I’ve got one class that just infuriates me — these days, there are about 30 students in this class. at the beginning of the year, it stood at about 20. With the original lineup of students, things got done. I could see them getting things done; I could see them participating, and I could see them learning. I could see them interacting with each other, and I could see them making gains in their thinking and writing.
As time has passed, though, I’ve had a slew of students enter the classroom who seem to be among the Defiant Students I discussed here. These 10 new students are intelligent, but just refuse to do anything in class. I know this is a classroom management issue, but I’ve talked to parents, I’ve talked to counselors, I’ve met with these students alone and with an administrator. I’ve worked out plans with other teachers, and I’ve asked other teachers for strategies to help these students succeed in class. No matter what I do, though, these kids walk into class and do absolutely nothing all hour long.
For example:
Last week I had the students working on creating teaching posters. Each group was given a grammar topic to define, describe, to show, and to work to demystify. One group of students (comprised of two students from the original class and two new students) which taught a lesson on idiom today just stood in front of the class and talked to each other; they wouldn’t show their poster; they wouldn’t give the definition; they wouldn’t teach. They wouldn’t answer any of the questions I asked them and they wouldn’t answer any of the questions the class asked them. As a result, the rest of the class just started talking and it was difficult to bring the class together.After their presentation, this group refused to fill out a “cheat sheet”-slash-study guide for the next group’s presentation. Then each of this group left his/her paper on the desks and left class at the end of the period. The were the only people to leave behind their work.
Another student absolutely refused to fill out his paper. I spoke with him about this in class and asked him to get to work. He decided it was better to start calling other students names and to walk around playing basketball with other people’s work (crumpled paper, trash can). I spoke with him in the hallway and asked him politely to get his shit together – he returned to class and did more of the previous behavior.
I met with another student in the hallway and politely asked him to get his shit together, and he went in and did so. When I checked his work, I saw that he’d just scribbled some random words all over the handout. (side note: he did this last week when I asked him how he’d contributed to his group’s work. He showed me a picture he’d cut out of a magazine and said: “It makes a sentence.” I asked him to write a sentence to make an example for the picture (the picture showed a waitress). He wrote: “Lady scream?”) Today I asked him to give me an example for semicolon – the rule being that he had to write two sentences, after which he’d re-write those two sentences to make one sentence using either a comma or a semicolon. He wrote: “(pencil,)”
Now, I don’t mean to be a complete asshole, but what am I to do with a student who writes the following as a sentence?
(pencil,)
Another student sat and drew in his notebook all hour, and whenever I approached him (one-on-one; and I did this for every student, in every class) he pretended to take down the definition for the topic and yelled, “I’m not done writing the definition!”
Another student told me to hold on to his work so he wouldn’t lose it.
Another student told me she didn’t have her pencil and therefore could not do any work.
Another student told me he didn’t have his pencil and therefore could not do any work.
Another student told me he didn’t have his pencil and therefore could not do any work.
Another student told me she didn’t have her pencil and therefore could not do any work.
Another student told me he didn’t have his pencil and therefore could not do any work.
Another student told me she didn’t have her pencil and therefore could not do any work.
And this is just today, when 1/3 the class was missing.
Many of these behaviors are coming from the original students, which means that with the introduction of these new students, I have some awful behaviors from the originals. They’re all mimicking each other in order to get out of doing anything at all – and what we did today (and last week) is by no means the most difficult work I’ve thrown at them. Maybe the assignment is just too simplistic.
Granted, all this stuff happens each hour, but never does it happen as often as it does during this one class period.
Did I mention this awful class is the last class of the day?
What do I do?
Filed under: Lesson Plans, Previous Post, Questions, Rant, Reflection, Teaching, Writing
post the “F” or “No Credit” grades for those students refusing to do the work.
I don’t know, it sounds like a real challenge. When a friend of mine calls home, she always asks, “so, when you are checking junior’s homework, what do you see?”
Usually these are the parents that never check. Even when their kids are flunking, the kid says “I finished it” and the parents believe.
The question is stated in such a way that make it hard for parents to justify their ignorance of little johnny or little mary’s neglectful work.
And… if all else fails… summer’s coming.
I like the jhsteacher’s idea — the phrasing is exquisite.
What you describe happens all too often — one of my classes was horrible until Evil J went back to NYC. It took a little while to re-form the class, but they are now a terrific group of learners.
If you’ve covered all the bases — and it sounds like you have, and you’ve got it documented, then flunk their silly butts. Not exquisite, but that’s really all that’s left. If they disrupt, boot’em. Does your admin back this up?
Yeah, I’m flunking most of them. One parent, though, came to the school today and asked for which assignments his child was missing in class. I wrote: “Everything.”
And this student is flunking one class in addition to mine.
The admins will back me up, but we have no way of ensuring these kids learn what’s expected of them. If they fail, they move on to the next grade. No biggie.
It’s up to the parent to make the decision to have the student re-take a grade level or a class. And that has to happen on their time.
What do you think happens most often?
We’re more a daycare facility in some respects.
I’m going to work with this one student until he does everything expected in my class, and I’ve already pulled him in before school and after school and had him attend homework club and all that jazz. Even today I had to keep him after school to ensure he took notes on the topics covered in class. he was upset, but he did the work. First time this year.
[...] It’s clear that we need to continue to help teachers see the need for change and that the solution is much more complicated and involved than simply providing more teachers. Last year as budget cuts call for the loss of over 40 teachers, reference was made to the large expenditure in technology and wondering if supplying a school with new computers was justifiable considering that schools were losing teachers. In this case, the understanding of technology as an intregal part of learning was not shared by all. Michael Fullan talks about the “daily grind” and how this makes it difficult for teachers to consider much else besides just getting by. I acknowledge this problem and sympathize with teachers in situations where survival is the best they can hope for. But we have to demand more. We have to have teachers who consider themselves learners first. We need teachers who believe that the reflective practice is critical for growth. Even when things are nuts and out of control, survival can’t be all there is. I remember reading the reflective teacher and my impression was that last year was a challenging year but through reflection and search for new ways of approaching teaching and learning, change happened. [...]