I guess if failure was not an option, there should be protocols in place for students that are not performing to task. Being required to stay afterschool to do their work with the teacher if they are not passing a class, for example. I wonder what success the after school program has had in increased student success? I wonder, too, how failure is not an option when there are two parties involved and one simply does not want to work - when the reality is that failure is an option - a choice that the student makes whenever they don't do their work. I don't think we have many students who are failing due to poor skills, it is the students who simply don't do anything that we struggle with. Do I think my 8th grade AIS kids would do more work if there were different assignments, more time? No. They do perform better when I sit, literally, right next to them and walk them through every step and every sentence and every problem. But what is truly achieved at that point? Have they done the task? Yes - but have they learned the character building skills and independence that HS and life require? I don't think so.
A far as the books go, perhaps as a department we need to realign - 9th and 10th should be more global literature: Siddhartha, The Kite Runner, The Good Earth, et cetera, plus a greater focus on non-fiction components. But then we need to consider where Shakepeare fits in to the scheme of things. Do we need to spend 5-6 weeks on 16th century Verona, Cyprus, Scotland, et cetera 2 or 3 times in a kid's career if we are concerned with historical alignment?
If we structure our curriculums around the concepts of revolutions, tyrany, imperialism, religion, and the like, even bringing a greater focus on visual literacy and utilizing some historically relevant films as support, it may satisfy all of our needs and be advantageous for us all.
I completely agree with Brittany. Teaching the applied classes, I am well aware that failure can be and is a CHOICE for some students. We, as teachers, beat ourselves up over failures and students with low skills, but when do the students ever accept accountability? At the high school level, we need to make sure that we are shaping self-motivated, self-monitored, self-reflective learners. There needs to be accountability, and it needs to rest with the student. However, I do think that there are MANY things that we can do to externally motivate students to achieve as we are shaping the self-centered learner.
ReplyDeleteI think first and foremost the culture of the building needs to change. EVERY teacher and staff member needs to work together to change the culture of the school. Academics needs to take priority over everything else. There has been a lot of progress made in the past three years working to create a better environment for students. We need to promote cardinal pride, build character education into everything we do and make students aware of the great things that are happening and have specific, smaller goals to help us progress even further. We need to make sure that students are using the library for the purpose of learning and not socializing. We need to make sure students in study halls are actually working. If they don't have something to work on, we should have skill building exercises available that they have to do. If they are made to complete reading/writing activities if they bring nothing to study hall, I imagine they will soon start bringing enough work to keep busy. I too see value in the after school program being mandatory for students who are failing our classes. However, to really be successful, all teachers will have to stay until 3:30 when the late bus runs, or the schedule will need to be arranged to fit an extra period in at the end of the day. This has complications in regards to teaching contracts and athletics, however, there is much more strength and validity in the program if the student is actually working with his/her own content teachers. I also think that as a district we need to revisit academic probation. If a student is on the freeze list, he/she should not participate in any athletics or clubs, PERIOD. Greater communication with parents may also aide in the creation of self-directed learners. I am optimistic that the opening of our gradebooks for parents will help. I think the creation of the tutoring center has been a positive thing in regards to making failure obsolete, but I think we could even utilize that better to meet our desired outcomes.
I also agree with the idea of rethinking our current curriculum and better matching it cross-curricularly. Supporting other content areas within our curriculum has enormous benefits for everyone. Once curriculum mapper is up and running, it will be so much easier to align our content/curriculum.
Certainly, failure is an option for some. However, I think there are numerous things that we can do to make it more difficult for students to ACCEPT failure as an option.