How my class was structured what worked for me but doesn’t anymore….
I’ve always taught poor kids in academically low areas but I had a run of a few years where I could get them to score in the top 20% overall and top 1% for their socioeconomic background.
I used to preach the growth process and trusting the process. It would be a success if you did it. I would tell the kids, just by trying you’ll get a good grade because I’ll structure the grades in a way that rewards your effort even if you’re having a hard time comprehending.
I would then expose the kids to different ways they could show me their understanding and let them choose how their work.
The kids thought they were getting one over on me because some kids would go the worksheet route, other kids would write poems, other kids would do one pagers.
And basically the teaching was, you have to like one kind of assignment. We did testing strategies and lectures and I would tell the kids that this isn’t fun but tough cookies it’s 30% of our time.
Well the kids worked hard and they celebrated their low grades and then progress and in the end, we had big success.
Now I can’t get them started.
What works now?