Developing High Academic Expectations for All Students: The Key to Achieving High Expectations is...
Developing High Academic Expectations for All Students: The Key to Achieving High Expectations is to Expect Nothing Less.
by Sara Glascock
1. Action Step 2: Identify Differential Treatment of Low-Expectancy Students
1.1. Am I… •Making less eye contact • Smiling less • Making less physical contact or maintaining less proximity • Engaging in less playful or light dialogue • Calling on them less • Asking them less challenging questions • Not delving into their answers as deeply • Rewarding them for less rigorous responses
2. Action Step 1: Identify Your Expectation Levels for Students
2.1. -make a mental scan of your students, identifying those for whom you have high, medium, and low expectations. -determine if you have any systematic bias regarding low-expectancy students. Specifically, the teacher notes if he has any generalized low expectations for students because of their ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and the like. -Simply recognizing this tendency can provide some power over such patterns of thought.
3. Action Step 3: Make Sure Low-Expectancy Students Receive Verbal and Nonverbal Indications That They Are Valued and Respected
3.1. • Make eye contact with target students frequently. • Smile at the target students at appropriate times. • On occasion, make appropriate physical contact, such as putting a hand on the target student’s shoulder. • Maintain a proximity to target students that communicates interest but does not violate personal space. • When appropriate, engage in playful dialogue with the target students.
4. Action Step 4: Ask Questions of Low-Expectancy Students
4.1. -When low-expectancy students raise their hand with their own questions, acknowledge the usefulness and desirability of these questions by making approving comments about the quality of the question. -Teachers can create a formal system of how they call on students with questions (a check-mark system with students’ names/ frequency of calling on them or a more randomized method), that way, students have a sense that they can be called on at any time, even if they do not volunteer.
5. Affective Tone
5.1. What it is: the extent to which the teacher establishes positive emotions in the classroom. How to Achieve it: smile more, look students in the eye more, lean toward students more, and generally behave in a more friendly and supportive manner.
6. Action Step 5: When Low-Expectancy Students Do Not Answer a Question Correctly or Completely, Stay with Them
6.1. -Draw the student out in a discussion about their answer, and comment on what is correct about that thinking and what is incorrect about it. -These types of interactions allow the teacher to acknowledge what the student knows and delve more deeply into what the student does not understand. -Such interactions communicate to the student that her thinking is valued. - Demonstrate gratitude for students’ responses: “Thanks for your responses today. It was a great class. You were engaged. You worked hard and took on some tough questions I asked.” -Do not allow negative comments from other students. - Point out what is correct and incorrect about students’ responses. -Restate the question. -Provide ways to temporarily let students off the hook: “I’ll come back to you”.
7. Technique 1- No Opt Out
7.1. • Format 1: You provide the answer; the student repeats the answer. • Format 2: Another student provides the answer; the initial student repeats. •Format 3: You provide a cue; your student uses it to find the answer. • Format 4: Another student provides a cue; the initial student uses it to find the answer
8. Technique 2- Right is Right: Set and Defend a High Standard of Correctness in your Classroom
8.1. 1. Right is Right in Action-Hold out for all the way:
8.1.1. Examples: • “I like what you’ve done. Can you get us the rest of the way?” • “We’re almost there. Can you find the last piece?” • “I like most of that . . . ” • “Can you develop that further?” • “Okay, but, there’s a bit more to it than that.” • “Kim just knocked a base hit. Who can bring her home?”
8.2. 2. Right is Right in Action- Answer the question.
8.2.1. • Dissuade students from answering a question other than the one you asked; even if they have salient points. Clarify your question: “Kim, that’s an example. I want the definition.”
8.3. 3. Right is Right in Action- Right answer, right time.
8.3.1. • Accept answers in sequence, even when students want to show you how smart they are by getting ahead of your questions.
8.4. 4. Right is Right in Action- Use technical vocabulary.
8.4.1. • Using precise technical vocabulary from lessons that have been taught expands student vocabularies and builds comfort with the terms students will need when they compete in college.