Currently, my students are reading an anchor text (from Journeys) titled Becoming Anything He Wants To Be. It’s about a blind man named Erik who has climbed the seven summits, and is known as a world-class climber despite his handicap. It’s a sweet message for certain.
This morning, one of my students, K, (who has been retained before, in the first grade) told me he was going to have a bad day. Right from the start! When I asked why, he replied, “Why bother? I’m not going to fourth grade.”
I would be lying if I said the teachers hadn’t discussed retaining him again and making him repeat the fourth grade. It has been a subject of contention for a little while now during staff, grade-level, and data meetings.
With, I believe, the intention of motivating K to improve his behavior in the classroom, my mentor teacher pulled K aside one afternoon and told him that the other teachers were considering keeping him from going on to fourth grade unless he ‘got it together’.
Therefore, this morning, I was really sad about K being so defeated. At first I was annoyed that he would use that as an excuse to just start the day off poorly, but then I realized -- he really HAS been told by an adult that it’s pointless. I know that wasn’t my mentor teacher’s intention. But, to me, it seemed to almost exacerbate the issue instead of turning it around.
I feel so bad for K. And if I were being honest, I would say I really disliked the way that my mentor teacher handled the situation. I don’t think I would ever tell a child something like that as a teacher, because it makes the ‘dire’ situation seem really inevitable to the child, and out of his own hands.
When K shared his nihilistic attitude with me, I took him aside, and told him that - just like the story we were reading - he could do anything he wanted to do and be anything he wanted to be if he tried.
The problem is -- did he believe it?
Urgh, this reminds me of one of my students (I'll call him John). John is actually a very smart kid and is absolutely not at risk of being retained, but his behavior is just erratic. He's always running around, bumping into other kids, and not watching where he's going. I feel like I'm constantly telling him to "control your body" because he is just always moving so much, and it's distracting for everyone! John also has an incredibly low sense of self-efficacy. As I said, he is SMART, but for some reason he just doesn't think he can do anything. For example, when the students come in every morning, they get a set of alphabet tiles that they have to put in order at their seats, and they can clip up on the behavior chart when they finish and get out a book. I have seen John be the FIRST to finish this task before, but there are other days where he just sits there all sullen, saying he'll "never finish." This attitude is baffling to me because I KNOW he is completely capable of any task we give him! I try so hard to encourage him to persevere and make the right choices at school, but sometimes he just seems SO convinced that he can't succeed, and I don't know what else I can say.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. It's a difficult situation because I haven't been here for the whole year, so I haven't seen all of the methods that the teachers have used to try to get his behavior sorted out. But by now, they've resorted to being REALLY strict with him. My mentor teacher says it's because he's constantly making excuses --true-- and he needs to snap out of it -- also true. But still, I cringe sometimes because he clearly doesn't respond well to getting in trouble (he doesn't act out, but it obviously makes him even less motivated to TRY). And I have heard her say on at least one occasion, "I can't send you to first grade if you keep acting like this." (Even though, as I said, he is 100% NOT being retained.) It's so hard with students like this, because he doesn't seem to respond to positive reinforcement OR punishment-- at least not consistently. I adore this kid, but it is beyond frustrating trying to get through to him sometimes!
Suzannah and Ilana, your posts reminded me of how often I struggle to comply with my teacher's disciplinary actions and/or comments to the students. There are quite a few kids in my class who need a little bit of extra motivation to keep going, for example. One of them in particular, let's call him D, was having a really hard week. He stands up in his seat, sings under his breath, and gets distracted really easily (I'm pretty sure he's going to be diagnosed as ADHD if this keeps up). But, that often means that he does not get his morning work done. I try to police him as best I can because I found that that is how he responds best. However, my mentor teacher sees him not working and has absolutely no tolerance for his behavior. Granted, I did not see him earlier in the year but there are many times that his reaction seems excessive to me. What's so wrong with a student who needs to sing in order to focus on a task? Anyway, at the end of every day D and I had a conversation about how he could make better choices the next day because that was a fresh start. I kept telling him that he had the opportunity to get all the way off the chart red if he tried his best. This was always really tragic because D was nearly always in tears by that point of the day because of his behavior chart position. By the third day, though, he was exasperated and no amount of my encouragement could help. D even told me: "no matter what I do, I can't clip up." I realized that I had been a bit stingy with clip ups that day and that my mentor teacher and I had left D stranded at the bottom, labeled as "bad behavior". I felt so terrible!!! I ended up clipping him up for something relatively minor just to show D that making good choices and putting in hard work is important. But, I know that the moment I leave and am no longer checking to make sure that students are being acknowledged for the good they do, the same thing is going to happen again. My teacher might overreact and this kid will get exasperated. I think that that has been one of the hardest parts of student teaching for me--finding things my mentor teacher does that I do not agree with.
ReplyDeleteYes--one of my students was also told (at least I think he was told--come to think of it I don't know for sure) that he might not make it to second grade. And the truth is he maybe should be retained, and if he does move up it will be more because that's just how schools work than that he is ready for 2nd grade. But he has told me when he is struggling with reading that "I'll never make it to second grade!" I told him with great confidence that he will definitely someday make it to 2nd grade. But, that's a lot of weight for a six year old. Already his future seems to be upon his shoulders and already he can't carry it. He's six years old, and I wish he did not have to worry about life.
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