ELLEN
BERG
Diary #26
The Class That Just Won't Work
"Eight sentences? That's too much to write!"
"You mean we have to read the paragraph to answer the questions? Oh man!" "I'll just take the F." Two tries at a simple quiz. Nine students still fail it. The example and comments above are daily events with one of my four classes. Whatever assignment is given, it is too much, too hard, or too boring, and it is a fight to get completed work from them. Homework? Forget it. As a result, in a class of 25 there are 13 D's and F's.When I first noticed the trend of not turning in work, I spent a lot of time examining what I was doing in the classroom. Was the work too hard? Not challenging enough? Too much? Boring? I felt certain this was a problem I was causing, and I felt sure I would be able to solve it.
I modified assignments, used more active activities, and actively notified parents when students were not completing work. The results? There was improvement with some students, but by and large, most students seemed content to fail.
I talked with my team members and found they were having the same problems with this group of students. All work was deemed too hard, too boring, too long, and too much. We've worked as a team to try to motivate this class, offer support, excite and engage them, but nothing has worked. They are still failing in droves.Could it be their academic makeup? When looking at standardized test scores and reading levels, this class is pretty average. Another room with a higher-than-average number of resource students and low test scores has consistently outperformed them and is usually eager to work. When I am able to get work from this class, it is on the high-average side. It seems this is not a case of can't do but of won't do.
I am stumped
I do not know what else I can do to motivate this group. I keep wondering if they are performing and behaving this way because of the group culture. If Lati were in my high-performing room where students complete homework, ask for more difficult DOL problems, and challenge themselves to go beyond the expectations for any assignment, would she conform to that culture? If Jerry were in that class, would he bloom as a student? Why, in my high-performing class, do I have students whose previous grades and test scores suggest a lack of effort or background knowledge but are now earning A's and B's? As educators we talk a lot about school culture and its effects on staff and student performance. However, I think a particular class's culture may have an even stronger effect on individual performance. While I have long been interested in the research and strategies regarding improving school culture, I have not spent much time investigating it. Research on school culture was something I was looking forward to investigating when I began working on my principal's certification. I felt I had other, more pressing needs that applied to my classroom. But maybe this can't wait.I think the
research on improving school culture may reveal strategies that could
help me with this classful of underachievers. It probably would have helped
our team last year as we worked with a whole grade full of students
with low expectations for themselves. I may not be able to help this particular
class as much as I would like, but I have learned something from the experience,
and I plan to build upon it.
