Instead of expecting a wide array of students to fit a model, maybe it’s way past time to expect the model to fit the wide array of students. If there is to be coast to coast consistency and collaboration in K-12 education, maybe it should coalesce around updated, common sense methods tailored and designed specifically to address the precise needs of that wide range of students. Maybe it’s time to trade the trends for lasting, common sense teaching approaches that reach and teach all students.
Teach Kids How to Be Students
Many people believe that the big problem with K-12 schools is that too many youngsters are misbehaved, unmotivated or under-achieving. It’s hard to argue with that assertion. Walk into almost any school, and it doesn’t take too long to find youngsters who don’t look, act or sound like students. Even though most of us can agree that misconduct, apathy, and under-achieving are key problems in K-12 education, most schools never directly tackle that reality. Even though virtually all schools have a carefully detailed curriculum for teaching academics, few schools have a formal, written-down game plan to train kids how to be successful, motivated, prepared students — then we wonder why so many youngsters struggle, fail or under-achieve.
If students are really struggling to learn long division, most teachers will assess if the youngsters have the basic skills needed to master long division, double-checking skills like addition and subtraction, for example. When children are not performing the job of student, we don’t use the same logic, and identify and repair any gaps that exist. Instead, we inexplicably continue to ask children to perform skills they may never have been taught. We would not continue to ask children to learn long division once we became aware they had never mastered addition. We’d stop and remedy that first. Somehow, that logic is never applied to missing school skills.
With no curriculum in place to ensure that school skills are taught, it should be no surprise that so many students have difficulty arriving on time, focusing, participating and doing the work that’s expected. Until you teach youngsters addition and subtraction, they’ll never master long division. Until we systematically and comprehensively teach school skills — attendance, punctuality, motivation, how to participate in class discussions, respect for teachers, homework management, and how to focus — many youngsters will never master being students.
Even though many teachers take it upon themselves to remedy gaps in children’s training to be students, those efforts can’t compensate for what is essentially a random, non-system of non-instruction. The child can’t swim because no one has taught the child to be a swimmer. The child can’t succeed in school because no one has taught the child to be a student.
How to Transform Kids Into Students
Visit my Web site for a free curriculum and worksheet sample.
Since so much of teacher training is dominated by testing and content, many educators may not have had the chance to review a school skills curriculum. The sample curriculum shows how to teach youngsters to be successful, prepared, motivated students — who know how to appreciate, learn and be tested on academic content. There is no simple, one-size-fits-all example, because each district, school or teacher should craft their own curriculum to fit their students’ unique needs. However, your plan could include skills like these:
- Attendance,
- Punctuality
- Attitude, Respect
- Personal space
- Homework management
- Avoiding work refusal
- Class discussion behavior
- Hallway and bathroom behavior,
- Interacting with peers
- How to take tests
- How to maintain focus
- Motivation
Download the curriculum and worksheet at http://youthchg.com/strategies.html.