Challenging for growth

“Challenged academically,” “learning aligned to what they need,” “support when struggling,” “have the basics they need” – these are phrases parents have used when sharing what they want for their children in our schools. How do our educators think about and approach these topics? How do they deliver? We connected with several to find out.

We connected with a handful of teachers across schools, grade levels and program areas to give voice to shared and desired practices. There was a lot of consistency in the conversations despite differences in age levels and content areas.

In a nutshell, they shared: The right level of challenge results in growth. Too much challenge can shut students down. You have to know students in order to reach the right level of challenge. Feedback – including positives and next steps – takes many forms and all are important. Homework is practice and can happen with or without formal assignments. Support is everything and everyone needs it.

Let’s talk challenge

We started by talking about challenge. What do parents mean when they say, “I want my child to be challenged?” Across grade levels, teachers interpret challenge as a focus on growth.

“Our goal is aggressive growth,” says Melissa Gustafson, elementary teacher for first grade. “I'm coaching the success for each student in just the right spot. I want to find where they're challenged just enough so they keep growing but they're not overly challenged and they shut down.”

That theme of being challenged just enough – not too much – is consistent. Theresa Phillippo has taught all elementary grade levels and is teaching fourth grade this year. She’s seen students break down when they are pushed beyond their ability.

They're used to things coming easy. They're not used to the struggle. It’s so important along with challenging students to also teach the growth mindset. Growth feels uncomfortable but there's value in the struggle. They learn to accept that this little bit of being uncomfortable is part of the process. Theresa Phillippo, 4th grade teacher, Northpoint Elementary

For students beginning in Spanish immersion, immersion is the challenge – whether they are beginning as a native English or native Spanish speakers. Lina Mraz, who teaches kindergarten, differentiates between language and knowledge to describe the challenge.

“Some students know the seasons - winter, spring, summer. They only need to learn the word in Spanish,” says Lina. “Others need to learn the concept AND the word. Some come with big background knowledge in Spanish - but not the academic language. Some don’t know what winter is. The seasons mean nothing. Language is not only language - it has to have knowledge to pair with it.”

Some days, finding that balance of enough and not too much is hard.

“By providing the right scaffolds and support we can challenge students at just the right level,” says Kelsey Urness, multilingual teacher. “We want to encourage persistence and collaboration without overwhelming them [students].”

As students move into middle and high school, challenge is a little different. There are still skills to work on, and there is also reading fluency and stamina. In the 8^th grade, have students built up the ability to read for an appropriate amount of time to be able to sign up for challenging high school courses?

“Right now in class, we're talking about this exact day but next year,” says Eric Weber, English Language Arts teacher for 8^th grade. “I want to ensure that each student feels confident in the base level skills so they are able to focus on their ideas and the content. I talk constantly about long term goals versus short term distractions or entertainment. That is definitely a hard sell in eighth grade.”

Where are we at?

Finding that sweet spot of challenge that results in growth begins with knowing where a student is starting. There is a lot of data teachers consider.

“We use multiple forms of data to identify learning preferences and academic levels, allowing us to personalize instruction,” says Kelsey.

Before the year starts, Melissa reviews assessments, learner profiles and notes from previous teachers. She gathers real-time data from parents and students at meet and greet using “a mini-informal assessment” right there on the spot. She asks first graders to write their name.

“I look to see if they can start with a capital letter and end with lower case. Can they write their first name? Can they write their last name? Do they know their middle name? We talk about spacing, and we talk about letter formation. Right from the start, I have data that can tell me a lot.”

Rachel Andrisen, high school chemistry teacher, prioritizes conversations with students to identify where they are in the learning.

“I ask a student a question, and if they don't know where to start then I give some pieces to build on,” she says. “Sometimes they know where to start and I'm pushing them with a different kind of question. There are other times when I refer them back to something that we did before, and they can come up with that on their own. It’s all telling me something.”

Aligning to need, next steps

Once teachers have a good idea of where a student is at, they can focus on the next step.

“Spreadsheets are my friends,” says Melissa. “I track how kids are doing to be able to tailor the activity and level to where they are.”

It might look like all of the kids in her classroom are doing the same activity, but she might have 20 different things going on at the same time. The tasks are leveled up to each child and focused on aggressive growth for that child.

“It can be one task and choosing what's appropriate for this kid versus this one,” says Theresa, who works similarly. “It's making sure that within the same expectation, there are varying levels of complexity to meet the need.”

The word need, as teachers use it, reflects what each learner needs to take their next step in learning. As a multilingual teacher, many of Kelsey’s students need support with academic language and literacy. She provides background knowledge building, vocabulary, graphic organizers, and language frames to support reading, writing, listening and speaking.

“Some students benefit from drawing their ideas first or telling me their stories before writing,” she says.

Rachel tries to build a lot of work time into her chemistry classes at the high school, because that's when she can connect one-on-one or with small group conversations to push at thinking and see where people are at.

“I want to figure out how much structure you need to get to an answer. What kind of supports do you need,” she says. “Or, do you already have them and you just need someone to sit next to you and be a thought partner?”

Having those rich classroom discussions, whether there's a whole group or small groups, results in her students learning as much from each other as they do from her.

“It really helps some of the kids who are already doing well and need that extra challenge,” says Rachel. “You can tell if they know something when they are able to explain it well and teach it to someone else.”

The power of feedback

Feedback, for all of these teachers, is essential and comprised of positives alongside next steps. It should be specific and takes many forms – written, informal conversations and check in’s, and peer-to-peer.

“If they're all writing, I'm going to peek over their shoulder. I'm going to say something more than just good job,” says Theresa. “I'll say, ‘Wow, your introduction definitely set it up to tell your reader what that whole paragraph is about.’ Or, ‘I don’t think your evidence is quite lining up with your topic sentence.’ Then I give a clear next step. I want feedback to be timely and very specific.”

Eric does quick checks for real time feedback a few times a week. When the class talks about compound sentences, he has them write an example in their notebook. Then, they do a walk by to show him their notebook. It gets the class moving and provides real-time feedback.

“I may take out my pen and make a quick correction if needed. I may ask them to write another sentence underneath that. Let’s check it again,” says Eric. “Our time is short every day, and I try to balance the learning and feedback.”

Eric also provides written feedback using sticky notes in Schoology. He focuses on the most important ideas for what they’re talking about so students aren’t overwhelmed with details. 

"One of the greatest disservices I could do is to tell a student they're doing great when they're not actually improving," says Eric. "I think about that a lot. Everyone has room to grow and needs to be challenged."

For Melissa’s first graders, feedback is colorful. Learning progressions, or small learning steps, are captured using a “marble jar.” Each learning progression is a marble and each month is a different color.  As students accomplish their goal, they color in the marble making a kind of visual map.

“The great thing is kids can see how far they've grown,” says Melissa. “When they see how many they've colored a pink color or red color or an orange color, they can see their progress.”

Students root each other on and give each other energy for the next steps. That peer-to-peer celebration, encouragement and feedback is common across grades.

“I love having peers give feedback, because I think sometimes the student can hear it from me and it might go in one ear and out the other or they roll their eyes because you're the teacher,” says Theresa. “But then, when you partner them up, all of a sudden they're like ‘oh I hear what you're saying.’”

At the high school, Rachel follows a similar line of reasoning with peer-to-peer feedback.

“I really like trying to get my students to help each other,” she says. “It's really helpful coming from teenage brain to teenage brain. When students give each other feedback, they're teaching each other and learning from each other. That's the goal.”

Homework as practice

Homework can be polarizing – either there is not enough or too much. At the elementary level, there isn’t a lot of homework.

“We tell our students they need to be reading at home - whatever that looks like,” says Melissa.  “Whenever we can find those moments where students take learning home with them, and it gets them excited and engaged to learn something at home, that's really what we're looking for.”

Last year, Melissa had a group of students excited about the Titanic. She thinks they checked out every book about it in the local library. They were excited to learn about it outside of school hours.   

For Theresa, the best homework is applying what they are learning out in the world. Parents can have a big role in that.

“Help me write this grocery list. Let's work on our fractions by following this recipe. Or, I'd like you to read this menu at the restaurant and order for yourself. These are little things that teach academic type skills but it's not paper or flash cards,” says Theresa. “They are actually applying academic concepts to their life.”

Lina shares the titles of books her kindergarteners are reading in Spanish and encourages families to check them out in English at the local library. Kelsey encourages activities like reading together, discussing stories, writing reflections, or creating new stories as all being activities that are more valuable than worksheets.

Everyday tasks like grocery shopping, cooking, or playing games offer rich opportunities for practicing literacy, math, and critical thinking. Authentic, interest-driven experiences provide deeper learning than traditional homework ever could. For multilingual learners, reading and talking in their home language also powerfully supports literacy development in English. Kelsey Urness, multilingual teacher

At the secondary level, homework is a little different as the skills students need to apply evolve. Getting better at something requires practice – and sometimes that practice happens outside of school.

“I need to make sure that the work that needs to be done outside of class is meaningful and important and that students can see the impact in the next lesson,” says Eric. “As we're talking about it and it leads into something, hopefully they can see that connection between the homework and being prepared for the next thing we are doing.”

Rachel understands students already spend 7-8 hours a day in school and have a home life, activities, jobs. For general chemistry, if a student is using their time wisely in class, they shouldn't necessarily go home with homework unless they're really struggling with something and maybe need to do some extra practice or extra work. AP classes are a little bit of a different story.

“For AP, I orient it like a college level class, because it is college in high school,” she says.

Most of her AP Chemistry students spend 2-5 hours per week on work outside of class. They understand the payoff could be a free college credit, and they are motivated by their interest in the subject.

Everyone needs support

When a teacher is challenging a student at a level for growth, the student will need some kind of support to get to the next step in learning.

“As a teacher, I have a fundamental belief that they can do this and will figure out what supports they need in order to be able to do it,” says Rachel. “Then, where can I take the supports away? Over the course of the year, I can see how I went from asking very leading questions to help them get to the answer to them putting together pieces, finding those paths and those neural connections.”

Theresa will sit with some kids to get them started. Then, she’ll come back and check in. She’ll have them work with partners. Or, she’ll push them with tasks to take it a step further.

“They need to write an informational paragraph. You have kids who hate writing. I come and sit next to them to get going,” says Theresa. “There are also kids who already have it down. I might ask them to go and find a quote from one of the people we're studying and work that into their paragraph. It’s those little things that give them what they need.”

Eric has a reputation for being a teacher with high expectations for students.

“That also means I'm here and working just as hard to support you,” he says. “It's not like I'm just saying – ‘hey, go do this,’ and I’m standing back here. I'm right there offering all kinds of support.”

Despite best efforts, sometimes the challenges feel big and students struggle. Rachel sees it in chemistry. 

“I work through it in a conversation starting with – ‘I hear you. That's valid. This is a tough class,’” she says. “Then we refocus. Let’s just do this together. Then let's do it with partner. Then let's do it on our own, and let's see where we go.”