Independent Study: Student Engagement Scenarios

Goals Learn to analyze and solve problems of practice Get better at motivating and engaging students Increase the range of students you can reach and the range of strategies you can use to reach them

Task In your small groups, read over each scenario below. First think of the different explanations of what could be going on in the scenarios. Then, decide how you would respond. Identify how your response does or does not contribute to the development of caring relationships with and/or between your students. What tradeoffs are you making? What goals or purposes are you attempting to meet? What goals or purposes might your response undermine? 1. A key component in your class is group work. Ann-Marie is a student in your fifth period class. She generally does well in your class though she is frequently quiet. She seems to have few friends in the class. Ann-Marie clearly dislikes group work: she hesitates to move to her group area, rarely participates and will work on her part of the project slowly and only after procrastinating. She stands to the side when the group presents their work and does not contribute to whole class discussions that follow up group work. Ann-Marie could be shy and uncomfortable when working with others. Since she does not seem to struggle with the material itself, we can assume that her major hang-up is the interaction with other students in the class. This could be a result of a lack of confidence, not feeling accepted, fear of others disapproval. She might also just be unenthusiastic about the course material. We would try to respond to Ann-Maries behavior by having a conversation with her about what we have noticed. We would allow her to assess her own participation in group workhopefully she would acknowledge that she doesnt participate as well as she should. If she does not respond with this observation, then we will make an observation of our own that she rarely participates, and seems unwilling to do so. Based upon that conversation, we will encourage her to participate more. We will also attempt to structure group work and the resulting presentations in a way that requires all students to be engaged in the activity. If Ann-Marie is simply not participating because she is too shy to step up when other students are willing to do the work/talking, then hopefully this structure will eliminate that option. Ultimately, its important to identify the source of Ann-Maries unwillingness, and address that issue. If she is uncomfortable with the classroom dynamics or the way she is perceived by her peers, no amount of structure will force her to participate more frequently. Since Ann-Marie does have a few friends in the class, we might try to place her in a group with one of them ideally one that would encourage her to work as well! The trade-off here is that they may be more tempted to socialize than work, but the benefit of Ann-Marie feeling comfortable in her group could outweigh that. The goals we are attempting to meet here is to engage her in the group work of the class, while also helping her grow in her social skills.

2. Adam has been behind in his homework from the first week of class. At the end of the second week of class, you learn that Adams mother recently lost her job. The family is currently living with other family members in a crowded apartment and is probably going to have to move to another family members house soon. Because of this, you have extended some assignment deadlines for Adam even though you have a no late homework policy on your syllabus. It is week 5 and Abby comes to you with late homework. She is involved in a lot of activities at school and was not able to complete the homework, though she has always turned in quality work. You tell her that you wont accept late work and cite your policy. She replies that she knows you accepted late homework from Adam and expect the same treatment. We would begin this conversation by reinforcing the fact that she is not the teacher in this class, but instead one of the many students that all bring different needs and issues into the classroom. We would also discuss that what is fair is not necessarily what appears to be equal treatment. We would make it a point to not discuss in detail the circumstances of Adams late workthis is not any of Abbys business, and we will share that with her. She wouldnt want other students to be using her circumstances as a bargaining chip, so why should she treat Adam in that way? We would also make it a point to say that occasionally, there are exceptions to the rules but they are just that: exceptions. The rule is not void when an exception is made; as the teacher, we have the authority to make such decisions. We would also have a discussion with Abby about time-management and responsibility. If she chooses to spend all of her time after school in various activities and neglects her homework as a result, that is a choice she has madeshe needs to own up to them. We would share with her that school-this class- isnt everything, but it does need to be a priority. We would end by assuring her that we understand her situation, and that we have been in those same positions of making difficult choices beforeits just a part of life. We would then ask her how she could take steps to prevent this in the futurepossibly a planner, setting aside time for homework every night, and possibly saying no to some after-school commitments. We are attempting to reinforce our classroom policies, and also teach a life lesson about fairness and responsibility. Trade-offs could be Abby not appreciating the difference between fairness and equity, or her asking too many questions about why Adam is an exception. She may also feel betrayed, but hopefully she will understand our decision to be reasonable. 3. John is a student in your fourth grade English II class. He has good attendance but it is difficult for you to get him to engage in and complete his work. You have warned John that he is currently getting a failing grade in your class. You talk to other teachers who have John in their classes. They have seen the same behavior. While John does not disrupt the class, when you approach John he is respectful but does not do his work. He doesnt seem to care about whether he fails your class. Our first step would be to contact a parent. It seems as though there is something more going on in the story In our conversation with the parents, we would explain his behavior, and ask them for any insight into why this may be. They are an expert on their son, and we could definitely benefit from their experiences. We would also ask for their suggestions on how to handle it. We would make sure to share with them the steps we have taken so fartalking to John, and communicating with his other teachers (making it a point to share that they are observing the same behavior). We would make it clear to his parents that he is a very respectful student, and that we just want to encourage him to be as successful as possible. Hopefully this conversation with his parents will shed some light on the outside-of-school situation that may be affecting his in-class behavior. We would also have a conversation with John, and ask him the simple (but revealing) question: why does it seem like he doesnt care about passing/failing this class? Hopefully we would have established enough of a caring

relationship that he would feel comfortable opening up to us. Either way, we would use this opportunity to share that we want him to be as successful as possible in this class, and that he believe he can do it. Lack of support from the parents or John distancing himself from us would be the two major drawbacks we see from this approach. What we would hope to be communicating is our care for him and our desire for him to be successful. 4. You are concerned about behavior in your lower level class. Several students are always late while others frequently forget their books, paper, pencils, or assignments even though you state in your syllabus that they lose points for these behaviors. During seatwork, students work the first problem or two while you are watching but then turn to talk with their neighbors as soon as you turn your back to work with individual students. In addition to the point system for materials and tardies, you tried to establish order by using a system of fines in which students had to write out and turn in definitions of problems if they were caught misbehaving. This system had worked well with your average classes but in this class you find you are constantly handing out fines and are unable to keep track of whether students turned in the definitions. Our first step would be to simplify the classroom management tactics being employed. It seems like there is too much going on for a teacher to be balancing all at oncefines, tardies, missing materials, and disengaged students its a lot. We would keep as many materials in the classroom as possible: books, loose leaf paper, pencilsanything that we can do to prevent irresponsibility from derailing instruction. We would recognize the fact that certain behavior management strategies work with some students, but not all students. If the students in our lower-performing class are already struggling to stay organizedwhy would we give them another thing (fines) to juggle? We would have a conversation with the class about discontinuing the fines, and the implementation of new structures. The trade-offs of this approach is that they could respond just as poorly to the next structural change, or (worst case scenario) their behavior could deteriorate even further The benefits are that our class would see that we are more committed to their improvement than to sticking unchangingly to our class guidelines. Flexibility for the benefit of students is always preferable to rigidity. However, we would have to be careful not to let our standards for behavior fall as we transition into a new management practice.