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There are different avenues to achieving success, but the child or adult who wishes for it must be willing to put forth effort (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p.155). If a child wants to be successful but have the wrong ideas about how to achieve it, teachers can teach them about it with various types of technology.
According to the authors of, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, a spreadsheet can be one of the many tools which can be used to teach students about the importance of effort. Using this strategy with middle school students could benefit them greatly. For example, I have seen how students can make improvements on test scores or even their behaviors when they are given immediate feedback with a visual representation. They have a chance to see and then talk about what lead to them to a specific outcome and what they can do differently the next time around. They then will have many opportunities to practice the behaviors that will lead to a positive outcome. In this instance, these students want to be successful and are willing to work at it.
This is a great example of how the principles of the behaviorist learning theory correlate to an instructional strategy. Positive behaviors are being reinforced and this will lead to the success of the students who are involved.
Reference:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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I never remember as a middle school or high school student being presented with a visual of how effort correlated to success. I always had to study really hard to get good grades, while I felt many of my friends just got good grades with ease. I think a visual spreadsheet is an excellent idea, not only to allow each student to monitor their own effort to success ratio but to then combine the statistics and show the class how true it is that each and every student needs to put forth effort to succeed. At that age it was easy for me to think my friends and classmates had it easier than I did, were smarter and had to put less effort in etc. but the truth is in the statistics and every student in one way or another has to put in the effort to come out successful. This same idea can be used with my third graders. They too need to understand that every one of their classmates puts in effort to achieve. When I was reading about the idea of recording effort whether by checklist, rubric or spreadsheet, I thought of a little boy who I had in my class who always tried so hard but always said to me “I try so hard but never get good grades”. To him good grades were A’s but he did improve with effort. I used to save old assignments and pull them out to point out his improvements, with his effort did come improvement but it was not the quality or degree of improvement that impressed him. If I had shown him how to record his effort and then we put his effort into a visual representation it might have gave him the encouragement to continue to put in the great effort he needed to. This is a behaviorist strategy that I look forward to implementing in my classroom because I know it will help so many of my students!
ReplyDeleteMarissa Vetere
Marissa,
ReplyDeleteI am also certain that seeing his efforts will motivate this young man to continue with putting effort forward to become successful. After all, he sounds like he is already willing to work hard, so he just needs to see that he is working hard and is also making progress.