get to experience like we do.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are many days where there is no sense of accomplishment and the excitement is just a little too much. We try our best to tailor our attitudes, lessons, speech, and discipline around these particular students.
We do a lot of drawings for the students like the examples in this chapter, but I think we should make them more public. Getting the community (rodeo, radio stations, etc.) to donate to those drawing would be a huge help, then we could televise these drawings. Unfortunately, our class times are already too small so this may be difficult to find the time to do this.
We can't change our culture, but we can change the attitudes and perceptions on our students. This is what we need to be focused on.
Neal says,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what it says about asking the students what we need to do. Their ideas and perception of the school are the best way to see where positive changes need to and can be made. I think that we should give a survey at the end of this year. Ask them what changes they would like to see and what they think that we are doing well with. Then survey again next year at the beginning and ask them what they want to achieve that year. Survey the beginning, middle and end of each grade.
Something else that struck me is from page 33, "important for students to have peers and teachers who care and are rooting for them to have success." I was focusing on the peer part of this. What if we started a "happy" committee for the students? Get together peers that they either vote on or are nominated and have them help us come up with ideas to keep them motivated. Their jobs would also be to come up with ways to support their peers and encourage them. I think that peer tutoring is a good start to having peers supporting each other but I think we can expand on what the students can do for each other.
Neal says,
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 4 on page 53, "Lack of adequate information about a student’s reading or writing ability hampers teachers who attempt to help the students at risk." It says that we rely on standardized test scores to determine a student’s present level of ability. I am sorry but this is not the way to determine a child’s level of success. When I was having to do paperwork for special ed one of the requirements was to actually do a reading test on each student to determine the level at which they can read. What a concept! Most “at risk” students are at risk behaviorally because they cannot read and they do anything they can to keep from having to read or show their weakness. The same goes for math as well. The entire book talks about finding material that is relevant to the students. Focus on things that will be something that they want to learn about. In my opinion if you have a child that struggles, reading is one of those areas that who cares what they are reading as long as they are practicing the skill. I think it would be amazing if we could give a reading test for all general ed students as well and then place these students in classes according to their level. This would take away the feeling of embarrassment and encourage them to want to read and improve. When they show improvement they get to move up and take on more challenging material.
Neal says,
ReplyDelete“Step 5: Establish a connections program where every student in the builing has one adult who knows them, knows them well and cares for them.” Pg 57
This is similar to what we offer with our mentor program but in this particular case it is talking about a more broad scale like a class or group of students that every teacher meets with. I think it would be fantastic to be able to start something at the junior high level like an advisory or homeroom that we see on a regular basis. The high school started cat time. It would be wonderful to have the ability to have a group of students that you are responsible for checking in on and growing with over the year or years.
The students could meet with you once a week minimum. It could be a place to talk about what is happening in their lives as well as what is going on in the school. The teachers could help each student create goals, celebrate accomplishments and a safe place to get help when needed. It would have to have strict guidelines and both the teachers and students would have to understand the expectations for it to work but it could be great. There could be a committee to help with the direction and the initial ideas to get it started and keep it working well.
My husband worked at Kingwood H.S. one year and they did this and it was his job to communicate with each student and see how they were doing. He said the students really responded well to it. My mom teaches at a private school and they have been doing advisories for years. The students stay with you for all 4 years of high school. By the end of the four years the students in the advisory are like a family and use each other as a support system. This entire book talks about reaching the “at risk” students and how to get to know them and know their needs. I think a program like this just might do that.
Neal says,
ReplyDeleteAfter completing the book I took a moment to reflect on what I really got out of reading this. I thought about the number of times that it talked about focusing on the student’s successes. One school in the book made it a requirement to call 2 parents a semester to tell them something good. It seems that I never make the time to let the parents of my awesome kids know that they are in fact awesome and that I am proud to be their teacher. I think that this coming week instead of making phone calls to the children I am having problems with I am going to call the ones that make my day. I am going to send home notes to parents for my kids that are really trying and let them know that I am proud. This book is all about reaching the “at risk” kids but I think next year my goal is not to see the label but see the student. I want to reach all of my students and try from the very beginning to have high expectations. I want to tell them that I know they can do it and then figure out a way to make it happen!
As I read through chapter 5, what really caught my attention was the section about student misbehaviors. I really liked how the book placed them into 4 categories. I know that we all deal with these behaviors on a daily basis and I like how the book defined each one of them, and as I read through the definitions I kept thinking of the different students that I teach now and have taught in the past. I think the part that I liked the best was the chart it provided for each behavior and the different strategies to use depending on the situation. And for each situation it provides several different techniques to use to communicate with the student. I feel that this information is very valuable early in the school year when you have the students who are seeking attention or power in the classroom. And if able to identify it early enough and successfully deal with the students and the behavior we might be able to help the students and they can be a better and more active part of the classroom in a positive way and help them stay in the classroom and out of the office and ISS.
ReplyDeleteBeau Pickett
I agree with the four categories of misbehaviors that listed in chapter 5. When we are trying to teach we sometimes assume that every child is misbehaving just to make our lives difficult, but every student has a different reason for doing the things they do. I particularly liked the quick-reference chart of discipline strategies that can be used to help redirect each type of behavior. Upon reflection I think that most of my students fall into the “attention seeking” or “fear of failure” categories and the suggestions that are given in the book are ones that I have successfully tried or am willing to try in order to help my unsuccessful students be more successful.
ReplyDeleteBecky Pickett
As I finished the book this evening, the one thing that caught my attention was the list of successful interventions in chapter 6. While reading through them I realized that I do several of these in class on a regular basis, but some of them never crossed my mind and they would be so easy to gain good feedback from the students. I liked the survey and interview questions, I think this would be a great practice at the end of each unit and before a test, it allows the students a safe way to identify areas they are struggling with and they can be topics used for review purposes. I have found that students like being read to, even if it is just a poem or passage, but they are still kids and some may not have been read to much at home as a child. I also like the idea of mentors, I think our mentor program could do a lot for our students, I also think the peer tutor program is doing a great job for our students. Students are seeing their peers be successful and it is helping many students, especially those students who do not like to ask the teacher questions, they can ask their classmate, and the peer tutors do a good job of putting the information in their own “kid-speak” language, because they underst
ReplyDeleteand it and can help the students.
Beau Pickett
I also really liked the strategies listed in chapter 5 for helping students learn academically. The author uses several strategies that don’t require content changes. They suggest that structural changes in the way you teach make a difference in the learning outcomes for these at-risk students. I particularly liked the suggestions of Practice, Practice, Practice (having students continue to practice skills in order to make them feel more confident), Keep the action going (having students use dry-erase boards, games, and structured notes that keep them engaged), and Providing Closure (having them sum up the lesson in one or two sentences).
ReplyDeleteBecky Pickett
These are great skills that we should use with all our students. It is funny that this book is geared toward certain students, when we can use these skills with all our students. Of course most of our teachers already do stuff like this. I guess we should be the ones to write these books.
DeleteYou make some great points on chapter 5. Students need to feel confident in order to do there best or too atleast try to do there best.
DeleteAs a first year teacher, I often find myself working with students, and sometimes co-workers, who are disengaged from the activities and situations at hand. Through my observations as I read this book, I realize the reasons can range from stresses at home, boredom, and natural defiance to observing and valuing problems.
ReplyDelete"Teach Me, I Dare You" highlights how to deal with different kinds of resistant people. I thought the most enlightening suggestion made was to discreetly ask the disengaged student how the leader, i.e. the teacher, can help him or her to best learn the concepts or complete the activity. Often as teachers, it's hard to humble ourselves to doing what a child wants for fear of loosing an authority role, however it can be most beneficial with a disengaged student. After all, if the child is engaged and learning, haven't both parties won?
Although for veteran educators "Teach Me, I Dare You" is probably a simplified overview, it was a useful starting place for myself and encouraged me to seek out other resources for reaching and educating disengaged students.
As I read “Teach Me! I Dare You!”, I decided to implement many of the ideas into my classroom and document what action I took and it's purpose or effectiveness.
ReplyDelete1. “Model a mastery approach in all you do.” I began to make concrete descriptions of what was expected everyday. Everything from note taking, to worksheet completion and homework. Although I have a very standard routine in my class, it gave disengaged students the opportunity to “jump on board.”
2. “Minimize comparison between students.” Although I never compare students in class negatively or against one another, I often praise many in hopes that students will learn from one another. Instead of eliminating this practice altogether, I made it a point to praise or positively acknowledge three different students everyday.
3. “Make evaluations in private.” Students who are 'evaluated' or scolded for their performance publicly often shut down and the relationship between student and teacher has been greatly damaged. After making a point to only discuss lack of effort or behavior privately, I noticed a huge turn around in many of my students. It was as if they respected me for helping them “save face.”
4.) “Focus on personal improvement goals.” It is easy as a educator to compare the performance of one student to his or her class, however it became much more encouraging to focus on the individual performances and growth of each student and to praise them accordingly.
5.) “Emphasize the learning value of mistakes.” In our class I stress that although I am the teacher, I am learning everyday as well and therefore will often make mistakes. This has allowed students to accept making mistakes as part of the learning process, therefore they are more apprehensive to give up as they meet obstacles.
6.) “Foster classroom community.” I work to maintain a positive family atmosphere in my classroom so that students understand that we are all learning and growing together. I often have students “pair share” and encourage comfortability to ask pertinent questions throughout a lesson. My hope is that students will engage in subject matter because they have a true sense of belonging to our classroom family and the things we do and learn.
The first thing that catches my eye is the mention of the “two empty seats” at the back table (3). It is so difficult to catch students up with the “teach me, I dare you” attitude, especially in a performance based class. I try to pair them with students that are present often and are able to help go over techniques already taught in a positive manner, in hopes that the daring student is receptive and will learn quickly. It is also hard in any subject where skills build one on top of the other such as science and math. When students are out often they miss so much valuable information that teachers work very hard to re-teach. Now with the change in the way textbooks are issued, it give students a better shot at staying caught up, if they will take advantage of it.
ReplyDelete1.I like how the authors identify other factors to identifying “at-risk” students outside of economic factors and background. Many cases the intelligent, quiet students can easily fall through the cracks and go unnoticed because they aren’t as vocal and exhibit the typical behavior of a student considered to be at risk. As the author states, “teachers do not see passivity and lack of participation as potential risk”(22). These socially awkward students can pose as much of a threat to the student body as others in extreme cases. A former administrator described them as a hidden powder keg waiting for situation or a comment to light the fuse. It is very important that these students are monitored and feel a part of the student population.
ReplyDelete1.It is interesting how students nowadays are motivated in different ways. The same methods that were used to motivate students in the past does not always apply today. As educators we must find ways to fill the need of “what’s in it for me” rather than the old reward and punishment system. Even the simple why questions in classrooms have mutated into “how will this help me” before arriving to the junior high student conclusion that it is not for them at times. As discussed on page 36 of the book, it is becoming more and more important to do activities with students that increase a student’s self-worth and does not allow them to entertain any thoughts that will handicap them in the future. We can intervene with these students in a number of the ways that are discussed in chapter 6 such as a mentor program or other activity that will allow these students the opportunity to open up and talk with someone.
ReplyDelete1.Chapter 4 discusses ways in which we can connect with students who dare us in various ways. The authors mention asking students about their school and what they can do to get plugged in. “Teachers can ask all students how to connect them to the classroom, the material, and the school. The best ideas come from the students themselves” (49). We used this method at a campus I was at before and out of that came a ton of clubs that students got involved with and became more active in the school culture. In orchestra I have used student research projects on composers to inspire them to write their own pieces of music that they can perform if they choose.
ReplyDeleteTable 5.1 on pages 71 and 72 of chapter 5 discusses cooperative discipline strategies for students with a daring attitude based on their behavior. The authors then suggest a general strategy and techniques one can use to minimize the students actions in an attempt to help the students succeed in their learning ventures. There are a couple of small issues with the information I feel. First of all, they do not work for all age groups. That being said, no child is alike, and therefore coming up with a method that works for a particular child is basically trial and error. Though there is a method that will no doubt work for a student, a teacher may run the risk of creating a bigger rift in the student-teacher relationship while seeking solutions to the disruptions.
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ReplyDeleteIn the book, a teaming concept is introduced to identify or manage at risk students. I feel teaming especially in a junior high setting is ideal. It is very difficult to manage students from subject to subject and teacher to teacher. Finding time to meet and discuss students is almost impossible. During the past sixteen years of teaching, I have worked with some very supportive academic teams that have worked for the success of students. We would work on team building activities, academic progress goal setting and incentives for achievement. The teaming success was remarkable. I see it working with certain groups of at risk students on our campus but for some students that feel left out. The book calls this social culture...the norms/expectations of the team sets up structure/stability for the at risk student.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with what Reagan stated about behaviors in grouping students. It is definitely a challenge to continue grouping activities in class when you as a teacher feel…what is going on here? Are the students completing the activity or just find a new social circle to talk about what happened at lunch. If I find time, pre-selecting groups in the perfect world scenario to grouping. As the book mentions, teachers should know the kids that dare us and what talents they have should only benefit the classroom and/or group setting. The book also mentions self-perception and allowing for success through student choice…K. Jackson brought forth a lesson a few years ago, the Pick three or TIC TAC TOE activity. The student(s) individually or grouped can really feel success in this way.
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ReplyDeleteThe author make reference to conducting surveys to get feedback from students. I think this a wonderful idea for any teacher/program. You would be able to compile profiles on each student that perhaps you're monitoring. As a teacher, you would also get a feel for student reactions to class discussion, activities or even tests. I have found students are very honest and informative given a chance to express themselves openly.
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ReplyDeleteThe book suggests that we offer programs for parents to attend...a way of getting the entire family involved. Mrs. Curry and Mr. Kelly's math night offered a great opportunity. The only problem was getting the family up here. The reluctant learners sometimes stems from the reluctant parents...right! The ideas that Livewire offers could also appeal to families. Just an idea.
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ReplyDeleteOverall, the book is a reality check on the truth of education. Do we realize that students are at risk? Do students fall through the cracks? Is communication vital to the success of students? Yes, yes, and yes... As educators, you have to be open, understanding and accessible to all of your students. An educator sometimes needs to make learning “relevant” to the learner and that means teaching the kid NOT the test. Especially in today's society, students just need a safe environment to be a part of and people who will listen. It's hard not to become caught up in some of their lives but if you can make that one connection to a kid...that may be the one it takes to save that child's life.