So far one of my favorite parts about Regie Routeman is her high expectations of her students. What we believe abouts students will be obvious to them in the expectations that we set. When we set low expectations, students often believe that's all they're capable of. Setting high expectations sends the message that every student is capable of expanding their knowledge. Routeman cited teacher's tendency to set expectations below students' actual ability as a reason for such low achievement in their writing. And I agree. But where do we draw the line? How do we distinguish the line between how much our students are capable of and how much to expect before they become overwhelmed and disengaged?
I know that part of the answer lies in knowing your students. There is a combination of information that is important to know in regards to academic ability as well as how they react emotionally to being pushed to the edge of that level. But clearly finding that line will be an art. As new teachers, how will we know when we've crossed that line?
In working with our Kindergarten buddy, this was a question my partner and I addressed often. Our buddy seemed excited to work with us at first, but as the weeks went on he seemed less and less engaged. We thought we were doing everything right. We really tried to get to know him the first week. We wanted to be able to incorporate as much of his interests into our lessons as possible. His attitude seemed to change somewhere during his initial reading assessment. As soon as he was unsuccessful in one section, he seemed to grow tired of the assessment and of us. In reflecting on his change in attitude, we considered many options. It was possible that the end of the test was tiring for him, or that he had never learned the section on which he was being tested, or quite possible he was just sick of us asking questions.
With these considerations, we opted to make lessons that focused on the areas he was having trouble with. However, week after week, he seemed to shut down. While he seemed to be making progress each week, he never seemed excited to learn with us. We wondered: Was he bored? Did he hate us? Were our expectations too high?
In my own reading of Routman I also question how I will perform in the art of setting appropriate expectations. There are actually numerous similar examples in Routman where I completely agree with her philosophy and am so excited to see it work, and at the same time, question if what she describes will work as effectively for me as it does for her. For example, on p. 89 she says, "Often, if you ignore initial behavior problems, disruptive students will participate appropriately without being told." It would be helpful to know how "often" my "often" is going to be with the students I will work with.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your kindergarten buddy, I wonder if he is suffering from seeing himself as a failure, like Cory in Routman on p. 78. That possibly your buddy's unhappy participation was a result of something to do with reading or writing and absolutely nothing to do with you. Maybe (hopefully), with more time, you would have been able to prove to you buddy that he is a writer with valuable things to say, read, and write, and the ability to say, read, and write them just like Routman says.