I can tell it's April

Wow. April kinda sucks. My smart, motivated delightful class is taking their joking to new heights. Play fighting, 'stepping up' to adults in a joking way, and almost-racist comments are becoming hard to control. I'm about as done as I can be and it's only Monday.

Graphing Skills

I consistently find that students struggle with scale when graphing. They often can't quite wrap their heads around a graph that has a scale other then 1 to 1, or when the x and y axis have vastly different scales. Also, when setting up scales, students will not make the space between their labels consistent. For example, if labeling the y-axis by 10s, the student may skip one square on the graph paper, and label it five, but then skip two squares for each 10 after that.

I felt frustrated that I didn't have a resource that asked students to practice JUST making scale, so I've developed my own series of activities for them to practice that. This is designed to be used with gradual release. Do the first couple activities on the doc cam as an entire class, then have the students work with a partner on the next few.

Finally have the students work individually to set up graphs from the final page. They don't have to graph the points/lines, since the learning objective is to create a workable, accurate scale for both the x- and y-axis  based on the data given, but of course if students need or want to practice the graphing, they can do that too.

Here's the worksheets I made to practice this: Graphing: Practicing Scale

Kids talking about abortion

Well that was a surprise. I was subbing in a Middle School leadership class the other day and the lesson left for me asked students to make posters about what they wished they could do to change the world. I had two students say 'stop abortion'.

I wasn't really prepared for this. Fortunately it was a school that I had subbed pretty frequently so I knew the students, but I didn't know them REALLY well.

Each student had the opportunity to get up and talk about their poster, why it was important to them, and what they could do in their life to help accomplish that.

I was scared, but it actually went really well. I allowed the students to lead the discussion, asking questions themselves and answering themselves. I acted as a referee, making sure kids were only talking one at a time, and that each discussion got a fair amount of time, but didn't get out of hand, over focused, or turn into an argument. There were a few times when I took the opportunity to inform based on fact, but mostly I kept out of it. I often restated what students said, clarifying and summarizing, and they then reaffirmed if what I said was what they meant.

It went really well in my opinion, and after school I asked one of the most opinionated girls who lead a discussion about ending abortion and asked how I did, and whether I let my personal bias through, and she said I hadn't and she thought I did a great job. I'm glad to hear that, and glad I've crossed that hurdle now. Students got a chance to voice their opinions and examine difficult issues, and I managed to keep my mouth shut!

Aethetics vs Excess

This particular post is inspired by the building that my new evening job is on. The John Jaqua Activity Center for Student Athletes. It's a brand new building on the UO campus, built by Phil Knight of Nike, for giving academic aid to student athletes.

The building is gorgeous in a modern archetecture crazy way. The pictures give you a basic idea. However, this building was REALLY expensive. Really. Phil Knight won't stay how much, but lets just say there's a hand stitched yellow Italian leather couch in the lobby. In education, especially colleges, I love how the space is beautiful. Graceful, stately, comic, the buildings are part of the joy of attending. No one wants to go to a school that looks like a prison (anyone seen Springfield High School?)

However, when does making a space beautiful and interesting cross the line into excess? I'm not sure if the Jaqua building crosses that line, but if it doesn't it's darn close. Thoughts?

Getting their money's worth

My mom warned me before I ever started subbing that some principals are super picky about making sure their subs stay all the way until the end of the day, even if they are doing NOTHING. I was very careful about that at first, but after spending some time at the same schools, which were happy to allow me to leave as soon as I was finished, I relaxed and accidently got myself in trouble.

Well, in trouble might be a little strong. At a school I subbed at a few weeks ago, the bell rang, I cleaned up the room, finished up my notes, and headed to the office to check out. I thought I'd spent a fair amount of after school time to make it seems as if I was doing stuff, so I'd only be leaving a few minutes early, but because this particular teacher's schedule had two free periods at the end of the day, I judged wrong. I arrived down at the office a full 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave and was told that I was supposed to stay until 3:45. She ended up having me stand outside (in the cold and rain) until 3:45 or the rest of the students were gone, whichever came first.

This annoys me.

I get it, you're paying me for 8 hrs, you want me to work for 8 hours. But the pure stupidity of having a person sit on their ass and do nothing (or alternatively read a novel) is ridiculous. I see it more like you are paying me to do the job of subbing for this teacher, the hours aren't the deal, it's the job. Do the job, get the pay. This is especially silly because in this situation I had already asked if the library needed help, I had asked the office and they had nothing except supervising space that was already supervised. If I'm an actual teacher who has actual planning and meetings and other things to use for that time, that is logical. A teacher who leaves early every day should be making the time up some other time. But as a substitute, there is nothing I Can do to help the teacher I'm covering for. In fact, even organizing or cleaning or grading, which might initially appear to be helpful tasks, might actually create more work for the teacher. I know that I wouldn't want a sub that I didn't know to do any of that for me, I want to look at my own students work, and do my own organizing.

Yes, the school deserves a full day of my time, but if you're going to make me stay after the work for my teacher is done, they better have something for me to do.

This is my opinion, what do you guys think, am I being reasonable? Is it ridiculous or commonplace for a school to expect me to sit and do nothing in my classroom instead of go home when I'm done.

Does a sub get paid for doing the job, or working the hours?

Things I've learned

After a few months of subbing all over the place i have learned two things that are absolutely HUGE to me.

1. Students are dismissed when I dismiss them. In my classroom students will work until the bell rings, when the bell rings, they will sit quietly until I dismiss them. Period. I don't want students controlling when they leave my classroom, this is a privileged that can be saved for college. Having me dismiss students isn't JUST about power, it also allows me to dispense any last minute reminders or announcements, and make changes to information that I've perhaps given out later.

2. No lining up at the door. In the event that I do ask students to clean up before the bell rings, they will not line up at the door, they will sit in their seats (unless it's the end of the day and I have to put chairs up, in which case they would stand behind their chair), and then they may leave when I dismiss them. When students start crowding up by the door it limits my ability to make any last minute announcements and encourages stampeding.

It's this sort of management stuff that I find I am learning what works, and what's my style every day I enter a new classroom.

Things have been brewing... an anecdote!

I've been jotting down blog topics for a couple weeks and haven't found time to type them, so I apologies for the quickness of these posts.


The Friday before school started back up after the new year I went out for a friends birthday to a bar, I ordered a drink and some food and wasn't carded. This isn't terribly surprising, though I did notice. I'm 24 and tend to look/seem fairly mature (or so I thought).

What was weird, was Monday morning I subbed at a school I hadn't been at much. I woke up late, and didn't have time to pack a lunch so I was stuck eating school lunch, not the end of the world. I finished eating up in the staff room and headed down to the cafeteria to return my tray. As I was leaving, one of the aids approached me and said "Are you a new student?"

This was at a middle school, yes at age 24 I was mistaken for a 6th, 17th or 8th grader, within DAYS of not being carded at a bar.

Apparently I defy recognition by looking both over 26 and under 14 at the same time!

Over Parenting

The Dangers of being a Helicopter Parent

"Fear is a kind of parenting fungus: invisible, insidious, perfectly designed to decompose your peace of mind. Fear of physical danger is at least subject to rational argument; fear of failure is harder to hose down. What could be more natural than worrying that your child might be trampled by the great, scary, globally competitive world into which she will one day be launched? It is this fear that inspires parents to demand homework in preschool, produce the snazzy bilingual campaign video for the third-grader's race for class rep, continue to provide the morning wake-up call long after he's headed off to college."

Don't be trapped by fear. Check out the article, it's excellent.

Musings: Reflecting on working in a SPED classroom

In the education front this week has been interesting, I subbed for the same teacher all week, a SPED teacher out in Creswell. It was a reading/writing SPED class and it was a fascinating experience. Some SPED teachers are horrible, they're impatient, they say things to kids that I don't think is appropriate for SPED kids ("If you were smart, you would do this..."). They jump to conclusions about what students are doing, and why they are doing it. And most of the curriculum is BORING. I don't really blame them in some ways. The kids can be infuriating, and it's really frustrating when you tell a kid what a word means, and he asks again what the same word means in less the five minutes. And you can't know if he's being lazy, if it's part of his disability, or if it's something that has been conditioned into him because of ineffective educational procedures. I do feel like I've gained a greater understanding for students who are learning disabled. I have one friend who is pretty much the only person (that I know of) that is learning disabled in a more severe way then just being dyslexic, so interacting with these students gave me a new insight. Also fascinating, and challenging, was the variety of levels within the class. They may all be at the same level of reading (or nearly the same) but the who gambit was there from highly intelligent otherwise (think Eli) to kids who are developmentally not all there, to kids who are just plain dumb. I would never pick SPED to teach. Never be my first choice, but I'm not nearly as afraid of it as I was before.

Well, I didn't get a job.

Despite the fact that I had several promising and engaging interviews I was not hired for the 2009/2010 school year. Fortunately, in the line of work of teaching, not getting a job doesn't banish you to the world of part time service or food industry jobs, no you have the opportunity to substitute teach. For some a way of life, for other their greatest fear, right?

I signed up with all the local districts, I printed business cards and spent the week before school started driving around to different schools where I had an 'in'. And then, when school started, I waited. And just when I was starting to get discouraged (and really worried about where October's rent was going to come from) I started to get calls. Since that first call, today is the first school day that I haven't had to sub somewhere. I have worked in 7 different schools, with ages from pre-school to seniors in high school. I've taught music (quite a lot actually), art, science, math, English... and I have learned more about my values and classroom management as a teacher then I had in a full term of student teaching last spring.

Walking into a classroom and commanding control and respect and accomplishing the goals that the teacher has set down for you is a very rewarding challenge. Thus far I seem to have been fairly successful and have gotten positive feedback from the teachers I've subbed for. Most of the time I've enjoyed what I've been doing, being in different classrooms, schools and with different age groups. I've also really enjoyed the fact that when the school day ends, I clean up and go home. No planning for the next day, no grading, no worrying about how I'll make up for lost time or take care of an issue, or anything like that.

The one aspect of subbing that I don't like is it prevents me from doing much planning in my own life. For the most part, I won't know more then one or two days ahead of time if I am going to be working on a certain day, so I can't make plans for my own life, or plans with friends. Since I am normally such a planner, this leaves me floundering a little when I wake up in the morning and there aren't any calls for the day. But somehow I think I'll manage.

Diversity in Education-August 12th

I have a problem with the fact that students have more rights about their religion then teachers do. I understand that it is true, and I understand why it is that way. But I feel persecuted that I can't wear religions jewelry or clothing without fear of persecution and even loosing my job.

During our Law and Governance course last summer we discussed the details of the case you mentioned with Sikh person who lost her job because she wanted to wear her religious clothing. If she has said, oh, I just like this fashion style, it would have been ok, but because she worse it because it was prescribed by her religion, it's unacceptable. Similarly, if I wore a necklace with a star on it that is nondescript, no problem. But as soon as it resembles a pentagram or a star of David, I am in dangerous territory. I wonder if I, as a non-Jew could wear a six pointed star, because it is just fashion, but a Jew could not.

I appreciate the separation of church and state that exists in our country, and I don't think it is the right of teachers to be able to preach to their students or try and convert their students, but it seems to me that teachers should have as much right as anyone else to express their own personal religiousness, or not.

Diversity in Education-August 10th

Post Encounter-

I really enjoyed my encounter with the Baha'i, I found that their religion genuinely appealed to me and that they were very helpful as far as giving us information pertaining to the way in which we could interact with Baha'i students we might have and any special considerations that they might need.

The one thing that I had an issue with was all the rules. If people want to follow strict rules, great, but I've never done well with them. Fortunately it sounds as if the Baha'i aren't judgmental about their rules, they don't project them on others, but it's not a religion for me.

This activity was really really interesting because I had permission to go somewhere and explore something new without feeling like a voyer, or self-entitled to explore someone else's culture. I was afraid of feeling like I was some white person headed to Africa on safari, to see the exotic animals and culture, but it wasn't that way at all. I feel like this experience will help me to branch out and explore different culture more in the future.

Capstone: In Review

This was a very challenging project for me on a number of different levels. My first issue was that I had a very had time choosing a topic to focus on, I felt pulled in many different directions. My second difficulty is that not only have I never had to do something like a Capstone project before, as it is a fairly unique project, but I have also have very limited experience doing research and writing research papers. My partner, Taunya was a very experienced researcher and paper writer, so I was inclined to allow he to take the lead organizationally. For me this is a very unusual position to be in, as I find myself more often then not taking on the leadership role when I work with groups. As we moved through the process of defining our question and gathering our research, I found that these were skills that were difficult for me and I was glad for the guidance of a more experienced researcher.

As we began the writing process it was difficult for us to not move to a more traditional research paper/thesis model and stick to the parameters that were unique to the capstone. We knew what we wanted to look for, and after researching, we knew pretty clearly what we thought our answers would be, but making it fit into the Capstone model and making sure that we included all the pieces that we felt was expected of us was really tough. In the end, we ended up doing significantly more writing then was originally necessary, but all of the writing that we did was useful and helped us in our clarifying and focusing process.

Another challenge for me was learning to use embed citations. I never really took writing classes in college, and though I feel that I am an excellent writer, I have trouble with some of the more conventional things like using APA format. I feel like I grew a lot in my ability to do proper citation in this manner through the course of this project.

Taunya and I both went through a period where we were very frustrated with this project. We felt like we knew what we were asking, what the research said, and what kind of plan we wanted to have, and yet we felt like the way that we were communicating that wasn't fitting the prescribed format, or rather wasn't being understood in the same way that we understood it. It wasn't until we sat down with our adviser for the project and explained it to her, who then explained her expectations for us that we finally felt good about the product we were creating. Were I to do this project, or another like it again, I would make an appointment to meet in person with my adviser much earlier in the processes, and to continue those visits frequently.

It seemed like having your 'ah ha' moment was a big deal, and after watching a few presentations, it sort of became a cliche, but the truth of the matter is, we did sort of have an 'ah ha' moment (though we avoided calling it that in our presentation). While we were researching and categorizing and then trying to narrow down this huge field of information, we decided as part of our part III to make a graphic. And I created this hokey chart with what was then four elements (we later combined two of the elements so we only had three) and highlight what each element shared in common with each other element. In creating this chart, we realized that though we had a really wide variety in our solution, and it seemed huge, it had to be huge, we couldn’t use one part without the other because of the way that they all supported each other. This really gave direction to the rest of our refinement and the way that we chose to implement our plan. It also helped us to keep our plan streamlined and manageable.

One thing that I am very grateful for is that my group had a variety of content areas that we represented, not just one. Having my math/social studies, and Taunya’s social studies/language arts kept us thinking about how our plan could be applied across the curriculum. We won’t have the power to change our whole school, but ideally our plan would be implemented not only in our classrooms, but in every classroom, so having already considered the challenges that might present themselves outside of our shared content area (social studies) better prepares us to aid our colleagues in implementing this in their classroom.

There were a lot of aspects of this project that were hard, aspects that I didn't want to do, or didn't understand why I had to do them. However, I am grateful for the opportunity to do this project. For the experience of doing research, and putting together a research based plan. I feel like that experience will serve me in the future, giving me the experience I need to feel confidant about creating research based plans in the future. I'm grateful that I had a committed, hard working partner who's strengths balanced my weaknesses and with whom I worked well. And most of all, I am grateful that provided that I have a job this coming fall, I will come armed with a plan to make my classroom exemplary.

Diversity in Education-August 5th

McIntosh's article about the now proverbial 'Invisible Knapsack' is a fantastic peek at the rest of the ice burg. I'd heard about this knapsack before, and reading the actual article really articulated the issues surrounding it. I would love to find a way to incorporate that article, or a cutting from it, into my lessons, for students of all races and ethnicities. I've always found that metaphors, especially ones I could visualize, helped me to understand issues, and I don't think I am alone in that. Using the metaphor of the knapsack, and as someone in class today mentioned, identifying what is in it. What are those benefits, each day. And what is the flip side of that could be a really eye opening experience for children. Another way to approach this issue, without the complex reading or specifically saying 'this is about race'. Would be to ask students to make lists of their privileges, and things that they think aren't fair. We'd have to talk about what we mean by that. And we could discuss the reasons for privilege, such as someone being the oldest child, getting good grades, having lots of money, living near certain amenities, and hopefully also broach race and ethnicity in that same conversation.

Diversity in Education-August 4th

We.

A seemingly innocuous little word, but carries with it so much power. Being social creatures, we (see what I just did there), and by we I mean humans, desire to be part of a group, this isn't universal, but most of us do. We is generally an inclusive word, but it can also make it painfully obvious that you are NOT a part of a groups as well.

I noticed this most starkly in class with our guest speaker, but I feel like she is not alone in making this slip up, I feel like I have heard this throughout my Masters program, and my education in general. But it comes through most clearly when in a class that is discussing issues of diversity and multicultural curriculum. The professor repeatedly will say 'we' when referring to white, dominant cultures. "We must do..." "We have this privilege..." "We do this, and they do that". Some times this is appropriate. We could refer to graduate students, Oregonians, Eugenians... any number of groups that might be accurate, but when the person speaking chooses not to define what they mean by we, more often then not, the understanding is that we refers to white dominant culture. And then I look around the classroom and I know that we have people in our group who do not identify as white, and who do not receive white privilege. I can only imagine that having the teacher refer to themselves and a majority of the class as we, must be alienating to those students who are not part of the group, especially in the context of a class in which we are supposed to be unpacking and examining those issues, but there is still this invisible division.

I'm not sure what the solution is, and perhaps acknowledging that it happens is the first step. For me, whenever I refer to we, especially when in a professional situations, I define what I mean by we. That way, if I am excluding someone around me (for instance saying we, referring to white people in a group with many ethnic or racially diverse people) the people around me know that I am not assuming that they are part of the group I refer to, and that I am acknowledging that their point of view or way of knowing may be different then my own.

Diversity in Education-August 3rd

We were discussing in class racial bias and Prof. Lenssen was discussing a study where black children (girls primarily I think) were asked to choose which doll they thought was prettier and better, between a white doll and a black doll, and most of the girls chose the white doll.

This brought to mind an anecdotal experience from my own childhood that I wanted to examine. Growing up I had LOVED the American Girl dolls, I had paged through their catalogs and longed for one of their dolls. After playing a gig with my fiddle band, at the age of 10, I received a pay check large enough for me to purchase one of these dolls. At this point in time there were only five. Each representing an important period of time for America. Felicity, the colonist, Kirsten the immigrant, Samantha, the Victorian, Molly, from WW2, and the most recent addition, Addy the escaped slave from the Civil War. I don't remember my reasoning, and it might have been something simple and unconnected to race, but I bought the black doll. And I LOVED that doll, my grandmother made a trunk of clothes for her (and another doll that I eventually also got, this one made to look like me) and I played with them long after it was socially acceptable for me to play with dolls. The doll did have one issue I was unprepared to deal with, her hair was textured, much like the typical African's hair, and I didn't know how to deal with it, so years of combing resulted in very thing hair and near dreadlocks.

I don't have a lot of analysis for this, I guess. I grew up in a very very white community, I had only one black person in my entire high school. No black friends or family members, no experience with black people outside of seeing them around town or interacting in the most mundane manner. I wonder if perhaps my reasoning for choosing that doll was that she was the newest, or different then all the others (I was very interested in being different at that point in my life), or the fact that she wore a dress that I liked. Perhaps the draw was her straw bonnet. But in retrospect it's a very interesting question. Why did the little white girl choose the black doll?

Diversity in Education-July 29th

Banks & Banks-Multicultural Education
Part III discusses gender inquality and bias. I always balk at my lack of experience with this. I wonder if because of my nature, I'm just blind to it, or if I've actually been luck enough to be a part of classes that fought the bias, and pointed it out. I was flabbergast to read some of the research and statistics in chapter 6, specifically some of the facts about the boys. The things about girls, I'd always heard before, girls make less money, graduate less from high school or college, perform less well in math in science. But to hear that in some areas a black male is more likely to be killed then a US soldier in Vietname totally shocked me. I was also surprised to read that there is a documentable increase in anxiey in boys that conform to the male sterotype.

For once (so often the strategies outlined in our text books are empty recommendations without any true directions for implementation) I think the strategies at the end of the book our sound. Mixing boys and girls in your seating chart and acknowledging gender sterotypes when you come across them in books is key. More difficult is censoring ourselves as teachers to remove gender bias (as much as possible) from our own language, or to acknowledge it when we do use it. It is so ingrained in us, so deep rooted that we can't see it, despite the fact that in my opinion it is one of the most widly recognized and generally accepted (as wrong) biases that exist.

Diversity in Education-July 30th

How have we (as teachers) and our schools failed boys and girls?

In my experience, the gender gap and sterotypes that we talked about have not been the case. In my high school the top of the class (all classes) were mostly girls. We had a couple of guys that were up there too, but they were the minority. The all stars in math and science, and especially language arts and social studies, were female. We had one valedictorian and 6 (I think) salutatorians and all but one of them were female.

In my student teaching experiences (in math and social studies) boys and girls have done equally well, and often my female students do better, and this is no surprise.

I do recognize however that that may not be the norm everywhere, though that type of discrimination does seem to be improving.

The place that I see that we really fail students are far as gender discrimination is concerned is with out language. In Chet Bower's sustainable curriculum class we talked extensively about the root metaphors that our society is based on, not the least of which was the analog of patriarchy.

The obvious aspects of this in our language are things like 'don't be such a girl'. Or 'be a man' and those types of things. But throught our language's superlatives and perjoratives the gender bias of man=good and powerful woman = bad and week is pervasive.

I find that this is perhaps less the case in math class then in others, but the place that I have seen it most pervasive is in Physical Education classes. The PE teacher will often build relationships with his or her students by goading and teasing them as is culturally appropriate in our highly competative world, but saying someone throws like a girl, or telling a girl she did something as well as a man subtly reinforces the gender roles, and also contributes to the fact that many girls who exemplefy male qualities are seen as manly and called lesbians or dykes.

Just as its important for teachers to carefully choose their language to avoid being racially, ethnically, religiously offensive or judgemental, we have to pay extra special attention to our language having to do with gender as it is one of the deepest rooted and most taken for granted biases or prejudices in our culture (and most cultures of the world!)

Diversity in Education-July 28th

Why is class a predictor of student success?

Research indicates that students from a 'higher' SES are more likely to be successful in school then those with a lower SES. Clearly it isn't genetics, so what is it that makes SES a reliable predictor of student success?

There are a few things that in my opinion contribute to this.

a. Home Environment. It is likely that those students who come from a higher SES have parents who are educated, and able/willing to help them with their homework and projects. It is also likely that a student from a higher SES has a home environment that is more conducive to studying, for instance a quiet office space, a computer at home etc. It is also plausable that parents who are educated may value education more then parents who are not educated, and so parental expectations/encouragement may be higher. Higher SES students also likely have the money to purcase aids to their education, study guides, tutors, academic summer camps etc. all of which could potentially lead to those students excelling more in school.

b. School is about those with a higher SES. This is particularly apparent in social studies, but is true across the board. Generally, we don't teach/learn about the working class or the poor, unless it is shown as an exhibit of the other or the unfortunate. Those who are part of the uper class are usually those with the power, and so history, and school in general is about the upper class, and students who do not identify with that class may be disinclined to engage in study about a group in which they percieve themselves to be an outsider.

c. Teacher assumptions/sterotypes. It is probable that a teacher will see a student who appears to be poor, or lower class and assume that that student doesn't have the capabilities to pursue a rigourous academic schedule. Especially if the teacher is familiar with that family. Likewise, interaction with a parent, who is uneducated may lead a teacher to make assumptions about that parent's intelligence or capability, which then carries on to be applied to the student. Especially in high school, poorer or low class student may or may not have the resources to pay for college, and therefore might be encouraged to pursue a vocational training or no extra school, rather the look into scholarship and grants.

There is little that we, as teachers can do to address point a, except to be sensitive to it, and aware that it is a possibility. A student who's parent works nights might not have done their homework because they had to babysit their baby brother that night.

Points b and c are where we as teachers have the power to change things and provide equitable experiences. Adjusting curriculum so that it focuses on not only those with power n history and the other disciplines, but also the 'every man', the working class, the poor and disenfrancised. And of course we must constantly be challenging ourselves to acknowledge the assumptions that we are making and biases we have, examining them to see where they come from and what sort of evidence do we have to support those assumptions.

Diversity in Education-July 23rd

Low Expectations

Part of my teaching philosophy that I pride myself on is my high expectations. I have had experiences in my student teaching this year with teachers that have low expectations for their students, either all of them or just a few. And it's really discouraging for the educator, as well as the students, because neither feels like a success. For my capstone we are studying what causes students to be apathetic or resistant to learning, and how we can combat that. One thing that has come up over and over is that when students are expected to fail, they do. And if you expect the child to be successful, then they are more likely to do so.

Unfortunately, the problem comes down to determining what those 'high expectations' are. Not each student has the ability/capability/opportunity to perform at the same level as every other student. Creating an individualized goal or expectation for each student seems really time consuming, but when we are lowering our expectations for some students, and not others, we are really doing that same thing. What we need to do is have high, tangible, achievable goals for each child based on their background, perceived ability and past, and then hold them to that constant improvement, and help them to devise goals for themselves that they can work towards. By creating a system of indvidualized goals, rather then relying on a graded point or average system, you can avoid the discouraging low expectations, and the lack of motivation that accompanies it.