Programs or magic pills don’t create progress, it is relationships which determine progress for students.
There are many programs for different learning differences out there. Every single one says that they have the answer to learning difficulties. They know what to do to get students back on track in record time.
Teachers hear these claims from interventionists, principals, trainers, even commercials. It all sounds too good to be true.
Honestly, most of the time it is…. This whole system is incredibly frustrating for teachers who just want their students to learn.
The reality is, the most important factor in whether students make progress is their relationship with their interventionist.
There have been many studies on this topic, and they all basically have come to the same conclusion….
The program being used, the materials, the teacher training or years of service, socio-economic level, none of these things actually impact whether a student makes progress or not….
Yes, some may impact where a student starts off their learning, or the rate of progress but the one thing that actually appears to make the most difference is the strength of the relationship between the student and interventionist.
Students who have a good relationship with their interventionist make significantly more progress than those who don’t. In the studies it did not matter what program was used or the socio-economic level of the student. It didn’t matter how far below grade level….the one thing that was best at predicting how much progress a student made was the strength of the relationship between the student and the teacher. The relationship of the student to the teacher determined their progress.
A story of a teacher who is great at relationship building.
I have a good friend who teaches high school, and she is fantastic at building good, strong relationships with her students. Even the tough cookies who drive other teachers crazy seem to come around to at least respecting her by the end of the first quarter.
She prides herself on her ability to form relationships with all of her students. I have seen first-hand how this has made some pretty tough cookies stay in school and care about their grades. She, I believe, has kept several students from dropping out, just by showing her students that she cares.
Does this mean she wins over every student? Heck no! There are some students who we just don’t jive with or whatever….we won’t be mean to them but the fact is in life, there are some people who we just aren’t going to be able to build a good relationship with….and that is ok. We can still show our students that we care about them. Not every student is going to be our favorite, but every student that comes in our classrooms should know that we care about them.
Check out the blog post: SEL in All Classrooms for how to incorporate some SEL into your classroom, and start building relationships today!