![]() ![]() “I’m not smart.” Every time I hear this, I am faced with the gut-wrenching realization that the student has internalized failure by age eleven. This is almost always followed by a common, heartbreaking confession. “But I’ve never done well in history,” they say. I often teach students who react with surprise when they do well in my class. It had been more than a year and a half since she had studied Mesopotamia, yet she was able to pull it out of memory without a second thought.Ībby’s story is hardly unique. Abby walked in just in time to hear me ask the class, “What is one of my favorite big words that begins with ‘M?’” After a split second, she enthusiastically replied, “Mesopotamia!” Although I had been going for “metacognition,” I could not have been more proud. One day I had been planning to discuss metacognition-a learning strategy I teach to my middle-school students. A year later, Abby began stopping by my class to deliver notes from the office a few times a week and I was always delighted to see her. Her teacher wanted her in my class for socialization purposes, and she did well. A few years ago I had a student named Abby in my history class, who had always been in self-contained special education classrooms. ![]() ![]() Sometimes the details former students recall from class is nothing short of amazing. ![]()
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