Denise Hanson - Malcolm Shabazz City High School, Madison WI ...

we have set up as a class, they are able to be successful. Because this class as a whole ismuch more vulnerable than my traditional classes, I have asked to see each student'sprogress reports (for each class) each quarter. I also saw each student's high schooltranscript before school started in September. Some of the students had cumulativeGPAs as low as .8, and the majority were 1.2, 1.8, etc. The highest in the class were thethree Sánchez scholars 1 , each with a GPA of at least 3.0.For example, one of my female students consistently got Bs in my class.However, she was failing every single other class. When I asked her about her grades (Ihave regular personal check-ins with each student), she noted that she had no clear idea inher other classes of what the goals were, and how to be a successful student. I was baffledbecause he English was certainly passable, so that wasn’t the problem. In my class, wework with the class-created expectations. I also let students know that I truly believe thateach and every student is capable of passing the class with a high grade. I did have theluxury this year of having a fairly small class (my traditional Spanish classes havebetween 28-32 students). The small class atmosphere provided me the time to meetalmost weekly individually with each student to help them problem solve, motivate andset personal and academic goals. Not only was I able to meet with them one on one likethis, but I was also able to touch base with some of their other teachers in order to helpthem have more success in all their classes.This class was totally different in pedagogical terms from the traditional Spanishclasses I have taught and continue to teach. Writing has really become the focus to thepoint where I sometimes feel like I'm an English teacher and, in fact, I've spoken toseveral different English teachers at my school about rubrics, writing assignments and thelike in order to prepare for this class. For obvious reasons, much of my focus in mytraditional Spanish classes is on speaking and oral language practice. That is notnecessary in this case, and thus the class experience has been very different for me asteacher.1 The Sánchez scholar program is an endowment left by a former UW professor of Mexican heritage, andadministered by the Madison Metropolitan School District, which provides incoming high school studentswith financial assistance for each of their high school years. More importantly, it offers the studentsongoing advice and assistance about academic opportunities and the like.