My grade nine student Andy did minimal work in the first half of the semester. He earned a mark of 35% . His attendance was intermittant. In the second half of the semester I encouraged him to attend more regularly and finish the work. He attended, started most of the work, but did not complete much. He was pleasant, often asked to be excused to "go to the washroom", and sat at the back quietly. He was socially connected with a couple of boys in the class and had struck up a romantic relationship with one of the girls who sat on the other side of the room. This relationship did not interfere with the learning environmnent. He was friendly and we got along fine on a personal level. As the semester was coming to a close, I tried the following:
a. I called home, spoke to the dad about my concern and asked for his support in getting his son to come in once a week for extra help at lunchtime.
b. I offered Andy extra help and said clearly this would be his key to success.
c. I registered Andy for the school-wide catch up days.
d. I asked him daily for outstanding work.
e. I gave him mark printouts and highlighted the work still not submitted and made sure he understood what each piece was and what it was worth.
f. I arranged to work with him after classes had ended for as long as it would take to pass the course.
Unfortunately, Andy always had a reason for not coming in for extra help and in the end handed in a fraction of the work a day after report card marks had been entered. He failed the course.
What else would you have done to help Andy?
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Is this behavior confined to this one class? Or is it common to all his classes? If not,in which classes does he experience success? The answers to these questions would probably go far in helping to assess the situation. I think it might be a good idea to discuss the issue with the school's learning strategies specialist. Just to see if he or she thinks it might be worthwhile to pursue the idea that he might have a learning difference that might require her to take a look at him. Parental consent might be required for this. He might have an executive function disorder or some other kind of processing issue. He might need to submit work in another format: maybe orally or pictorially if possible. I hope that at least this latter option was tried because it doesn't require special intervention. Finding these things out is crucial to his ability to cope with other challenge in life. Success is broader than the scope of this class.
ReplyDeleteI would have a sit down with him over coffee/tea/juice and gently make inquiries about what he hoped to accomplish in the class and how he saw himself doing it. My goal in starting this was is to suss out whether or not the class has value for him and if it does, what components seem of worth to him. Then if it is at all possible, incorporate more of these components without compromising the integrity of the curriculum or the class. This is of course after making sure that his home and personal life are healthy. I think the answers more often than not have to come from the student and that it is the right questions that will ultimately get you to the truth or underlying issues at work.
ReplyDeleteAll the strategies used to help Andy were great! In addition, I would ask Andy what his interests and passions are- does he play sports, is he artistic and loves to draw, does he play music or does he love reading? Next, I would determine how much Andy already knows and what he did not know about the content I was trying to teach. Lastly, I would establish the learning profile for Andy. Is the fastest way into his mind via reading, using imagery or music? Once I would know his interests, passions, readiness level and learning profile, I would use differentiated instruction to help Andy learn in my classroom. I believe it is important to consider how individual students in our classroom learn best as we develop and implement learning experiences to support them.
ReplyDeleteAll the strategies used to help Andy were great! In addition, I would ask Andy what his interests and passions are- does he play sports, is he artistic and loves to draw, does he play music or does he love reading? Next, I would determine how much Andy already knows and what he did not know about the content I was trying to teach. Lastly, I would establish the learning profile for Andy. Is the fastest way into his mind via reading, using imagery or music? Once I would know his interests, passions, readiness level and learning profile, I would use differentiated instruction to help Andy learn in my classroom. I believe it is important to consider how individual students in our classroom learn best as we develop and implement learning experiences to support them.
ReplyDelete