As a student now and looking back on my years of Education, I was able to relate to the article: 'Struggling' Adolescents' Engagement in Multimediating: Countering the Institutional Construction of Incompetence" written by David O'Brien on many different levels.
For one reason or another, I never had much confidence in myself when it comes to school and grades. Growing up, I never delt with the pressure of school very well and was always very hard on myself if I did not get good grades. Even though technology is introducing new ways for students to learn, be creative and communicate, many students are still feeling the pressure that I felt for several years.
We need to be constant in reminding each student of their strengths and accomplishments. If we only remind them of what needs to be improved or ways to critque every little thing they do, obviously they will not have good confidence and will begin to hate school. Isn't that the las thing we want for our students? There is so much that every student is capable of doing as an individual and in group work and it is our job to make sure they are aware of all the great things are doing and will be able to accomplish. If students do not feel like they have done their work correct or have not impressed their teacher, they are bound to be discouraged.
O'Brien discusses ways to get students involved and how to boost their confidence when it comes to any task they are asked of in school. Teachers need to be open minded to the fact that not every student is going to be a superb reader or writer but they certainly have the ability to be literate and there are several ways in which we can teach our students to be literate. Any teacher that assumes that a student will fall behind or not succeed because they are a poor reader or writer is extremly wrong. Perhaps they have not open their minds to the flat world?
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3 comments:
Kris - Check out the website for the Ron Clark Story on my blog - this is a teacher who worked in NYC and changed the lives of so many students in his Inner Harlem Elementary School. He used things like card games to teach math - adding the numbers on the cards in a hand of poker to find out their total and a rap song to learn the presidents of the United States. It was a movie on tv over the weekend and a truly remarkable story. Check it out.
Kris,
You touch on the subject of criticism. Same with parents, teachers need to find the fine line between nurturing feelings and challenging them to prosper. By all means you should never put students down but at the same time coddling doesn't do anybody any good. Think about those terrible contestants on American Idol...not that I watch or anything. Some of those people are completely terrible; didn't their parents or vocal coaches tell them they weren't any good? Yet if they did, would it smash their confidence and potentially stop them from doing something that they love?
Teachers need to have the ability to find what their students are proficient at and recognize the areas that are lacking and encourage students to try their best while at the same time embracing the fact that some students are squares in a peg-slotted world. And by that I mean that not everyone is good at everything.
Kris, while of course I agree w/your post's emphasis on supporting students' in discovering and developing their strengths, I am even more interested in your referencing the article specifically where it interests you, surprises you, prompts you to ask certain questions, etc.
In other words, I am interested in having you engage more with this text in this assignment. What did you actually think about the "work" students produced as it's described in this article for example?
What about O'Brien's conclusions?
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