As I plan for a new year, a new class, a new evaluation system and a new CCSS curriculum, I am faced with the question of How Do I Make All of This NEWNESS Work?
First I need to consider how to successfully meet the needs of my students. Part of the new evaluation system requires that I create Student Learning Goals for my students. Establishing ambitious goals provides everyone with a clear vision for student learning. These measurable student learning goals, established at the beginning of the year, represents what each student should be able to accomplish. Value-added data will be used for the student growth component of the Compass evaluation, a student learning goal provides all teachers with a tangible, end point, that when achieved, should correspond to strong value-added results. Here is an example of our Student Learning Target Form for those of you who are unfamiliar with it
We use this form to create the learning targets. We set a goal by first identifying an Assessment that will be used for Pre and Post testing to establish and test growth and then we determine achievement ranges.
As an educated person, I know that not all of my students will be successful and they will not accomplish their goals. I know that I will not reach all of my students and some of them will fall short of their goals:
The Engaged Learners = 25% of the class. They will be ok, always – These students find the classwork sufficiently challenging and believe that they will accomplish something of worth by doing it.
The Ritually and Strategically Compliant Learners = 50% of the class. They need assistance and then they too will be ok. Some will learn at high levels but many of them will have a superficial grasp of what they learn.
The Rebels or Retreatists = 25% of the class. They will not meet their goals. They do not participate, and therefore learn little or nothing from the task or activity assigned.
Why can’t everyone be successful? Every child should be successful if we change the direction of instruction to meet their needs but there are many factors that go into a child’s learning. Flipping our class and changing our lessons/activities does not mean that everything will fall into place for every student. As I work on ways to include CCSS resources in my classes, I know that I have to include more opportunities for the students to deconstruct text and fully analyze it. This will help many students but not all.
Many of my students have struggled year after year and have become very good at it. They have never turned in homework, are always late with work, and never volunteer or participate in class. No matter what we do, there are a couple of students each year, that have something standing in their way of success among the other 25% of the class that year. Low self-esteem, home life, learning disabilities or trouble with peers, all play a part in their daily struggle.
It is not always hopeless, sometimes we can break through those struggles, see light and make some difference, but will the teacher they get next year and the year after be able to do the same? How do we really help the ones that need some kind of alternate learning opportunities? Are pre-GED facilities the answer? Virtual Schools? A combination of both? Here is Louisiana we are being asked to offer more Advanced Placement classes, ACT opportunities to all Juniors and raise our student expectations by increasing the rigor in our classes. Will that help the bottom 25%? No it won’t. So what happens to them if we are unable to break through the clouds of failure and let in rays of success? How do we do we encourage them to do their best?
I don’t’ know the answer but I do know that we have to work out a better system than the ones exist now or we need a better combination of the ones that exist now. We have left soooo many students behind that it is extremely sad.
