As a teacher, knowing how to communicate with underachieving students is an essential part of the job. Should you fail to say the right thing at the right time, your words may have a negative impact on your students’ self-esteem, motivation and performance, jeopardizing their entire academic careers.
Here are four things teachers can say to a failing student:
- A low grade does not make you a failure.
- Can I help you in any other way?
- Others have gone through the same thing.
- Move forward instead of dwelling over negative results.
In the following sections, I’ll explore how each of these statements may help a low-achieving student feel better about themselves. While teachers should not be expected to serve as their students’ counselors, there is plenty that they can do to ensure that their students are given the resources they need to get the best grades they can, and more importantly, achieve personal growth.
1. A Low Grade Does Not Make You a Failure
If a student of yours is struggling due to a low grade they’ve received, you should remind them that a low grade does not make them a failure, and that everybody fails at some point in their lives. After all, one’s grades do not reflect their actual worth as a person and learner.
When telling a failing student that a low grade does not make them a failure, you may want to remember that our education system is structured in such a way to prioritize attainment over learning. In fact, I strongly encourage you to look into the origins of present-day grading systems so that you may appreciate their limitations and share them with your struggling students.
You may be surprised to know that grading systems first became popular in the late 19th century when Yale
started assigning its seniors performance-based categories. The four categories used by Yale were initially named in Latin and can be loosely translated as Excellent, Less-than Excellent, Inferior and Worse.
It did not take long for other academic institutions to start using similar marking systems in order to maximize students’ attention while encouraging good moral conduct. As schools grew in size, more and more people called for a standardized grading system, which is when many academic institutions started using letter grades.
Over time, some schools realized that the kind of public assessments and rankings used by many universities were creating overly competitive academic environments, which in turn had a negative impact on learning. Still today, many scholars and practitioners feel that numerical and categorical grades impair learning by exerting unnecessary pressure on students.
Make sure you remind your students that as important as they may be, grades do not necessarily reflect their value as learners and individuals. Some people simply struggle with tests, no matter how talented or smart they are. Getting a low grade is not the end of the world, and recovering from it is perfectly possible.
2. Can I Help You in Any Other Way?
Every teacher’s role is to ensure that their students are making continuous academic progress. If this is not happening with a particular student, educators should implement alternative strategies in the classroom aimed at boosting the attainment of the failing student.
However, multiple studies have shown that poor academic performance is a multi-factorial issue. Factors such as class size, class structure, school funding, students’ socio-economic background, access to resources, and health status have all been found to have a significant direct impact on academic achievement.
For instance, students with financially-comfortable families tend to outperform students from poorer backgrounds; students who attend schools with better funding, more resources and smaller classes also tend to get higher grades than students who attend underfunded schools with larger classes.
Here’s a video depicting how financial struggles can negatively impact a student’s academic achievements:
Good health also plays a crucial role in enabling students to get the grades they deserve: available evidence clearly shows that poor health often leads to lower concentration levels, increased absenteeism and a higher risk of both academic failure and early school dropout.
When dealing with an underachieving student, it is important that you do not presume to know why their grades are not as high as they should be. As their teacher, you are in the perfect position to ask highly targeted questions. Perhaps that student is going through a rough period; perhaps they have a problematic family; perhaps they lack the resources to meet their educational goals.
The important thing is that you make a genuine effort to understand what is going on in their lives and offer your help. This is what a true mentor is supposed to do, and if you are lucky enough, your student will allow you to help them.
3. Others Have Gone Through the Same Thing
All students look up (and constantly compare themselves) to their peers. Seeing classmates succeed in seemingly impossible subjects might make failing students feel inadequate and inferior to their classmates. Therefore, gentle reminders that everyone goes through a rough patch or two can do more for a student’s morale than you’d think.
I have always believed that examples are a very powerful way to convey information. If you want to prevent someone from doing something you deem wrong, you can try outwardly prohibiting them (which can be especially ineffective when it comes to teens), or you can tell them about a person who once did that thing and got in trouble because of it.
As humans, we are biologically wired to empathize with others, which is why examples are so effective. A failing student can be very hard to console: usually, they are so upset and disappointed that they won’t listen to anyone, no matter how encouraging their words may be.
However, if you tell a failing student about another student who once was in the same position as them and then recovered completely, they may actually listen to you. Telling them that someone else faced the same problem and then turned their situation around is likely to trigger a series of thoughts that may ultimately restore their motivation.
At first, they will feel less lonely and abnormal. Then, they will tell themselves that if that particular person ended up getting better grades, then there is a good chance that with hard work, they will also be able to improve their grades. Finally, they will see their situation from a broader perspective, which will help them overcome their crisis quickly and efficiently.
Even if you cannot think of anyone who went from an F to an A, reminding a struggling student that many others have been where they currently are can still be very helpful.
4. Move Forward Instead of Dwelling Over Negative Results
It is perfectly normal for students to be upset when their grades do not meet their expectations. A particularly dedicated student may get so frustrated at their own “failure” that they may struggle to move on, which, in turn, may cause their academic performance as a whole to deteriorate even further.
When dealing with failing students, it is important that teachers encourage them to move forward as soon as possible instead of focusing on what has been. So how do you get an upset student to stop obsessing over their low grades?
To start, you could ask them about their studying strategies and recommend some better ones. You could also prompt them to reflect on the factors that may have contributed to their poor performance, giving them a chance to troubleshoot what went wrong. You can even work with them to create a plan that can help them overcome any difficulties or hurdles they might be facing during the studying process.
Doing so not only provides them with a practical solution, but it also lets them know that you’re determined to support their academic journey. You’d be surprised how much your care and effort will be appreciated by a failing student.
This can be especially true for students whose poor academic performance is linked directly to a dysfunctional family dynamic. Sometimes, all a child or teen needs to hear is that someone cares about them.
The point is to get the student to understand that as long as they learn from their mistakes, there is nothing stopping them from doing better in the future. Therefore, based on my personal experience, prompting a struggling student to create a detailed study plan is the best way to encourage them to adopt a more proactive approach.
A low grade can have an extremely negative impact on a young person’s self-esteem, morale, and self-image, which is why it can be essential to provide struggling students with adequate support.
Evidence clearly shows that poor academic performance can result from a multitude of factors, and as a teacher, it is your duty not to assume that all failing students are just lazy.
By communicating the previously mentioned sentiments to your failing students, you will accomplish three crucial things: 1) you will make them realize that they are not alone; 2) you will encourage students with personal problems to seek help; and 3) you will empower your students to improve their grades, restoring their confidence and boosting their motivation.
Sources
- American Psychological Association: Education and Socioeconomic Status
- NCBI: Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently)
- Grin: The causes of low academic performances in secondary schools
- Intechopen: Health, Academic Achievement and School-Based Interventions
- The Washington Post: Was Albert Einstein really a bad student who failed math?
- YouTube: AFTHQ: How Poverty Affects Classrooms
