After a class yesterday, as I reflected before the next set of students came into my room, I realized that I had spent much of the entire period explaining things at the literal level in the story the class was supposed to have read. This is something that I hope in general to not have to do. Later I wondered if I coddled them too much. Are my expectations high enough? Do I hold them to these expectations forcefully enough?
The students, of course, think I'm too hard on them. But sometimes I wonder. I've heard it said that a small school like ours can't adequately prepare students for college. I disagree, and can hold up any number successful college students that came from our school. On the other hand, there are a number of students that begin but do not finish college too. While college isn't, nor should it be, the only reason for a high school to exist, the skills necessary to succeed in college are the same that are necessary to succeed in life.
Why did we have to explain so much of the text to that class? Was the text too difficult? I don't think so. There are extremely bright students in that class. Is it just a boring story? I know I'm biased, but I don't think so. A man is leaving his wife at sunset despite her protestations to go on a journey that he must undertake that particular night. He meets the devil in the woods. Would it have made a difference if they would have had to write a summary, reflection, or anything else about the story? Maybe, or it may have just made more students turn to sparknotes.
I think a lot of it has to do with the mindset of the students. I think students are used to and very comfortable being the gadget but need to become the patient taking more responsibility for their learning. A question I like to ask students when they are having trouble with a math concept is "Did you look it up on youtube?" The look I get is the same as when I tell a student that they could buy a book for a class project: incredulity.
The mindset of the student is different in college (at least from my perspective it was). I expected classes to be hard and a lot of work. I looked forward to the weekends and holiday breaks because they offered a lot of time to work on big assignments. I expected to buy books for classes. I expected to have a journal, a group presentation, and a longer paper for every lit class I took--and those journals were a pain. In American Lit 2, we had to write a column about every single work we read for each class, and some classes we read upwards of 10-15 poems.
How much different would high school be if students were expected to and held accountable for having a more serious mindset? If my students expected to come to class every day having read the assignment and formed an opinion on it and knew that their grade would suffer if they didn't, would it avoid situations like yesterday? Are grades alone even enough of a motivator? If they knew and were used to being required to turn homework in on time or not at all, would more students have had their paper done to turn in today? Or would a lot more students fail? Three hours of English homework every night would be a bit ridiculous, though. Where is the balance?
Really interesting questions. Sounds to me like you are talking about creating both academic and cultural change. I think the key is not only setting higher expectations but getting students to buy in to those expectations. What's in it for them? A question that does not have a standardized answer. So, as a teacher, how can you make them WANT to reach beyond their current achievement?
ReplyDelete"All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves."-Emma Goldman
ReplyDeletePersonally I have a hard time paying attention in any class unless I'm interested in what we are talking about... thats why I was terrible at math class. If we are talking about something that is boring or dense its hard to retain, or even force my self to read. We read the story you mentioned and it was mean't to teach us about some kind of lesson, but like you pointed out it was so boring no one read the whole thing and what they did read no one retained. If the lessons if it was shown in another, more fun way I feel students would perform better. For an example I really like the show scrubs because theres alot of comedy and jokes, but at points throughout the show it points out different life lessons, that can apply to everyone. I think about the things I see and hear from this story more then some long drawn out, dry, story in our english book.