Academic montioring - Essay Example

Academic Monitoring The K-5 or the elementary schooling programs are very important in children’s lives. This is the stage where children are developing their levels of confidence. They should get teachers’ help to the maximum and if they are ignored or slighted in the class frequently, the results will be negative .Children show negligence in the works and their indifference may cause great difficulty to teachers, parents, their classmates and finally to themselves. Therefore, it is imperative that the teachers make use of effective teaching strategies and monitoring methods among K-5 graders.

It is worthwhile to consider some of the possible monitoring systems and strategies that a teacher can employ in K-5 grade class room. One strategy a teacher can use in a class to monitor the understanding level of lesson materials of students in K5 is to ask the students to draw pictures on the taught items. Sometimes the children may not be willing to draw the picture. But if they are motivated they do the work. The teachers can understand the child’s level of understanding even if the pictures are not worth watching.

The drawn up piece can be considered to be a mirror kept against the child’s progress. In certain cases the teacher can ask the students to take the role of a teacher in group works. A talented or pre instructed student can easily find out the problems of his or her friends. Students will easily be able to gather information from their friends. Children open up their difficulties in studies to their friends. Then the teacher can cleverly identify the problems and help the children in tackling their problems.

Effective monitoring in the classroom can be done in a different way. If the child is totally indifferent to the works given in the class, the teacher can promote him to do works of his or her own. Sometimes the child may select works outside the syllabus and it may not come up to the expected standard. Through this the teacher can understand the student’s ability in different areas. Once he or she gets the appreciation from the teacher there starts the change .Gradually the teacher can bring the child to class related assignments and activities.

Similarly, the teacher can also do the strategy of assigning the works and telling the students to do it for their loving ones. Sometimes they will do it for their parents, siblings or friends. At the end of each week the teacher can ask them how much they could score for their loved ones. This has shown great results in the progress of most students in studies.Another interesting activity could be taking the children to field trips, observing and monitoring the progress they make. The teacher’s involvement in the trip should be kept to the minimum.

Children should select their trip coordinator and reporter and they should manage all the events in the trip. At the end when they come to class teacher can ask the kids to narrate their experience in the trip. Let it start from what they liked the most. When they speak eloquently on their trip teacher can gradually shift to their experiences in the classroom. The teacher can elicit responses from the learners on which items they liked the most and what was the reason was etc. This will provide clear cues to the teacher regarding the learning difficulties or blocks faced by the K-5 grade learner.

Similarly, at the K-5 level, all the learners may not like all the subjects. There can be many learners who display dislike and indifference to certain subjects. In such cases, it is very difficult for a teacher to identify the reason the child is indifferent to the given assignments in the classroom. Sometimes the student may be afraid of the teacher’s behavior. The student may not be interested in a particular subject. He or she might have given preference to some other issues or subjects (Communication Exchange: Dealing with Indifference).

If the child is talented in one stream the teacher can seek the help of that teacher to know of the difficulties a child faces in the study of other topics and subjects. The child will be more convenient in talking with the teacher whose subject he or she is confident in doing. This strategy seems to be helpful with K5 grades in their academic monitoring.Students with difficulties in coping with the classroom assignments should be given works in priority in terms of the difficulty level. The teacher can frequently help them tackle their problems to make them confident and approachable to the teacher.

They should be motivated to do the works in a lower difficulty level. Gradually they should be brought to more difficult ones. The teacher can ask the children to suggest their own works and assignments each day. There is more accuracy and interest in the works selected by them. The works which starts from very simple to complex levels improve their confidence levels. They should be complimented with positive reinforcements too. There shall be some sessions in the classrooms to appreciate the works done by the children with specific problems.

Children in elementary classes will easily accept the merits of their classmates. If willing, the teacher can present them with some small gifts in the classroom. The interest and growth of the child talent can be continuously monitored. The graph will be positively upward if the teacher implements the corrective measures in his or her part too.ReferencesCommunication Exchange: Dealing with Indifference. Retrieved 25 July 2010 from: http://communicationexchange.blogspot.com/2009/05/dealing-with-indifference.html