If you read Tuesday's USA Today you might be a bit perplexed as to the state of the American education system. On the front page, the paper blared "School is too easy". On the opinion pages though, its argued that kids "hate math" because they are often pushed into higher classes when not ready. As a person getting a teaching degree I began to wonder, what is a poor teacher to do?
In my classes, teaching candidates are often warned that the experience they had in school is not what other (or possibly most) students get. We're teaching candidates because school was fun, we enjoyed learning, and had great teachers. I understand though that not all students are like this. Some students simply don't like school or don't have the support at home that I was fortunate enough to have.
The article cites three years of data that has kids saying they aren't challenged enough and so they get bored. This is alarming. We want to have kids that feel challenged and are engaged. At the same time though, you don't want the scenario that is portrayed in the opinion article where we push students to a point where they aren't ready and they tune out that way.
This is where you hope differential instruction will make a difference. Teachers targeting students' needs and interests and helping them achieve success. Of course, with classroom sizes getting larger and more teachers getting laid off it gets harder for instructors to tailor make lesson plans for their students.
For me, the money quote is buried near the end of the article:
Florida State University English education professor Shelbie Witte, a former classroom teacher, said standardized tests limit material teachers can cover. "The curriculum is just void of critical thinking, creative thinking," she said. As a result, students are "probably bored, and when they're bored, they think the classes are easy."
Differential instruction is fairly standard now (at least in practice), but how can we have true differential instruction when the students take standardized tests? The fundamentals of math and reading (which is all standardized tests really cover) are important, but only working on them tunes kids out. It would be like doing nothing but a lay-up line at basketball practice. Sure, you need to know how to make the easy shot, but how about running some plays? I'm sure anyone on this site can remember a time that they were bored in class because they were being "taught to the test".
At the same time though, you have to make sure students have those fundamentals down before moving on to bigger and more exciting things. Or else you end up with the problems discussed in the column. Such as...
The experience of T.C. Williams teacher Gary Thomas, a West Point graduate who retired from the Army Corps of Engineers as a colonel, is emblematic of the problem. This year, Thomas had many students placed in his Algebra II class who slid by with D's in Algebra I, failed the state's Algebra I exam and were clueless when it came to the most basic pre-requisites for his course. "They get overwhelmed. Eventually they give up," Thomas says.
The column states that administrators like to boast about numbers of kids taking advanced courses (one would think it would be better to boast of the number of students PASSING advanced classes) and parents who think their child needs to be taking advanced courses when they might not be ready.
So, as I get set (well, in a couple years anyway) to get into an English classroom, how do I deal with this problem. Here's what I HOPE to do....
1) Find out what each student is interested in. There are books and magazines on just about everything. Its important to read certain books and stories, but if a student wants to read about monster trucks, that's fine. As long as he or she can tell me about it and analyze it, that's fine. Allow the students to be themselves.
2) Get parent involvement as much as possible. I'll be with their child an hour a day so they know their child better. I can ask them how much their son or daughter reads, what are they interested in and what they have found works and doesn't work. Then you see how you can relate that into the normal curriculum. If possible, keep up with them through the year. Not all parents will be involved, but when its possible they will be a good resource to have.
3) Constantly learn myself. If I'm not having fun or finding the material to be engaging, it needs to be adjusted. It might be putting in a new book into a novels class one year or taking a look at a newer author.
I think its an interesting problem that teachers are facing. I'd love to hear from any current or former teachers about what they did to keep kids engaged and appropriately challenged.