The Benefits of Looping Students and Teachers

 The title of this article very quickly made me smile because I love looping with my students.  I have had experience looping with two groups of middle school students as their science teacher and team leader.  It allowed for me to develop strong relationships with my students and also create a sense of family and community with each of them.  I didn’t teach all of the same students from the first year, but I had many of them.  It allowed for students to know the class expectations and feel safe to actively participate in class.  I believe that looping can be a great opportunity for schools to develop deeper relationships, and in particular with middle school students, it allows for them to really trust an adult as they are going through so many changes.



Being a team leader allows me to develop relationships with every student in the grade level that I support, whether they are in my class or not.  Many times my first interaction with a student I don’t teach is because a teacher has contacted me about them with concerns.  I then meet with these students and introduce myself to them by letting them know that I am a layer of support for them.  These conversations usually lead to the beginning of developing strong relationships with these students, which allows for them to trust me when we are discussing how they are feeling and why they are doing certain things in classes.  Over time, the students confide in me and ask for guidance on how to handle situations with peers or staff, and then develop a plan of action.  This usually reduces negative behaviors in classes because they know there is someone in school that cares about them, but is going to hold them accountable.  Looping would allow for that relationship to continue, and hopefully reduce discipline concerns.  In the article, it showed results of research that was conducted by Annenberg Institute at Brown University about how looping teachers with students affects grades, test scores, and changes in behavior.  The research showed, “gains in attendance and declines in discipline were largest for lower performing students and male students of color.” ( Blake, 2022)  Students are more likely to attend school and behave in a positive way, when they know the teacher likes and cares about them.  If teachers loop with students, they are given a longer opportunity to create positive relationships that can have a lasting impact on their students.


This article resonated with me because the first group of students I looped with had a reputation of getting into trouble.  I wasn’t a team leader at this time, but I moved up from 7th grade to 8th grade with them as a science teacher.  There was a group of 10-15 boys of color who had a reputation, and I absolutely adored them.  We would stay after school together to work on school assignments for all of their classes.  We would eat lunch together and check in with each other every morning.  If they were having a rough day, I knew about it and was able to communicate with their teachers ahead of time to give them a heads up.  If they were in trouble, I would help talk them through this issue and we would come up with solutions together.  They knew I cared very much for them, but I also had high expectations for each of them.  The relationships were able to really be created and deepened because I looped with them.  They are now seniors in high school and I have kept in touch with them.  I attend their sporting events and they come to visit after school.  Some have already received college offers for sports and academics, which is amazing considering they were academically ineligible, when I first had them.  My opportunity to loop with them gave us the ability to develop a relationship to teach them skills to become academically successful and less likely to be involved in disciplinary matters.  I began looping 8 years into my career, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had thus far.  It gave me a sense of genuinely making a difference and really getting through to my students. I believe more schools should try looping and really look at the research regarding test scores, grades, and discipline, and as a long as the teacher has a positive relationship with the students, it could really make a difference in a student’s educational experience.



References


Blake, J.(2022, June 29). Staying with the same teacher benefits students, research says. Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/6/29/23188239/looping-teachers-academic-behavior-research

Comments

  1. ArianaSeptember 14, 2022 at 2:01 PM

    Shea! I love this post so much for a very special reason - this is my very first year looping up with my students. I taught the same lovable rascals in 6th grade and I am now teaching them in 7th grade science. I'll admit - I wasn't too thrilled about the jump up in grade levels (teaching older kids and new content was intimidating for me!). After 2.5 weeks of school, I can say that I LOVE IT!! I want to do this every year. I already have a very strong relationship foundation with all of my students and I'm so happy to know that I can continue being apart of their daily lives. You talked in a different blog post about how important relationships are in teaching - this is proof. I am so happy and I'm excited that you have the same feelings!

    ReplyDelete
  2. MizelleSeptember 26, 2022 at 9:56 AM

    Looping with students is something I have wanted to do since I became a teacher. I had a college professor that when he was in the classroom would loop with his students from 3rd grade till the end of 5th grade. He shared how this made for better starts to the year, stronger relationships, and more academic growth. I got to loop with a group of students last year when we moved from 2nd grade into 3rd grade. It was an amazing experience and very insightful. When we went into third grade I became departmentalized, so one group of students I had looped with I had taught everything to the year before and my other block of students was like having a brand new class. I was able to see each and every day how I had a stronger relationship with the students I had taught the year before and how they were growing at a faster rate than the students I had not taught the year before.

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