Never Work Harder Than
Your Students & Other Principles
of Great Teaching
Jackson, Robyn R. (2009). Never Work Harder Than Your Students &
Other Principles of Great Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Principle 2: Know where your students are going
Principle 3: Expect your students to get there
(Chapter 3 – pp. 77-101)
- It is important to have high expectations for our students. Expectations are different from standards. The standard is the bar and the expectation is our belief about whether students will ever reach the bar.
- Expectations are based on our beliefs and values. We can only have high expectations of our students if we believe it is possible to help our students and if we believe that it is important to do so.
- We also need to examine our expectations of ourselves. If we believe that we can reach a student we do everything that we can to ensure that the student is successful. However, if we tell ourselves that there is no way to help a student, we stop trying. If we are not confident in our ability to help students, we lower our expectations to goals that we feel we can comfortably achieve.
- It can be disheartening when students arrive in our classes without the basic skills that they need to succeed but instead of focusing on what the students can’t do, develop ways that you can teach them the skills they need as well as get through the curriculum.
Try this
idea:
- Use these three questions (Dufour, Eaker & Dufour, 2005) to develop a plan you can use to be successful with your students. 1. What is it I want students to learn? 2. How will I know when they have learned it? 3. How will I respond when a student experiences difficulty learning?
Adopt
faith in yourself and the importance of your work
- We need to give ourselves time to periodically reflect on our practice and remind ourselves why we went into teaching and what we see as our fundamental role in our students’ lives. We must also be alert for times when our practice contradicts our values (Are we modelling the behaviour that we expect from students? Do we plan lessons that we know won’t challenge our students enough because challenging then more will take more work? …)
- Insist that students complete every assignment. If you really believe that the assignment was worth setting then it is worth completing. The consequence for not completing work or not completing it well should be that students have to spend more time getting it right. Do not offer the students the reprieve of a poor grade. Build time into the school day(during lunch, interval etc.) to work with students who do not complete their work and do not let students get away with sloppy or shoddy work.
- Teachers do not and cannot have all the answers. We need to be reflective about our own strengths and limitations as a teacher; talk to our students and try to understand their perspectives; examine student data to look for patterns and trends and be open to more than one interpretation without placing blame on our students or ourselves.
- There are four important questions to ask:
- What are my current skills and teaching strategies?
- What are the requirements and the constraints on the teaching task at hand?
- Are my current skills and strategies sufficient for the teaching task at hand?
- If not, what can I do about it?
Asking for help isn't easy for some students Chicago Tribune
Research from the University of
Pennsylvania suggests that students' ability to speak up for themselves and
seek help from a teacher often varies by socioeconomic status. Researchers
tracked 60 students from 3rd through 5th grade beginning
in 2008. Jessica McCrory Calarco, lead researcher, visited students' homes,
interviewed their parents, and grouped them as middle class (at least one
parent had a college degree and a professional career) and working class (most
parents graduated high school and worked in service jobs). While observing
students in class every week, she discovered that middle-class students already
knew how to ask questions and therefore spent less time waiting for help, while
many working-class students had to learn those skills from their teachers and
peers. Calarco believes this insight has implications beyond one assignment.
"We tend to assume that once you put kids in school, what they get there
will help them overcome any differences they bring with them. But what this
shows is...children have a meaningful impact on the way schooling is happening
and what they are able to get out of it," she said.
High school social studies teacher Rich McKinney left instructional
spoon-feeding behind after he learned how students could use empathy to
more deeply connect with and understand the lives of those they read
about.
Make Standards Engaging Bryan Goodwin
Bryan Goodwin's article
addresses student motivation and what teachers and schools can do to improve
it. One study that Goodwin cites shows that extrinsic rewards like money have
no positive effect on student motivation and can even diminish their intrinsic
motivation, making activities less enjoyable. In another study, for example,
researchers rewarded young children for drawing pictures, but then the children
became less likely to spend their free time drawing. Another study found that
students develop their talents over the long haul when they are both
intrinsically and extrinsically motivated----combining
enjoyment of their studies with "serious goal-directness." Goodwin
concludes that to achieve that combination, teachers can create lessons that
are balanced between structure and autonomy but still communicate clear
expectations for their students. Teachers can also model passion by showing
students that their subject (e.g., mathematics, English, art) is worthy of a
long-term pursuit.
Helping Children with Learning Disabilities Understand What They Read
Read more for information about how to
use visual organizers, hooks such as hand gestures, and mnemonics to
help your students with homework.
