Today, I told my students that their Brief Constructed Responses they had completed for homework were steaming piles of crap, and handed them back. And they were crap. Kids giggled at first at my choice of words, but eventually turned ashen and just listened to me as I harangued. I was pretty proud of the ensuing speech, which included my listing of the 5 (out of 25) students who did a citation correctly on the board, as well as the (different) 5 who had an acceptable thesis statement, even though both are the same thing we've been doing all year.
In the middle of it, I decided to start calling out the kids, which is something else I want to do more of. There's just not enough ignominy (today's word of the day) associated with poor performance in my classes. "William," I said, looking through the kid's pupils. "Can you explain to the class what in the world you are thinking when you just decide to make up your own way of citing information? I mean, what is it that makes you write a 'p' and then a period and then the page number and then the author's full name? It's not like the way we cite has changed any. Author's last name and page number. Nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing else. I'm not sure how many times I have to say it. Can you tell me how many times I have to say it before you get it?"
Luckily I picked only kids who I knew could take this sort of thing, and William sheepishly explained the he wasn't thinking. And laughed. That's one thing about my kids - they almost always own up to what they do wrong. I've gotten no blaming from kids about the 45% who failed the first quarter in my classes. I'm clear about my expectations and fair in my adherance.
I then turned to the bespectacled Karah. Sweet girl, about a "C" student right now, works hard but not hard enough. "Karah," I say eyeing her, then seeing her slink in her seat. "You failed your quiz on XYZ quotation implementation a couple of weeks ago. I told the entire class that if any of them still do not understand how to implement a quotation into writing, that you need to learn it through coming to Coach Class. It is now the middle of November and you do not know XYZ and you have not bothered to attend Coach Class. Your BCR demonstrates to me that you still don't have a clue. Why have you not attended a Coach Class? Why? I don't understand. Are you expecting it to just come to you all of a sudden?"
She said, "I'll be there today, Mr. E." And she was. It worked.
I continued for ten minutes, figuring out new ways to say that the kids basically need to pay more attention to what they are doing because they are the first class to have to pass the state test in reading to graduate high school. If they don't know how to write a freaking BCR, they will be left behind. I was happy with my performance and wished my colleague with whom I share a classroom had been in to watch it.
I'm so exhausted that I'm not sure how I'll be able to get up in the morning. Worked tonight. At least I made mad bank. This is a busy week, with a wiffelball game on Monday, work on Tuesday, Center Stage season tickets on Wednesday (which I'm missing both the Dar Williams 8X10 Show and the Blogger Happy Hour for), and the last dodgeball game on Thursday.
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16 comments:
ah, yes, humiliating students is a surefire way to inspire them. earning their respect is one thing, but making them, not their essays, feel like complete crap is a wonderful way to motivate them to see you for extra help. telling a student exactly what is wrong with his or her essay is vital, but doing so in front of the entire class is just downright inconsiderate. i have read your blog, and your diaryland diary, for a few years, and this entry shocked me because i consider it to be so out of character for you.
I cannot believe that you would reveal a student's grade to the entire class. I am a student a consider grades confidential. If I was that student I would have been livid, and probably immediately asked to leave the class to speak to your supervisor. Revealing a student's mark to the class is disrespectful and completely violates the trust that is vital to a healthy student/teacher relationship.
1st anon: I didn't humiliate any kid. They were laughing. I never made them feel like crap.
2nd anon: I completely disagree that revealing a student grade violates trust. Grades are not confidential. If you would have speaken to a supervisor, she would have informed you that the Supreme Court has ruled that revealing grades is not confidential.
Anonymous #2, would you have been livid if your grade was an A? Probably not. If I was one of the students being called out you can bet I would work a lot harder so that it didn't happen again. Teenagers need to learn to take criticism. Granted, it is harsh to do in front of their peers but obviously they didn't go to Epiph for help so how else was he to get his point across?
I fail to understand how embarassing the student who failed the quiz is going to solve the problem of her not correctly integrating her quotes grammatically. I, and I'm sure a lot of other students, consider grades whether they are good or bad a private matter between my professor, his supervisor, and any other administration. While you are not legally bound to keep them confidential I would hope that out of respect to your student you would uphold that right. You've been out of college for a while, and I think you have forgotten how stressful it is to get a poor great let alone have the entire class know that it happened. I'd also bet that other kids will probably relate the story of what Mr. E did to this student to other kids not in your class and far more kids will know how poorly this girl did than you ever intended. There is an absolute difference between holding a student accountable for her inadequacies and making her bad grades known to the class. Students probably need to be held more accountable. In the school district I grew up in competition was a mainstay. Students would have loved for an incident like this to happen so that they could praise themselves for getting good grades while judging this girl for getting poor ones. I think you are an excellent teacher which is why I am so surprised that you don't see that this incident could have a very negative impact.
For some perspective, my wife was raised in a country where teachers were allowed to PHYSICALLY STRIKE a bad student. I know that's hard to believe, but it was a different country than this one. How did this affect my wife? I married her, so that says something.
The problem with (higher) education, as I see it, is that few Profs are worthy of respect.
As far as public ed goes, I really have no idea how good the teachers are. Epiph seems to be decent, although he STILL hasn't paid for a Tarot reading! I even offered him a free one. That offer expired yesterday. Sorry! You snooze, you lose.
There was a teacher in my high school who would rearrange the seats every week after Friday's quiz. The person who was the caboose always had the lowest grade.
My brother was never a good student and didn't care about studying, ever, ever, ever -- but that teacher, whether it was out of embarrassment or what - changed his school career forever.
To this day, a graduate of a college, he can't thank that teacher enough for giving him some terrific motivation.
Anon:
You have to realize that you have no concept of who my students are, nor the district that I'm in. The kids are not competitive, unlike where you were. You have no idea how this girl felt, nor how her classmates felt. I might not either, but I have a hell of a lot better idea than you do. And my methods worked - she came to coach class.
I didn't just call her out, I called out a lot of kids. And they needed it.
And the fact that you mention the word "professor" makes me think that you're not realizing these kids are 13 and 14 years old. Only a couple care about their grades. They need to care much more than they do. If a little embarassment helps them do it, then that's a good thing. There's a great deal of difference between that and a college student.
I'm not here to make kids feel good. I'm hear to make them learn. Now, I'm one of the nicest teachers a kid will have, and I sort of store up this bank of niceness so that I can get away with saying things like this and not have kids get angry or upset about it. They know I mean it, and I deliver it in ways they can hear it. Sometimes, embarassment is what is called for. If the kids don't pass this test, they do not graduate.
In addition, I totally disagree that grades should be a private manner. So does my district. In fact, I am ordered to post student work. Ordered. Now, I hate that, simply because I don't think it does any good. But the district's policy on revealing grades is clear.
Well that is an interesting method of motivation. I'm thankful I didn't go to school in a district that treated grades in that manner.
It's not meant as motivation. It's meant as some sort of "See what good, average, and bad writing is." It's about look-for's, which are the things that a member of administration wants to be able to see because they're too overworked or lazy to stay long enough in your room to see if you're actually a good teacher or not.
I have a hard time sorting out the anons, but if you're anonymous 2, I guess I'm glad that I didn't go to a school that treated grades with all the seriousness and competitiveness as yours did.
Why don't you stand behind your comments, by the way?
Epiphany....I can't believe you're bragging about calling out students in class. Even if a student did admit to doing a poor job or appeared to laugh it off I wouldn't be surprised if years later he or she still remembers that humiliating feeling. In my experience that doesn't make someone work harder it just makes them dislike you and the class. As a "good" student I can clearly remember teachers that would do these kind of things to others in a classroom and I was horrified by the behavior and came to dislike the teacher even if they weren't personally attacking me.
While there are those who simply aren't trying there are others who truly struggle with their work and need attention and encouragement. Perhaps they have ADD (yes, the real, clinical diagnosis) or are being raised in a chaotic home. Or who knows what. I just feel very sad knowing that instead of an inspired, positive atmosphere there are now students entering your classroom filled with fear and anxiety. I really like your journal and your writing but had to comment when I read this recent entry.
I stand behind my comments,I am anon 2, and my name is Andrea, I sent you something off your wishlist this summer.
There is a way to give examples of good and bad writing without embarassing a student. Make transparencies of the writing, block out the students name, and ask the students to tell you what is good or bad about what the student did. The student with the poor writing will learn what she did wrong from yourself and more importantly her peers without being humiliated.
This is your journal and it is an entity entirely you own. I don't know you and certainly have no right to pass judgment. I was just saddened by what you wrote yesterday.
Agalai:
It's too bad you feel that students are now entering the room with anxiety, because it's simply not the case. Maybe you should examine your judgmental attitude about something where you simply weren't there, and have no idea about the tone of my remarks nor the tone of my classroom. Students "filled with fear and anxiety"? Please. Not only are you being way overdramatic, you very simply have no clue.
Andrea:
I do what you're describing all the time (although doing it with transparencies is an impossibility at my school, without a transparency nor a transparency maker). And believe me, the student is put through a lot more shame that way. Kids are much, much meaner with their comments than I ever could be. Why in the world would you think this way is not humiliating? I mean, I do it, too, but that is something I would be much more embarassed about, and know from my experience that the kids' ignominy is greater with that experience.
I reiterate: The girl didn't come to coach class until I called her out on it. It worked. She and I are fine. She thanked me for it. You all need to relax.
Ephiph if its working for you more power too you. maybe I was raised in a too "pc" district, where everyone walks on eggshells about the feelings of the students or parents. As long as you are able to reach this girl, then you've done exactly what you've set out to do.
- Andrea
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