"Students can accomplish amazing things when faced with high expectations and instructional supports - the two go hand-in-hand. Raising academic rigor will only result in more failure if students are not provided with the support to achieve at high levels. Teachers must overcome the tendency to teach to the level of the lowest-performing students and, instead, teach to a high level and help all students reach that level through differentiated opportunities to learn."
Dr. Nancy Sulla - Students Taking Charge
Watch this video to see one way that High Academic Standards can be achieved.
Reflection Questions:
How do you set high expectations for all of your students?
What are your most effective strategies for helping students meet the high expectations you set for them?
The music I choose for the high school band is always on the "higher end" of difficulty. By modifying some of the difficult runs and passages, students participate at 100% at their current level of skill. We continually add material back into the runs and passages as their skills are strengthened.
ReplyDeleteI am the last chance for these students to mature and learn the necessary skills and behaviors they will need to live productive lives and be functioning community members. So i always keep the bar extremely high in my classroom. My students often come to me having been enabled and infantilized for most of their lives. Many people often feel "sorry" for my students. I on the other hand want to celebrate every little accomplishment and challenge them to work hard and learn who they are as people. They need to understand their disability, make accomodations for what they might not be able to do and work hard to lean new skills each day.
ReplyDeleteEncouragement, support and guidance help my students make choices and decisions and understand consequences for inapporpiate behaviors and choices.
I try to choose texts and supplemental readings that are challenging to students in either language or content. For students who have difficulty, modifications are provided to help make the materials accessible. Class discussions are based on higher critical thinking questions. Socratic discussions also provide one way to engage students in critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteI try to build on their knowledge by briefling starting with concrete materials and gradually working to more abstract concepts. Reflective or practitional writing assignments help to assess their understanding of concepts taught.
With every assignment there is an expectation that the students must meet specific core criteria for that project and students must utilize whatever supports needed in order to meet and/or exceed those expectations. By participating in The Creative Process- a set of standardized steps students follow to create a work of art, students are able to develop ideas, practice, plan, pace, etc. They do this based on their own individual level of ability using support structures which leads them to success in meeting the high academic standard set for all students.
ReplyDeleteIf you set the bar low, they will only do what they need to be at that low level. By taking standards and setting them high, they learn to climb the stairs. They learn to take steps in learning to reach a goal: then they can go beyond that goal. The more steps students take, the more adventurous they become.
ReplyDelete