I was thinking today about how important starting off on the right foot is for students. My daughter is a good student, but she takes it very personally if she has a bad "teacher encounter" early on in a class. We had one such example her sophomore year (and, truly, that teacher did not treat her properly, so her reasons were valid). A teacher did not like the fact that she wasn't thrilled about his science class and put her on the spot about it (oh, let me mention, she made an A in the class). He damaged that relationship to the point of no return within the first two months of school saying that if she didn't "act like she liked this class more" then he "won't help her in the future."
WOW.
I try very much to avoid judging students. But, I think it's important for students to judge themselves. They know themselves way better than we do. So, in looking for resources, I found this self-evaluation and goal-setting sheet from MathGiraffe.com (go to their site to download!).
I love the idea of asking students to self-evaluate before they even begin your class. How did they feel about last year? What were they proud of? What do they need to improve on? And, what are their goals for MY CLASS?
Do you ask students to set goals? I often put on a student information form something like "target grade" for my class. I typically put:
- Straight A (no minus!)
- A range
- B range or higher
- C range
- I just want to pass!
You'd be surprised what students are not "okay" with just something in the A range. They do not want that A- and are discouraged by it. Others are going into your class just expecting to get a C. They don't even aspire to higher than that. And, others simply want to not fail. Some put what THEY want and others put what MOM AND DAD expect.
KNOWING THIS INFORMATION IS GOLD.
You can connect with your students to help them reach their goals and, for some of them, help them realize that they can set higher goals. I encourage you in the fall to take a little time out and have your students set a goal for your class. Perhaps that goal is related to effort, communicating, remembering to log in before the bell rings, not being late, checking grades daily, being open to helping others... sometimes they have to start small. But, come back to this goal and call them to task. If a student puts that they want to "become better at answering essay questions" and they leave a question blank on a test or they write one sentence as a response, you should bring them up to the desk and have a conversation about how this effort is not helping them meet the goal. Instead of griping them out for leaving a question blank, writing in an angry face with your -5 points, or just writing "poor effort," having that conversation related to their goals that THEY set, can help show more of a relationship and concern and less of a judgment.
Good luck!
