These are common questions for many parents and the following information is meant to answer them and provide solutions to improve the academic grade in the class.
Problem: The academic numbers at the school do not paint a pretty picture when it comes to reading levels. Over 70% of Tomas Rivera students are below grade level in reading and writing and more than 50% read two or more grade levels below. This is not due to a lack of potential or ability, it is because many students avoid reading and practicing that their skills need improvement. In this class, avoidance of reading the materials will result in poor understanding of concepts and low scores on tests.
Solution: The class is built to cover a limited amount of information each period and does not require much reading on a daily basis. We make significant efforts to not intimidate the student with long complex passages or a lot of writing each day in the hopes they will be more likely to participate. This class is about practicing skills and if students read the materials out loud, look up words they do not know, and ask questions about things they do not understand, then reading ability will improve and so will scores.
Problem: Many students do not follow the instructions given in class. Physical proof of this can be seen in their Student Workbooks. If you look in your student’s workbook, are the units complete? Were the student notes done? Does their writing make sense? Before sending and email or calling about how your child can improve their grade, look at the workbook first and you will usually be able to identify where the problem is. It is easy to spot incomplete or bad work.
Solution: Follow the directions and complete the daily work. It is that simple. We only do one vocabulary term, a half-page of notes through the lecture videos (including student notes), and one paragraph sentence per day. These procedures are explained here for the vocabulary, here for the notes, and here for the paragraph. This is not very much work on a daily basis. Avoidance of responsibility is not a valid strategy and it never works out, so help your child to stop doing it.
Problem: Students take review quizzes to help them prepare for the final unit assessment, but they do not take notes on the questions they missed to study for the final.
Solution: The student needs to take notes on any items they struggle with to focus their study and be more prepared for the final unit test. Notes can be one or two word reminders and are a simple strategy that will help raise scores.
Problem: Many students make no effort to understand exactly why they have the grade they do and what they need to improve it.
Solution: This class is built in a way that students can always know exactly why they have the grade they do and how many points they need to bring it up. If any child claims they do not know what to do to raise their grade, that is a major sign they have not paid attention in class and is probably a reason their grade is low. Students need to record their current assessment scores in their workbook after every unit test or retake to keep track of where they are. Posters on the wall and in their workbook will show them how many points they need to achieve any grade during the semester and can be seen here. There is no legitimate excuse for a student to not know what they need to do to improve their grade.
Problem: Very few students take advantage of the class test retake policy to improve scores for tests they did poorly on.
Solution: Study for and retake tests that score below a 3! There is no penalty for retaking a test and you can only retake each individual test once per day, but the class grade is not set until the end of the semesters and can be fixed. Hypothetically, a student could go from an F to an A in one day if they were able to prove they learned the material and could write the paragraphs correctly. This information is repeated many times weekly in class and students are constantly encouraged to retake tests. We even have an in-class retake for Part A of the test the day after students take it the first time. We understand it takes some students longer to learn, but the fact so few students actually come to fix their grades shows that the problem is apathy, not skill. Students need to inform the teacher what test they want to retake and when they will be in to retake it at lunch or after school. We will also have some time built in to the semester set aside for students to be able to identify low scores, study for, and retake tests during class and can be found on the class calendar here.
In the end, there is only so much we can do. If students decide not to put forth effort, there is no way a teacher can force them to succeed. Teachers and parents need to work together to make following directions and showing effort in school more convenient for the kids than not doing so.
If you have any further questions, then please email us at the following: