I don’t dance. Not “I can’t dance,” or “I don’t like to dance.” I just don’t dance. Growing up, I experienced a defeating cycle of disengagement with dancing. Being able to do all the popular dances of the time was a social expectation of my preteen and teen life. My peers danced at parties, school events, and even outside with a boombox. They picked up new dances easily, but I did not. I started feeling anxious whenever I anticipated having to dance. I decided I was not a good dancer because my attempts to learn were inadequate. Dancing was simply not worth the risk of failing: The benefits of trying did not outweigh the safety I felt from avoiding it altogether. To this day, you’ll find me refilling the punchbowl, taking pictures, or joining a deep conversation to avoid the dance floor.
My decision about dancing is low-stakes—it has little impact on my opportunities in life. Unfortunately, struggling learners often make similar decisions about high-stakes subjects such as reading, math, writing, or school in general.
Instead of “I don’t dance,” the statement might be, “I hate writing,” “I don’t like to read,” “I’m not good at math,” or “I can’t draw.” Students who struggle might also act out to get removed from the classroom, stop answering questions or participating in activities, or sit quietly and copy answers from other students.
Don’t Deepen the Problem
When educators respond to struggling learners by removing or watering down curriculum and instruction, they can make things worse. This “sanctioned disengagement” can take many forms, such as when a teacher excuses a student from an activity they struggle with and asks them to just sit quietly while others participate. For example, during a lesson on fractions, Ms. Franks might notice that Devontae has not written anything on his paper. She reminds him to “follow along” by looking at his neighbor’s work to fill out his workbook page.
Sanctioned disengagement can also occur when a teacher lowers the difficulty of a task so much that the student is no longer required to engage with the learning standard being taught. For example, Tiffany’s teacher knows she dislikes writing, so instead of asking her to analyze regional migration in an essay, he might assign her to color a map of the regions using a color key.
Teachers can also fuel sanctioned disengagement by changing the focus of learning tasks for students who struggle. For instance, during centers, Ms. Simpson, a 1st grade teacher, might ask three reading groups to read passages and answer comprehension questions but ask a group of struggling learners to form sight words using letter tiles.
In each of these imagined cases, these well-meaning decisions allow struggling students to disengage and pull them further from meeting learning goals.
Breaking the Cycle
When struggling students don’t believe they can achieve, they experience a cycle of emotions leading to disengagement. Children disengage from learning activities when they:
- Find a skill/activity to be difficult and notice that it is not a struggle for others. (“This is hard for me.”)
- Experience anxiety or dread when they have to participate in the activity, especially in public. (“I don’t want to do this.”)
- Judge their learning ability to be inadequate. (“I don’t know if I’m able to learn this.”)
- Decide that the probability of success is not worth the risk of failure. (“I may never be good at this.”)
- Believe the safety of disengagement outweighs the benefits of engagement. (“I don’t care about this enough to try.”)
Teachers must recognize and disrupt this cycle of disengagement. To do so, we can:
- Provide scaffolding and support to reduce struggling learners’ anxiety. If you have a student who “hates” writing but can verbally communicate strong ideas, let them use speech-to-text to draft their essay. Establish an environment where students routinely use different approaches and tools, so those using scaffolds do not stand out.
- Help students develop self-help, self-advocacy, and coping skills. When students struggle, it is important to (1) help them develop the skill or meet the standard at hand and (2) guide them to strengthen their learning skills by using strategies that work for them, knowing when and how to ask for help, and continuing to try even when things are hard. Directly teach, role-play, and practice how to use these skills with struggling learners.
- Reduce the perceived risk of participation. For some students, the only thing worse than not knowing the answer is everyone knowing that they don’t know. As an example, a 5th grade teacher might notice students shutting down when asked to solve a math problem on the board. So she provides individual whiteboards to each student and walks around as they work to consult with them. She notices more students volunteering to show their work after that because they are less worried about failing in front of their peers.
- Increase the benefits of participation. To engage in something difficult, students need to believe the benefits of participation are worth the risk of failure. Teachers can entice struggling learners with ideas or activities they find fun or interesting and that are relevant, meaningful, or connected to their lives. For example, teachers can build a contest or simulation into a lesson or ask students to discuss or debate ideas they feel strongly about.
From “I Can’t” to “I’ll Try”
Engaging all students requires breaking the cycle of fear, anxiety, and avoidance that leads struggling learners to disengage. By creating environments in which all children experience success, receive support to try hard things, and enjoy challenges, educators can turn “I don’t” or “I won’t” or “I can’t” into “I’ll try” and “I can.”
