Category Archives: Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

Embracing silence

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

“The key to a successful MV lesson is for the teacher to withhold his or her personal values during the discussion and remain impartial. Teacher-directed discussions allow teachers to express their personal values on an issue and try to persuade or convince students of their viewpoint. A well-conducted MV lesson doesn’t provide that opportunity. When teachers refrain from providing their personal values about an issue, students begin to think about their own values and listen carefully to values that other students pose.”

An excerpt from Philip’s (2006) “Drugs that enhance Student Achievement:
Good Kids Making Bad Decisions” Continue reading Embracing silence →

If he jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond

Maybe drug-addicted people aren’t just chasing a good time. Perhaps their brains have somehow mistakenly learned that drugs are the most important thing to pay attention to.
Philip, p. 164

When a student comes into class drunk or high, there is usually a deeper root to the problem – a reason they started abusing in the first place. Continue reading If he jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too? →

But what if everyone’s doing it?

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond, Urban Adolescents

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, what struggling junior or senior in high school wouldn’t welcome the edge a memory pill could offer? What about university students, overworked air traffic controllers, medical students, and aspiring actors whose livelihood depend on being able to recall large quantities of information?

The scenario of Todd the good kid who takes mind altering drugs to get a leg up on a test was all too reminiscent of an episode of Saved By the Bell. Continue reading But what if everyone’s doing it? →

When Did Columbus Sail The Ocean Blue Again?

Reaching Adolescents and How to Respond, Urban Adolescents

“He could remember the fact for just a minute after reading it but then on sample tests would not be able to recall that fact. He couldn’t get it into his long-term memory. He had always compensated for this by writing well and spending considerable effort on assignments to offset his test score. What would he do with the PSAT coming up?” (Philip 178)

I chose this passage as my MVP for this week, because I sympathized with Todd. I have awful memory as well, and I tend to forget class material immediately after the test – which is quite unfortunate because I’m a history major and it’s technically my job to remember. Nonetheless, I had never been very good at retaining material for long periods of time, and as a direct consequence I despise cumulative finals. I, like Todd, prefer essays and projects – things that I can take home with me and mull over. I’ve also noticed that I recall material better if I had done a project on it or wrote an essay about it, as opposed to rote memorization. This definitely calls into the question of if testing truly is the only way to measure one’s intelligence. Continue reading When Did Columbus Sail The Ocean Blue Again? →