Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain

Helping Underperforming Students Become Lifelong Learners

Eric Jensen, Carole Snider

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118590010
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Lehrmethoden

Powerful research-based strategies to turn around struggling adolescent students

The achievement gap is widening and more teens than ever are struggling in school. The latest research shows not only that brains can change, but that teachers and other providers have the power to boost students' effort, focus, attitude, and even IQs. In this book bestselling author Eric Jensen and co-author Carole Snider offer teacher-friendly strategies to ensure that all students graduate, become lifelong learners, and ultimately be successful in school and life. Drawing on cutting-edge science, this breakthrough book reveals core tools to increase student effort, build attitudes, and improve behaviors.

• Practical, teacher-tested, and research-supported strategies that will empower educators to make lasting and rapid changes
• Powerful academic evidence showing that every teacher can make a significant—and lasting—difference in student effort, behavior, attitude, and achievement
• Specific tools for making and managing the student's goal-seeking process and helping to develop a winner's mindset

From the very first chapter, educators will learn how to help their struggling students become excited, lifelong learners. Eric Jensen is a noted authority on brain-based learning and student engagement. Carole Snider is an expert in both adolescent success and adult learning.

Chapter 1

Teach Students to Learn for Life

This student's first memory is of standing in the living room of his house at age two. Tears streamed down his tiny cheeks. That was the day the divorce went through, and his mother was walking out the front door. Four crazy years later, his father remarried for the second of four times. The first of his three stepmothers was violent, abusive, and an alcoholic. Both of his older sisters quickly moved out of the house. One lived with the neighbors, and the other escaped to live in the garage. For ten of his thirteen school years, he was terrorized by his violent stepmother. Blood and broken glass were commonplace in the house. Every time things got really bad, the children moved away to stay with relatives or to live on their own. Then his stepmother would promise to be good, and they'd move back. This student lived with his grandmother, with his aunt, with his uncle, then on his own again. The cycle repeated itself every couple of years.

School was a train wreck. He went to nine schools and had 153 teachers. In class, he usually sat in the back and often acted out. He could never do homework; his home environment was a war zone. He had no parental support, and his only friends were even worse troublemakers than he was. He was truant often, arrested twice, and constantly disciplined in high school. He struggled with grades in high school, but finally graduated. His first two years at a local state college were not much better. The drinking started soon after, and things were not looking good. At this stage, would you place a bet on this student to succeed?

What Learning for Life Is All About

We're wondering if you have students who haven't seemed to find their way in school. We also wonder if you have students who seem to struggle every single day you see them. If you do, then you may be interested to know how the student mentioned in the preceding story turned out.

We told you that it's a real story, and it is. It's Eric's own story, and it's the “G-rated” version. What's hard for many to believe is that small, targeted interventions made all the difference in Eric's world as a student. Two secondary teachers changed his life. It did not take some monstrous life-changing moment; it took the right things at the right moments. Learning, just like life, is not a sprint. Learning and applying what you learn to life is a constant, ongoing process. This book is about creating a mind-set in your students that life is not a race. It's all about putting pieces in place that empower you to become your best self. Never, ever give up on your students; Eric is writing this book today because even though 90 percent of his teachers treated him like an annoyance in their lives, there were two teachers who refused to give up on him. They kept their expectations high while establishing a positive relationship with him. They had total belief in his ability to be and do more, and this belief was exhibited on a daily basis. Will you be that kind of teacher for your kids?

As in Eric's case, the life of a struggling student can be filled with almost insurmountable challenges and disappointment. Eric was one of the fortunate ones. He got the help he needed, academically and personally, and his life changed forever. Many students will not have such a favorable ending to their story without your intervention. There can be countless reasons students struggle, and countless teachers who have worked diligently to help them. You probably are one of those teachers, and would like more answers to that age-old question of how to transform students into true lifelong learners. Here's how this book will empower you to succeed in transforming students daily.

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Struggling Students

Intervene with your struggling students before the tide closes in on them.

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The Big Four

The entire focus of this book is on change. A host of things can change a person's life. In fact, if you read enough, you can get overwhelmed by all the self-help options as well as “teacher help” books out there. But we're going to make it easy. We're going to predict that you know many of the basics already. We're going to assume that you're looking for what you don't already know. We're also going to guess that you'd only like to hear about things over which you have a high degree of influence. For example, there's not much you can do about the peers kids hang out with (outside of school) or their parental or caregiver influences. But there are things over which you do have a great deal of influence—and we'll show you what they are. We'll reveal the research and give you specific, easy-to-apply strategies to ensure optimum success for every student, focusing on these “big four” factors that can play a part teens' lives:

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1. Attitude. This factor matters because it influences how much effort students put in as well as their willingness to try diverse learning strategies, and it influences how they think and feel about their ability to learn. Students with a positive attitude usually go far. The fabulous news is that such an attitude is far more teachable than you thought, and we'll show you how to do it.

2. Cognitive capacity. This factor matters because it influences self-esteem, the amount of effort students will invest, the strategies they try, and their attitude. The good news is that every part of cognitive capacity, including attention, memory, processing speed, deferred gratification, and other components, is fully teachable. Students with strong cognitive capacity have a good shot at success, and we'll reveal to you the simple steps to place every student on this positive pathway.

3. Effort. The fact is, kids who work hard have a good shot at success. This factor matters because it greatly influences the other three factors listed here. The amazing news is that sustained effort is teachable, and we'll show you how to do it.

4. Focused strategy. This factor matters because all the effort in the world won't give you success unless a student is using the right strategy, has the right attitude, and has sufficient cognitive capacity. The stellar news is that focused strategy is teachable, and we'll show you how.

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For students to succeed, they'll need to become consummate lifelong learners. The term lifelong learner is certainly not a new one, and yet there is a lasting quality to it. Its conciseness, its implications, and its universal use all lend credence to its importance. It can define the difference between a life of mediocrity and one of success. One of the primary benefits of learning for life is acquiring the ability to grow and meet the changes and challenges that are ever present at any age. This type of lifelong learning begins now—not after graduation from high school or college, but now. When a student employs the four drivers just listed, he or she will enjoy present academic success as well as success later in life. Academic success and lifetime success are not two separate entities, but rather form a continuum of achievements. This book is a guide for you as you continue your quest for current academic success—and, ultimately, lifetime success—for each of your students. It will strengthen your capacity to influence these teachable success drivers: attitude, effort, cognitive capacity, and focused strategy. Although we'll go into much greater detail in the upcoming chapters, let's give a quick overview to the big four here.

Attitude

How often have teachers or parents said, “Don't give me that attitude.” Words like these usually refer to a negative attitude. The student is seen as arrogant, demanding, ungrateful, lazy, selfish, or a host of other uncomplimentary adjectives. So how important are attitudes, and can they be changed? Attitudes matter! Attitudes are somewhat like moods, except they are more pervasive—with much greater intensity and duration. A mood can change quickly, but an attitude changes only through awareness and a true desire to choose a different one.

Attitudes influence and flavor a student's every thought and action. An attitude held on to tenaciously will have a significant impact on a student's life. In fact, one of the primary components of school burnout among students is a cynical attitude (Salmela-Aro & Tynkkynen, 2012, January31). Academics can be tough, but nurturing a negative attitude toward school will only lead to complications, not solutions. For a student struggling academically, it is often easier to develop the “I don't care” attitude, which can be a camouflage for his or her lack of needed skills for succeeding in school. The negative attitude only perpetuates the problem. This is why a sagacious teacher will search for possible reasons for the negativity toward school and help the student discover solutions.

Seeing the relationship between negative attitudes and poor school performance brings us to the insight that students can get stuck in a vicious cycle. Many things in life may be out of a student's control, but he or she still has substantial choices. Attitude is one of the most important choices the student will make. This is the key—attitude is a choice. The real power lies within a student, not outside, in that his or her responses to life always determine the outcomes of that life. Students can never escape from themselves; their lives are always guided by their thoughts, actions, and attitudes—all of which are well within their control.

So where do student attitudes originate? One source is the family's attitudes in regard to school, academics, and behavior (Alonso-Tapia & Simon, 2012). Attitudes can be somewhat contagious and often begin in the home. Having little control over family life but enormous control over the classroom, teachers can focus on establishing positive attitudes within their classroom and school. Because many students are oblivious to having negative attitudes and have no idea how to change them, education becomes essential in effecting desirable change. Once a student learns more about a situation or groups of people, his or her attitudes can shift (Dell & Holmes, 2012). For example, once a student understands that a classmate stole his power bar simply because the other student is getting no lunch from home, his attitude might change about the incident. Teachers can assess dominant negative attitudes and determine a course of action to facilitate students' movement from negative attitudes to more positive ones.

Attitudes can and do change with learning and experience (Rodgers & Gilmour, 2011). Simply telling a student to change his or her attitude results in minimal change. Teaching, discussion, and modeling of a positive attitude constitute a great starting place. As students begin to comprehend that a positive attitude can often tip the scales in their favor, striving for a metamorphosis becomes vital and exciting for them. With a positive attitude being one of the major determinants of lifelong learning and success, it is certainly worth the effort to instill such an attitude in students. Students lacking a positive attitude tend to view all of life through a negative lens, which can undermine academics as well as respect of self and others.

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Positive Attitude Required

1. Teach coping skills.

2. Discuss the advantages of a positive attitude.

3. Model a positive attitude.

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What You Can Do

• Teach coping skills for managing stress, which can sustain positivity in that kids are highly susceptible to stress and are very unlikely to have adequate coping skills.
• Establish an overwhelmingly positive classroom atmosphere so that no matter what's going on at home for your kids, your class is an emotional and social oasis.
• Model how you reframe life events and put them in perspective. Sharing your techniques permits students to see how you deal with the world and gain insights into self-regulation and optimism.

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The Effort Piece Is Vital

• Persistent effort
• Focused effort
• Purposeful effort

Persistence combined with focus and purpose maximizes effort.

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Effort

All students, and especially struggling students, need to cultivate persistent, purposeful, focused effort to be lifelong learners. On the one hand, a student can rely too heavily on talent and natural abilities, resulting in little effort because he or she is already “good.” On the other hand, some students refuse to try because they feel their situation is ho...