Re: retention policies

[tednellen <tnellen@IRIS.HOST4U.NET>]

i'm fond of webfolios for these and all students. but for your population,
nancy, i'd suggest webfolios which wouold be persoanl and allow for
"makeup," but allow for tapping other interests and showing them off by
making them public. i'd even suggest school, club, sport, literary
webmastering. it would allow for soem work and not necessarily academic,
though not neglecting it while engaging these students and bringing them
back...

tednellen

 On Tue, 13 Mar 2001, Nancy Patterson wrote:

> Please forgive the cross-postings.
>
> We talk a great deal about assessment here, but I'm curious about what
> happens after assessment (formal and informal) takes place.
>
> I have volunteered to write up a suggested policy on what to do with
> students who do not pass a class(es) at our middle school.  We do not have
> very many of these students, but each year there are some students who for
> whatever reason do not pass one or more classes.  Most of these students
> don't pass because they do not do the work.  There may be a few who opt out
> because they have undiagnosed learning disabilities and find it less
> humiliating to not do the work than to do the work and show they have some
> difficulties.  We think we are pretty good at determining who these students
> are and helping them, but we admit we miss a few who disguise their
> difficulties well.  However, most of the students who opt out do so for
> other reasons.
>
> If you could dream, what would you do for these students?     For what it's
> worth, retention is not an option that we want to consider, nor is tracking.
> At the moment we practice social promotion, but that, of course, doesn't
> really address the issue.   I guess I'm hoping some of you will suggest
> interventions of some sort.  Again, don't be afraid to give me what you
> think is the ideal.
>
> Thank you for any suggestions you may have.  I realize this is a bit out of
> the realm of this list, but we have talked about social promotion and
> retention before.  And I'm hoping that some of you will have some ideas.
>
> Nancy
>
> Nancy G. Patterson
> Portland Middle School, English Dept. Chair
> Portland, MI  48875
>
> "To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can
> learn."
>
> --bell hooks
>
>  patter@voyager.net
> http://www.msu.edu/user/patter90/opening.htm
> http://www.npatterson.net/mid.html
>
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Ted Nellen     8-)                               ted@tnellen.com
Cybrarian                            http://www.tnellen.com/ted/
CyberEnglish                http://www.tnellen.net/cyberenglish/

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