I know a teacher—a great one, actually—who, in private, refers to his students as “bricks.” As in, “dumb as a brick.” You almost never hear that level of candor among teachers, and not just because every parent’s got a lawyer on retainer.
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We know words make a difference and this post explores how our words as a teacher may impact our students, how words we use for students whom are "failing" are described. Ben Orlin asks "So how do teachers frame failure for their students? What words do they use?
He continues to explore the words slow, weak, behind, low, struggling and unintelligent, writing about how each "embodies different assumptions about the engines of success, the nature of failure, and how students’ minds operate. Each word is a bite-sized piece of educational ideology."
Although he explores this issue through the lens of math the concepts apply across all curriculum.
With the Common Core we are being asked to personalize education for our students and to make sure that all hit standards based on grade...a task we know more challenging for some students. If we have a student whom has been labeled at some point in their journey we also have to address the issue of mindset, and help that student move towards a growth mindset. The issue of language, and how we use specific words, is a component of this, and this post highlights some issues in a format that is easy to understand.