It's a grade 12 class. There were two tasks to accomplish today. One was a quiz online. The other was preparation for a dramatic representation of a literary theme. Sadie and Chris chose to work on the drama first, then Chris left for a medical appointment and Sadie starting doing an art project, not something related to today's assignments in my class.
Everyone but Sadie was on task. I thought "she heard the same announcement as everyone else...I guess she's decided not to do the quiz. She must not be prepared." Then I caught myself. Is Sadie being difficult? No! Is she avoiding any task? No, since she and Chris had already done some planning for their drama. My subconscious belief "she's not interested" had to be challenged.
I sat down beside her and asked if she wanted to try the quiz. "What quiz? was her response. I didn't know there was a quiz!" (Every Wednesday, like today, there's a quiz on the next few chapters of the novel, but I didn't go there). I just said: "Well, since you started in the reverse order with the drama ( what she and Chris were most interested in), perhaps you could try the quiz tomorrow." She agreed.
I'm glad I checked my assumptions.
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I am thinking what if the teacher did follow his subconscious believe about Sadie action?what if the teacher assume she is challenging him as a teacher? most propably she will not cooperate and may be behavioural.
ReplyDeleteIt is crucial to students that us as teachers to understand where are they comming from and take into consideration real life pressure.
This is a very interesting position, for both the teacher and the student. On one hand you assume that a grade 12 student can be independent to stay on task...after all, it is one that is normally in their routine; yet at the same time, the grade 12 student appear to depend on your little 'push' to continue what she knows she should be doing.
ReplyDeleteThe questions that you asked yourself was very key in this situation, whether she was being difficult and avoiding tasks are questions that inevitably crosses our minds as teachers which then leads on to being subconscious beliefs. Personally, if a situation like this happened to me, my first thought would be wondering whether I have performed my job effectively and why the student feels this way. I suppose this is my own subconscious belief and a confidence issue. But the way you handled the situation was the most ideal that I could come up with; sitting down next to the student giving the the respect, and really just talking it out with her gives her an opportunity to know that you really do care about their progress is very important.
I wish more teachers would check their assumptions instead of freaking out on a student. In grade 12 there are many things on a student’s mind and a lot of the time small details ‘fall through the cracks.’ This doesn’t always mean that the student is trying to be lazy or neglectful. If I was in the teacher’s place I would have asked the student what progress was made with Chris was still in the class room. I would then say “good progress.” I would then ask the student if they remembered the weekly quiz. And if there was still time in class I would ask Sadie to complete the quiz before doing her art work. I guess my subconscious beliefs are that it is better to have a student working on something unrelated than not working at all; Students should stay on tasks as much as possible and them if they are working on something they shouldn’t then they either misunderstood or just forgot the task. I think it is always good to challenge a negative subconscious belief once it is noticed because that could taint how a teacher views a student. This could be a problem when a teacher has to mark assignments or deal with any issues that come up. A teacher should always give a student the benefit of the doubt.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way this situation was handled. It is always really tough not to instantly get angry with students when they are not following instructions. Instead of making assumptions and getting angry, it was most beneficial to open the lines of communication. Since you took this approach with the student it is more likely that she will come to you for help when she needs it since she will consider you approachable. This is a positive approach as long as students do not take advantage of your understanding nature.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, I think the situation was fairly and professionally. It would have been easy to fall back on a subconscious belief (i.e. "This student is being lazy and isn't paying attention -how disrespectful"!). Instead, you did not make such an assumption and took the time to check her understanding of the two tasks. For me, the student's reaction to your questions shows that she wasn't listening attentively to the instructions. In a grade 12 class with the many distractions going on (intentional or unintentional), it is understandable that a small handful of students would stray off topic or off task. The situation reminds me of the four stages of listening -1. Receiving
ReplyDelete2.Understanding, 3.Remembering,and
4.Evaluating. Clearly, the student did not achieve the first of these stages, and will hopefully engage her active listening skills in the future.