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Reluctant Learners Screencast

Futurist Scenario: Reaching Reluctant Learners

Identification of the Problem: 

Over the past few years, I have become interested in the phenomenon of the reluctant learner.  These are students who, based on achievement measures (CST scores, work samples, quizzes), have the intellectual skills to complete work and achieve high grades but who do fail classes.  These students have the ability to pass, however, they either don’t do work in class or complete homework or fail quizzes and tests due to lack of preparation.  Some of these students complete homework but are marked down because they submit assignments late.  These often bright students do well in elementary school but for a variety of reasons, they develop the above behaviors in middle school.

The Scenario:

The path I would like to take with my middle school teams is to develop and implement strategies to re-engage these students into their learning communities.

SWOT Analysis:

·         Strengths—The teams with which I work are truly enjoy working with middle school students.  The three teachers in the Montessori Middle School completed training which was specific to this developmental age.  The teachers in the DaVinci Academy are dedicated and have worked tirelessly to create a rigorous, yet fun learning environment.

·         Weaknesses—Time and expertise.  While the teachers and I have had some training in adolescent development, we are by no means experts.  Specific staff development would need to be created and the time would have to be planned to discuss this phenomenon and develop an action plan.

·         Opportunities—If we can engage more students, we can really impact the future

·         Threats—Our school is in its fifth year of program improvement (PI).  Last year, we far exceeded our goals and have the opportunity to reach those goals again this year.  If we reach our API (Academic Performance Index) goals, we would be out of program improvement.  The high pressure that this situation has created has drained our time and financial resources as we implement interventions and strategies to increase our API.

Action Plan

1.      Identify resources and allies within our organization.  Several directors (principals) within our school have been administrators at traditional public schools.  We can draw on their knowledge of intervention strategies.

2.      Identify resources and allies through networking.  This could be an excellent opportunity to use my fledgling PLN in order to gather best practices from outside resources.

3.      Share resources via Scoopit, using Diigo marked articles.  Link to EdModo for online learning experience.  Engage teachers in a discussion via Edmodo as preparation for staff development day.

4.      Design interventions for our specific populations.

5.      Design implementation plan and progress monitoring.  Currently, we monitor academic progress and apply academic interventions.  This new plan will include interventions to increase productivity and engagement with some progress monitoring measure for each.