I don’t
mean to brag, but my class this year is amazing. I was lucky enough to choose
an hour that has a high percentage of higher level students. On top of that,
they are a pretty quiet and hard working class. Because they are comfortable in
the classroom and with each other, they have come out of their shells. But for
the most part they are awesome. About a month ago they added a new student to
this class. I’ll call him Jacob. I feel bad, but I kind of dreaded adding him
to our class because we already had a flow going in the class. Putting that
aside, of course we welcomed him to our class.
It did not
take long for his work habit to become apparent to me and my mentor teacher. He
enjoys our daily ten minutes of reading at the beginning of class, but he has
issues putting his book away to focus on the daily assignments. And other days,
once the reading time is over, he just lays his head down and does not work. It
takes poking and prodding on my part to get him to do any work. Which is hard
when there are a couple other students in the room who actually try to work and
need my help.
Another
issue is that he very rarely brings a writing utensil to class. So, when he
sits there for ten minutes not working, his excuse is that he does not have a
pencil. Why didn’t you ask for one when we started working?! Fortunately, as of
last week, he at least asks for a pencil when we start working. My mentor
teacher had a talk with him about the fact that I cannot just stand around and
push him along in doing his work. She mentioned that I will not always be there
to make sure he is doing his work.
He has been
working very well on his own this week. He has to still be asked to get his
work out, but once we start working, he is usually on pace with rest of the
class. And because I have been the one constantly talking with him, he feels
comfortable asking me for help when he has a question. Last week he was
complaining about how the books he wants to read in class is always missing
when he wants to read them. So I reminded him that if he found a book he
enjoyed, he could always check it from our classroom library. I am hoping that
if we stimulate his enjoyment of reading in class, hopefully he will become
more engaged during class. “One thing is especially clear from research on
readers is that those who achieve on tests at a high level are also those who
read a lot, and those who don’t spend much time reading do not do well” (Bomer,
2011, pp 81). If I can help him be interested in our class work, then he will
pass the class and hopefully do well on his state testing. I know he has it in
him because I saw him work today, he just needs to keep up the hard working
attitude during every class.
