Final Reflection I: What Instructional Strategies Worked Best and Why?"

What?

So many of Marzano's strategies work wonderfully in my English classes. Note-taking, non-verbal recognition, cooperative learning, and note-taking have all benefited my class and made me a better teacher, but I believe that more than any of these, I believe that reinforcing effort and providing recognition has had the biggest real-life impact on my students. Tapping into the motivation of students is a powerful, effective way to have an impact. Every student has the need to feel recognized. Being the one to recognize a student puts one in a position to get to know a student, to reach them, to build a relationship, and then to improve their academic efforts. It all begins with building relationships. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition is the only way I have had any success motivating the most apathetic kids. One student, Derek, seemed to me to be unreachable. Covington's research tells us that the four causes of success are ability, effort, other people, and luck. Derek was a low-performing content mastery student, who slept through every-other class period, had no support at home, and a student who luck seemed to have completely passed by. What chance did Derek have? There is no amount of yelling at, forcing, redirecting, intimidating or graduation plan-making that could entice him into success. He hated school, and it seemed that school hated him. He was so close to not passing for the year. Currently, he needs a 91 to get credit for my class, when in prior six weeks, he has either failed or barely passed. He is in my 3rd period class, and he often stays back from lunch and sleeps. One day, he stayed back and I decided to go over to his desk and talk to him. He had a piece of paper that was supposed to be his research paper, with sparse writing scribbled all over it. I saw it and said, "Is that your research?" He hid it with his arm, expecting to be railed for his lack of effort and sub-standard work. Instead I asked to see it, got a highlighter, and highlighted certain words and phrases I thought gave him a great start to his research. Then we talked about where he could go from there, using his scribbled paper as useful prewriting. True, he was WAY behind his classmates, but instead of stating the obvious, putting him down and putting a knot in his stomach, I used the opportunity lift him up.

So what?

Derek is making an 87 in my class right now, and (with a great deal of help) has caught up with his classmates. I am convinced that the encounter we had during lunch that day is completely responsible for his success at the moment. He is not afraid to ask me questions, and he knows that my classroom is a safe place to grow.

Now what?

I wish I could have had as much success with so many of my other kids as I did with Derek. His other teachers are asking me how I was able to get to him. I know that it was the reinforcement on the effort he had made (though small) that encouraged him to keep going, to do more. I know that I won't reach every one of my students like Derek, but as far as strategies Marzano presented, this is the one that will reach a kid like Derek. No student wants to stay unrecognized and look at school like a battleground that they simply have to 'survive'. This strategy is one I will continue to use as long as I teach and as long as I am a parent. Education begins with relationships. Because this is a philosophy I believe in, this is the strategy for me.