Making Students and Parents Partners in their Success
Beckee Morrison, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at the Kalama Intermediate School in Makawao, Hawaii, is in her ninth teaching year. She believes students should have the opportunity to take charge of their academic success by formulating and following through on their own plan to improve. By assuming responsibility for their mistakes, Morrison believes her students learn the true value of personal accountability.
“Nobody likes getting bad grades,” she says, “but I think it’s better for kids who can go home and say, ‘Look, I’ve got a D right now, but here’s my plan to bring my grade up.’ It’s like the kid’s saying, ‘I got this!’”
When students have a low grade at the midterm in her class, Morrison gives them a blank plan with a list of approaches that will lead to improvement. The goals are realistic—no more missing or incomplete assignments, a target grade for the rest of the semester, and at least partial proficiency in the coursework, for example. Next they identify specific steps they will take to meet the goals for the remainder of the term. By allowing students to take the lead, Morrison puts them in charge of their own academic success.
“I sign it, the student signs their own plan, and the parents sign it,” says Morrison, who has noticed her students taking more of a proactive approach to their classwork. “After two weeks, I print up a new grade report for that student, and we conference. We review the plan, talk about whether it was realistic, whether they took the steps, and whether they met their goal.”
To ensure that students are held accountable at home and school, and to boost the likelihood that they will follow through on efforts to reach their goals, Morrison includes parents in the conversation. This way, students can work from an unwavering foundation of positive reinforcement, which encourages them to reach their goals and also teaches them the value of personal responsibility.
Teachers should work in tandem with parents to help students grow into self-conscious and constructive adults. Meeting that goal is not always easy, but once parents see you as an advocate in their child’s development, you’ll be on the way to making sure the lessons from school are being enforced at home, and vice versa.