Low grades to good grades : How to help a struggling student
Hey everyone. Today I would like to discuss an educational topic. I am going to write about my experiences and what I have recently learnt. Since I am currently only a student, I might be incorrect with some of my points, but I am happy to accept any criticism.
So, what's your reaction if your child gets low grades for his school work? Do you feel angry, sad, perhaps some resentment? To some parents, it is the end of the world. What about the viewpoint of the teacher? How would you as a teacher feel if the reputation or the aggregate of the class has depleted because a student, or more, have failed? It’s pretty much true to say that disappointment would be felt.
But if we look in to this in the child's angle...
I can confidently say that I am not too bad when it comes to schoolwork. When I do get marks that average below 80% for a subject, I feel pretty pathetic. I don't want to let my parents see these low marks! Sometimes my fellow peers worry about losing one mark here and there and cry out in shame when they do not score more than 90%!
But one day a momentous event happened. I was worried that I had only gotten 70% in a test. At this point I heard a student saying "Wow! I got 50 marks! Now I can finally be happy!". I am not ashamed to say that this brought tears to my eyes. For this person, he had achieved something, not matter how little it was, he felt good about working towards something.
I know that elders want their children to prosper in school. But they have to be sensitive and thoughtful too. Not all students are born, or meant to do well in academics. Perhaps their talents lie elsewhere! It is up to parents to not force children to have good grades, but instead to encourage them to simply try their hardest and persevere
How can we help our students?
Praise them
Words are the most powerful weapon, they can make or break a child. Instead of acting out in anger and yelling at them for receiving bad marks, ask them why they were so low and discuss a solution to improve them in the future. Praise them for the good marks they do get. Positive reinforcement is key.
Say "You can do it"
When a child failed to keep up his studies, it is mostly likely that he already feels inferior. That's one of the reasons why some students get bad grades in the first place. We have to replace "you can't do it" with "you can do it". Motivate, encourage and praise!
Don't compare them with others
Don’t compare your child with those who got better marks. "Look, James got 80 marks for Science, so why can't you?" Always refrain from saying things like that. He will feel that he's useless and he'll start to envy the other children.
Ask them if they have any concerns
Students may have many reasons why their grades are low. Perhaps they do not enjoy the subject in question, or they do not understand the teacher so well. If you talk to your child instead of yelling at them, you could find the problem, and then seek a solution!
By following these tips, you can motivate your children into getting better grades and to persevere with their talents. These tips are not only for parents, but for teachers too. Children are the little buds that will turn into beautiful flowers. It's the elders’ responsibility to give them the water and soil they need to grow.
So, thank you very much for reading my post, I hope you found it both interesting and informative – perhaps even life-changing!
Please remember to upvote and resteem.
This post has been edited by a member of the @blue-pencil team.
OK, so I enjoyed your post and thought I'd give you some perspective as a parent.
Firstly, depending on your religious views, there's no prize at the end of it all which is one little nugget of information they don't tell you at school. You work hard, try to have a comfortable life, retire, hang around for a few years and then finally bow out. Now there's an accusation that's flung about of how "Parents relive their lives through their children." and it's kinda true but not in the bad way it is portrayed, generally by youngsters. Sadly the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is not 42
The primary goal is the production of more carbon-based units to keep the human race going. The secondary goal is warmth, food and shelter and the third goal, which really should be the first, is to ensure your children not only don't make the same mistakes you the parent has made over the years but that your children have a better start in life than you had.
When my twin daughters were growing up all I ever used to say to them was "Hey, it's up to you. If you don't want to do your homework that's fine. If that's the case all you need to learn is "Do you want to go large on that?"" Now I'm not saying that working at a burger outlet is a bad life choice, what I am saying is you can do better. By ensuring they got good grades they both have professional careers, one is a nurse and the other a teacher.
P.S. Not heard of @blue-pencil I'll have a look at that. Thanks.
Yeah, I agree with you. you're discussing it in the parent's view. Yeah, parents are our gods and if we obeyed them, things will never get wrong. But some parents pushing their child over his limit and I have seen many of my friends suffer from it. If both understand each other's desires well, there will be no problems. This can be done with you parent's help and love. Thanks for your attention and opinion Sir, It's a great honour to me. I'm still a child you know.
About the @blue-pencil, it's a great work. It helps the authors to write their ideas in a better way.
Any chance you can tell my girls I'm a god? LOL
I've done a short post on Blue Pencil. :-)
They'll understand that someday, you'll see. Every parent should be respected.
Thanks so much, this post was very helpful, an aunt of mine had same issue with her kid so i copied and sms the post to her... Now she is beginning to correct her errors
Wow, I'm so happy to hear that someone use my tips practically. I'm so honored. Thank you @stevendion.
Thank you for allowing a member of the @blue-pencil team to edit this post for you.
No problem^^