We've all had students who struggled and needed help feeling like their failures were not the result of lack of ability. Studies have shown that helping students see the connection between effort and achievement will help improve their self-esteem and overall academic engagement. But how do we get students to put forth the effort when they are convinced that it will only lead to failure?
I once had a student who struggled to make it through his college classes. His lack of success could be attributed to a number of things: lower IQ, lack of knowledge about how to study, but most of all his lack of effort. You see, Todd was a sweet student who was very likeable. He was one that people just liked to help out, take under at this particular school was not an especially difficult course for students who were willing to put in the effort. There wasn't a great deal of technical information involved, just the need to study effectively and determinedly.
Since Todd needed to repeat the class, we decided that this time around he would focus on setting small goals of consisting of tasks to be accomplished rather than focusing on the grades earned. We set up a study schedule with specific daily hours set aside to work on assignments. Each week we mapped out all the steps he would have to take (reading text, reviewing notes, completing assignments, etc.) and laid them out on a daily to-do list. Once that was done, Todd was only allowed to look at that day’s list and to work on those assignments. When he finished, he was done with Theater for the day. This focused him on the effort needed to acheive the daily goals and prevented him from getting anxious about what tests or papers lied ahead. We celebrated each checked off item rather than the grades earned, and I saved every one of those lists. At the end of the semester, I laid them all out in front of him, and we looked at all of the tasks he had accomplished. This was the most dedicated that Todd had been to any class since he started college. But would it be enough?
At the end of that semester, not only did Todd have an “A” in a class he had previously failed, but he also found a new understanding of how effort equals success. It was a lesson he would need to be reminded of periodically throughout his college career. Todd was a student with a learning disability and many years of failures behind him. There were times for him that it was easier to think about those than the successes he had with just a bit more effort. I am proud to say however, that after 5 years of taking classes Todd successfully finished his undergraduate degree and went on to bigger and better things. It is here I hope he continued to put this lesson to good use.
It is possible to try and fail. But it is impossible to not try and succeed.
