I teach both honors and standard language arts. For some time now I've been struggling with the concept of what makes an "honors" kid honors? What makes a "regular" kid regular?
It's certainly not intelligence. With the exception of some of my regular students who eat so poorly they're kind of out of it, I would say my regular kids are as intelligent if not more so than my honors students. My honors students are just better educated and more sophisticated. It's not simply academic skill, since some of my honors students write like third graders and aren't strong readers. It's not motivation, because some of my regular kids get to school despite tremendous obstacles, and some of my honors students do the bare minimum. Two months ago I started to wonder would happen if I persuaded the counseling office to turn my regular class into an honors class. Labels matter. An honors class is like riding in the first class carriage of the train. Being there gives you status. Being seen stepping off gives you status, and that feels good. Am I capable of teaching well enough that my regular kids could succeed in an honors class? I decided to give it a try.
First, the counseling office said, "Sure!" Then, a few of my regular students said they didn't want to do more work. As of right now only one is still resistant to a work load that hasn't yet arrived, and I'm working on her. The third thing that happened was that a ninth grade teacher said, "I think I have a regular class that could be honors." The experiment has legs, so to speak.
But the whole thing has made me approach my teaching in a new, not totally comfortable way, because I apparently have more preconceived notions about what kids are capable of than I thought I did. For example, in preparation for the big switch to honors that will take place second semester, I'm going to have ALL my classes read 1984. A few days ago I found myself thinking of how I could abridge the text so that my regular kids could keep up. Shame on me. Then, I got frustrated with my regular class for goofing off and wasting time. Could they do this, I wondered. Did they have it in them to be honors students? My question answered itself during fifth period, when my honors students goofed off all period and I thought it was hilarious. You get away with more in the first class carriage, it seems, and that's unfair.
Clearly, while I work to boost skills and prepare my standard students for the work they will do as honors students second semester, the biggest work I need to do is on my own attitude. Despite my personal philosophy that we should have high expectations for all students, I'm learning that I don't put this into practice. This experiment has forced me to get better at it.
What are your stories for creating an honors student? What's the defining characteristic of an academically successful student? What are your predictions for my experiment?
Brian, personally I like the full-inclusion model, where teachers have to differentiate and all students are together rather than separated. When my previous school established this, there was an uproar from the parents who wanted their children in honors. The school did it anyway, and it works. Universities could assist this by basing admission on skills rather than transcripts.
My current school still offers an honors option. Here’s my prediction: as inner-city honors classes grow more racially diverse – and they will because everyone is working towards that – there will be superduper honors classes because some parents won’t want their child sitting next to a crip, an MS-13, or a child in baggy pants. This is our culture’s weakness, and it’s a tragedy in public education that continues to translate to tragedies in society.
And Kirsten, these children I’m switching to honors are not dumber than the kids currently enrolled in honors. They aren’t even necessarily less skilled, but they’ve never been treated like honors kids and they don’t have parents who signed them up for honors as a way to get them the best-behaved, most productive education experience. And I guess I have to disagree that “some people are smarter than others and that’s the way it is.” I’m here to teach skills, both academic and life, so I consider it my professional duty to help children grow intellectually and socially. I’m not here to track them based on my own interpretation of smart or dumb. I have honors kids who can’t figure out how to take a bus home. I have regular kids who speak three languages. Who’s smart? Who’s dumb? I’m not going to base my decisions in the classroom on meaningless labels. It’s much too simplistic for what has to happen with 32 16-year olds all together in the same room, each trying to grow up.
Kristin,
In the story you mentioned, the kids who weren’t trying should have been pulled. They didn’t deserve to be there if they weren’t pulling their own weight. And the girl who thought she wasn’t smart, maybe she wasn’t. Some people are smarter than others and that’s the way it is. Why force people to be held back or pushed more than they should be?
When I was a kid, a long time ago, my Catholic friends used to eat fish every Friday. There was a joke that one Friday they didn’t have any fish, so they went to the priest for advice. He said do you have some chicken? They did, so he sprinkled some holy water on it and said “once you were a chicken, now you are a fish.” Problem solved.
I like your experiment because it raises your expectations for your students, and their belief in themselves. But I think it will lead to super-duper honors classes.
When we offer honors classes aren’t we really just letting parents and kids track themselves (something that only the math department used to get away with)? I don’t like the honors trend, but I think your response is the right one: raise our expectations for every student.
Thanks Bob.
Mark, Labels do matter. When I asked my class why they hadn’t signed up for honors, because they’re capable, one little girl said, “No one thought we were smart before.” I doubt any teacher said that, but it’s the message she heard, somewhere. Simply because I said the class would be honors second semester, she has heard “you’re smart.” Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by things like the truant student, or the stack of papers I have to grade, that I forget the simplest solutions.
Kudos, Kristin for your optimistic experiment. Yes, with that view, you’ll continue coming up with insights that result in student learning increases, regardless of how someone labels you or students in your class. Keep on removing those barriers to student learning, including limited expectations for honors, gifted and talented students that Kristen mentions!
And, since you asked for predictions, this is what I’d like to predict: if you treat them like they are “honors” students, you’ll start to feel their capacity rise with your higher expectations. We want to say the labels don’t matter, but they do. Sometimes just the label is enough to change behavior. (Not always, of course.)
Tom, I agree!!!!! And I’m hoping that being treated as honors students (which, obviously, I need to get really good at) will bring that behavior about.
And here’s the thing – I have had out of control kids in honors classes, too. I had a class once with such immature, out of control boys that it was by far my hardest class to manage. The kids around those boys got so tired of WAITING for them to get to work.
I think you’re right about the work ethic in general, but on a class by class or student by student basis, honors doesn’t necessarily mean well-behaved.
And I think you made the right choice. The best option for every child is a well-behaved, rigorous classroom. Too bad they aren’t all like that, honors or standard, right?
Very interesting post, Kristin; and very timely for my family. My oldest son just entered middle school this year. We had him apply for all the honors courses and he was accepted into each of them. But I’ll be honest about our motivation: we assumed that in the honors classes he would be less likely to be surrounded by unmotivated and off-task students. And that has indeed been the case. He’s having a great time and really growing as a learner. I hate to be cynical, but self-selection alone can cause the most amazing results.
Great comments.
Tracey, at my school I see the reverse happening in terms of kids separating themselves from another group. At my school, there is a whole population – a diverse population – that tries to be unlike the honors students. A colleague called it a fear of losing one’s street smarts, and I think he’s right. I’m working on showing students that you can earn A’s on a college track and still keep your street smarts. One thing I’m hoping this change will accomplish is allowing these students to try honors together, as a group, and not enter honors classes as individuals who feel they have to wave their street creds as a banner in order to keep their identity.
Kirsten, I don’t know about raising the standards instead of creating more honors classes and here’s why: years ago I had some students who couldn’t do the work. Not only that, they were too lazy to do the work. I send warning letters home and made many phone calls. The kids who were still failing at semester were to be moved to the standard class. Of the five, two moved. The other three were pulled from the school and enrolled in other districts or put in private schools because, as one dad put it, “I don’t want my son sitting next to some drug dealer.” Never mind that his own son got caught with pot. Never mind that I also taught the standard class and it was rigorous and safe. So I don’t think it will work to shift kids around according to ability. I wish it would, but privileged parents push for their children to get the best, most prestigious education possible. Unprivileged parents don’t or can’t, and their children fend for themselves. These students are capable. I’m inviting them to sit at the table. Since certain parents won’t make room at the table, I am.
And I totally agree with you. The honors tag is overused. Because of that, and parents who want their children there not for the academics but the company, I think it’s important for honors teachers to be sure that the work is strenuous and an A represents an honest A, and NOT be bullied into padding grades to help a child’s transcript.
From what I understand form current and former students who’ve taken “honors,” and even “pre-AP,” the only real difference (they say) is the teacher, not the label on the course. Some say they’ve had honors/pre-AP teachers who challenge them less and demand less of them than their “regular” teachers, and vice versa. There were clear differences between the workload and intellectual demands between “regular” and AP, but even then, the teacher also mattered a great deal. I’ve heard horror stories of AP teachers so overwhelmed that they didn’t return any homework until the last day of school. (To be fair, I hear the same of some “regular” teachers as well.)
At the elementary level, we don’t have the same labels, so my experience with regular student classes and honors student classes is a little different. I’ve taught students in the “gifted and talented” program, but even that isn’t the same. Reading your post made me remember the “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” experiment I learned about in my teacher education program. The expectations that come with the labels the students have influences and may determine the outcome of their performance. I commend you for trying this out. I want to believe they will rise to the occasion and become “honors” students. I know some of them will; and I think for them it’ll be worth it. But, it also makes me wonder what it will do the “real” honors students. Will they identify themselves differently to set themselves apart from the others?
I was in honors/AP type classes all through school, and you’re right, there is not a big difference between honors and non-honors. I don’t think the answer is to make more classes honors; that just removes more differentiation. The answer is to raise the standards for honors. The honors tag is overused in an attempt to encourage all the slightly above average kids (or maybe not even above average … the standards appear to be rather amorphous, just as you noted). The purpose of honors classes should be to challenge those who truly need it, and to the level they need challenging. Other levels are frequently under-challenged as well, as you mentioned. We need to divide classes up more by ability, and challenge them to the extent of their abilities.