Ever had a student who did all the work and still didn’t make adequate reading growth? I have.
For a long time, I struggled with how to explain to this type of student why they weren’t getting the results they wanted. I struggled with what to do differently.
Not anymore.
Last week I hosted a live discussing why students plateau and what teachers can do about it. You can watch it here or keep reading if you prefer a text version.
Lizzie was a student of mine a long time ago.
In my 9th grade reading class, she did every assignment. She read independently–at least a hundred pages a week.
She agreed to take an honors class with me when she became a junior.
As a junior, she struggled to write coherently. Her ACT scores came back, and they didn’t promise her access to college.
What was I supposed to tell her? Keep trusting in the system?
She had done everything I had asked, and still the system was going to excuse her from her dream of being a first-generation college student.
Of course, life isn’t over for Lizzie. She could still go to community college and transfer. She could find some non-traditional path to build the life she wants.
But still, I wish she would have left high school like so many others, a world full of open doors–no locks, no codes, no guards.
This story is represented by national data from ACT. In 2019, they reported that only 26% of test takers were college ready in all four areas. These students are highly motivated to take this voluntary test, and yet they are not getting the results they want and need.
Why Students Plateau
- It’s a natural cycle. We all go through cycles of learning and stabilization.
- Adolescents have loads of practice in their current mindset and behaviors around school. In the case of students like Lizzie, they are really good at doing school, but they may not have the habits of mind for independent and curious learning, rather than compliant learning. They also may be missing some key pieces of background knowledge that other students may have when they take a test like the ACT. Students like Lizzie need this background knowledge to be systematically taught.
- I had to change to get different results. Liberation is by design, not default. If students like Lizzie weren’t getting where they wanted to go, I had to do something different.
3 Tricks to Beat Student Stagnation for Good
Since Lizzie’s time, I have had other students who did not experience the same stagnation, who’ve had those open doors I wished I helped Lizzie get. I used my literacy lesson plan to get them there.
- Seek complexity and relevance together. Often these two ideas are forced into a dichotomy, but both/and is the way to go. Choose texts that matter and are challenging. When addressing grade-level standards, contextualize them in relevant, authentic purposes.
- Systematically build students’ knowledge and vocabulary. By teaching in organized text sets, you can build a student’s knowledge and vocabulary around a certain topic. This approach builds a common fund of knowledge for all, including all students in the learning.
- Favor engagement over compliance. Move from assigning to getting students involved for the whole lesson. There needs to be clarity of purpose for the lesson, and the meaningful activities should build and welcome curiosity.
How are you feeling about this possible solution? About student stagnation? You may be feeling like there’s nothing else you can do, but this simple lesson plan used over time can yield results.