Improving Academic Achievement: Improving Academic Content

Improving Academic Achievement for Disadvantaged Children | Edutopia

I am fortunate enough to be professionally involved in a field that has always paid close attention to “emotional intelligence” (now called social-emmotional), and has always considered its importance in teaching and learning.

In this Edutopia article by Maurice Elias, he mentions the importance of the social-emotional approach as he outlines four points in the message of James Comer, advocate for the rights of African-American and Latino children and others less privileged -- these points are quite meaningful to professionals in the field of English as a second language like me.

I was particular interested in point three as follows:

"Academic content must be linked to and driven by the lived lives of students in schools and communities."

We have all read about the importance of the use of meaningful, real-world content in our classrooms, and we all know the importance of using it properly. In this age of digital learning, there is absolutely no excuse why academic content cannot be “linked to and driven by the lived lives of students in schools and communities” as supported by James Comer.

I welcome your thoughts on this issue.