Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1202, Describing Student Achievement.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1202.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Jeannie and William about describing how well students do in school.
Let's get started.
Everything okay?
No.
I just got off the phone with my daughter's school and they're not putting her in the Gifted and Talented program.
That's disappointing, but wasn't she struggling in school last year?
Her teachers were thinking of putting her in remedial classes.
Can you believe that?
My daughter is getting poor grades because she's bored in school She tunes out.
She'd be coasting in her classes if the teachers would just challenge her.
Are you sure that's the problem?
My son was considered low achieving in the lower grades but since starting high school he's doing a lot better.
I'm telling you, my daughter could be high-achieving if they'd only put her in the gifted and talented program.
It's all about teacher expectations.
Well, it's not all about expectations.
I'm saying that kids develop at their own pace.
Some are late bloomers.
Nobody in my family has ever been late in anything.
Putting pressure on her might make matters worse.
Maybe I can help her by getting her tutors in every subject.
And enrolling her in summer programs.
And let her waste her potential?
What kind of father would I be then?
Jeannie asks William, everything okay?
Meaning, is everything okay?
Sometimes informally.
In English we may not put the word or the verb is in the sentence, but we understand what the person is saying.
William says, no.
I just got off the phone, meaning I was just talking on the phone with my daughter's school and they're not putting her in the gifted and talented programs.
To be gifted means to be very intelligent or to have some special skill, some special ability.
Similarly, to be talented means to have a special ability to do something.
It might be an ability to sing very well or to play music or sports, or to perhaps even be good at math or English.
In many American schools there are special programs for students who are considered especially intelligent or who have special gifts or talents.
And these are called gifted and talented programs.
I myself was never in a school that had a gifted and talented program.
It's something that started in the 1980s in some schools in the US, although there were probably programs before that that went under different names, had different names for them.
Nowadays it has become very popular in many public schools to have these gifted and talented programs.
Jeanne says that's disappointing, meaning it's disappointing that William's daughter will not be put into one of these gifted and talented programs.
Maybe William's daughter isn't as intelligent as he thinks she is.
Jeannie says, wasn't she struggling in school last year?
To be struggling S-T-R-U-G-G-L-I-N-G means to be having difficulties, to be having problems with something.
If you're struggling in school, you're having a difficult time.
You're not doing very well.
William says her teachers were thinking of putting her in remedial classes.
Remedial R-E-M-E-D-I-A-L classes are classes that are meant to help students who are not doing very well in school, students who are doing worse than the other students in their grade level or in their class.
If all the other students are able to do say algebra, and you can't even do arithmetic, you might be put in a remedial class, a class designed especially for students who are behind the other students of that particular age.
William is surprised the teachers were going to put his daughter into a remedial class.
He says my daughter is getting poor grades because she's bored in school.
Poor grades would be not very good grades, bad grades.
He says that his daughter is just bored.
That's why she doesn't do well in school.
Yeah, i'm sure that's the reason She tunes out.
William says
To tune T-U-N-E out means to stop paying attention, to ignore what is happening around you and instead think of something else.
William claims she'd be coasting in her classes if the teachers would just challenge her.
To be coasting C-O-A-S-T-I-N-G means to be doing something very well without even trying, without having to work very hard.
He thinks the teachers need to challenge C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E his daughter.
To challenge a student in class here would refer to making the student work harder by giving the student something more difficult.
William thinks that if his daughter's teachers gave her things that were more difficult, she would pay attention and do better in school.
Jeannie says, are you sure that's the problem?
My son was considered low achieving in the lower grades but since starting high school he's doing a lot better.
To be low achieving means to not be performing very well in school, to be getting bad grades in school.
Lower grades here means elementary school when a child is, say, ages 6 through 10 or so.
William says I'm telling you my daughter could be high achieving if they'd only put her in the gifted and talented program.
I'm telling you is an expression William uses here, because he's trying to get Jeannie to understand and he doesn't think Jeannie is really listening to him.
He is trying to convince Jeannie.
He's trying to convince Jeannie that his daughter could be high achieving, that is could be getting good grades here if the school would only put her in the gifted and talented program.
He says it's all about teacher expectations.
It's all about, here means what's important, the most important thing.
William thinks the most important thing is teacher expectations.
E-X-P-E-C-T-A-T-I-O-N.
Your expectations are what you believe someone can do or should do.
William thinks that if the teachers had higher expectations of his daughter, she would do better.
And there's a theory in education that says that students perform depending on how well their teachers expect the students to perform.
Jeannie says well, it's not all about expectations, meaning that isn't the entire story or that doesn't explain everything.
William doesn't agree.
He interrupts her and says are you trying to tell me that my daughter is slow and I should just accept it?
To be slow here means to not learn as quickly as the other children, or perhaps not to be quite as intelligent as the other children.
Jeannie says, I'm saying that kids develop at their own pace.
To develop here means to grow intellectually.
She's saying that kids develop at their own pace, P-A-C-E.
Pace refers to the speed, how quickly, in this case, kids develop.
William doesn't like the idea that Jeannie perhaps thinks his daughter is developing more slowly intellectually than the other students.
Jeannie tries to defend herself by saying, I'm just saying that kids develop at their own pace.
Some are late bloomers.
To be a late bloomer.
B-L-O-O-M-E-R is to develop or mature later than other people do, at a later age than other people do.
Some people, for example, take longer to finish their college education, or they may go back to college when they are older than the typical student in order to study.
We may describe that kind of person as a late bloomer, someone who doesn't do well at something until a later age than is typical for that particular skill or achievement.
There's a famous painter in the US, Grandma Moses, who didn't start painting until she was quite elderly.
She is a good example of a late bloomer.
The word bloomer comes from the verb to bloom, which describes the process of a flower opening up in normally, the springtime.
William says nobody in my family has ever been late in anything, and they're not going to start now.
Meaning, no one in my family is a late bloomer, and my daughter will not be a late bloomer either.
Jeanne says putting pressure on her might make matters worse.
To put pressure P-R-E-S-S-U-R-E on someone is to say or do something to someone that Indicates you expect him to do very well.
You expect him to perform well or perform a certain task quickly.
To make matters worse means to make something that is already a problem an even worse problem.
To take what is already a small problem and make it an even larger problem.
William says, who's putting pressure on her?
He's rejecting the idea that he is putting any pressure on his daughter.
He says, maybe I can help her by getting her tutors in every subject and enrolling her in summer programs.
A tutor.
T-U-T-O-R is a person who provides one-on-one or personal instruction outside of a classroom to a student who is having difficulty.
Many parents will pay someone or pay an organization to give their sons and daughters extra help in academic subjects outside of school.
This happens in many different countries, including here in the U.S.
Some parents will send their students to summer programs.
These are basically schools that take place in the summertime to help students do better or to help students learn more than they could learn in their own regular schools.
Jeannie says, maybe she just needs more time.
William says, and let her waste her potential?
A person's potential, P-O-T-E-N-T-I-A-L, is the set of skills or abilities that a person has... that could be developed further your potential is what you could do in the future based on the skills intellect or talent that you have now you could talk about a student having great potential as a mathematician or as a musician that means that the student isn't a great mathematician or musician now but could be in the future Williams doesn't want to waste his daughter's potential.
He says, Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Everything okay?
No, I just got off the phone with my daughter's school and they're not putting her in the gifted and talented program.
That's disappointing, but wasn't she struggling in school last year?
Her teachers were thinking of putting her in remedial classes.
Can you believe that?
My daughter is getting poor grades because she's bored in school.
She tunes out.
She'd be coasting in her classes if the teachers would just challenge her.
Are you sure that's the problem?
My son was considered low achieving in the lower grades but since starting high school he's doing a lot better.
I'm telling you, my daughter could be high achieving if they'd only put her in the Gifted and Talented program.
It's all about teacher expectations.
Well, it's not all about expectations.
Are you trying to tell me that my daughter is slow and I should just accept it?
I'm saying that kids develop at their own pace.
Some are late bloomers.
Nobody in my family has ever been late in anything and they're not going to start now.
Putting pressure on her might make matters worse.
Who's putting pressure on her?
Maybe I can help her by getting her tutors in every subject and enrolling her in summer programs.
And let her waste her potential?
What kind of father would I be then?
We thank our high-achieving scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, for her wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
