Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Frustrated
I have a student in my class who is low not the lowest but low and he continues to not pay attention. I feel like I have to stand over him and point to everything as we work or sit right next to him at all times for him to get his work done. He is not getting any support at home and doesn't turn in homework. I pull him everyday for reading small group and work with him as much as I can, but I have two others that need the same thing all the time. It is just really wearing on my patients and need some suggestions on how to deal with this type of child. This is very different then what I am used to seeing in my classroom and not sure how to deal with this type of child. I feel like I am complaining, but just really want to help this child and am frustrated over his lack of attention and focus.
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Are you talking about a student in my classroom? Ha- just kidding. I have a very similar child in my room and am struggling in the same way. I feel like he needs more individual attention, but I am not able to give that to him. Here are a few things I do to help him the most I know how: 1. He sits close to the front of the room where I teach so I am close to him at all times. THis helps for behavior and support. 2. I pull him in small group for reading and math everyday. He always thinks he can do things on his own, which I do not want to defeat that attitude, but I don't want him completing all of his work incorrectly for the sake of independence. 3. During reading I reward his positive behavior and focus with the opportunity to work in LEXIA on the computer. He loves this! Plus he feels he has earned a special priviledge other students don't have. 4. I REALLY praise him when he does something well. Much more than I praise other students for the same work. I can see he is greatly encouraged by this. You may want to start recording your observations of his behavior in class and placing him in interventions to bring him to S-team. I don't know if he will recieve support, but they might be able to provide more ideas!
ReplyDeleteI have a child that seems to act the exact same way as your kiddo! I brought this child to RTI for his behavior issues. He is not that low academically, he just has trouble listening and following directions. At the RTI meeting a couple teachers recommended to me that I start an intervention on him. So I did! I created a template for this intervention. Everyday this child has 5 blocks in his desk. When he is showing off-task behavior or not listening I take away a block, he can also receive them back for good behavior! At the end of the day he put as many stickers on his chart that he has left in his desk. If by the end of the week he has a certain number of stickers on his chart he gets a reward on Monday. I sat down with this child and explained exactly what this intervention was, without saying it was an intervention :) and we brainstormed a list together about what his rewards might be. (5min on a computer in the cluster, reading a book during writing time) So if he receives enough stickers on Friday, then on Monday he gets to choose what his reward is for that day. It has worked really well for this child because he has an incentive to show good behavior. And, instead of me getting visually frustrated with him, I just have to simply tell him to put a block on my desk and he knows what he was doing that was off-task! I love this behavior system, but it may not work for your child! Use it or lose it :) as we say!
ReplyDeleteI am noticing the same behaviors from what I assume to be the same second-grader. I completely understand how trying it can be to feel like one student is taking up all of your attention while 19 other folks also need you. Be sure to let me know if you decide to track behavior issues - I will be happy to document the inattention I am seeing in my classroom, as well, if you think that would help.
ReplyDeleteHang in there, Laura!
I agree with some sort of tracking system, but be sure it isn't to complicated. One thing I tried last year is a reward system for anytime they participated in the lesson I put a rubberband from my left to right hand. The number of rubberbands was the number of minutes on the computer during snack. Keeping it postive is important to be sure we increase interest in staying foucused/on task. I hope this helps.
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