It’s a new school year!!! How many times will the word “new” appear in any conversation or school publication prior to the first day of school? Welcome to new teachers and new students. Unwrapping new books and materials. Sitting at new desks. Riding in new buses. Playing on a new playground or in a new gym. Booting new laptops and tablets. New curricular goals and new assessments. New! New! And, new!
The declaration of newness is a cultural thing. New and a consumer-based economy go hand in hand. Every local store and online merchant finds its connection to “getting ready for school” shopping. Clothes. Shoes. Backpacks. Applications for smartphones and tablets. New is better and better is what children need to get ready for school and for school success. Interestingly, there often is a sale price associated with getting ready for school.
After all is said however, “new” does have a good ring to it because it connotes a clean and fresh beginning of the school year for everybody. No matter the child’s age or educational status, September is a new beginning point. There are no marks or grades or outstanding assignments that carry over from the prior year. Many teachers believe that the “fresh start” concept is essential for children, especially those who faced challenges and setbacks the prior school year. The fresh start also embraced extracurricular activities. Almost all athletic coaches build up their player’s expectations of the “new” season and the anticipation of more wins this year than the team experienced last season. And, children of all ages, whether they admit it or not, look forward to their new grade level, new courses with new-to-them teachers, and what is new with old friends and classmates.
The message is that a new school year is related to new school success. Actually, the excitement of something new and novel often causes a bump up in performance. There is an adrenalin rush that comes with any Christmas morning-type of event that gives all of us an immediate flurry of energy and task focus. The Hawthorn Effect tells us that the intensified attention associated with “new” has short-term, “rah, rah” value for classroom energy, but the Effect is not related to significant learning achievement. And, that is what everything new at school should be about – how will what is new cause all children to achieve a quality learning.
http://psychology.about.com/od/hindex/g/def_hawthorn.htI
I offer educators a different strategy for getting ready for a new school year. Show the community what is new and exciting, but show children real images of their immediate and future school successes.
Showcase what is new in the school to those who were responsible for procuring or creating all that is new. Especially, assure that local taxpayers have a clear understanding of what their funding has caused. Publicly recognize school patrons who led community initiatives that resulted in bringing “new” to the school. Take the time to recognize the faculty who worked on school projects over the summer. Be thankful and gracious for all that has been done to improve the school. There is a real boost to the energy of the school community that derives from their engagement in improving their local school. Everyone loves the smell of a new car!
New for children should be a focus on the “new” learning they will achieve during the new school year. Show children and teachers examples of last year’s success. Show them the exemplars that clearly portray what children at their grade level and entering their courses will be able to know, do and process at the end of the new school year. Let first graders hear and see what second grade readers sound like. Let them hear the fluency that they will achieve by the end of first grade. Show them the vocabulary successful first graders master. Display successful arithmetic work that lets a first grader see how their understanding of numeracy, shapes, size and scale, and their skills with addition, subtraction and problem solving will grow as a result of their new school year. Show high school children starting an AP History class exemplars from the past year’s AP History Test and let them see the level of thinking and writing that they also will be able to perform on their AP tests.
Do this for all children at every grade and every course. It doesn’t take a great deal of time or effort, but the clarity of purpose that it creates is monumentally beneficial. First, a display of exemplars makes school real. Summer is over and the work of school has begun. Children can physically see and hear what children only a year older than they have achieved. Second, children naturally make comparisons between what they believe is their current status and the exemplars. It is okay for children to see the disparity when it is coupled with their teachers’ assurance that “You can do it. I will help you.” We are used to seeing pictures of “before” and “after” and these images can be very inspiring. Third, they hear their new teacher explain that her job is to see that all children achieve these exemplars and “We are going to start on this adventure today.”
I always will remember Jor-El telling his son, Superman-to-be, “In this year we will study …” while Kal-El sped through space and time from the destroyed Krypton to Earth. Maybe it was Marlon Brando’s voice that made these words special. No, it was the promise of learning that clicks with me. These are the words that should replace “new” in every late August and early- September school conversation. Then when the new school year begins, the seven year-old girl would tell you “We are going to learn about …. in second grade this year.”
On the fourth Monday of a new school year ask any child older than six to retell you about all of the new people and stuff at her school and she will look at you with mild bewilderment. “This is school,” she will tell you, “and we are doing the same kinds of things this year that we did last year. We changed grades and got different teachers. But, it still is reading and writing and listening and doing what kids always do in school. Only it is harder this year. And, oh ya, there are two new kids in my class. Their names are …” You can bet on this response.
The “new” of a school year is wonderful thing. However, it is the “new and can do” of learning that is the most significant of the wonderful things that begin in September. To begin a child’s school year well first show the child what she will have learned by the end of the school year.