The article, "'Struggling' Adolescents' Engagement in Multimediating: Countering the Institutional Construction of Incompetence" written my David O'Brien was both interesting and informative. It is very true when O'Brien states that,
"Low achievement led to low perception about abilities, which resulted in increasing disengagement from reading, which, in turn, resulted in lack of practice, low fluency..."
If kids do not achieve to their own standards or to the standards of their parents or teachers then they will start to believe that they can't achieve good grades. Kids need to be able to want to do something and look forward to do something in school in order from them to get good grades. As teachers if we give them boring stuff to do they won't want to do it and achieve good grades. When students first realize that they can not/do not achieve their best they feel as if some outside force is to blame, not themselves. Why not base our teaching around where students want to learn and want to do good and know that they can do good. Maybe students aren't motivated or interested enough because we don't motivate or interest them. The Literacy Lab seems like a great idea. Getting our "at -risk" learners motivated and wanting to learn and getting good grades should be one of our goals as teachers. I feel as future teachers we can all learn a little from the Literacy Lab and getting our students to do other various tasks other than reading a book and writing a paper.
1 comment:
I like the quote you referenced to. As I posted on my blog, I was the type of student that had very little confidence in school and if I was not reminded that I could do my work and do well at it, I often just wanted to give up. Students today are under so much pressure with these stupid standardized tests that it's no wonder why they are panicing and not doing well. We have to be a constant support to our students so that they have the confidence to do the work, do it well, get the grades, and feel confident. There is more on our plate as future educators than I think any of us imagined!
Post a Comment