Throughout my reading of Renkly and Bertolini’s Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit-Oriented Schools to Asset-Based Models, I could not help but connect aspects to my experience. The reading mentions the 40 student assets that support success. The authors explain that assets are categorized as external, referring to “...support, empowerment, boundaries, and expectations, and constructive use of time, rely on the relationships formed by adults in their lives”, or internal, consisting of “...skills that students develop to guide themselves…include commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity” (25). As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I struggled in elementary school, falling below grade level in my reading and writing. I was placed on an IEP for a learning disability, receiving extra practice each day with a reading teacher as well as tutoring over the summers. During this time, my success was heavily dependent on my abundance of external assets. I had support both from my family and my reading teacher, who provided consistent and structured resources, enabling me to build my academic skills both in and out of school. Spending these years playing catch-up to my classmates, I had little time to develop the internal assets necessary for the independence required in middle school. As the reading mentions, middle school is a pivotal time in a student's academic career, marking the start of a decline in asset-building resources. This means if a child lacks student assets entering middle school, they are mostly on their own to build these assets or find alternative means of overcoming this gap before entering high school, where they will be left completely on their own. The authors explain that this is why success in middle school is highly correlated with success/graduation in high school. The same was true for me as I entered middle school and quickly began to struggle when left on my own. Without external factors forcing my educational commitment, motivation, and responsibility, I lacked a sense of purpose in school, often not caring about or making light of my failures. I believe this attitude was developed in part as a coping mechanism, dealing with low self-esteem/efficacy. I found that failure felt much better when you don't try vs when you do. Entering high school, this struggle continued, as well as my poor performance; however, I discovered my love for art and developed a close bond with my art teacher. For the first time, I had a teacher noting my strength (creativity) in a class where it actually seemed to matter. This passion became my sense of purpose and provided me with an outlook towards the future. This shift created the spark of motivation necessary to begin putting in the work of developing my study/academic skills. Without this discovery, I’m not sure what my academic outcome would have been.
Comments: I believe this reading is one that resonated with most of us. One of my biggest concerns regarding becoming an educator is finding ways to foster that internal drive that motivates students to care about school and take pride in their academic accomplishments. The asset-based model seems like it could be very useful for this; however, it must go beyond identifying a student's strengths. Throughout my school life, I was always noted for my creativity, but it never seemed to improve my academic success, which, in my mind, diminished the value of this strength. Teachers must not only help students identify their strengths but also help them apply their strengths to support their success and asset-development.
For more information on how to apply the asset-based approach:
https://asm.org/articles/2023/december/the-asset-model-an-approach-to-teaching-and-educat
Hi Faith, I share your concern regarding becoming an educator. I have many friends who make really good money, and a great deal of their job they are able to coast on auto-pilot or enjoy the daily ebb and flow of "working" as finding the least amount of effort necessary to get enough of the job done. Meanwhile, educators are forced to perform all day long in a high stress environment, and are faced with the choice to "clock out" and recover during their limited evening time, or find ways to innovate and close gaps for their students in a dysfunctional education system! The setup for burnout is real, and this leads to some of the short-hand approaches to motivation many of us suffered from: your example of being labeled "creative" but not being mentored how to bridge your assets into better performance in academics is a case in point. I was similarly underinvested in many aspects of school, and when I found extra-curricular spaces to devote my attention to I rarely was able to tie things back to performing better as a student. We need more great teachers to do this work, and we need better supports so more of us have an opportunity to discover our greatness. Relying on teachers to be super-human isn't a sustainable formula :)
ReplyDelete