I just got done teaching a unit to my seniors over Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, and now the students are composing essays before we move into spring break, which by the way, I simply CANNOT wait for. And yes, I did just knowingly end my sentence with a preposition.
Anywho, one student in particular has been showing concern for his grade, which I'm assuming is because his graduation is just over 2 months away. It's amazing to see how much the seniors start caring now that everything really counts. This student has had a high F for over a month but as of today, his total grade in the class is now a 61 percent. I have never seen anyone so excited to have achieved a D in my entire life. You would have thought that he won a car when he saw that little slip of paper on which "61%" was etched in purple ink. I felt happy for him, and I could tell that he was quite ecstatic, too. I communicated my excitement to him and told him that I was happy that he wasn't failing anymore. And then, I stopped and asked myself some questions. Why am I congratulating a student for getting a D when I know he can do so much better? Am I lowering the standards by making him feel that a D is okay? After I congratulated him, I added, "This is good, but you can do so much better. I have no doubt that you can get this up to a C by graduation if you try hard". It's strange for me to think about my personal feelings about the grade of D in comparison to some of my students' feelings. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school and I got a D in chemistry, which was the first and only D I have ever earned. I was absolutely horrified, embarassed, and disappointed in myself. Sometimes it's a challenge for me to understand that for some students, a D is something to celebrate.
In our Adolescent Literacy text, Yvette Jackson and Eric J. Cooper write that in order to build success with underachieving students the teacher must first begin with setting high expectations. My question to my readers is: How can teachers raise the expectations of students, while keeping those expectations at an attainable level? What are your feelings on lower achieving students accomplishing Ds? Is this good, or can they do better? Okay, so I asked more than one question, but I'm looking forward to helpful advice from my peers.
