Setting High Expectations

Setting high expectations

Differentiation should be planned for in all lessons. Merely completing work to a high standard is not enough – especially if the work is not sufficiently challenging. Differentiation will not always solve the challenging problem – the Differentiated tasks would be too simple for some very able students and would be too challenging for a group with very limited abilities. The solution in providing more challenging task whenever a student finishes while the others still working. This action proves that the teacher sets and demonstrates high expectations of students.

What is the concept of Teacher Expectations?

Teacher Expectations are the assumptions made about future student behavior. This is versus student labeling What teachers believe in their students’ capacity, often determine what will be achieved

In my view, setting Expectations is a not teacher’s issue, it is shared responsibility, whereas school management should set the policies to create an incubator environment for this practice to be implemented by all teachers. Such as:

Students’ Orientation

The first class of the semester should be course introductory to communicate students what they will learn (outcomes), how they learn and how they will be evaluated,

Classroom policies, rules and procedures

Then setting the classroom rules in an agreed statement signed by all.

Expectations for student based on last year data

Based on students’ last year reports, teachers should discuss with every student what was his performance, and how will improve, accordingly; every student expects his level for current term, while teacher guide him to up the level student’s expectation, then teacher writes down this expectation. This is for academic achievement and behavior as well.

Reward policy

Accordingly; Consequences and rewards system should be in place for implementation

Provide opportunities for extra help, how?

You need to find alternative ways to make the learning accessible to the student.
Enlist other students for peer tutoring as they learn better from each other.
Boost the confidence of struggling students by assigning him to teach someone younger or less able in the class
Offer alternative ways for the student to demonstrate the learning outcomes orally for students with writing difficulty.

The following strategies work as an incubator, but how to run it through the instruction process?

Beginning with the end in mind means to plan and teach backward. Ways to establish high expectations include

Showing students samples of perfect solutions to mathematical problems, thus providing them with models of good solution methods;
Letting students listen to a recording of an orchestra playing before sight-reading the music for the first time;
Letting students watch a video of an operating four-stroke engine before teaching about the individual parts;
Letting students hear a well-written essay read aloud and review copies of it before having them write; and
Providing rubrics — or better yet, engaging students in the development of a rubric for an assignment.

These steps before the lesson to help the students to understand the big picture, the question arises here: when to challenge your students?

But how to set high expectations through lesson delivery?

The following piece written by Mr. Matthew Goldie-Scot the managing director of Carfax Education Group, Oxford, United Kingdom within a training session in my previous work place.

Example:

In English Language Lesson – the goal is developing students' understanding of poetic forms, By the end of the lesson:

All students will have written 5 poems, including at least one Haiku.

Most students will also have written a poem of at least 8 lines, making use of rhyming couplets.

Some students will also have written a 14-line sonnet in Iambic Pentameter, using the Shakespearian rhyming structure, and a range of high-level vocabulary.

students could also be given the opportunity to share their work with others, and to check the accuracy of their peer’s work (scaffolded by a guide where appropriate).

students who complete one task early can move on to another, more challenging, task, that extends their ability and understanding (and which does NOT simply provide them with an additional task at the same level).

References:

Reynolds, M. C., (n.d), “Ten Strategies for Creating a Classroom Culture of High Expectations”, U.S. Department of Education, Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta, GA 30318, www.sreb.org
Ethnic Minority Achievement Project, (2003), “Aiming High: Raising the Achievement of Minority Ethnic Pupils”, Department for Education and Skills, London.
The Power of High Expectations: Closing the Gap in Your Classroom http://teachingasleadership.org/sites/default/files/Related Readings/Diversity_CommunityandAchievement_Chapter2.pdf

Narrative Reflection