Ensuring High Academic Achievement During Times of Stress

Art: “Good Night’s Sleep” by Jeena Ann Kidambi

1. Are you sleeping well at night? Many of our students are not. From our Kindergarteners to our 12th graders, many of our students are drowning in fear… fear of what may come to pass, fear of what their neighbors or friends are telling them – fear of rumors that are not true, and fear of rumors that are. I have already written about how to deal with such turbulent times for teachers and administrators. In that article, I talk about providing students a safe space… giving them smiles and hugs. I have also highlighted the importance of helping our families know their rights. But today, I want to talk about what few are talking about; I want to talk about ensuring that all of our students are getting a strong academic background despite increasing anxieties.

   One of the pillars of Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) is to ensure students high academic achievement in both languages. Now, more than ever, this pillar continues to be important. We want to make sure that whatever the future holds for our students, that our students will have the skills to stand on their own two feet in either language. This may feel like a tall task when students’ minds are elsewhere, but ensuring our students’ academic success is the least we can do for them.

   So how do we ensure academic success when stress levels are high for kids? Whether you have Kindergarteners or 12th graders, these five tips can help.

   1. Use your students’ interests to guide your teaching. Remember that while we are all language teachers, in DLBE programs, we teach language through content.  Therefore, as often as possible, let your readings and lessons revolve around what interests your students. Have them read about sports if that is what catches their fancy. There are articles in every language about fashion. Take your students to the school library to pick out books. However long they are engrossed in topics of interest is time that they are not focused on their stressors and that they are improving their academic achievement.
   1. Build background knowledge. Obviously, you cannot tailor every assignment to your students’ predetermined interests. But whatever you teach, build excitement by building schema. If you are going to teach about magnets in science, have them explore magnets before the unit as you provide the vocabulary for them to talk about their experience. If you are planning on teaching about decimals, have them experiment with base 10 blocks before starting the lesson. If you are going to teach about the Great Depression, show a short video about the 30s. Greater engagement means greater concentration on the learning and, of course, greater learning.
   1. Incorporate music into your lessons. Music is a great way to teach language and literacy. After all, songs have tons of vocabulary words, often at high vocabulary levels. Songs are also written like poetry, a difficult genre for many students. By having students learn songs about what you are trying to teach, such as “Brother, can you spare a dime?” if you are studying the Great Depression, students’ content knowledge and reading skills will skyrocket. Make sure that you share the lyrics with students to help with fluency and reading skills, play the same song every day for a week, and require every student to sing to the music. In addition to building high levels of literacy in the language of instruction, by incorporating music into the school day, you will be providing stress relief since music is known to lower our heart rate and cortisol levels.
   1. Challenge your students. Every child still needs to be working at levels of productive struggle. It is easy during times of stress to give our students work that is too easy for them in order to not further stress them out. However, when the work is too easy, we are actually giving our students more time to focus on life’s stressors.  Give students at least grade-level work and scaffold up for students who need the support, but just enough that they are working at their zone of proximal development so that they do not get frustrated.  
   1. Be there for your students. . As explored in my last article, students need to know that you represent a safe space. Let them know that you will listen without judgement if they need to talk. Give them the hugs and smiles that they need. You may wonder how this is a tip for high academic achievement. Kids cannot achieve if they do not feel safe in their environment. And many of our kids do not feel safe in general right now, but we can make sure that they feel safe within our four walls. And that will help them succeed.

   Perhaps we cannot return the restful sleep of yesteryear to our students as much as we wish we could, but at least we can help them prepare for the future, whatever that may be. 

Author: Aradhana Mudambi

Dr. Aradhana Mudambi is the founder and Chief Advocate for Students at Language and Equity Education Solutions LLC, a consulting firm that supports schools and school districts to build and improve their multilingual programming, especially their Dual Language Education programs. Through Language and Equity, she provides professional development, consulting, and coaching. For the past few years, Dr. Mudambi has run her popular blog, Social Justice and Education. She has taught several courses such as Intercultural Communications, TESOL Methods, and Assessments for Bilingual Students at Eastern Connecticut State University. Furthermore, she serves as the Director of Multilingual Education at Framingham Public Schools in Massachusetts where she oversees Dual Language programs in Spanish and Portuguese. Additionally, she worked as the Director of Bilingual Education at Windham Public Schools, not only overseeing and restructuring Windham’s Two-Way Dual Language program, Compañeros, but also founding and building Dos Ríos, New England’s first One-Way Dual Language program. Dr. Mudambi has served as a building leader, a Dual Language teacher, an ESOL teacher, and a Spanish teacher. She has worked in India, Mexico, France, England, and The United States. You can reach Dr. Mudambi at arm977@mail.harvard.edu.