Kaitlyn Anderson TE 804 Inquiry Project March 22, 2013

Combating Student Apathy: The Middle School Dilemna

Questions and Context
The issue of student apathy has been an overarching issue throughout the course of my time as a seventh grade teacher at Waverly Middle School. Student apathy is a serious problem in the education system, particularly in middle school settings due to policies pushing students into the next grade level and students reluctance to know how to deal with the overwhelming expectations as they receive more responsibilities. Regardless of how many times I emphasize the importance of turning work in on time or informing my students that I would not accept late work, after an assignment was due my students would ask if I would accept their work. Therefore, my main questions regarding the middle school culture of apathy was how could I combat student apathy in my daily practices and was it possible to overcome it. The text Overcoming Student Apathy: Motivating Students for Academic Success by Jeff C. Marshall addresses apathy by providing a narrative of various types of students allowing for specific strategies for individual students. At the beginning of my teaching experience I had students everyday that would have emotional outbreaks before and during class making it difficult to focus our attention to academic success. That is why I decided providing my students with the tools to be successful behaviorally would lead to a more positive school experience and thus less apathetic in the classroom.

Keep issues of behavior private

Allow for individual student contracts

Use a collaborative approach to solving student conflicts

Resources: Marshall, Jeff C. Overcoming Student Apathy: Motivating Students for Academic Success. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2008. Print. Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. New York: Little, Brown.

Issues of Policy
At Waverly Middle School, like so many other middle schools across the nation, middle school students are passed along to the next grade level regardless of whether the student passed each individual class. Waverly seventh and eighth grade students are only held back if they fail up to three classes, but if a student fails only one or two content area courses they are moved along to the next grade level. If my students happen to fail three courses they are expected to take a summer course. The belief of the school is that retention does not actually benefit children. However, when students get to the high school level, each individual class is worth credits and if a student does not pass a particular course the student must retake the course before graduating. The discrepancy between middle school and high school expectations establishes disconnect for many students, including my own students. While teaching I have encountered students who are apathetic about their low scores and overall grades because they do not believe it counts for much (i.e. going onto the eighth grade or getting into college). Throughout the school year I have had to convince my students of the purpose of turning in homework or assignments on time because they have learned that regardless of failing a class or two, they will not be held back.

Strategies
While the text refers to different groups of students, I decided to narrow down my search to The challenge is not just student populations that needed the most attention in my classroom in attempt to benefit the classroom what we can do to community as a whole: students who come to class [students]. Rather, the angry and students who feel overwhelmed by challenge becomes how we school. 1. Overcoming Negative Attitudes can grow together in the A major problem I encountered with my pursuit of success students was their frustrations occurring outside of my classroom that would - Overcoming Student Apathy: penetrate into our classroom environment Motivating Students for making it difficult for themselves and the Academic Success people around them to achieve academic success. - Worked to earn student respect by [keeping] behavioral issues private (Marshall). - Established individual student contracts because all students are different and have different needs (i.e. Teaching students to communicate frustrations in a respectful and thoughtful way, instead of having an outbreak in class. Taking a moment to gather themselves in times of frustration.) 2. Using a collaborative approach to conflict resolution Many of my students are on a behavioral plan designed to promote coming to class prepared, demonstrating respectful behavior to teachers and classmates, being determined to get work done, and demonstrating engagement of classroom lessons. - Used school behavioral sheets as an outlet for communication about their successes and areas of improvement for each day. 3. Breaking down projects into smaller sections In order for students to not feel overwhelmed by a large poetry project, I began the unit with an overview and broke down the project into groups of poems. I focused my attention to the rough draft versions of poems and made sure to have due dates for the rough drafts to promote students not leaving their poems until the end of the project.

Findings
What worked? Restisting negative attitudes from students has proved to be one of my most challenging tasks as a teacher. Although there are few students in my class who posses these negative attitudes, all it takes is one or two students who are having a bad day to change the attitude of the class. Keeping students behavioral issues private and establishing individual student contracts led to a major reduction of student referrals to the schools Restorative Thinking Center. Using the behavior point sheets as an outlet for individual student contracts led to students being more respectful in class and being more engaged which was shown by the students receiving on average a higher daily score. For example, one student in particular after communicating their success in the classroom and discussing privately what they could work on has not been sent to RTC in the last couple weeks, has been turning in work, and has become more engaged in class by participating. What didnt work? While breaking down the poetry project and daily assignments into smaller parts benefited some students as it allowed them to turn in sections of work at a time, many students continued to not turn in their work on time. The reason I think it did not work is because I had too many sections for students to work on which continued to seem overwhelming.