As a teacher I have seen this strange phenomenon where students are not really even sure what work is anymore. Seriously. They do not know how to even explain what work actually is or should feel like. 

Work is hard. Work shouldn’t be just handed to you, you have to, you know, do the work! 

NOTES ARE NOT WORK 

Students are so used to just being given information, they have no desire to find anything on their own. 

When I do notes with my students, often involving practice problems and examples, students insist on getting credit. When I do not grade notes, they get confused and tell me that I haven’t graded their work. 

That’s not work. You copied that off the board. That is a lesson. Those are the notes. 

I catch students using PhotoMath– an app that gives you the answer and steps. 

That’s not work. You copied that off the app. 

Baffled, students hand in what I haven’t asked for (notes) as well as work they copied, all the while demanding this is work, that they did their work all the same. 

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS 

I’m finding that more and more students will just sit there and wait for me to give answers. Now I teach Algebra, so I’m not sure if that works in other subjects, but it certainly doesn’t work when it comes to math. 

I learned about “learned helplessness” in graduate school, a term used for behaviors that arise from doing too much for students, often students with disabilities. They learn that if they don’t do it or act like they can’t, they’ll get help. Some people remember an episode of Everybody loves Raymond, where Raymond is taught if he feigns like he does something poorly, Deborah just won’t ask him to do it again. This idea is all the same. Children are taught they can just take that they can’t do it, so someone will do it for them.

I have seen students just sit there and wait for help more times than anyone could even fathom. It’s just the way a lot of students have become and it makes teaching a group of any size, other than one, difficult. 

The only way to break this is to continuously work on independence. I tell my students when we are specifically working on independence because otherwise they will immediately ask for help, or not try anything. 

Getting kids to try is trying. 

COVID KIDS 

During the COVID era of education, the virtual learning times, it was hard to know what students were actually doing. Even when I was looking at a student’s screen, all I could see was the cursor, I could see if they were keeping up with the notes, and merely things like if they were on the right page. 

I couldn’t see their workbook though. I couldn’t see their attempts or lack of attempts at doing a problem independently. I often looked like Steve on Blues Clues, saying “Did everyone get that?” And then saying “Great!” after some self chosen amount of wait time in silence. 

HABITS DIE HARD 

Once you get in the habit of just waiting for the answer, it’s really hard to get out of that habit. Students are seemingly more and more incapable of getting the wrong answer, emotionally I mean. They don’t want to get the wrong answer, and truly, it feels like some students are incapable of even writing down an answer that they aren’t sure is right. 

Learning comes from failing. Students don’t realize that you learn by trying it on your own and then learning why that was wrong. 

There’s no grit left in students. And to be frank I’m not really sure how to build that. I struggle to know how to push kids who won’t try, who won’t struggle. 

ONLY GRADING WORK WORK

I’ve worked really hard to be more fair about my grades. Now to clear, fair does not mean inflating, no. It actually means the opposite. In one of the most striking assessment classes that I took with the brilliant Dr. Andrade, I remember one of the huge takeaways being that effort should never be a grade. 

Now that might sound wrong to you, or a little backwards. That’s because back in the day, it was considered okay to give kids extra credit for effort, for remembering to bring in their supplies, or any “good act.”

The thing is this breeds all kinds of bad ideas and habits about learning and academics. Although it may give kids a picture of future politics, grades for a class should be based on content knowledge and that alone. It should be based on performance of a pre chosen goal or standard. 

The reason many teachers give effort grades or extra credit for such things as participation, is to help the kids who are working hard, but don’t get it. 

Now of course it’s frustrating when the kid who works hard and shows up still has a bad grade. And it may even feel frustrating when the kid who doesn’t listen to you or do his work still does better on the exam than the hard working kids. 

The thing is your grade needs to be based off of the curriculum and what the student is supposed to be getting out of your class. That’s what fair is, for the hard worker and the naturally smart slacker, too. Grades need to be based on duplicating the learning objectives. 

If possible, I cover student’s names because that shouldn’t affect your grading either. LjHow much you like a kid should never affect their grade and grading effort, or anything in that sort will lead you to unfair grading policies. In this day and age, when grades are all it seems kids do care about, we need to ensure we’re fair to each student and hold them to the same standards. 

PERFORMING SCHOOL

Half of school is performative. 

Can you perform ‘school’? Can you listen during class? Can you walk quietly in the hall? Be on time? Have your book out without being asked. Grab your calculator. Follow procedures. 

When you can’t perform school, you are certainly told so. The kids who ‘act up’ in class, the kids who can’t perform school, they tend to get in trouble, and tend to get kicked out. This leads them to miss all kinds of instruction because they struggle at performing school. 

We must reject our natural instincts as teachers to grade students on how well they perform school while also pushing them to WORK. 

Students need to learn more about how to work, and less about merely performing school. 

The well behaved student, according to our standards, who struggles academically, tends to be the kid who is missed the most. These kids fall through the cracks often because they’re just good at performing school and someone keeps pushing them through with effort grades. 

In the end, that helps no one because that kiddo will eventually hit the brick wall and get to a teacher who holds them to a higher standard. 

SOME REMINDER TAKE AWAYS 

This is a reminder to me, and to other teachers too possibly, to push kids to a higher standard NOW. Whatever year they’re at, it’s time. 

COVID can’t be an excuse forever. Yes, we all went through a huge trauma. And yes, we’re still recovering– but it’s time. 

We have to teach kids how to work again, how to struggle, and how to actually persevere and learn. I have in my past been quick to help kids, to move the lesson forward. 

I’m working on this because you can only help kids learn who know how to learn. We need to teach kids how to learn again and a lot of that comes from stepping back. Teaching is coaching and a coach is only seen as effective when the kids can do it in the game, without them.  

HOW TO LEARN IS HOW TO LOSE 

My dad used to tell me that it’s easy to win. Everyone knows how to win. But he said it was his job to teach me how to lose, how to act when it didn’t go right. 

You have to teach kids how to lose and in turn how to learn. Teach them it IS a struggle to learn, and it should be. That’s okay, and expected. 

It is easier for some kids, and some struggle less. But every single kid needs to learn how to struggle, to learn how to lose, and what to do when you do fail. 

You look at what you did wrong, you practice better the next time. You figure it out. You plan another game, you listen to your coach. You get better. 

You don’t quit. Right now, kids just want to quit. Giving them the answer gives them the out and we just can’t raise a generation like that.