Many of our students are failing and we are pushing many of them through the system, but this is not a diagnosis. It is merely a symptom, and doctors do not treat symptoms. If we did, we would be chasing our tails all day long. And that is what teachers are doing – treating symptoms. As both Georgia, Dr. Brien and so many others have accurately stated, we, “assessment and re-teaching meetings, try to be mindful of various learning styles, different backgrounds, different experiences, different beliefs, different ways of explaining our thoughts, and different styles of expression,” and so on and so on… But these are the symptoms (or just pieces of life that we all posses, yet can never be truly good or bad) while the diagnosis, the cause, the “etiology” of all of our school problems is never stated, wrestled to the ground and dealt with. It is the elephant in the room.
My diagnoses (two of them) are “chronic studypenia” (a severe deficiency of studying), and daily “acute studyphobia” (a persistent fear of studying in which the student commits to great lengths in avoiding, disproportional to the actual discomfort to be realized from reading or doing homework, which is often seen as quite irrational.
The treatment? It is three-fold: a) Increased “buy in” for the students through goal setting, trending, time management, prioritization and creation of action steps to increase productivity and b) greater parental involvement (yes, even on the high school level) through the use of highly effective electronic gradebooks that utilize e-mail and texts to convey everything we want to say to parents, but cannot possibly do so with only 24 hours/day. Behavior ‘blasts’, notification of missing HW, lateness, improvement, due dates for HW, labs, projects can all be done using a great electronic gradebook. Yes, there is a learning curve, but the better ones, like JupiterEd, make even that relatively simple. And finally c) Students must study. This is accomplished only through the use of both a & b. Show kids and parents where they stand, maintain a high level of parental contact and they will improve.
Did anyone notice I didn’t mention formulating the most glorious and engaging lesson plan, differentiating for every learning level known to mankind, scaffolding to reach the 94th floor of the Freedom Tower or making every allowance possible for a student to hand in late or sub-par work? It is because these approaches are treating the symptoms, not dealing with the cause of the problem.
Are there exceptions? Of course, and I know that John will bring them up (entire “classes” of grade 9 students unable to write a sentence of any kind – perhaps a bit hyperbolic), but the vast majority of our students can learn quite well and will begin to flourish once these steps are implemented and the diseases – “studypenia” and “studyphobia” begin to be treated effectively. The floor is open to discussion.