Field Placement at Thurmont Middle School - October Observation #3

* For confidentiality purposes, a pseudonym will be provided for the observed student and mentor teacher *

    My final visit of the month on Thursday, October 27th from 1:30-2:30PM in a 7th-grade social studies class at Thurmont Middle School was arguably my most eventful visit of the month. 

    On this day, students were working on a study guide in preparation for their test on the Middle East in the next couple of days. As for me, I spent my time circulating around the class, conversing with students, and answering any questions they had. During this class, there was a particular student who was causing a bit of trouble - I will call him Leo.

    Now, while this is the first time I am writing about Leo, I have been observing him closely since beginning my field experience at Thurmont Middle School, and to be quite honest, Leo is a hard person to not observe. When I first arrived in Ms. G's class in September, Leo was the first person to introduce himself to me and ask me who I was. From the second I met Leo, I could tell he was your typical high-strung, energetic teenager who relished off any attention you would provide. In all of my visits so far, Leo's behavior in class has not changed as he usually does not pay attention, makes unnecessary noises, and does not complete much work at all. Ms. G constantly tries to redirect his focus, however, he usually does not listen and continues to play games or watch YouTube videos on his laptop. On a few occasions, Ms. G has even tried turning Leo's computer screen away in order to get him to pay attention, but this has not changed his behavior. 

    On this day, it was more of the same for Leo. After students began to work on their study guides, I could see Leo playing some game on his computer. This continued for a few minutes until Ms. G made her way over to him. During my visits, Ms. G spends the majority of her time with Leo and a few other students because they are the ones that usually fail to get much done. At one point while Ms. G was working with Leo, I noticed as she closed his computer in order to get him to work. She sat with him and asked him questions on the study guide and he essentially ignored her and tried conversing with other students. It was hard to watch and I felt bad for Ms. G because she had done as much as she could. She had explained to me before that other teachers have had similar issues with Leo regarding his lack of attention and disinterest and that despite numerous calls home, nothing has seemed to change. 

    As I write this, I have come to one conclusion which is that Leo wheres several different masks including masks of apathy, class clown, and minimal effort. While it is difficult to pinpoint one strategy that will suddenly transform Leo's desire to learn, one of the ideas Tovani harps on in Chapter 3 is the importance of a "little tenderness." Tovani states, "... Try a little tenderness by slowing down and taking time to explain why: (Tovani, pg. 76). She follows this statement up with a scenario where she explains to a student why she does not want to kick them out of the class but is worried that their behavior is impeding on their own work and their classmates." To students who are frequent rule breakers, they are used to getting reprimanded and this can often encourage them to push the envelope because they see that they provoked a reaction out of you. However, using a little tender reinforcement and explanation can sometimes catch a student off guard because they see how calm you are (something they may not be used to with other teachers) which may cause them to change their behavior and listen to you.

    In Leo's case, finding a way to gauge literary achievement is difficult because there is not much he responds to, but I believe a good starting point is using the "2/3 method" (Tovani, Pg. 106). Instead of using the whole class having students read or write, structuring class so that they are reading and writing 1/2 or 2/3 of the time and having the other half to talk and discuss can be beneficial to a student, like Leo, who loses focus so easily and likes to interact with others. By doing this, the hope would be that Leo and students alike would have a positive way to channel their energy and enhance their ability to learn. Another way this could be structured, for someone like Leo, would be to have him read, write, and engage for 2/3 or 3/4 of the time, and give him time at the end of the period to play games or do whatever he pleases, just so that he has some sort of intrinsic incentive that encourages him to complete some of the work. While this is a bit untraditional, Leo has struggled to respond to a variety of instructional methods so something like this where he has a reward to seek may encourage and motivate him to engage in the material he is assigned.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! What would you do if you had a student like Leo? Let me know below!