Teachers can help their students learn how to deal with problems they ... Know Why the Caged Bird Sings on her own while the class read it and keep a journal.
Building Resilient Students: Three Key Strategies for Success by Janine S. Davis Teachers can help their students learn how to deal with problems they encounter outside the classroom walls. Use these three teaching strategies to help your students build their resilience. Several years ago when I was a brand-‐new teacher, a 10-‐grade student — let’s call her Nala — shocked me one day by giving me a sheaf of forms to sign. She was leaving to give birth and start raising her own child in about a week. She had hidden this detail from almost everyone at school; as we stumbled through our busy lives, we all missed it. I fumbled my way through creating an individual assignment for her so that she could receive credit during her absence; I asked her to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings on her own while the class read it and keep a journal. There may have been other tasks, but those stand out to me. Why? The journal I got back was so well-‐written and extensive, so honest and eye-‐opening for a suburban girl from Virginia (me), that I still have it in a box somewhere. I could not and cannot bear to throw it away. Through the magic of Facebook, I have managed to stay in touch with this student, and I even tried to mail it back to her once, but it came back to me. It still sits folded quietly inside its legal-‐size envelope. When I glance at that envelope, I wonder about that student’s resilience. She is happy, engaged, positive, and successful. She came from some harrowing circumstances and went on to live an amazing life. Are there ways that we can lead more students down a similar path, regardless of the walls that life may throw in front of them? As teachers, how can we build windows for students to see positive possibilities for their future, rather than walls that block their healthy development? [[h1]]Research on resilience and academic success Research shows that personal connections and interests are vital to the resilience of at-‐risk children (Polakow, 1993). We know that attachments in early childhood, especially between birth and age three, matter a great deal. Even in face
of incredible hardship, parents or other mentors can successfully ease these troubles for the children they live or work with in the accumulation of simple, everyday interactions; Masten (2009) calls this “ordinary magic.” What can we do for older children who didn’t have the benefit of these key attachments? Teachers can have an important impact on students who are at key points in their development — ages 4-‐7 and the transition to adulthood — by helping them to develop resilience and break out of negative patterns of interaction (Masten, 2009). Positive interactions with teachers will aid students of all kinds, especially those who struggle with difficult life experiences. Teachers adopt various teaching personae in the classroom (Davis, 2011, 2012), which includes showing care to students. There is a complex interplay when it comes to showing care: One may not actually care about a situation, but exhibit behaviors that express care, such as gently touching the shoulder or asking students about personal matters. Conversely, teachers may care about their students, but have trouble expressing those feelings through their interactions. Nel Noddings (2005) addresses this complex interrelationship of expression, feeling, and perception, noting that students may not feel that the teacher cares — or do not feel cared for — even if the teacher feels that she cares. Grotberg (1995) identifies three sources or stances children might take for developing resilience: I Have, I Am, and I Can. I Have involves considering the people and resources that are available to offer support; I Am includes the positive characteristics the child sees in herself, and I Can encompasses learned skills in social interaction, such as “I can talk to others to help me solve problems.” Resilient children draw on more than one of these stances, and explicit support from teachers is critical (Grotberg, 1995). In the following sections, I provide three practical strategies that teachers can employ to increase the resiliency of students. These strategies are linked to Grotberg’s three sources of resilience. [[h1]] Strategy one: Build strong relationships with students and (when feasible) families (I Have)
Students, even those in difficult settings, have options. Teachers can instruct students about available resources such as free clinics, meals, and Internet access, and teachers themselves can be an additional resource. This generally comes as no surprise to most elementary teachers; however, some secondary teachers (preservice or otherwise) have trouble with this idea or do not expect to play this role. Regardless of the intense pressure to teach content, teachers cannot forget that they teach students first. Students cannot learn when they are suffering. When teachers get to know students more personally and use instruction that changes the traditional teacher-‐student relationship and “sage on the stage” persona, this sends students the message that we are there for them and will help when problems seem unsolvable. It is much harder to relate to someone who holds all the power in the relationship, and at-‐risk students have generally had negative experiences with power struggles in the past. Teachers can also reach out to family members. My kindergarten-‐age daughter sometimes struggles with school-‐appropriate behavior. Her teacher is new but tireless in her efforts to stay in touch with us and develop plans to support her. We create charts and systems of rewards together and revisit their effectiveness often; the teacher helps me be a resource for my own child. It takes a lot of time out of a teacher’s busy schedule to make contact with parents, and there is an important caveat to remember: Involvement can backfire. Some students suffer consequences if their parents are abusive and they learn about trouble at school. There are also roadblocks for teachers when it comes to parent contact. Do you have trouble communicating in parents’ native languages? Try a letter or post card (a positive gesture since it will be visible to the student if she sees it in the mail) early in the year. The written word can be easier for parents to share with a trusted friend who can translate. Parents don’t have email? Ask community leaders about the best way to get in touch with a parent, or set up a meeting at a time when the parent is available. Learn about a child’s situation before you contact home, but never assume that parents do not care because they live in poverty or they didn’t come to Back-‐to-‐ School Night. Teachers can make sweeping, negative generalizations about people in
various situations (Polakow, 1993). New research stresses a change from older models that saw some children as having deficits to a more positive view that all parents have the capability to raise their children (Masten, 2009) and some may need help locating resources. When parents want to support their children but don’t know how, the teacher can provide easy ways for parents to show the “ordinary magic” that will lead to resilient children by assigning engaging homework to be done together, modeling how to ask about students’ interests and supporting them, helping parents find necessary community resources, and providing opportunities for parents to form positive goals with their children. [[h1]]Strategy two: Harness the power of narrative (I Am) Who are we? How do we tell others about who we are? Storytelling has intense power for building resilience: First, we construct and shape our own stories, and second, it is therapeutic. As Noddings notes, “Stories have the power to direct and change our lives” (p. 157, Carter, 1993). Matilda, the popular new musical based on the Roald Dahl book with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, features a main character who develops resilience in spite of neglectful and abusive parents. In describing the doomed Jack and Jill and Romeo and Juliet, she asks, “I wonder why they didn’t just change their story?” and later says, “Nobody else is gonna put it right for me.” We continually construct narratives about our lives during our social interactions. One glance at Facebook or Twitter reveals the story our contacts choose to tell about their lives; this may feel authentic or forced, positive or negative, scattered or carefully planned, but this truth is endlessly important to convey to students. It’s simple, but we often forget: We write our own stories. We choose what will stay and what will go when we tell others about our lives. Research supports the use of writing in therapy (Pennebaker, 1997). I saw firsthand the therapeutic power of journal writing when Nala wrote about some of the most difficult aspects of her upbringing in her journal, and I hope that giving her the assignment helped her to process some of these difficult memories. This raises some challenges for teachers, because when they learn about actual danger in
students’ lives, they must report it, so students may be less likely to share this kind of writing when they know the teacher will read it. How can we solve this problem? Start small. A daily free-‐write journal in class can show students the power of pouring ideas on paper without regard to conventions or organization; later, build up to outside writing that students do for themselves and then describe, but do not have to share, even with the teacher. Teachers grade written work, but when we stress correctness and organization at the expense of ideas, we close doors on the kind of emotional writing that builds resilience. Whether it is guiding students to writing an anonymous blog or keeping a (well-‐guarded) personal journal, we can cultivate a love of writing outside the bounds of school assignments. [[h1]]Strategy three: Use problem-‐based models of instruction (I Can)
A key feature of the I Can resource is communication; students must believe I am able to assess a problem and understand the parts of it. Then, I can think of a strategy to solve the problem. I may need help with this and know how to ask for it. I can solve problems … with friends. We can talk things through and agree on a solution so that we both are satisfied. (Grotberg, 1995)
Teaching methods matter; these methods convey one’s feelings and passion (or lack thereof) for the content. Imagine a teacher who lectures all day, every day, even though the students loathe it and respond with drooping eyes and glazed looks; compare that to a teacher who shows passion for the subject and carefully plans instruction and learning experiences so that all students don’t just know the content, but also interact with it and remember it after the standardized test. More than that, teachers can teach students to solve problems, which will serve them well in life. Models of instruction are ways of organizing content so that the information resonates with students and they retain what we teach them (Estes, Mintz, & Gunter, 2011). Models are based on the way the brain learns and organizes information. Research support for them comes from fields such as cognitive psychology, teaching and learning theory, and studies of content organization and presentation.
[[h2]]Problem-‐centered teaching
Various problem-‐centered inquiry models build persistence, motivation, and
confidence. I have seen it happen for students from the elementary level to preservice teachers in college. Conducting research and uncovering knowledge in a group, instead of passively receiving facts, is empowering. The following models are described in much greater detail in Instruction, A Models Approach (Estes, 2011); I highlight below the aspects that make them especially useful for building resilience. One model involves an Inquiry Chart, where students ask questions about an ill-‐structured problem, determine resources where they might find the answers, work together to find a solution, and then take action. They learn persistence as they see that research and inquiry does not have a clear endpoint; there are always chances for revision and refinement.
In the WebQuest model, students need to work together and gather data to
solve a problem. This model instantly motivates many students because it shifts instruction away from the teacher to an online setting. If these are unfamiliar to you, investigate http://webquest.org to get ideas or borrow or adapt sample WebQuests that might work for your students. Teachers can use this opportunity to explicitly teach computer skills that students will need. If students have no computer or Internet access at home, there are public libraries, schools, and other free places to go where they can learn about whatever interests them. This idea empowers students and opens doors to positive outside resources.
In the Suchman Inquiry model, the teacher researches a problem and teaches
students a process of asking yes or no questions to solve the problem. They take breaks to caucus and present their theory and its rules, ending with an analysis of the process to build metacognition. Whenever I model the Suchman Inquiry Model for my secondary preservice teachers, they instantly engage with the content. They ask thoughtful questions, listen to their peers, caucus in small groups, and say, “OK, so what do we know?” Why is the Suchman Inquiry Model especially appropriate to create resilient students? This process of asking questions and learning, of feeling the spark of learning and solving problems with others, builds confidence. Students feel that they can solve problems. This understanding is crucial for students to
remember when they leave school. There will be problems, but there are resources that can help, regardless of the problem.
Although there are other instructional models that encourage higher-‐level
thinking and collaborative learning, I find problem-‐based learning is the most effective when it comes to teaching skills that are essential for developing resilience because of its focus on solving problems collaboratively. [[h1]] The current situation There is a common refrain that I hear from my preservice teachers about why caring relationships, deep personal writing, and instructional models such as problem-‐based learning are limited in schools: “There’s no time. We have to cover so much content for the Standards of Learning (SOLs).” Our context is Virginia, and we have SOLs, but insert Common Core State Standards instead of SOL and this kind of thinking is evident across the nation. Another response, this one coming from a student teacher: “I wanted to do a real writing workshop, but the SOL coming up meant that I had to do more grammar lessons instead.” Or this one, from a teacher, referring to doing 40-‐minute lectures through PowerPoint and using skeleton notes: “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” This teacher may have success with test scores, but how many students are more able to solve life challenges as a result of this kind of instruction? What is lost when we stress coverage and lower-‐level skills such as taking multiple-‐choice tests? Students may gain a measure of content knowledge, but are teachers losing the chance to form real personal connections with the students who may need those interactions the most? As we work to ensure that students learn our content, we must never lose sight of the bigger picture: We need our students to be happy, successful, and contributing members of society in the future. Some of them come from difficult circumstances, but they learn the resilience they need to move on and above those beginnings. As teachers, we have such power to influence the lives of students. We cannot waste or misuse that power. EH
AUTHOR ID JANINE S. DAVIS is an assistant professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. REFERENCES: Carter, K. (1993). The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education.
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PULLOUTS She came from some harrowing circumstances and went on to live an amazing life. Students, even those in difficult settings, have options. We choose what will stay and what will go when we tell others about our lives. Teachers can teach students to solve problems, which will serve them well in life.
What is lost when we stress coverage and lower-‐level skills such as taking multiple-‐ choice tests?
