Ch. 4- Raise Your Expectations
In this chapter I learned that when we raise our expectations of students’ writing and reading, they tend to rise to those expectations. Raising expectations in writing and teaching with the optimal model can increase students’ opportunities to explore writing in depth. When students rise to expectations and learn to write well, they can then judge writing that is not as good and work harder to improve.
Unfortunately there is a “school culture” of low expectations, especially for minority students, poor students, and students who have struggled in the past. Many teachers see a student who struggles and simply decides from the get-go that the student will most likely be a low achiever. Sadly, I am probably even guilty of this at times. I try to have faith in every student and believe that they can succeed, but when I struggle getting through to a student and see the student continue to struggle as well, it becomes a frustration. Rather than giving up on students and deciding that they will be low achievers, it is important that we raise our expectations and do not accept any less than their best effort and best work. It is also important that we use praise and compliment students on what they are doing correctly to build their confidence, before pointing out what they need to improve at. This can motivate them to continue to be more successful readers and writers.
I think it is awesome that when Regie goes into a teacher’s classroom to work with students she asks that the teacher NOT tell her who the struggling students are. When teachers have high expectations of students, regardless of their past or their assumed capabilities, they can achieve more than many thought possible. Regie explained that many teachers were very surprised at how successful their lower level writers were when the expectations were greater. The students rose to them and met the challenge, accomplishing more than they ever had before.
Regie recommends being a “stickler” about work that is published or goes public. She says that teachers should expect correctness and teach how to be correct in writing. Obviously a student’s first draft is not always going to be correct or perfect. Regie has explained that ideas and content should come first, but she seems to be very serious about making sure a final published piece is as close to perfect as can be. I try to put some pressure on my students to edit or peer edit and revise, looking for misspelled words, problems with conventions, etc. Sometimes they struggle and often they think that their paper is just fine the way it is. I’ve always thought that a few errors are okay as long as the student has tried their best with inventive spelling and has asked other students for help, but Regie actually recommends editing the rest of the child’s paper “for free” once he/she has tried their hardest. Inventive spelling does not seem to be enough for a piece of writing when it is going to be displayed for others. I guess I always have felt like editing a child’s paper is “cheating”, but at the same time, I guess if you are letting a child publish a paper that is incorrect, you are also cheating them out of being successful. The public (especially parents and those who read students’ work) really does judge not only the student, but also the teacher when reading published pieces of work. I feel like I will monitor this a little better from now on, but when I do help a child with the finishing touches, I am not going to do it all for them without collaborating. I will make sure the child is also part of that editing process by discussing what changes are being made and why we are making them.
According to the text, high expectations can often be met if a teacher uses explicit instruction, develops a close bond and relationship with students, creates an environment where it is okay to take appropriate risks, helps students set goals, and encourages students to work hard. I feel like I should really increase the amount of explicit instruction and guided writing that I do with my students. I also want to work on making more writing-related short-term and long-term goals with students. We do goal writing, but I do not feel like we make enough goals together (written or oral) in relation to writing and what we want to accomplish.
Another thing that I feel I need to be better about is raising my expectations for handwriting. Sometimes I accept work from my students even when I know they can really make it look nicer and more legible. Regie Routman says that if we don’t expect less than the students’ best handwriting, they will rise to those expectations. I think part of what holds me back from this is that I really don’t feel like my own handwriting is that great, so I don’t have high expectations for my students’ handwriting either. I now realize the importance of using my best handwriting when teaching my students and explaining to my students that using sloppy handwriting is disrespectful to the reader of their work. I think if I explain the importance and really stay on my students about using good handwriting, I will see more legible work from them.
One thing that really surprised me about what Regie said in this chapter is that after cursive is taught you can let students write in print if it is too hard. She says that legibility is more important. In my district, third graders are supposed to write in cursive “99%” of the time. Some of my students really struggled with this last year, but I was pushed to keep enforcing cursive. I couldn’t read anything these students wrote! I am kind of caught between the two opinions- I agree that if we teach students cursive and then don’t enforce them to use it, they could lose the valuable skill, but I also feel that if the students’ writing cannot be read, the point in using it daily is a little contradictory because they can’t even get their written message across to others. Maybe these students just need continual practice with their handwriting outside of the regular writing instruction time. This would be an interesting subject to bring up at a staff meeting or to discuss with other teachers.
In this chapter Regie started to discuss demonstrations, shared writing, “scaffolded” conversations, and their importance in raising expectations for students’ work. I really want to see some examples of how she does this or read about more about the shared writing process. This chapter ends with a very important message- “do NOT ever accept failure”- it is not an option. I think this is a really good quote to live by and teach by. I think that as a teacher, if you believe in your students, encourage them, stay positive, and increase your expectations, your students will not be able to fail- you won’t let them! I also strongly believe that if your students are failing, YOU are failing as a teacher.
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You have an interesting take on the idea of cheating. When we edit for students, it does seem like we are cheating them out of learning. Yet when we don't edit, we are also cheating them. I think that sharing is one aspect of writing that goes hand-in-hand with publishing. When we know someone is going to see our work (besides just the teacher), then we tend to take more care. Without having the sharing aspect, we are also cheating our students out of the real world motivation that guides most writing we do as adults.
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