Love::Teaching - My Data on Relationships ? Neutral Isn't Enough

By coughlinlaura on May 23, 2012 in Reader's Workshop, Reflection?and tagged inventory, middle school, reading, relationship, scholastic, sri, student, teacher

School?s out. All 120 of my 8^th grade reading students have moved on to summer, and then high school. We did an awful lot of fantastic stuff this year, and I got to know a TON of great kids, but now that school is out there are 6 I can?t stop thinking about. Six out of 120 who I think I let down ? and I have the data to prove it.

All teachers have students they instantly click with and those with which they have to work to build hard-won relationships. But for me, seeing 120 students a day, there was a third category this year ? a few students I spent 9 months with but never really got to know at all. We smiled at each other, they showed up on time, turned in there work, and left at the bell. I wasn?t worried about them. They seemed to be doing well enough. These are the kids I let down.

When talking about relationships in schools it is mostly a discussion of gut feelings ? a contrast to the mountains of hard data that we accumulate in every school year. But at the end of this school year I saw a convergence of these two things. We bookend our year by taking the Scholastic Reading Inventory to get a general idea of whether our students have a minimal, basic, proficient, or advanced reading level for their grade. As you can imagine, by 8^th grade most have a fairly steady reading level. If they began the school year as advanced readers, they left as advanced readers. If they came in as basic readers, they left as basic readers. This year, in my classes, nearly 20% of students raised up a band (most from basic to proficient), which is great, but 5% moved down a band.

This upsets me, of course. No teacher wants any of his or her students to leave the school year without moving forward. But the real lesson I learned analyzing this data wasn?t from the numbers, it was from the names. The students who moved down were the students I would describe as ?ok? ?nice? ?fine?? they were the kids I didn?t know.? The kids I hadn?t formed a true relationship with, the ones I never found extra time for, were the ones I let slide.

My goal for next school year is not to be neutral with anyone. Not to be satisfied with a mutual smile and nod relationship. I?ve always known the importance of building positive relationships with kids, but this year it has become obvious to me that a general positive feeling towards all my students isn?t enough. I need to know and enjoy them all as individual people to give them the best school experience possible.

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