Department Underachievement KEYNOTE 6 th Form Conference June 2011.
Underachievement handout ct
3
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com Gifted children are going to be just fine on their own. LEARN HOW TO HELP THE ERIC IN YOUR CLASS REVERSE THE TREND MYTH: Gifted children are the “good kids.” They already know the material, so they don’t need anything from school. Eric is 16. He can frequently be found skulking around the outer perimeter of his school with a cigarette in hand when he should be in class. He barely passes his classes, and has no plans of going to college. In fact, he’s thinking of dropping out of high school. When he buys drugs, he doesn’t need a calculator to figure out what he owes. When he bothers to show up for tests, he gets almost all the answers right even though he didn’t study. He is quick to point out teachers’ mistakes and mutters disrespectful comments under his breath. His charismatic personality means he can quickly draw other students into his misbehavior. Eric has an IQ of 145. When he was in first grade, he wanted to do well—and it wasn’t a difficult goal. Because everything was too easy for him, he never learned how to study or persevere through challenges, and so when he encountered something he didn’t know how to do, he lacked the skills to meet the challenge. He also grew to think of school as a place where his ideas weren’t valued. He was scolded for skipping ahead in his workbook and his friends thought he was weird for wanting to talk about exoplanets. Eric attends a top-rated school. His teachers work hard to make sure every child is proficient in the material studied. They genuinely care about their kids. You became a teacher because you care. You want the best for all of your students. Why should I care? When faced with drills and repetition of material they have already mastered, gifted students experience: 2 • stunted progress • avoidance of risk • underachievement • stress and failure • social & behavioral • low self-esteem • depression maladjustments No one teacher will single- handedly solve this problem. But you can make little swaps that go a LONG way towards preventing underachievement! INSTEAD OF: Sending students to help classmates when they finish early TRY: Having students create challenging problems for you, classmates, or older students. INSTEAD OF: Asking students to wait quietly while others think through problems TRY: Challenging them to think of as many ways as possible to solve a problem while others are thinking. INSTEAD OF: Having students who finish writing a poem early write a new one TRY: Helping them improve upon what they’ve already done. No Child Left Behind? Agree Disagree Not Sure 1% 73% 26% not ^ 73% of teachers nationwide agree: “Too often, the brightest students are bored and under- challenged in school.” 1 BE THE CHANGE!
-
Upload
cassandratrujillo -
Category
Education
-
view
312 -
download
0
Transcript of Underachievement handout ct
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com
Gifted children are going to be just fine on their own.
LEARN HOW TO HELP THE ERIC IN YOUR CLASS REVERSE THE TREND
MYTH: Gifted children are the “good kids.” They already know the material, so they don’t need anything from school.
Eric is 16. He can frequently be found skulking around the outer perimeter of his school with a cigarette in hand when he should be in class. He barely passes his classes, and has no plans of going to college. In fact, he’s thinking of dropping out of high school.
When he buys drugs, he doesn’t need a calculator to figure out what he owes. When he bothers to show up for tests, he gets almost all the answers right even though he didn’t study. He is quick to point out teachers’ mistakes and mutters disrespectful comments under his breath. His charismatic personality means he can quickly draw other students into his misbehavior.
Eric has an IQ of 145. When he was in first grade, he wanted to do well—and it wasn’t a difficult goal. Because everything was too easy for him, he never learned how to study or persevere through challenges, and so when he encountered something he didn’t know how to do, he lacked the skills to meet the challenge.
He also grew to think of school as a place where his ideas weren’t valued. He was scolded for skipping ahead in his workbook and his friends thought he was weird for wanting to talk about exoplanets.
Eric attends a top-rated school. His teachers work hard to make sure every child is proficient in the material studied. They genuinely care about their kids.
You became a teacher because you care. You want the best for all of your students.
Why should I care?
When faced with dril ls and repetition of material they have already mastered, gifted students experience:2
• stunted progress • avoidance of risk • underachievement • stress and failure • social & behavioral • low self-esteem • depression maladjustments
No one teacher will single-handedly solve this problem.
But you can make little swaps that go a LONG way towards preventing underachievement!
INSTEAD OF: Sending students to help classmates when they finish early TRY: Having students create challenging problems for you, classmates, or older students.
INSTEAD OF: Asking students to wait quietly while others think through problems TRY: Challenging them to think of as many ways as possible to solve a problem while others are thinking.
INSTEAD OF: Having students who finish writing a poem early write a new one TRY: Helping them improve upon what they’ve already done.
No Child Left
Behind?
Agree
Disagree
Not Sure
1%
73%
26%
not ^
73% of teachers nationwide agree: “Too often, the brightest students are bored and under-challenged in school.”1
BE THE CHANGE!
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com
EVERY CHILD DESERVES THE RIGHT TO LEARN IN SCHOOL.
Underachievement (n): a severe discrepancy between expected achievement (as measured by standardized test scores or cognitive ability assessments) and actual achievement (as measured by class grades and teacher evaluations)3
The Path to Underachievement4
Boredom Because of this lack of
challenge in early grades, gifted students don’t
develop study skills, so as they get older and work
gets harder, they are unprepared to meet
the challenge.
Lack of Study Skills
Low Self-Esteem
When work gets harder, students initially increase
their efforts. If this does not quickly lead to success,
students begin to “devalue their own efforts” and
underachieve.
Reversing Underachievement Research5 shows that students who reversed their under-achievement did so by: • improving their self-concept • understanding the causes • increasing their self-confidence behind their underachievement • discovering intrinsic satisfaction • developing study skills from schoolwork These three factors were imperative to the reversal:
An out-of-school hobby that provides: • an escape from unfavorable school situations • feelings of self-worth and success in the face of academic failure • a way to foster love of learning and independent learning • a practical application for scholastic achievement
A teacher who: • students believe cares about and likes them • speaks to students as equals • is willing to discuss students’ personal lives • exhibits a love for the subject and learning • encourages student participation • holds students to high but realistic standards • uses a variety of strategies and resources
A class that: • provides a challenge by going just over the students’ heads academically • allows students to move at their own pace and work independently on topics of their own choosing • incorporates interactive, discussion-based elements • involves material that can be practically applied to real life
WHAT YOU CAN DO
To prevent and reverse underachievement:
• Hold students to high, explicitly-stated expectations
• Keep students engaged and challenged by allowing them to work on independent projects based on individual interests.
• Provide resources for learning study skills.
• Take interest in all areas of your students’ lives.
• Use evaluation methods that emphasize progress towards mastery instead of performance or results. It is difficult to identify under-achieving gifted students. (Think back to Eric. Did he fit with your idea of gifted?) Luckily, these practices are best practices for all children. By incorporating them into your classroom, you can ensure that every student’s needs are being met.
Underachievers often begin underachieving
when they feel bored because of the
curriculum is not challenging enough.
© Cassandra Trujillo, 2013. www.GiftedKidsMatterToo.blogspot.com
Research Sources
1. Farkas, S. & Duffett, A. (2008). Part II: Results from a national teacher survey. In Thomas B. Fordham Institute (Ed.), High-achieving students in the era of NCLB (pp. 49-82). Retrieved from: www.edexcellence.net
2. Rogers, K. B. (2007). Lessons learned about educating the gifted and talented: A synthesis of the research on educational practice. Gifted Child Quarterly, 51(4), 382-396.
3. Reis, S. M., & McCoach, D. B. (2000). The underachievement of gifted students: what do we know and where
do we go? Gifted Child Quarterly, 44(3), 152-170.
4. Reis, S. M., Hebert, T. P., Diaz, E. P., Maxfield, L. R., & Ratley, M. E. (1995). Case studies of talented students who achieve and underachieve in an urban high school (Research Monograph 95120). Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented.
5. Emerick, L. J. (1992). Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students' perceptions of factors that
reverse the pattern. Gifted Child Quarterly, 36(3), 140-146; Renzulli, J. S., & Park, S. (2000). Gifted dropouts: The who and the why. Gifted Child Quarterly, 44, 261-271.
