Tuesday, January 22, 2008
I also have a problem with seeing the same old faces again and again, etc....... In some cases the repeaters act as if they have never seen the material before, which just may be the case based on their previous scores. Others decide that they got away with the same behavior the last time, so they try it again. I actually have had one student who really did change his ways and acted like a whole new person. I discovered by accident that it is best to treat the repeater like it is the first time. ( it helps that I have a lousy memory for names and faces!) This at least removes the tendency to be biased towards former students. Another thing that helps is asking these students to do special task, or to help set up labs. In most cases these kids are the ones who failed because they were "too cool for school." So, they actually do have more knowledge of the subject than they are aware of. The biggest thing is that I try to connect with them, as if they are an old friend, and I am really glad that they are back.
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I feel the pain. I have a student in my class that has been with me the past 3 semesters for the same class. Although she is not a discipline problem, just attendance, I really need to find a way to teach her other than the methods I am currently using. The idea I pulled from a GT class that I took was to allow the student to take a different textbook, give her a list of the topics we will be learning, and let her do a self-study. At the end of her self-study, she would have to produce and present a portfolio to me showing that she did indeed learn the same topics at a mastery level and I would grade her accordingly. I never have attempted this idea because the idea of how much time, energy, and work it would be for me just turned me off. I would be completely beside myself if I collected all the information she would need and then she would just stop coming to school, as she has the past 3 times I have had her. I am not sure what the answer is to the problems related to having "failures" in your class more than once, but it just seems that guidance and administration need to work harder at ensuring all students and teachers get at least 90 days to recover from their previous experience.
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