Hope + Hard Work = Accomplishment (?)

As I was reading Nakkula, I thought about something that I feel is probably part of my teaching philosophy/belief in some way.  My job is to foster a sense of hope in my students.  If we expect students that have been passed along through No Child Left Behind to pass high stakes testing, these “high goals must be met by realistic hope – hope cultivated by successive, ongoing experiences of accomplishment” (pg. 63).  How can we expect our low performing kids to feel good about school and working hard when we really haven’t cared too much about that ourselves?  As a system, we have cared mostly about socially promoting students to the next grade level, at least that’s what I see has happened by the time many of my students get to the high school.  Then, all of a sudden the high stakes test comes along and we do so much ramp up that we lose them even more.   Many of my sophomores are taking three math classes just to get them ready for NECAP next year.  That means we have taken away their electives, their joy essentially.  The only way these kids can experience the hope that they matter or the hope that they can go to college or the hope that they are worthy of challenge is to give them an experience where they feel a sense of accomplishment.  It doesn’t have to be through core academics, it could be through sports, activities, a teacher or staff person that cares.  But somewhere along the line our kids need to feel there is hope for them.  Maybe it could be in the form of a writing assignment that might not be great overall, but has some great thoughts that can be cultivated.  Maybe a math problem doesn’t have the correct final answer, but by looking at the student’s work it is obvious that they are heading in the right direction.   Perhaps if a student hears they are on the right track, it may give them the hope to try harder. Then they have a sense of hope that the next problem or writing piece might be hard, but they know they can do it.

Additionally, in Chapter 4 Nakkula writes about Skill Theory and how through the experience of building skills, the student also builds their confidence and a sense of competence.  The more competent and confident a student is the more likely she is to venture into new learning activities.  At first I thought this was quite obvious but when I read this, I appreciated the reminder that hard work and seeing a task to the end is an accomplishment in itself for my students.  Especially if I can tell a student they did a good job.  It’s not always about the reward of the grade, sometimes it’s the reward of a teacher seeing a student’s hard work and giving them a verbal award that the hard work was noticed.  This made me think about the graphic novel and perhaps this is my belief (or part of it?):

“I believe adolescents learn by a challenging teacher that fosters a strong sense of emotional and intellectual hope in order for the student to feel a sense of confidence and competence.”  

Well, a work in process anyway …