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E-zine What
Can Teachers and Parents Do to Help
Underachievers? In my last E-zine
article (Vol. 1, No. 3) I discussed the causes of
underachievement and various characteristics of
underachieving children. In this article I
would like to offer some practical strategies to
use in working with underachievers. Because
the causes of underachievement are so varied, so
are the strategies that can be used by teachers and
parents to deal with this problem. I've
listed some of my favorite strategies below.
If you have a favorite strategy, please email it to
me and we will include it in the "Successes and
Sharing" section of the E-zine. Motivating Underachievers:
20 Strategies for Teachers 1.
Maintain contact between home and school.
Communicate in numerous ways: parent conferences,
home visits, voice mail, cell phones, fax, e-mail,
notes, video conferences and phone calls. We
are in the Information Age &endash; take advantage
of new technologies as you communicate with
parents! 2.
Discourage the "Parent to the Rescue"
syndrome. Work with parents so that they
won't constantly rescue their child when he or she
forgets homework or another needed item. Work
with parents so that they can develop realistic,
enforceable consequences when their child does not
exhibit responsible behavior. 3.
Emphasize goal setting, showing students how life
success is linked to school performance. Have
former students come and talk to your class about
the value of school in terms of success outside of
school. E-mail interviews are also a good way
to link students to the outside world. 4.
Encourage more reading and less TV, videos,
computer games and surfing the Internet at
home. Reading anything, regardless of what it
is, will generally increase achievement. 5.
Use concepts from the world of sports as analogies
for goal setting in life. Success in most
sports involves working toward a goal. Use
words such as goalie, goal post, personal best,
game plan, etc. to show the conceptual links
between the world of sports and the world of
school. 6.
Hold students accountable for actions, behavior,
materials and work. Don't use threats you
can't carry out. Instead, say what you mean
and follow through on it. 7.
Help underachievers identify their areas of
strength. Most underachievers are painfully
aware of their weaknesses, but every underachiever
has many strengths as well. Notice these
strengths and work to enhance them! 8.
Use whole group instruction, individualized study,
heterogeneous grouping and cluster or ability
grouping, each as they are appropriate for the
teaching and learning goals and
outcomes. 9.
Use various forms of assessment. Schools
should not be solely "test prep"
institutions. Assessing learning can be done
in many ways. Underachievers are often not
good test takers. Try performance
assessments, rubrics, checklists and portfolios to
document learning success. 10. Use
the expertise and experience of other teachers in
deciding on strategies to use with your
underachievers. Collaborate by sharing
strategies you know work with underachieving
students. Plan strategies jointly for dealing
with your underachievers. 11.
Plan lessons that involve all of Gardner's Multiple
Intelligences, a variety of learning styles and
modalities, and/or all levels of Bloom's
Taxonomy. 12.
Make sure your lessons give the opportunity for
students to use higher level thinking skills.
Underachievers are often bored with low level
thinking yet may be great problem solvers when
given more complex and challenging
problems. 13. Use
brain-based learning theories to develop
interdisciplinary, integrated teaching
units. 14.
Provide hands-on learning experiences. This
is particularly important for kinesthetic, concrete
random learners, a description that fits many
underachievers. 15. Use
outside resources and school staff to offer
specialized courses based on student
interests. Sometimes an interesting
mini-course will be just the thing to give an
underachiever a successful school experience and
motivation to do more. 16.
Identify specific organizational skills your
underachievers need to learn. Work on these
skills one at a time. Show your
underachievers practical ways to become more
organized. 17.
Include classroom activities that increase skill in
memorization. Memorizing successfully
increases self-confidence and builds the base for
other types of school success. 18.
Team each underachieving student with an achieving
partner of equal ability. This works well
because the achieving partner will usually
encourage the underachiever. Don't pair
achievers and underachievers of unequal
ability. 19. Be
intentional about teaching study skills.
These are not automatic for most students, and tend
to be particularly difficult for
underachievers. Telling an underachiever to
study without showing him what that means and how
to do it is a waste of time! 20.
Have students discuss and think about success and
failure. Talk about the fear of failure but
also the fear of success. Address issues such
as text anxiety and perfectionism. Dealing
with these issues in a positive, proactive and
helpful manner is one way to boost
achievement. Motivating Underachievers:
10 Strategies for Parents 1. Don't use
"put-downs" and sarcasm in dealing with your
child. Even if he is driving you crazy and a
sarcastic remark would make you feel better, there
is no long-term beneficial result from doing
this. 2. Emphasize what
your child has learned from an assignment or
activity, even if mistakes were made. All of
us learn a great deal from our failures and
mistakes. Help your child understand this and
that all of us make mistakes from time to
time. 3. Be aware of
times your underachiever is trying to manipulate
you. Underachievers are particularly adept at
manipulating adults, and experiencing success in
this behavior only makes underachievement worse.
Don't use threats you can't carry out!
This is always an opportunity for your child to
manipulate you. 4. Be aware of your
child's areas of intense interest and build on
these. Use success in an interest outside of
school as an encouragement for success in
school. Share your child's special interests
with the teacher. He or she may be able to
use these to motivate your child. 5. Don't overload
your child with activities! Some students are
underachievers simply because they have too much to
do and too many demands on their time. One or
two extra-curricular activities a week are enough
for most children. 6. Promote a love
of reading in your home. Designate one night
a week as "No TV night" and have a reading night
instead. Make the most inviting place in your
home a "Reading Area" where the only thing that can
be done there is reading. 7. Discover your
child's academic weakness. Brainstorm ways to
make learning fun in this area. Create a game
or song that makes learning easier. 8. Encourage your
child to teach things he or she knows to someone
younger. Find an older child or mentor to
work with your child in an area of interest or in a
difficult subject. 9. Set aside a
"Study Time" in your home every night. No
activities other than studying are allowed during
study time. Be a lifelong learner yourself
and model good studying behavior during Study
Time. 10. With the
classroom teacher, devise a system of
parent-teacher communication. Take advantage
of new technologies. Use e-mail, school or
teacher websites, homework hotlines and other forms
of communication when available. Don't be
afraid to contact the teacher. It is much
better to work on a problem together than for each
of you to struggle with it on your own!
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