Ortega 1

Salma Ortega
Ms. E. Parrish
English 1010 - 3A
May 13, 2016
Teenagers in Need of Some Help
Throughout the past years, the older students get the worse the test scores get. In
an article named Whats holding Back American Teenagers? It talks about teenagers in
high school having lower test scores than when they were in junior high. There arent
any problem with school funding or being understaffed. Students are having problems
with staying focused and wanting to be in school. So the question is, what will help?
Schools should deal with their own problems before involving the school board.
All schools have their own problems and ways to solve those problems. Individual
schools know exactly how their students are performing and they should be the first to
help students improve. Now there are some things that schools need to work on
together. There are problems that the majority of students struggle with that can be
solved. Students struggle with testing and struggle with learning disabilities.
People who went to school when there werent all the opportunities for different
types of learning styles have done great. They learned all the material from reading and
writing. Why should that change? There are books that give all the information that one
person needs. People learn from reading and writing, this should be something that
students always have to do.
Kinesthetic learning has been proven to be very helpful. There was a class that
was tested on how much they knew about oxygen carrying capacity of blood. Before the
students were taught with kinesthetic learning exercises on the subject the took a

Ortega 2

pretest. The pretest showed that the students have not grasped the concept. When they
were tested on the subject after they did some hands-on exercises their performance
significantly improved. They knew the information better when they physically and
visually saw the material. There was another classroom that proved to know meter
poems better after doing some kinesthetic exercises. The teacher stated, Kinesthetic
exercises have given my students rare insights into how poetry works Kinesthetic
learning allows a student to learn information in a creative way. This type of learning
has been able to allow students to memorize information better.
Cell phones are going to be around so why not take advantage of them? A school
named Stafford made a policy to where the students could only have their phones in the
hallways and in the lunchroom. When it was time to go to class, they needed to put it
away. Middle schools allowed students to only have their phones before and after school
unless they were given permission to use it during school. The policy did not work.
Violations with the phones started to go up and up throughout the years: there were 921
violations in 2012-13 that jumped to 1,096 in 2013-14 and then went up to 1,344 in
2014-15. Cell phone use cannot be avoided so why not have it put to good work? The
school board started to see that cell phones could be used for educational purposes as
the teacher saw fit. Trevor Jewell from Southern High School said, I feel it helps us
more to stay focused Headmaster Doug Lagarde stated, It has changed the
classroom in some innovative ways. Now there are some students that do not have
access to cell phones, there would be tablets or ipads available to use. Using cell phones
for educational purposes allows students to get information quicker and easier.
Some people say that students should just spend more time on school work. The
more time students spend on school work allows them more time to learn material that

Ortega 3

they need. They can better understand what information is needed and what
information is not needed. Students can be better prepared for tests and quizzes. They
will be better prepared for their life after school having all the knowledge they got from
school work. Although not all students will have time for this. Many students have jobs
and other activities that they do. Not all their time can be spent on school work even if
they wanted it too.
Students who go to school but do not do any work, need to able to take one class.
Not all students want to go to school, but they do not want to drop out either. Allowing
students to take a class similar to a home economics class could be beneficial. This class
would also require them to get a GED. This would allow them to know how the real
world works but also allow them to have a diploma. Having this option for students
allows them to move forward without anyone holding them back.
GIving students more options will give them a chance to want to be in school. Cell
phones allow students the ability to do any type of school work anywhere. More
kinesthetic learning can help students learn material better and be better equipped for
their future. Giving students a different type of class benefits everyone by not wasting
time and help everyones future. Changing some little things could really help the future
of the country.
Works Cited
Breckler, Jennifer, and Justin R Yu. Student Responses To A Hands-On Kinesthetic
Lecture Activity For Learning About The Oxygen Carrying Capacity Of Blood.

Advances In Physiology Education 35.1 (2011): 39-47 MEDLINE.

Ortega 4

Zimmerman, Virginia. Moving Poems: Kinesthetic Learning In The Literature

Classroom. Pedagogy 2.3 (2002): 409. Academic Search Primer.
Remmers, Vanessa. Stafford School Board to continue relaxed cellphone restrictions
for high-schoolers. Free Lance-Star, The (Fredericksburg, VA) 12 June 2015:
Newspaper source plus. Web.
Brandi Bottalico, Kelcie Pegher. School board looks at updating classroom cellphone
policy. Capital, The (Annapolis, MD) 10 Apr. 2015: Newspaper Source Plus.
Web.
Steinberg, Laurence. Whats Holding Back American Teenagers? Slate 11 Feb. 2014
Ruiz, Angel. Personal Interview. 28 Apr. 2016
Dunn, David. Class Interview. 26 Apr. 2016
Hunt, Sarah. Personal Interview. 25 Apr. 2016