Learnings from the Structures Paper
September, 2006

Something I realized while writing my Structures Paper is...

a student might be viewed to have high academic status even if they really don't because of their social status.  Someone who is very popular, loud/outspoken, might be picked by other students as having high academic status.

there is such a huge correlation between a child's social and their academic status.  For example, tachers need to be aware of what is going on with a child socially before they can understand where academic problems are coming from.  Can't expect a child to give 100% academically if social problems haven't been dealt with.

social and academic standings in the classroom are not as they appear.  Student that i would not have expected to rank highly among their peers in either category did.  children that I would have expected to be mentioned during the questions were not.

no matter how much a teacher stresses community building and equality, there will always be unequal status in the classroom.  I also realized that status is not always obvious; it is often hidden under the surface of things.

how separate social and academic status can be.  In saying this, there are several children in the classroom who ranked high socially, but not academically.  it has been insightful to watch their influence in classroom interactions.

kids (at least the kids I'm observing) who are considered lower in status have coping strategies to project themselves (eg. humor, avoidance, disinterest).  Also, social groups (cliques) provide higher status students with ability to take more risks, academically and socially.  While low parent involvement are apparent factors in status, they are not foolproof indicators.

the student that is most socially accepted may not be the smartest or best behaved in the class.  I also realized that students view each other much differently than the teachers in the class do.

one of the lowest status students was someone I NEVER would have thought was the lowest.  It helped me to really get to know my students a lot better from the students they picked for all my questions.  Looking at the class status order started a whole conversation with my teacher and I about each student's family.  i was surprised with this conversation.

students already start to pinpoint status among peers at ages as early as second grade.  Students who scored high in academic status also scored high in social status.  Students who were also high in social status seemed to be those who are in a well clique in the classroom.

the weight of social status on the minds of fourth graders truly constrains their performance in relation to talking in front of the class, after school socializing, group work, and self advocacy.  There was a clear correlation between academic performance and social status, leading me to ponder which came first, the chicken or the egg.  There were clear outliers as well.