We’ve all seen them. Either as a student or a pre-service
teacher, we have all had those students.
They are difficult. They sit there, stubborn as a rock, head down, and refuse
to do anything. They tune you out. I’m not talking about the disruptive kids,
we have many of those. I’m talking
about the kid(s) that simply do not do anything.
They don’t take notes. They don’t turn in homework. They don’t participate.
They rarely even talk to anyone. Not that they don’t have friends, but they
simply do not want to contribute. But is that really the case? Or is that just
our perception? Maybe they want to contribute, but they feel that there is some
barrier that is hindering them. Maybe they want to turn in that homework
assignment, but they are afraid of what you will think of it. I want to be that
teacher that gets that kid to do something. Anything. I’ve sat back and watched
teachers just ignore them. I’ve heard the responses, “Well they are responsible
for their education…”. Yes, that is true, they are responsible.
But high school is about learning. It is about growing. We
are preparing them for college and we want them to make grown up decisions, and
no, we are not their babysitter. But I’m going to just throw this out
there…they still need us. We can’t
just give up on them. It isn’t fair to them. It isn’t fair to us. It isn’t fair
to the rest of your class. It just isn’t fair.
I know for a fact that I will have these students in my
future classroom. I’m also fairly positive, even though I’d like to think I’ll
be super-teacher (I mean who doesn’t want that?), that I will have a kid that I
simply cannot reach. I hope that will not happen. I hope that I will be able to
reach these kids. But sometimes, you can’t. But the one thing that I’m not
going to do is give up on them. From the first day until the last day that they
walk out of my door for the last time, I’m going to try. That is all I can do.
If they don’t respond to me, at least I tried. I will probably feel like a
failure (I know that I’m not), but it will still come. We all have self-doubt
and question our self-worth. But I will force myself to remember, that I tried.
So…how do we try though? According to the Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development, there are certain strategies to
implement when dealing with challenging students. The first is one that I have
already stressed. Authors Mark and Christine Boynton (2015) write that, “As a teacher, it is important that you go out of your way to show your
students that you like and value them. Simply going out of your way to greet
your challenging students each morning or asking them questions about sports or
hobbies they are interested in is a way to display that interest, which in turn
fosters positive relationships.” This is one thing that I myself find
difficulty with as a pre-service teacher: finding something to talk to them
about. I feel like it will come easier in my own classroom as I get to know
each class of students as well as the school that I will be working in. But
this one important thing is the equivalent to trying; you are letting them know
that you are interested in them and that you care.
I have a student in my classroom this semester, which for
privacy purposes I will refer to as John, that is one of these kids. He sits
there. He doesn’t participate. He rarely takes notes. I honestly cannot wrap my
mind around him. It was only after my first lesson that John and me really
started to actually talk to each other. I had had conversations with some of
the other students, but I could tell that John was starting to feel comfortable
asking me for help.
Before that, I did not have much communication with John. I
remember when we took a grammar quiz, there were simple questions (what is a
noun, was one of them) and he just sat there. He put his name at the top and
then put his pencil down. I watched him for a while and I didn’t really know
how to respond. One of the co-teachers in the room started to give him a little
boost and tell him to put something down. He didn’t pass the quiz, but the
thing with John is, he knew the answers.
I struck up a curiosity about John and started questioning
my mentor teacher about him. The class I am in is AP Language. The previous
year, John was in a regular English class (and from what I know he did
participate) and then he decided to challenge himself. Well day one came
around, he met the students in the class, and he gave up. He had just decided
that he could not compete with the kids in the class and decided not to
participate at all, instead of attempting to participate and potentially
feeling embarrassed.
John doesn’t hate school. As far as I’m aware, he does not
have family problems. He has friends and outside of the classroom, he is social
with others. He is not on an IEP and he does not have any problems with the
classroom teachers. His one problem was that he felt he could not live up to
the demands of this class and he did not want to feel embarrassed in front of
his peers. So he plays the part of a student who does not want to participate,
but I truly believe he does. He is just afraid to.
If we had given up on John from the get go, how would we
have found out about this? We wouldn’t’ have. John is still having troubles,
but he is doing far better than he was. He turned in an assignment to me and it
was well done. He is a smart kid who just needed some encouragement. Some days,
he completely tunes me out. Other days, he asks for my help or the help of the
co-teacher. We just have to work with him on a day by day basis. But we will not
give up on him. He has done nothing wrong. And even if John had not responded
to any of us and to this day he still hadn’t, I would still be trying tomorrow.
Because he deserves that. All of our students do.
References
References
Boynton, M., & Boynton, C. (2015). Dealing with challenging students. Retrieved November 6, 2015, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105124/chapters/Dealing-with-Challenging-Students.aspx
