One morning during passing period before my third period
German class, a student asked me if it was possible to keep taking German if he
was sent to Continuation School. I was surprised since that’s where they send
students who are behavior problems or who have terrible grades. I told him I
didn’t think so, but also asked him why he wanted to know. He explained he was
doing terribly in his other classes, mostly D’s and F’s.
I asked why he was having problems. He said he didn’t
know, maybe he was just dumb. I knew this couldn’t be true, since he was doing
very well in my class. So I asked him what he was doing right in German that
was resulting in his having a B+. He didn’t know. Then I asked him five
questions:
1.
Do you come to class every day, unless you’re
sick?
2.
Do you pay attention in class?
3.
Do you ask questions if you're confused or
don’t understand something?
4.
Do you complete all class and homework
assignments?
5.
Do you study for the quizzes and tests?
He answered yes to all of them. I asked him to think
about his first period class. Did he do all five of these things there too? His
answer was no. We went through all of his class periods; he answered no to several
questions for each class in which his grade was terrible. I asked him if he had
control over these five actions. Could he do each of them, if he wanted to? He
thought a minute and said yes.
I told him this was great news. He had control over his
grades. It wasn’t a matter of being smart. It was what he was doing, or not
doing that resulted in his good and bad grades. I suggested he do each of the
five behaviors in every class starting that day, to see what happened. He
agreed.
About three weeks later he came to me with his short
term results. All of his other teachers had complimented him on the turnaround
in his grade in that class. He was no longer failing any class, and the D’s
were turning into C’s. His counselor was no longer considering sending him to
Continuation School.
The end of the school year is the perfect time to
reflect upon a student’s GPA. Why is it as high or low as it is? Which classes
have the lowest grades? Is the student doing all five of the positive behaviors
listed above in those classes? The answer is probably no. The good news is that
improving grades and a student’s GPA is almost entirely in the hands of the student.
Most often it isn’t what a child is doing, but what he or she is failing to do
which results in a low grade. Rarely is it the difficulty level of the subject.
When that happens, finding a tutor is the answer. Otherwise, just follow
through focusing on the five questions on this list, and watch grades and
GPA improve.
You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.
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