What Makes a Good Student?

Here follows an entertaining poem you can print out and put on your classroom wall for your students to read. It encourages them to think and communicate as best they can.

What Makes a Good Student?

What makes a good student?

I’m so glad you asked.

He or she LOOKS and LISTENS

and is always ready to LEARN.

They open their ears.

They open their eyes,

and above all –

they get off their behinds.

They OPEN their MINDS.

They ask lots of QUESTIONS such as:

WHO, WHERE, WHY, WHAT and HOW?

They are their own SUPER SLEUTH,

a DETECTIVE out for the absolute TRUTH.

They don’t sit and wait to be told what to think,

say or do.

They’re the ones with BRAINS who

like to EXPLORE and ask more and more.

And when they’ve done all their asking

and  completed their  thinking, they’re onto

the NEXT STAGE.

They give you NEWS of their findings.

And as their names aren’t ‘Sloppy’, ‘Slap-Dash’,

‘Slack and Lazy’ or ‘I Don’t Care’,

they COMMUNICATE, and they communicate WELL.

They think of their LISTENERS.

They think of their READERS.

‘’We want to share what we’ve thought about with YOU,

so we’ve taken great care with our PRESENTATION.

We’ve checked our SPELLING, GRAMMAR and PUNCTUATION.

Our PARAGRAPHS have all been carefully done, too!

If we’re READING ALOUD or giving a TALK,

We’ll use excellent FACIAL EXPRESSION.

We don’t race, mumble, fidget or squeak.

You’ll sit up and take notice and say:

‘My, this student knows how to SPEAK.’

We’ll give you time to ENJOY what we have to say,

because we’re good students, and for EVERYONE’S sake

we intend to STAY that way. ‘’

By Andrew Pender-Smith   © 2016

Author: ‘COLOUR ME MORE: Teaching English Language and Literature’ and

‘COLOUR ME MORE: Teaching Dramatic Arts’.