Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition- Marzano

Marzano's (Chapter4)discussion on effort and achievement got me to thinking on just exactly how we evaluate students. I had a recently arrived immigrant (Burmese) student this year in class who came with very limited skills. However, with diligence, the help of supportive foster parents and remaining flexible as to how I evaluated her performance she made tremendous progress over the course of the year. As a senior she wrote an essay on her favorite teacher (a copy was shared with me by the English teacher) and in her limited English stated that I was the best teacher she had ever had. This was largely due to the fact that I always smiled and acknowledged her every day she arrived to my class (first student there after lunch)and constantly checked with her for understanding on assignments and expectations. Her progress was significant over the course of the year and I have to say that had I simply ignored her effort and focused just upon the achievement level alone, her confidence level and achievement would have been much less noteworthy.