I called home one night and spoke with Ryan’s mom about Ryan’s grades. She was pleasant, but asked me to just speak to her and not her husband. I thought it was troublesome, but I made a note of it. The next day, Ryan approached me and said he’d do anything if I didn’t call home. Again, troublesome.

At parent-teacher conferences, I met Ryan and his dad. Dad was a Scout leader in the community and Ryan was working on his Eagle Scout rank, which represents hours of community service. As I said, Ryan was a nice kid. I expected the conference to go like other conferences where the parent student and I examined the student’s work and grades and then develop a plan to help the student succeed. Next!

Well, that’s not what happened. When Dad learned about Ryan’s grade, he was furious. Dad asked me why I hadn’t called home. I was confused. Um, I had called home. I also had signed progress reports in Ryan’s file. Dad turned to Ryan with a vicious verbal attack. I could see Ryan shrink in his chair.

As a teacher, I was totally unprepared for Dad’s reaction. I found myself wanting to make excuses for Ryan. I was relentlessly cheerful. I tried to lighten the mood with a few lame jokes. Ryan and his dad left my room and the next parent came in, but I was really upset.

I talked to Ryan the next day and asked him if he was O.K. Ryan didn’t say much to me; he just shrugged and smiled. The kids told me that he was grounded – again. Ryan was always grounded, they told me. At lunch that day, I went to the school guidance counselor to relay my concerns about Ryan and his home life. Our guidance counselor made the appropriate phone calls and follow-ups about a potential abusive situation.

I watched Ryan carefully for the rest of the semester and tried to encourage him the best I could. He ended up with a low C and I think we were both relieved.

I saw Ryan a few months ago when I was at our city’s farmer’s market. Ryan was a police officer on duty and he looked good. He was taller and still had that quick smile. We talked for a few minutes about the old days. I asked how he and his buddies were doing. He told me who was employed and who were planning marriages and families. Then I asked about his own family. How’s Mom? How’s Dad? Ryan’s body language instantly told me that it was a sore topic and he checked his watch. He gave me his quick smile, told me it was good to see me, and left to patrol the vegetable stand down the street.

That parent-teacher conference always haunted me, as parent-teacher conference nights approached on the calendar. I know that many districts have been holding those conferences recently and I’m wondering: have you had the awkward parent-teacher conference? What happened? How did you handle it? What would you have done differently? Please share your own stories in the comments.

Do you have a question for the editor? Would you like to suggest an idea for a post you’d like to read? Are you interested in writing a guest post? Contact editor Diane Trim.

Photo credits:
Ohio: Southeast Ohio Political Strategy Meeting, June 16: aflcio / Bernard Pollack
19 April 2007: ccarlstead
the parents – April 2: theogeo / Lindsey T

Look around your classroom at the students who have habitual behavior problems. Are they engaged? Do they complete assignments? Do you think they look forward to class? Do you have a personal connection with the student?

Let’s face it: it’s hard to form a personal connection with some of these challenging, disengaged students.

If we accept the idea that the teacher-student connection is important to student achievement, what happens when that connection hasn’t been established or is horribly broken? If grades reflect a positive student-teacher relationship, do they also reflect a negative student-teacher relationship? If so, how much of that grade is based on achievement and how much is based on attitude?

That’s the question that Scholastic’s Practical Leadership blogger Suzanne Tingley posed. She wondered if the A on a kid’s report card indicated academic success or compliance. Tingley wrote:

Grades have always been a little bit of a game.  Students can be awarded so many points for homework, for attendance, for class participation, for turning assignments in on time.  On the debit side, students who don’t Honor roll do homework, are tardy or absent, and don’t participate may lose points towards their final grade.  I recall how one high school teacher explained her grading system to me:  “If the paper is late, it’s a zero.  If the student doesn’t hand it in at all, it’s a double zero.”  Too polite to tell her that was crazy talk, I simply told her we weren’t going to do that anymore.

Tingley also makes the observation that an honor roll student doesn’t necessarily perform well on state standardized tests.

I’ve given completion grades for homework. I’ve given participation points, especially when our building principal encouraged everyone to do it. However, I’ve always tried hard to make sure that the grades were something I could observe and measure. The last thing I wanted was for a parent to take me to task for picking on Ashley, who earned a B for participation this grading period. I never wanted my grades to come down to like or love.

Even with clear expectations and measurable objectives, I think that student engagement and behavior plays a role in a student’s grade, no matter how hard I try to be impartial. If a student is often tardy or absent, that behavior will show up in her final grade. If a student texts during biology instead of listening to the final exam review, her exam grade will suffer. If she spends more time in the principal’s office than at her classroom desk, her grades will reflect that, too. On top of it, she’s not engaged when she is in class, so her grades will be lower still.

What’s the solution? I think that the solution is to strengthen the student-teacher relationship. Instead of focusing on how the student needs to improve, focus on what the student is doing right. Make sure to say one positive thing to each student every day. Use the 2 x 10 method to improve student-teacher connections. Provide hope and flexibility to students who have resigned themselves to failure.

What do you think? Do our grades often reflect a student’s compliance rather than her ability? Do you ever grade on participation or completion? Is it good practice to do so? What do you think we can do to make our grades reflect achievement rather than behavior?

Retired superintendent and former teacher Suzanne Tingley is the author of How to Handle Difficult Parents: A Teacher’s Survival Guide (Cottonwood Press 2006). You can read her blog, Practical Leadership, in Scholastic’s Administrator’s section. http://blogs.scholastic.com/practical_leadership/

Editor’s note:

Dr. Allen Mendler recently visited Inside the School to record some online professional development seminars. During one of his seminars, Mendler said something that I couldn’t help but write down. Mendler said that he witnessed this kind of conversation between a teacher and a challenging student:

TEACHER: I just want to tell you that I’m really glad you’re in my class. I know that it’s not your favorite place to be, but I’m trying hard to make sure that I’m the right teacher for you. I’ve tried many strategies to teach you, but so far they haven’t been working very well. I’ll keep trying more so that you can learn. I want to thank you for being a part of my class. You are making me a better teacher.

Let’s be honest: you are making me a better teacher isn’t what I would say when talking to a challenging student.

But it should be, because it’s true.

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S. and I’d like to share with you a list of challenging students who taught me a lot. I truly am a better teacher for having them in class.

Luke A. and Ian P.: Thank you for teaching me that I need to be very calm with some students. Keeping my voice steady and low when you push my buttons helps to prevent the situation from escalating.

Brandon M.: There are no throw away students. You scared the heck out of me with your toughness, ankle bracelet, and parole officer. I’m so sorry I let you down, but it never happened again and I thank you for that.

Danny T.: You taught me the importance of connecting with students. I wish I had done a better job of that with your friend Chad. I admire the way you kept his memory alive and I will always remember to allow students to grieve.

Chris and Joel: I let your antics control my class. You taught me how to deal with students who take over. It was a valuable classroom management lesson and I’ve never forgotten it and am better for it.

Jeremy S.: Remember that discussion we had about how you couldn’t find the value in writing poetry? Thank you for making me reach beyond because it’s in the state standards, that’s why. You taught me to make my content relevant.

Janna M.: I’m so embarrassed that I messed up your progress report, but I’m very glad that it was with you and early on in my teaching career. You were kind about it and you taught me how very important good record keeping is. Thank you.

Alicia, Monique, and Lisa: You know that chip on your shoulder? I’m so glad I ignored it and I’m so glad we’re still in touch. I’m very proud of all three of you.

Aaron: When you jumped out my second-story window, I didn’t know what to do. You taught me to stop focusing on myself and how freaked out I was and start writing get well soon cards instead. I am a better person for it. Thank you.

Sean D.: I’ll never forget how you took pity on me in summer school and arranged my seating chart for me. You’re a genius with people and you taught me that students make the best seating charts. Thank you.

Jonah R.: Our time together wasn’t easy, Jonah. What I regret most is that I really liked you, but we didn’t connect. You were a funny kid. I’m also grateful that you taught me in the first six weeks of my teaching career to document student behavior. It’s one of the most useful things I’ve ever learned as a teacher.

Shanna, Shalanna, Shatana, and Shamika: You taught me the importance of remembering student names and getting them right.

Adam P.: You hung out in my room nearly every day after school. I’m still not excited about the choices you made outside of my classroom, but I’m very glad that you taught me that everyone needs a sanctuary. I take it as a compliment that you felt my room was safe enough to be your refuge.

JoAnna: We went through fire together and survived. I’m so glad that I advocated for you and your right to free speech and I’m very proud of your journalism award. You have really made something of your life and I’m proud that we’re friends.

Kurt: I tried everything to get you to put pen to paper. Who knew it would be poetry that did the trick? You taught me that a small amount of success can really help a student turn a corner. Thank you.

Elliot: You funny, goofy kid. You taught me to lighten up. Thanks.

Seventh period English, 1995: Man, you guys were outta control. I had to learn classroom management pretty quickly, thanks to you. I know that one of the most valuable lessons in teaching I learned from you: if you can’t control them, at least you can plan to outwit them. You were a mental challenge for me and I’m proud to say that I figured out what to do. We even ended up having a pretty good year, didn’t we? Thanks.

Kevin P.: You taught me that the football coach can be my dearest friend. Sorry about all the laps, kiddo, but you were pretty fit from all the running, right?

Brian S.: We had a rocky start, but I think that positive note home really helped us connect. I know you were surprised when your mom read the good things you’d been doing in class instead of the disruptive things you’d been doing. I don’t know who was prouder of your second semester grade: you, me, or your mom. Thanks for teaching me the importance of positive parent contact. It’s an amazingly powerful tool and I owe my extensive use of it to you.

Jason S.: You’re my unexpected writer. We had a great personal connection and I really think that’s why you performed so well in my classes. Thank you for teaching me how important that personal connection can be. Now, quit sending me Farmville updates. I don’t know where your cow is.

Dustin: I’m not really sure where you were most of your second semester of senior English, but I really missed you. I’m glad I took the extra time to make sure that you learned the material and graduated from high school. I’m even more pleased that you’ve become a success later in life. Thank you for teaching me that two weeks of my time can make a huge difference for years down the road.

Catty yearbook staff: Life hadn’t prepared me for the back-biting and gossip among you girls. You challenged me to figure out how to meet deadlines while trying to keep you from doing one another in. Thank you for that skill and for the great yearbook we put out.

Jacob: You taught me so much about ADHD. I’m really glad that I could support you on your journey.

Noah: I didn’t see much progress from you in high school, but that didn’t mean I gave up on you. When I saw you at the grocery store this year I was really happy to see how far you’d come. Thank you for showing me that kids might hear a message even if they appear to be completely ignoring the messenger for four years.

Lindsay: You taught me to treat teen likes, dislikes, fashion, and music with the respect I would give a foreign culture. I regret my remarks about Good Charlotte.

The Advocate Staff: I taught you about free speech and you ran with it. As you know, with great power comes great responsibility and you shouldered that responsibility so well. I was afraid to let you make those tough editorial decisions, but you stunned me with your thoughtfulness and maturity every time. You taught me that giving kids control and power isn’t as risky as I’d thought.

Sam: You didn’t like me much that first month of your sophomore year. I asked you to be my accomplice with an activity for the class, though, and you rose to the occasion in a magnificent way. From that point on, I was really glad to have you on my side. You taught me to empower kids who might be surly or aggressive. Thank you.

Chris L: For nearly a year, every time you spoke it was to say something funny or to derail class. Imagine my delight in May when you volunteered an answer that was so deep, so thoughtful, that it nearly knocked me off my heels. I remember the whole class looking at you in amazement. After that, I never dismissed a student as just a class clown. I always dug deeper because I wanted to be pleasantly surprised again.

I’ve left out many challenging students from this list: D.J., David, Ashley, Joe M., Ryan P., and Tony, just to name a few. But I am grateful for the difficulties we had together and the lessons I learned from those students. The lessons those students taught me have made me into a more effective teacher. I am grateful.

I’m sure you have students who’ve made you a better teacher. Give them a shout out (no last names, please) in the comments and share the lesson you’ve learned. Are you thankful for the students and their behavior, or is it too soon?

Do you have a question for the editor? Do you have a suggestion about a blog post you’d like to read? Would you like to submit a guest post? Please e-mail me: Diane Trim, editor.

Photo credits:
Photo of the Week – Wild Turkey at Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Wild Turkey in display: Alan Vernon on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Meleagrus gallopavo, Wild Turkey: Tie Guy II / Bob Gutowski on Flickr.com Creative Commons
turkey [caution sign]: Slideshow Bruce / Bruce Fingerhood on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Thanksgiving Turkey: tuchodi / Gerry on Flickr.com Creative Commons
turkey sandwich (with notes) from Thanksgiving leftovers: kthread / Kristen Taylor on Flickr.com Creative Commons

I’ll give you five possible spoon feeding scenarios. Let me know in the comments which one(s) are spoon feeding and which one(s) represent good teaching.

Scenario 1: One test hint

Lindsay is new teacher who passes out Test Hint coupons like extra credit points. During a test or a quiz, a student may use one coupon for a free teacher hint on a question. Students ask the teacher a question and she gives them a hint. She doesn’t accept the question, “Is this right?” but the rest are fair game.

Scenario 2: Testing from homework

Matt, the math teacher, encourages his students to complete their homework and ask questions about problems they can’t solve. He gives homework a completion grades only and doesn’t grade at all on correct answers. Matt told me that he wants students to attempt the homework and to figure out a method for solving the problems that worked for them. As a reward for the students who complete homework every day, Matt creates his tests and quizzes from the homework questions. Students who keep up with the math class’s daily work tend to perform well on Matt’s assessments.

Scenario 3: The review game

A popular history teacher always plays a review game with his students before a test. The questions he uses are right off the test sheet. Students may use notes, books, or one another to answer questions. When the class finishes the game, the students take the test.

Scenario 4: The cheat sheet

Our physics teacher believes her students have a difficult time memorizing all the formulas and measurements they need to answer physics questions. The day before a test, she distributes a 3 x 5” index card to her classes. Students fill up the card – in ink only, no printed material – with formulas, definitions, and facts they think they’ll need for the next day’s test. The physics teacher claims that creating the “cheat sheet” actually helps them study. She also says that her testing objectives aren’t at the understanding level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. She aims for the higher levels of analyzing, applying, and evaluating.

Scenario 5: Start me out

Michelle, the English teacher, often takes modeling essay writing one step further for students who aren’t strong writers. She sits with a small group and begins a sentence for them. She asks her students to finish the sentence with their own words. She and her students draft a paragraph together and she models the essay writing process with them. Before the students return to their seats, Michelle makes sure each kid has at least an introduction, a thesis statement, topic sentences, a clincher, and an outline for the rest of the essay.

What do you think? Are any of these scenarios examples of spoon feeding students information? How much assistance is too much? Where do you draw the line in your own classroom?

We still had trouble when it came to Alicia turning in assignments. She wasn’t a fan of the day-to-day reading and writing expectations I had for my sophomore English students. She had no interest in reading nonfiction and less interest in creating plot diagrams.

Alicia’s home life was not easy. The youngest child of three kids, Alicia was left at home to raise herself and her infant nephew. Mom worked two jobs and Dad had moved out years ago. I suspect that an older sibling and possibly Mom had substance abuse problems. Making ends meet and feeding the family and the grandchild were bigger worries for Mom than Alicia’s grammar and usage corrections. Whether or not Alica did her homework or even came to school didn’t really matter much in that household.

So, what do you do when a student like Alicia isn’t turning in homework? Sure, you can give the kid a zero on the assignment. You can call home, too. But neither of these strategies would work with Alicia. I didn’t want her to fail and reinforce the idea that school was not a place for her. I wanted very much for her to succeed and to realize what a talented kid she was.

Here’s what I did:

1. No busy work. I want Alicia to understand that every assignment I give makes her a better reader or writer. All homework is important and not just time-fillers.
2. No time sinks. If I can have students meet the objectives in 10 questions rather than 20, I’ll assign 10. Alicia is more likely to complete the shorter assignment.
3. Begin in class. Even if you have only five minutes to give students to work on the assignment, do it. Build up that momentum and get questions out of the way. Alicia is more likely to complete an assignment that doesn’t confuse her.
4. Stop by. Walk around the class and observe students working. If a student seems stuck, visit them and clear up confusion. Stop by Alicia’s desk and make sure she’s on track. Touching base with her shows that you care about her progress, even if no one else does.
5. Follow up. When I saw Alicia in the hall, I’d make a point of asking her if she made any progress and whether or not she packed the homework in her bag. Again, I cared about Alicia and her homework.
6. Extend an invitation. I always kept office hours. I’d be available before school on Mondays and Wednesdays and after school on Tuesdays or Thursdays. If Alicia didn’t finish her homework, I wouldn’t assume that she was lazy or stupid. I would assume that her home life got in the way or that she was confused. Extending an invitation to visit me and work side-by-side to finish the assignment was a great way to make a personal connection, grade the work in front of her, and enter a score in the grade book.
7. Make a lunch date. Sometimes Alicia couldn’t stay after school or come early. Let’s have lunch, Alicia. If she stood me up too many times, I’d bring my tray out to her table. As much as she sort of liked me, she really didn’t want me eating lunch next to her. You can bet she didn’t stand me up for a homework lunch date too many times.
8. Call home. Of all the things that won’t do any good, calling Mom is one of the best, especially if she knows that you’ve been working hard to see Alicia succeed. If you’re the one teacher who has made a huge effort to nurture Alicia’s love of poetry and build her self-esteem, Mom’s pretty likely to listen to you. She might not do much, but at least you can mention to Alicia that you talked to Mom. Again, it shows Alicia how important you think homework is.
9. Talk to the coach. I learned early in my teaching career that talking to the coach is nearly as powerful as talking to a parent. Making sure other caring adults know about a student’s homework situation can benefit the student. Sure, the kid might have to run an extra lap or two, but the student knows you care enough to come out to the soccer field after school and follow up with the coach. It’s pretty powerful. Alicia wasn’t in sports, but she did like chorus. The chorus teacher was terrific about talking to Alicia about her homework and even sending her to me to complete a missing quiz.
10. Take an interest in the student. Sometimes kids won’t complete work in a class because they think that the teacher doesn’t really care. Find out what the student is good at, especially outside of class. Talk to her about how she babysits for her nephew and encourage her to bring in photos of him. Ask her about her favorite place to write poetry. Bring in contest entry forms for her to complete and send off her poetry. Begin the discussion about college. Students who know that you care about them as people are more likely to work in your class because they admire you and like how they feel about themselves when they’re around you.

Were these magic cures for Alicia’s homework issues in my class? Nope. It was a struggle for both of us to make sure that she turned in her work. It wasn’t a power struggle, though.  I did spend extra time on Alicia and other students like her, but I think that I benefitted, too. Alicia didn’t give me a hard time in class. I didn’t spend time disciplining her and writing referrals. Instead, I spent my time teaching, which is the whole point.

How do you handle students who don’t turn in their homework? Do you call home? Do you give zeros? Do you extend deadlines? Do you hound them in the hallways? Please share what works for you.

Photo credits:
homework: bjortklingd on Flickr.com Creative Commons
5/365: anna gutermuth on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Finals: outcast104 on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Unsure: dylancantwell / Dylan Cantwell on Flickr.com Creative Commons 

As for grading, I looked at three things: 1) complete answers, 2) thoughtful answers, 3) knowledge of the lesson. It’s not a quiz, so I didn’t look for correct answers; I looked for the correct vocabulary and concepts. It’s O.K. for a student not to understand, but my goal was for the student to explain what he didn’t understand using the language from the lesson.

I had four different exit slip sheets and each one was separated into quadrants. Here are the questions from my exit slips:

• What is this learning related to?
• Provide an example of this concept.
• How can I test what I’ve learned?
• How is this concept useful in my life?

• I would like to learn more about…
• The most interesting thing I learned in class was…
• Please explain more about…
• I wish…

• Why is this lesson important?
• List five things you learned today.
• List one thing you’d like to know more about.
• List one surprising thing you learned.

• Why study this?
• What is the most important thing to remember from this class?
• How can I apply this knowledge outside of class?
• What questions do you have about this lesson?

Once I started using exit slips, I was hooked. I didn’t use them for every lesson, but I tried to use them when I introduced a new concept.

Once I’d collected the students’ responses, I wrote down the questions about the new learning they’d had, in their own words, and read them the next class day. We’d answer the questions as a class and then move on to the day’s objectives. The students responded to this activity because their exit slips meant something – their feedback guided our class discussion and they received answers to their questions. No one felt embarrassed about asking a question, either, because I never identified specific students.

Sometimes I took student answers and listed them on the board. As students entered the room, they read what their classmates wrote. It sparked a discussion that led naturally into the day’s lesson.

If you’ve never used an exit slip, I encourage you to try them. Students who are nervous about failing a quiz will respond to exit slips because they’re not being graded on right or wrong answers. It gives you a good idea about how much learning happened during class, too, and what you might need to reteach. Students who might otherwise have daydreamed during my class engaged more in the lessons when I used exit slips, too. They knew they might be held accountable for what they learned in class that day, but since the assessment method wasn’t a high-stakes one, they took to it pretty well.

You can tailor the exit slip’s questions to your day’s lesson or you can use general questions like I did. Once my students became comfortable with the exit slip, many of them crossed out the question on the day’s slip and replaced it with one from other slips I’d used. As long as the students were giving me feedback about their learning, I was satisfied.

Do you have a question for the editor? Would you like to suggest an idea for a blog post? Are you interested in writing a guest post? E-mail editor Diane.Trim@magnapubs.com

Photo credits:

All photos courtesy of audi_insperation on Flickr.com Creative Commons: Exit Legoland, Exit Green, Exit

I’ll be honest. I don’t handle extra credit well. In fact, I’m so lousy at it, I offered just two projects each year. If you’ve ever tried offering extra credit, you know the problems it can cause:

• Students might focus all their energy on the extra credit project and neglect their everyday work.
• Students will ask for extra credit projects the night before grades are due.
• Too much extra credit can skew a student’s grade to the point where you’re not sure if she mastered the material or just knew how to play the game.
• You get slammed with extra credit projects in addition to your end-of-quarter grading and have no time to sleep.

Since I taught high school English, my two extra credit projects had an English theme. I announced the projects at the beginning of the semester and explained to students that they would have either the week of Thanksgiving break or Spring break to complete the projects. Neither project interfered with class time and both were due the day students returned from break. Of course, some students worked on the projects before the break, but the idea was that it wouldn’t add to their nightly workload.

My projects were dioramas of famous literary works. The student had to choose a famous literary work (no film adaptations), identify the scene on a plot diagram, identify the main characters, summarize the action, and explain why the scene was important to the story. The diorama was made with Halloween candy (fall semester) or Easter candy (spring semester) – a Peanut Gallery for the fall (circus peanuts were the main players) or a Peep Show for the spring (marshmallow peeps as the main players).

The project was fun, a good use of excess candy, and done completely outside of class. I had a rubric and celebrity judges (principal, coaches) to award prizes for the top three entries. It was a popular activity among students and I promoted it to their parents at open house and parent-teacher conferences.

The problem? How much weight to give the extra credit assignment? I gave away fabulous prizes (cheap plastic trophies from the local party shop) and some of the dioramas were elaborate. I could tell that many hours went into gluing jelly beans and Pez to a shoe box for the honor of a plastic trophy, some points, and a place atop my bookshelf – the Diorama Hall of Fame.

My point-giving scheme was that any A-level project could move a test or quiz grade up three increments. So, a student could move a C- test up to a B-. A B-level project could move up two increments, so a C- to a C+. A C-level could move up one increment, from a C- to a C.

It wasn’t a bad scheme, but it took a ton of time to record the scores and give credit. I wrote a note in the grade book alongside that test or quiz, too. I tried to drop the project one year, but kids protested.

So, readers, I’m looking for ideas from you. How do you handle extra credit? Do you limit your offerings to one or two that you plan in advance or do you give many extra credit opportunities? How do you cope with the extra points and extra work load? Have you ever offered extra credit if a student attends an event like a school play or concert? Let’s start a great discussion in the comments. I can’t wait to learn from you.

Kelly was a smart kid who excelled in nearly every subject and was the standout on the varsity volleyball team. Kelly also didn’t like to do group work. Of any kind. No skits, no dialogues, no games with partners. Nothing.

I called mom before I realized that she was the principal of one of our schools. “What sort of alternative assignment will you offer Kelly?” she asked me.

“Uh. Er. I was expecting her to perform the dialogue like everyone else. Give and take is important in foreign language and…” I said.

The principal told me that her daughter’s grade would not suffer because another student wasn’t prepared for class. Her daughter would not carry another student and do the other kid’s work, either. I was told that Kelly would receive her own, tailor-made assignments.

I was young, new to the district, and happy to have a job. I didn’t argue.

Kelly’s dad came to check on me to make sure that his daughter’s assignments were indeed crafted especially for her.

The kid, to her credit, just mumbled that she wanted the same assignment as the rest of the class. She didn’t want to stick out or to give me more work. She just wanted to work alone. I just wanted my first year in the new district to go smoothly. I had no desire to set my department chairperson and a building principal against me. I did the extra work and didn’t think about it any further. I didn’t have the time or the courage.

Forcing Students to Work in Groups

In a recent Teaching Professor Blog post from education professor Maryellen Weimer, Weimer wrote about a group of higher education professors who had been discussing the merits of students working in groups and by themselves.

Weimer wrote about the usual dilemma that teachers face: shouldn’t teachers require students to complete at least some group work? After all, most professions require at least some group work. Isn’t it a disservice to students not to prepare them to work well with others?

A professor looked at the discussion from a different view point, Weimer wrote.

Then Professor Betsy Mudler made an interesting observation—something I’d never thought of before. We are concerned about whether we should “force” (maybe the word’s too strong, “require”) student participation in group work. But when we have students working individually, we aren’t in the same quandary about those learners who really do better when they are working with others. What if one of them should approach us with a request to work on the project with others? Would the request take us by surprise? I suspect it would. Professor Mudler’s point was that our lack of concern about individual work speaks to the strengths of those assumptions we make about value of working alone and figuring it out for yourself.

Weimer concludes that both working alone and in groups has value. We should meet both needs in the classroom.

Finding the Middle Ground

Unlike Weimer’s professors, it’s hard for secondary school teachers to just require their students to complete a group project. Teachers often have push back from parents and students when we assign group work. If I could go back in time and give my younger and more naïve self a little advice, it would have been to lean on the sound pedagogy behind group work, especially in foreign language. I would have said something to the high-powered parents about wanting what was best for Kelly and her foreign language acquisition. I would have said something about best practice in foreign language and how listening to another speaker is essential to a student’s progress in the language.

The problem I would still have is making sure that group grading is fair and that individuals are rewarded for their work. Is it better to assess students separately or based upon their group output? Which is best – peer evaluations, individual grades/group product grade, group grades only, individual grades only, rubrics, or student-created rubrics?

I don’t think any one of these group grading schemes is the best. They’re good attempts, but none is a perfect assessment instrument.

The second challenge of group work is the social loafing aspect. Social loafing is the term for students who, when surrounded by achievers, choose to coast instead of pitch in and help. How do you encourage these students to step up instead of sit back? Sure, you circulate around the room and monitor students. Yes, you encourage the social loafers to open a book or pick up a pencil. However, the reality is that if they choose not to participate, the group members will end up picking up the slack.

So, readers, do you have the magic solution? Have you discovered the best scheme for picking groups? Do you have the ultimate group grading procedure? Do you allow your students to choose between working individually or in groups? How do you convince parents that group work is a marvelous thing? How do you encourage the social loafers to stop coasting and start helping the group? Please share your wisdom with all of us in the comments.

Plus, if a parent wanted to know her kid’s grades or missing work, she could just e-mail me and I’d send a grade print-out home with Zach or Trish.

I’m on the other side of the fence now as a parent of a middle school student. I love access to online student records. Online grades and missing work, combined with homework assignments posted online with printable copies, makes my life as a parent so much easier.

I realize now that with the old e-mail-the-teacher system, parents were less likely to ask for a grade report. They don’t want to appear to be hovering around their student. They don’t want to bother the teacher. They don’t want to take the time to write the e-mail only for the student to forget the printout in her locker.

When I monitor my daughter’s grades online, I feel like I’m a participant in her education. I can pull up her progress on my laptop and we can discuss what happened with that last algebra test. We can have a talk about where the missing vocabulary assignment might be and what she should use for her nature sketch in art.

When teachers post the homework assignments weekly along with printable assignments, the system is even better. If my daughter and I find a missing assignment I can click a few more times and print out another one. If she loses the homework, forgets it, or is absent, she can finish her work and catch up to the rest of the class.

“Are you done with your homework?” has now become “Please show me your world culture project. I’ve printed the rubric, so let’s evaluate your work.”

My teen’s response is still much the same, “Mom. Mom. Mo-oooom. Trust me, it’s done.”

She’s probably right; I’m sure she’s finished the project. But with these online tools, I can have those valuable conversations that show her I care about her academic progress. The most important teachers are a student’s parents. With online student records and assignments, I can impress upon my daughter how important her school work is and reinforce classroom learning at the kitchen table.

Cheating isn’t new with the 21st century; according to Justin Crozier, it’s been around since the invention of the standardized test in China (Han dynasty, 206BC-23AD). The tests were for people who wanted to enter into government service and they were amazingly hard. Test takers had to memorize Confucius’ Four Books and Five Classics. The amount of the material was so vast and the incentive for success was so large, that cheating flourished. Scholars could purchase miniature books that they could conceal in their palms, shirt lapels often had crib notes in tiny stitching, fans contained cheat sheets, and scholars-for-hire could be rented to take the test under someone else’s name.

Today, according to the authors of Cheating in School, cheating is pretty common in our schools. They cite a study from the Josephson Institute of Ethics, which surveys American high school students about their cheating habits every two years. In 2004, here’s what they found:

• Sixty percent of teens cheated on tests at least once and 38 percent cheated twice or more
• Over one-third of high school students had plagiarized and 18 percent had done so repeatedly
• Eighty-three percent of your students are copying one another’s homework. Well over half (64%) are doing it more than once

These same kids, the study found, value honesty and ethics. Ninety-three percent believe that integrity and good character were important qualities. However, two-thirds of these students also said that successful people did what they had to do to succeed, even if some people might consider the methods to be cheating.

So, while she was finishing up a test, my kid left her seat, took a piece of paper out of her binder, and went back to her chair. The teacher stopped talking to the class and stared at her. In front of the class, he asked her what she was doing. My daughter was so flustered, she didn’t respond. He asked her again, still in front of the class. She stammered something. The teacher approached her and gave her, and the class, a lecture about cheating and how he should give her a zero.

Students cheat for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, like their ancient Chinese counterparts, the kids just find the subject matter too overwhelming. They also cheat because:

• They’re afraid of failure
• They didn’t have enough time to study
• They found the material too difficult
• They found the material unimportant and not worthy of study
• They think the teacher doesn’t care
• They feel pressure from friends to share their answers
• They don’t manage their time well
• They think that everyone does it, so they should, too
• They don’t respect/like the teacher
• They don’t like the subject
• They think that cheating doesn’t hurt anyone
• They think it’s easy to cheat, so they should do it

After the teacher confronted my daughter in front of the whole class, my daughter showed him the piece of paper. It was the overflow answer sheet from her test. In other words, she’d been using an additional sheet of paper to record answers that didn’t fit on the test sheet. She mistakenly put it under her books when she moved to the back of the room. Embarrassed and flustered, she left her test unfinished, fled the room, and sobbed in the bathroom.

It’s now April. Even the newest teachers among us have witnessed cheating, but how have you handled it? My theme was: low key. My goal: interrupt class as little as possible and try to keep the kid’s dignity intact. I’ll tell you how I used to do it.

Catching a kid with a cheat sheet. It’s a good habit as a teacher to circulate among your students when they’re completing assignments or taking a test. It’s good practice to do it all the time so that no one thinks your wandering is an unusual occurrence. When you wander, it’s easy to have a quiet word with a student who is off-task, answer a question for a shy student, or observe the kid who is copying answers from the bottom of her sneaker.

I allow the cheating student to finish the test and return to her seat. At the end of class, in private, I pull her aside and ask for her sneaker or her crib sheet. I explain that I understand that she wants to do well in the class, but this isn’t the way to do it. We make a telephone call to her parents and she explains what happened. I offer to give her another test that same day after school and make arrangements with the parents for a ride home. I explain that a second cheating episode will result in a note in my grade book and a report to the office where they can handle the disciplinary action. This technique also works for kids who are texting in their sweatshirt pockets or under the desk. Walking around and being vigilant will alert you to students who aren’t moving a pen, but are texting covertly instead.

Catching a kid with wandering eyes. This one’s relatively easy. Quietly bend down and ask the student with the good paper, the cheatee, to move to a seat away from the cheater. Usually this kid won’t protest; after all the cheatee has studied. The wandering eyes phenomenon is difficult to prove, so I pull the cheater aside and say, “I noticed some behavior that wasn’t usual for you. Did you feel unprepared for today’s test?” I listen to the student. After all, this is a kid who is trying to succeed, even though she’s going about it in the wrong way. I direct the conversation to options the student has before a test to get extra help. I return to my desk and document what happened.

I’m not a perfect teacher. I’ll admit that in my early days in the classroom, I didn’t know what to do with cheaters. I’d yell. That just built resentment. I’d send them to the office to finish their work. I’d hold them after class or I’d tell the football coach. It took me a while to land upon this calm, quiet method of dealing with cheating.

I guess that’s why I expected more of my daughter’s teacher. I left word for him to call me and we spoke on a Saturday morning. I asked him what happened. He said that he was maybe a little upset and over-the-top. I asked him if he verified that my kid had been cheating before he called her out in front of his class. I asked him if she had actually been cheating. Then I asked him how he’d make it right on Monday. I was nice on the phone, because I’ve been on the other end of the line myself. However, I confess that I wanted to make him squirm.

The teacher gave my daughter time to complete her test on Monday. He never apologized for his behavior, either to me or to my daughter. I didn’t force the issue on the phone, but I am disappointed. He passed up an opportunity to win me over and to earn back my daughter’s respect. Instead, he saved his pride and reinforced her resentment. Studies show that a personal connection between teacher and student, a bond of trust and respect, helps students learn. He didn’t just pass up a teachable moment, he passed up an academic one, too.

References:
Crozier, J. (2002) “A Unique Experiment.” China in Focus Magazine. (online) Accessed March 30, 2010 from http://sacu.org/examinations.html.

Davis, S.F., Drinan, P.F. and Bertram Gallant, T. (2009) Cheating in School: what We Know and What We Can Do. San Francisco: Wiley-Blackwell.

What do you think? How do you handle cheating in the classroom? Am I not taking cheating seriously enough? Am I being way too judgmental of my daughter’s teacher? Should I take additional steps? Should I have let it go after that Saturday phone call? Am I being way too dramatic and should let it go already? Let’s discuss.