Getting
Students to Take School Seriously Ed Clement
Sometimes I find it really difficult to get my middle school students
to take school seriously, particularly when it comes to standardized
tests.
This year I've been trying to compare school learning to earning
money. I begin with a discussion about how adults earn money for
the work they do and then put some of that money into the bank to
pay their electric bill, gas bill, etc. We discuss the consequences
of adults not paying bills. Then I compare adult jobs to the students'
job of attending school, and I compare bill-paying to test-taking.
In order to pay those bills (tests), I tell my students, you must
store up enough knowledge, just like adults store money in a bank.
If you have not stored up enough knowledge by year's end, you cannot
pay the "bills" to get you to the next grade.
I also like to point out that if an adult drops his or her paycheck
and doesn't pick it up, it gets lost, and then he or she will not
have the money to pay bills. I then ask my students to look around
the room and try to visualize any knowledge that has come to them
during class time that they have let fall to the ground to be wasted.
Of all the discussions I've had with my students, I've found that
using this idea of comparing a brain to a bank and knowledge to
money to pay bills is the most effective. I only have to mention
that there are "bills" to be paid or ask if what I just said has
fallen to the ground, and my students usually become more attentive
to the classroom activity at hand.
Of course there is no magic bullet to ensure student attentiveness,
but I find the money/testing analogy to be a very effective tool.
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