Question:Guys, can you offer any help on this question?
How do you go about finding what students do well?
Answers:
Listen to them, find out what excites them or catches their interest. Find ways to incorporate aspects of these things into your lessons.
If it is video games or movies and you are teaching history, take some of the game worlds that they use and discuss the artistic license that is taken between the real history and the plot of a movie or game.
I teach high school English, and you’ll know (on the surface) which students do well. All students fall into 3 categories. You’re going to have the obvious students who excel above all, you’re going have the students in the middle, and you’re going to have students who perform poorly.
The things you need to look for are those students in the middle and the ones who perform poorly, because a lot of the time they should be performing at a higher level. There can be many reasons for this, i.e. bad home life, lazy, etc. You need to look for little hints of their talent, and they will show it. Then work hard with them to motivate them out of mediocrity.
I hope this helped.
If you are a teacher, go to your site guidance counselor and review report cards and standardized test results. You obviously know how your own students are performing, for others you can also speak to your colleagues and see how they are doing in all their classes.
By observing, listening, and taking the time to get to know your students on a more personal level, instead of viewing them as a mere grade, or test score.
Ask them.
I do a think with my students called "Thumbs up, thumbs down". I ask a question and if they can answer the question they hold a thumbs up near their chest or a thumbs down if they cannot. This is so they dont get embarassed for not knowing something. You can use this for a breif evaluation of what you need to teach or what you need to reteach.
Mmmmmmm....ask around the staff room. Other teachers will have taught these children and will have some ideas as to what students do well I would have thought.
The answer to your question differs depending on the age of your students. With primary children, you can only observe them. They are not very vocal or expressive about what they can do well you just have to discover through observation, which is a very important skill that you must have. You can also talk and familiarize yourself with the students parents to find out more about them in the home. For older students, you can suggest topics to them and ask them to write an essay about them. This will help them think through your questions and then, you can get their ideas.
Generally, if you communicate with your students, you will discover things about them that will give you an idea on what they do well and more importantly on this they are not too good at because as a teacher, this is also an area which you should be working on... helping them overcome their weaknesses to bring out the best they can be.
You can pull their student records in the office, and see their academic background.
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