‘You don’t understand, Mr. Kannan. I don’t get it,” Sully yelled, frustrated with an American history writing assignment. “I will always get bad grades! I suck at school!” He started to cry as I looked helplessly at him, knowing I was dealing with a problem larger than the question I assigned.
School stresses Sully. He is not alone. Eighty-seven percent of public schools reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted student socio-emotional development. School has become a source of tension: 61% of students report pressure to get good grades while students who struggle in school experience excessive worry, intrusive thoughts, and impaired focus accompanied by anxiety. All of this was evident with Sully, an eighth-grader whose frustrations with school ran deep.
Sully’s outburst was indirectly aimed at all the ways students like him have been invisible in our instruction and assessment. Sully is a child of the pandemic and, since fourth grade, forces larger than our classroom have impacted his entire school experience. He has struggled in remote learning, requiring more than it offered. As we moved into hybrid instruction, Sully’s teachers taught two groups simultaneously while he went unnoticed. His only consistent reality was that the gaps in his learning were increasing, and confidence in himself and his abilities were plummeting.
Sully needed to be seen and heard in school, something I was committed to doing.
As a teacher, I believe there are three ways we can install a student-centered approach to learning and support students like Sully:
- First, we need to meet with every student, at least once a week, to understand where they are in their learning and what they might need to be successful. Weekly conferences like these validate student voice because they center student needs. In these meetings, Sully becomes an active agent in his learning while I glimpse his social and emotional experiences and passions, their impact on his schoolwork, and create paths to bolster his achievement. In one of our meetings, I drew a comparison between Sully’s favorite football team and their similarity to General Custer’s approach at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Creating both the classroom environment for personalized knowledge of our students, and envisioning flexible school schedules to create the time to do so, are ways to make individualized conferencing a reality.
- The second step in reimagining school is personalizing our assessment practices. We need to honor the Sullys in our classrooms for what they bring into them. Through weekly conferences, Sully and I can co-design our learning targets, and form assessments centered on his passions and learning capacities. Each student’s voice should be reflected in assessments centering their experiences. I recognized that it was difficult for Sully to write his thoughts out. From our conversations, I was able to develop different approaches to writing, allowing Sully to demonstrate what he knows. Personalizing assessment is a pathway to increased student achievement; it stands in stark opposition to grading approaches that fail to account for student voice. We can do this at a policy level, as well: As part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), states can build out new assessment systems that support individualized learning and personalized assessment.
- The third component of transformational teaching and learning is the development of important soft skills, something the pandemic further interrupted. These skills are a necessity for all of our students, in particular those like Sully. Executive functioning attributes — such as making lists and breaking down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks — are important for academic success. Explicit instruction in attributes like resilience and frustration tolerance mitigates school stress. In teaching these skills to Sully, I’m making sure he no longer panics when confronted with daunting tasks. Instead, he grabs his phone and creates a schedule of how to complete them. The intentional cultivation of these skills empowers Sully because they will be his ingredients for success in the post-pandemic world awaiting him.
Coaching my students to develop essential skills for academic and post-secondary success, embedding these through weekly conferences, and personalizing assessments are all ingredients in a student-centered approach to learning. Such a vision makes school a less anxious environment for all of our students and is helping transform Sully into an emerging, confident scholar.
Ashley Kannan teaches eighth grade American History and African American studies at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park. He is a 2023-2024 Teach Plus Illinois Senior Policy Fellow.
