How do you help high-risk kids?
There isn't a simple definition of a high-risk student. Each is unique with his or her own set of strengths and problems.
In many cases, high-risk students have had to raise themselves. Their parents have suffered so many problems in their own lives that they don't know how to parent and don't have the energy to try. Often, too, one parent isn't in the picture and the child has to cope with a succession of temporary boyfriends or girlfriends who may not even want the child there.
In other cases, high-risk kids come from intact families but have undiagnosed learning disabilities. They're frustrated by their inability to do the work, and everyone around them is frustrated by what they see as difficult kids who won't apply themselves. Eventually those kids give up too, and turn to drugs or defiance as an escape.
No teacher likes to stand by as a struggling student falls further and further behind at school. In fact, many have made it an important part of their work to try to turn these students around and help them succeed. On the pages that follow, you will meet four of these special educators.
How can high-risk students overcome the challenges they face and concentrate on learning? Judy Chapman talks about building trust by creating the right sort of learning environment and building a positive relationship with students.
The Power of Learning
"Since at-risk kids are somewhat damaged and distrustful of school and teachers, you have to gain their trust before you can begin to teach them the curriculum. I do not have all the answers, but I have developed a program that helps at-risk students succeed academically. This in turn helps make them happier, more stable young people."
"She has saved the lives of these young people." Principal
Judy Chapman
Abbotsford Senior Secondary School
Abbotsford, British Columbia
Judy Chapman has been teaching since 1971, after receiving her BEd. Since then, while teaching full time, she has earned a fifth-year Post Baccalaureate Diploma and an MEd. She is well known in the education community in Abbotsford as a leader among educators at all levels, offering workshops inside and outside the school district.
Strategies for Success
The program works through three complementary strategies. I establish trust, restore the desire to learn based on that trust and insist on academic rigour. I have developed a number of ways to carry out these three strategies each day.
The students need to know you care about their well being. Every morning I call all the students who haven't shown up. I remind them that they must maintain a 90-percent attendance rate to stay in the program. I also have the district lunch program deliver food each morning, which I set out at the side of the room like a smorgasbord. The improvement in nutrition helps a lot; the students feel better and are better able to focus on school.
They need to know that learning is possible. Up until this time, school and learning have been boring and frustrating for these students because the lessons seem unrelated to their lives. Using the model of an elementary classroom and integrating a number of subjects into one thematic lesson works well to make the content more relevant and interesting. For example, in a unit on conflict, we looked at conflict in the students' lives and in their community, practised conflict resolution, and examined conflict in World War II and in literature.
They need to know that you value their work. I mark every piece of written work within 24 hours and give students feedback.
They need to know when they've succeeded. ISP students receive copies of all of the required learning outcomes for the year. They see the connection between curricular areas and realize when they achieve the outcomes. They are directly involved in their own learning. I encourage students to follow the more advanced-level course material rather than the basic courses. I want students to leave ISP prepared for a regular high school setting or post-secondary education.
How can a high school program meet the varied needs of high-risk students? Joan Beeson and Cindy Meagher tell us about an innovative approach to curriculum that gives struggling students an equal opportunity to succeed.
The Bridge to Success
"The educational model behind our secondary outreach program for students unable to attend regular high school - assisted, independent, student-paced study - has proven to be effective in helping high-risk students succeed in high school."
"We know that students can succeed if certain conditions exist simultaneously: belief in one's self, continued support and guidance, and a will to work diligently. We want this sort of success to be a possibility for all students, even those burdened by previous school failure, emotional stress and turmoil, illness, employment, and pregnancy or parenting. But a traditional high school setting creates barriers - an imposed schedule and workload, among others - that some of these students cannot get past."
Joan Beeson and Cindy Meagher
Bridge Network
Grande Prairie, Alberta
Though Joan Beeson and Cindy Meagher didn't plan their education careers in this direction, their life and teaching experiences led them, almost inevitably, to form the Bridge Network. The two met when Cindy, became principal of what would become the Bridge Network and hired Joan to fill her vacated teaching position. They found they had complementary attitudes and teaching practices and immediately developed a new mandate and direction for the school.
A Bridge Network in Your Community
The school has approximately 120 to 190 active students, but serves more than 400 each year. They come from all areas of the city, referred by guidance counsellors, administrators and teachers; some are brought in by their parents or come in on their own. In areas with populations too small to support such a school, the same approach could be adapted and applied to a traditional high school setting, similar to existing remedial and independent study programs.
Our students choose what they will take from among 70 high-school-level courses. If a student is not successful with his or her first choice, we allow a change of courses. In this way, the student achieves significant success early in the Bridge Network experience, and that gives us the impetus to encourage students to tackle the more challenging courses.
At any given time, there is a variety of students at the school working on a wide array of courses. This is similar in many ways to a library. We are the "librarians." When students need something, they ask the "librarian" for assistance. Students are free to wander about, using materials at will. They are free to use the computers, to ask for one-on-one instruction, or to ask for advice regarding personal problems or anything else.
A team approach is central to the success of the Bridge Network. We are lucky to have the support of our school board, our central office administration and staff, and our community partners. The school would not function without our two excellent co-workers: Kevin McNeil, our science and career and life management teacher, and Sharon Andreotti, our administrative assistant and teacher aide. The entire staff agrees on the goals and philosophy of the school, working diligently as a well-tuned machine "lunging from one crisis to the next," as Sharon would say.
How can a remedial program become an avenue to success? Eileen Kiriazidis describes a resource mathematics program that gets solid support from teachers, parents and students as well as positive results.
Learning to Care, Caring to Learn
"I get great satisfaction from convincing children that the teachers, administration, school board and their parents really care that they learn. Once they know that others care, they begin to care about learning themselves."
"When I was in school, I tutored friends and younger students in math. I took great satisfaction in seeing them learn, seeing the "light" go on when they suddenly understood. I never worried about what I would do when I grew up; I just wanted to go on seeing that light."
Eileen Kiriazidis
Howard S. Billings Regional High School
Châteauguay, Quebec
You might assume that the remedial math teacher would be one of the least popular people in a school. Not so at Howard S. Billings Regional High School. Eileen Kiriazidis, affectionately known as "Mrs. K.," is loved and respected by students and staff alike for her abilities as an educator, her service to the school, and her devotion and commitment to her profession.
Working Together to Help
This system of identifying students in need and removing them from their optional classes (which change each term) requires co-operation from every staff member. Other teachers must agree to slightly larger classes to free a teacher to teach resource, and participate by recommending children in need to the program.
Students receive about two written assignments a week. It is easy for parents to recognize them because they come in a package with a cover page that the parent must sign. That way, parents can monitor and encourage their child's progress.
How can you convince resource students that they can learn, that they can do math and that people care about their progress? There's nothing magical; you just don't let them think otherwise. First, welcome them. Then cajole, distribute, obligate, threaten, beg and bribe.
Welcome them to a bright classroom full of posters, plants and flowers, clean desks and floors. This shows that the administration and teacher really care about the mathematics resource program and the students in it.
Cajole them to show they care as much as their parents and teachers care.
Distribute a pink paper with the times tables, a first assignment and a behaviour contract. Tell them their parents are expecting these papers at home.
Obligate them by requiring them to sign a contract, which says that they will demonstrate a caring attitude at resource and in regular classes.
Threaten students with being sent back to the regular program if they break their contract or if they don't show that they are trying to improve their math skills.
Beg them to give it a chance, to try studying the times tables and doing the written exercises. Ask for a month to prove they can learn math.
Bribe them by letting it be known that rewards (such as lollipops) are available for correct answers and responsible, caring work.