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I'm brainstorming ways to reach that bottom of the class in chemistry. One issue I see with lower performing kids is they get overwhelmed with the material and either learn a little of everything but not enough to pass or just shut down because it's too much and learn next to nothing. Operating on the assumption I find a job next year, I'm toying with the idea of splitting the material 80/20 where the 20% determines who gets the A and who gets the B and the 80% determines who passes. If I can get the bottom kids to concentrate on the 80% and do more practice on the 80% while the upper kids are learning the 20%, I'm hoping I can get them all to pass.
Yeah or nay? How do you think kids will respond to this? Parent? Admins? I've tried to tell my lower performing kids to know what they know well and forget the rest but they haven't taken the advice. I'm thinking if I split the material up for them (in the form of an outline) that, maybe, I can get some of those bottom kids to not feel so overwhelmed. What they are doing is not working. They need to learn what they learn well before moving on. I'm thinking that, maybe, if I tell them that "this is the upper level stuff" so they know where to draw the line, it might help them to feel less overwhelmed.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 06-15-2013 at 04:37 AM..
I'm wondering how the kids and their parents will take to this? In my last job, I was told I teach too much chemistry in spite of the fact my syllabus is the same as that of teacher's in several other districts. When I pointed this out, I was told that just because everyone else does it wrong doesn't mean I should continue to do it wrong. If I had cut the amount of material I taught there, I would have given A's to 60% of my students. I'm not comfortable with dummying down the material for all students because come can't handle the full content. I'm wondering how parents and kids will take to my splitting up the content and presenting it as 80% that everyone should know with an additional 20% that you'd need to know if you want an A in the class. The kids who learn only the 80% would understand that they could not get an A or B on the test.
I really do feel kids who struggle should divide and conquer. They're better off not trying to learn all the material. Instead they need to learn what they learn well and forget the rest.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 06-15-2013 at 06:57 AM..
I got straight A's in chemistry in high school and then had to take it in college for electrical engineering and then did nothing with it. A friend of mine who did chemical engineering became a salesman for Union Carbide for a while but every subsequent job had nothing to do with chemistry.
We need to analyse the usefulness of what we call education. Biology would be more useful if it was made more about nutrition and medicine.
I hate the defeatist attitude.
I personally think all classes should taught to the top 20% and let the remainder keep up.
While classes are graded on a curve, life is not.
I hate the defeatist attitude.
I personally think all classes should taught to the top 20% and let the remainder keep up.
While classes are graded on a curve, life is not.
So every class in EVERY SUBJECT is supposed to be like a microcosm of your concept of life?
The CULTURE is not life. Do we create the culture by how we psychologically condition children with this so called education? We have to deal with Newtonian physics. We see that when a quarterback throws a football. We have to deal with biology because we have bodies. How much chemistry do we need?
All of this talk about jobs but then we don't require double-entry accounting but 4 years of English Lit instead. Very peculiar.
psik
Last edited by psikeyhackr; 06-15-2013 at 10:41 AM..
You will have students who choose to only do the 80% and their parents will not be happy, especially the parents of bright but lazy kids. They may or may not decide to get mad at their kid, but many will be upset with you. It would not make me happy if this option were presented to my second child. I understand what you are saying but you will have parents complain about this. I would have been one of them. Don't get me wrong, I'd be furious with my child, and they would be well aware of that, but I would be upset that the option was presented in a way that my child felt it was a reasonable choice. As a fellow teacher I am well aware of and far more sympathic to the quandary you face than most, and you and I would not have a good exchange over this, imagine how some of your less reasonable parents will react.
I hate the defeatist attitude.
I personally think all classes should taught to the top 20% and let the remainder keep up.
While classes are graded on a curve, life is not.
I agree with you. I believe that the higher we set the bar the more ALL students learn, however, that's not what parents, students and admins want to see in the classroom. If I had it my way, I'd teach to the top but doing so results in the bottom falling off and it is the bottom that is important to the powers that be.
Like it or not, I have to teach to the bottom if I want to teach.
You will have students who choose to only do the 80% and their parents will not be happy, especially the parents of bright but lazy kids. They may or may not decide to get mad at their kid, but many will be upset with you. It would not make me happy if this option were presented to my second child. I understand what you are saying but you will have parents complain about this. I would have been one of them. Don't get me wrong, I'd be furious with my child, and they would be well aware of that, but I would be upset that the option was presented in a way that my child felt it was a reasonable choice. As a fellow teacher I am well aware of and far more sympathic to the quandary you face than most, and you and I would not have a good exchange over this, imagine how some of your less reasonable parents will react.
This is what I'm afraid of. I've tried telling the kids in the bottom to just concentrate on what they can learn and learn that well but they don't do it. They either try to learn it all and learn nothing well or just shut down because they are overwhelmed. They don't hear me when I tell them they are better off learning fewer things but learning them well than trying to learn it all. The solution, to my last principal, was to dummy down chemistry for all students. I don't see how that is any kind of a solution to some kids struggling to keep up but it is one that parents won't complain about.
There has got to be a way to convey the message that learning less but learning it well is the better option if you're struggling with the material. The way I would present this is that you cannot get an A in the class if you choose the 80% option. In fact, the kids would take the same test. I'd just write the test so you can pass by knowing the 80% well and let the remaining 20% determine who gets an A or a B. So the student would have to be happy with less than a B to take that option.
I wonder if it would go over better if presented as "Know all of this for a D...that plus this for a C....all that plus this for a B and everything plus this for an A".
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 06-15-2013 at 10:27 AM..
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