School of Hard Knocks
What do you do when nearly all of your class if failing one or two major subjects?
As a new teacher, I am banging my head against the wall trying to answer that very question.
But let me backtrack a bit. In the district where I teach, third grade is not THIRD GRADE. What I'm trying to say is if I taught in a more affluent area, I might have pain in the ass, perfectionist parents, but I'd also have a lot higher test scores.
I think this is due to a combination of a few factors:
1. Many of these kids come from homes where Spanish is the predominant language and therefore, their progress in both written and oral English is slow, and thus hurting them on tests.
2. Some of the parents want to help with the homework, but many of them simply can't because a. they work two jobs or long hours or b. they can't read or understand the homework either.
3. These children shouldn't have been passed onto third grade to begin with. The highest, HIGHEST grade any child in my class had coming into this year was a B. So maybe I'm beating myself up for nothing. Maybe the problem really is that these children keep getting passed on, but are they really learning anything in the process? I work in a school that frowns upon leaving children back and believes in social promotion and No Child Left Behind. But the more I am exposed the repurcussions of this act, the more I see it's negatives, not its positives.
But now I'm faced with a dilemma. I can't flunk them all, but I agonize over passing on students that really can't do some second grade work, let alone third. Meanwhile, I find myself trying to tailor my lessons to meet my students' needs. In reading, I let them use the book during the test. This past week I sent home some of the actual questions that were going to be on the test to study. I even ask ALL of the questions in class while I'm reviewing for the test. Still, as in the case with the most recent reading test, only 4 children passed.
Now I can continue to distill the way I'm teaching a concept, but then you've got to factor in the added pressure of getting the kids up to par for the big NJ Ask that third graders take in the spring. It's a catch-22. If I slow down or take a different approach, more kids might get it, but they still will be at a loss come standardizied test time if they don't get used to that format sooner rather than later.
If at least 75% of my students were in a different district, they would probably be considered below average and they would probably be receiving resource or special education services. But where I teach, there is no additional help in my room other than an intervention teacher who pulls kids out a few times each week, reinforcing skills taught in class.
Of course, then there's reason number 4, that a new teacher has a hard enough time finding his or her way their first year. Now you factor in having students that are not the easiest to teach. I'm no Morgan Freeman in Lean on Me. Hell, I'm not even Mark Harmon in Summer School. I'm just a girl who tries her damndest to teach the students well, but unfortunately, doesn't know what to do next.
As a new teacher, I am banging my head against the wall trying to answer that very question.
But let me backtrack a bit. In the district where I teach, third grade is not THIRD GRADE. What I'm trying to say is if I taught in a more affluent area, I might have pain in the ass, perfectionist parents, but I'd also have a lot higher test scores.
I think this is due to a combination of a few factors:
1. Many of these kids come from homes where Spanish is the predominant language and therefore, their progress in both written and oral English is slow, and thus hurting them on tests.
2. Some of the parents want to help with the homework, but many of them simply can't because a. they work two jobs or long hours or b. they can't read or understand the homework either.
3. These children shouldn't have been passed onto third grade to begin with. The highest, HIGHEST grade any child in my class had coming into this year was a B. So maybe I'm beating myself up for nothing. Maybe the problem really is that these children keep getting passed on, but are they really learning anything in the process? I work in a school that frowns upon leaving children back and believes in social promotion and No Child Left Behind. But the more I am exposed the repurcussions of this act, the more I see it's negatives, not its positives.
But now I'm faced with a dilemma. I can't flunk them all, but I agonize over passing on students that really can't do some second grade work, let alone third. Meanwhile, I find myself trying to tailor my lessons to meet my students' needs. In reading, I let them use the book during the test. This past week I sent home some of the actual questions that were going to be on the test to study. I even ask ALL of the questions in class while I'm reviewing for the test. Still, as in the case with the most recent reading test, only 4 children passed.
Now I can continue to distill the way I'm teaching a concept, but then you've got to factor in the added pressure of getting the kids up to par for the big NJ Ask that third graders take in the spring. It's a catch-22. If I slow down or take a different approach, more kids might get it, but they still will be at a loss come standardizied test time if they don't get used to that format sooner rather than later.
If at least 75% of my students were in a different district, they would probably be considered below average and they would probably be receiving resource or special education services. But where I teach, there is no additional help in my room other than an intervention teacher who pulls kids out a few times each week, reinforcing skills taught in class.
Of course, then there's reason number 4, that a new teacher has a hard enough time finding his or her way their first year. Now you factor in having students that are not the easiest to teach. I'm no Morgan Freeman in Lean on Me. Hell, I'm not even Mark Harmon in Summer School. I'm just a girl who tries her damndest to teach the students well, but unfortunately, doesn't know what to do next.
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