JUNK MAIL SECOND YEAR #3 PUBLISHED: 3 February 2009

JUNK MAIL SECOND YEAR #3 PUBLISHED: 3 February 2009

Lower ability classes

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n a school of our size with roughly 20 Y9 and 20 Y10 classes sooner or later, probably this year, many beginning teachers find themselves with a ‘low ability’ class. As a rule, we try not to give beginning teachers low ability classes because it simply adds another ‘challenge’ to your teaching at a time where you are least equipped to deal with it. Most beginning teachers find teaching a well-behaved ‘middle stream’ class sufficient of a challenge while poorly disciplined classes, especially if they are also low ability, can leave a beginning teacher consistently on the ‘back foot’ in a defensive teaching mode unable to practice or develop their teaching skills. Option teachers of course have to cope with ‘all comers’ but it is rare for such option classes to be full over low ability students.

We struggle to find an appropriate term for these students who are easy to label but hard to accurately categorise. Teachers would generally agree that when a student learns, practices and hones the various skills necessary to engage with the curriculum and negotiate the exam system they have the basics for success. And we could identify a long list of characteristics that are necessary for educational success such as good self esteem, good parental role models, an active interest in and enjoyment of learning, literacy and numeracy, organised and self disciplined, goals and the ability to achieve them and so on… But you will also know successful learners who don’t have some or many of these skills, so the answer to ‘what makes a student a low achiever’ is not the reverse of what makes a student a high achiever.

Beginning teachers become really effective teachers over time, probably around year 5. But as we have a growing number of ‘low band’ classes at each level sooner or later (usually sooner) you are going to be allocated a class of low achievers. What do you do?

There is no simple or single answer; there isn’t a simple or single answer for what to do with an ‘accelerate’ class either. I have seen really bright students bored out of their collective socks by a experienced teacher who taught them just as he would a ‘good average class’. He made no allowance for their special attributes and so they underachieved. Simply ‘watering down the syllabus’ for lower achievers is not the answer either.

By the time they reach secondary school some students have been labelled, or label themselves, as ‘slow learners’ or whatever the current terminology is. The label becomes the reality. Self esteem is low; willingness to ‘try’ is low because past experience has not been successful and the downward spiral is seen as the norm; discipline is often poor as the lessons don’t engage so frustration or boredom (often both) set in; work rate in class is poor reflecting a low level of motivation and success are few and far between which only serves to compound all the other issues. The student’s report is littered with phrases like, ‘could do better’, ‘isn’t really trying his best’, ‘an under-achiever’, ‘unsatisfactory’, ‘wasting her time in class’ or some politically correct euphemisms which fudge the issue.

Depending on your point of view curriculum changes over the past 20 years or more have made the situation better for low achievers: there has been an explosion in the sheer range of subjects available, multi-level learning is increasingly common, changes to examinations and internal assessments have made success more accessible to name just some of the changes.

But back in the classroom the challenge remains; how to bring ‘slow’ or ‘low’ achievers up to speed and up to the mark.

§  DAY ONE, PERIOD, ONE WORD ONE, MATTERS

Low band classes seem to work on the basis that you can judge a teacher ‘by the cover’. They seem to give you less margin for error than your average class. The first few periods are really critical for your image. If the class is really ‘slow and low’ then try to inject some sort of success very early on into the lesson, certainly by the second week. If you can ‘hook ’em’ then you can ‘cook ’em’, meaning if you can engage the bulk of the class with an experience of success (say set up an mini-test where the class has to learn the 10 key technical words in the first topic, show them how to learn the words, have a few preliminary tests before the big test) then you have take a big, big leap forward.

Behaviourally challenged classes will require a firm but fair approach; set out your classroom rules (or ones you have negotiated with the class) and variously catch the students complying or breaking them without making a fuss initially. But quickly set the tone that you mean business and religiously stick to your plan. As a hint, put your emphasis on those behaviours that will negatively affect teaching and learning; deal with other issues less emphatically.

Certainly a focus of the first few weeks should be the expectation that you believe that these students ‘can do it’! From day one let them know the label they have lived with so far is not set in concrete and that with time and effort there is no reason that they can’t succeed. Emphasise (and note) the important of progress, effort, ‘personal best’ achievements as well as ‘top of the class’.

§  ASK THE STUDENTS WHAT doesn’t WORK FOR THEM

If you ask low achievers what doesn’t work for them at school you may just come to the conclusion that simply attending you class is a major achievement given the long list of things such students identify as barriers to their learning. Why would you want to get out of bed if attending school brings you no advantages apart from meeting your friends?

The answer to the question, “What’s in it for me?” for many of our students is a resounding, “Nothing!”

This above exercise can be so depressing as to make it impossible to even start a plan of action but it is illuminating. Listen carefully to what the students tell you and engage them in a discussion, which, eventually, reaches some sort of conclusion from which you can modify your practice for their benefit. Good lesson planning strategies work for all students with a bit of modification (see below). You average low achiever will probably dislike ‘copying tonnes of notes from the black board’ with a vengeance so make an agreement that the maximum number of written notes will not exceed half a page or whatever is practical.

This sort of class-enforced ‘limitation’ will prompt you into looking for alternatives to boring old note copying which can only benefit your low ability class (and all your other classes at the same time!!).

When I last taught ‘remedial Y10 maths’ we had ‘rules’ about the length of notes that could be copied in any one lesson, the number of problems to be done in any one lesson, what could be tested in the ‘Do Now’ section of the lesson, when HW could be given, warnings about impending exercise book checks and so on (some items were ‘negotiated’ and there was a quid pro quo).

§  PLAN FOR SUCCESS AND SELF ESTEEM WILL FOLLOW

Many students can channel failure into success if they know how to learn from failing. If you fail and you don’t know why then failure is a dead end experience. The quicker you can provide opportunities for success and equip the class for taking advantage of the opportunities then the better chance you have of hooking the class into learning.

Initial success can come from simply starting from the students’ own knowledge base, their own prior learning. Give then credit for what they already know or can contribute to the lesson. A colleague some years ago spent the first term giving the class an exact copy of the actual end-of-topic for homework on the weekend before the test on Monday. His initial reasoning was that students who had the initiative would do the actual test (study?) and then perform better in the actual test. He was right on that count but after a couple of tests the whole class began to ‘study’ for the test and even the weakest of students saw there marks begin to improve. By the end of the term the class’ marks were impressive. The teacher then negotiated to take the pre-test away and replace it with ‘big hints’ so that the class still had some idea of what was in the test but not a complete preview as before. The class’ marks remained high till the end of the year as the students were by now hooked on success and more importantly, the teacher had convinced the class that they no longer needed the preview; a sign of ‘faith’ in his students.
And think seriously if attempting a ‘standard’ syllabus is your best option with low achievers. There is nothing wrong with reaching for the stars as long as you keep your feet firmly planted on the ground!

§  THE OLD RULES ABOUT A WELL STRUCTURED LESSON APPLY, BUT MORE SO…

Experienced teachers will tell you that low achievers cope better with stability than change. In some schools, especially in primary schools, low band classes get the privilege of a ‘home room’. At our level, stability comes more from how we organise our class and lessons. Teachers will also tell you that the attention level and span of low achievers is often so thin and short that the wind, the arrival of a dean, a student farting or 102 other minor distractions can seriously impact on the class, hence the importance of tight, well thought out and planned lesson structure repeated regularly become the anchor to stability that you will need.

A quick start to the lesson with a settling ‘Do Now’ is a great start. The lesson will need to be logically developed with the students kept ‘in the loop’ so that they know exactly where they are heading, and why. There needs to be lots of variety in how you deliver the material and what the students do. Create many opportunities within the lesson to learn the material (they certainly aren’t going to do it at home, are they!?). ‘Restart’ the lesson often (it helps to re-focus the students) by reviewing what you’ve done and then moving on; one step backwards, three steps forward, one step backwards, three steps forward and so on… Closely monitor the students to ensure that what you expect them to have done is being done to your satisfaction… including the gluing in of handouts in the appropriate place in their exercise book. Pace the work, set time limits where necessary. Aim to provide less content in exchange for more learning.

§  DID YOU KNOW YOUR SUBJECT IS FULL OF LITERACY AND NUMERACY

We all recognise the critical importance of literacy and numeracy. Build in a component of each into all your lessons; every teacher is a teacher of English and maths. The component doesn’t have to be time consuming or complex; learning to pronounce and spell key terms should be fundamental (but isn’t!), reading either silently, or around the class, or listening to the teacher read is great, doing a survey and graphing the results in social studies is real world application of numeracy as is measuring the heart rate of students who have done varying lengths of physical exercise in PE. Every little bit counts when you are behind from the start.

§  THIRTY DAYS HATH SEPTEMBER, APRIL, JUNE AND NOVEMBER…

Years ago a student at Y11 in a test asked me how many days there were in June. I started to rattle off “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November…”. When I had finished, he was gob smacked. His eyes were wide-open, tongue slightly falling out of his open mouth; “Wow!” he said, “Did you just make that up on the spot?” It was very tempting to take full credit for it as he had obviously never heard of the rhyme before (so I did). The amazing thing was that he had somehow missed being inoculated with this information at primary school and that learning things to the point that you are unlikely to forget them again is a dying skill. My father could decline Latin verbs at the age of 70 despite going through the horrors of WW2 and surviving a concentration camp. It wasn’t intellectual brilliance, it was ‘drill’. And some things like tables, days of the month, spelling, the date of Armistice Day and other useful information for the 21st century have to be learnt, often by repetition just like our teenage students learn each other’s phone numbers by repeatedly calling each other up (or using directory service on their cell phones; yes, yes, I know I just contradicted my own argument).

§  CELEBRATE ALL INSTANCES OF SUCCESS INCLUDING ‘PERSONAL BESTS’

Nothing succeeds like success. Many low achievers have little incentive to actually come to school so when they do exploit the opportunity to the maximum by giving positive feedback and positive feed

forward whenever you can. Make it part of your daily patter. “It’s greeeeeat to see you all in my class, today!” is your obvious opening gambit followed by positive observations on whatever you can catch them doing which warrants praise; having the correct gear, bringing their books, being appropriately behaved, well mannered, respectful, enthusiastic, patient, correctly dressed etc, etc. never allow test or exam results to go uncelebrated. Make a fuss in class and include more than the first three place getters. Send letters home, alert the deans to any successes, issue the chocolate sprats… just do it.

§  KEEPING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE

Teaching is energy intensive work. It is also very demanding on your emotions. When teaching low achievers there is a tendency to ease up because the rewards aren’t as visible. To under prepare for a low achieving class is a big mistake the results of which tend to be a class out of control. These students demand extra effort but a simultaneous shift in perspective. The first low achievers maths class I ever taught drove me up the wall as I tried to move them forward from where they were to where the average student at their level was. Needless to say I failed. I also nearly blew a gasket! The HOD had given me a piece of advice that I didn’t act on initially. When I finally did I regained my sanity and the class made extraordinary progress. The advice was simple, “Use you lesson to expose the students to something mathematical; it doesn’t really matter what you do so long as the students have progressed their knowledge and appreciation of maths.” And so the focus went back on what was necessary for these students and that got a hammering and other bits of maths (as found in the syllabus) got a look in when there was time and the students were ‘in the mood’. Given that the class had an average ability to answer quick fire oral questions based on the tables of around 25% that is where we started and built up their mental maths (no paper, no calculators, no fingers or toes) on a daily basis (Do Now) to a point where by mid year they could add 243 + 25 + 7 in their heads and do 25 of those faultlessly! What a buzz! We did lots of practical maths and only as a challenge did we attempt algebra (which went down well but only in small doses).