Our teenage student here at the Community School is a kid from a turbulent family background, history of gang membership, violence incarceration, and drug abuse. He is 16. He comes in to class, typically angry, sour and sullen. Among an angry, difficult group of kids, the entire school I mean, he is probably the most intractable, according to a consensus of the other two teachers and the principal. In years past, he was in their classes.
He refuses to do the tasks assigned in my curriculum. “I can do whatever I want homie” is the type of response that you might get. He very strongly resists receiving assistance from instructors. So, his tasks are not the assignment. He might be drawing or just doing some arithmetic that he chooses on his own, instead of the assigned Pre Algebra.
He has been here at this school for about three years. He has a Specific Learning Disability in the area of Auditory Memory Processing. He decodes at 8.2, but his reading comprehension is 4.0, which is not bad for our population.
I have thought of ordering the books from Sopris West, http://www.sopriswest.com, called the Tough Kid Book and the Tough Kid Toolbox. Has anyone else used these books?
The young man comes to school, at least. He is improving in his attendance and behavior.
Thank you.
John
Re: In past years...?
He is improving his attendance and behavior because he is beginning to get the message that he needs to do so if he wishes to remain in school.
John
PS: I will communicate more later.Sue J wrote:
>
> … he was in their classes?
>
> So is his current placement the “angry, difficult group of
> kids?”
>
> Why is he improving his attendance and behavior? My most
> difficult students in a rather difficult school attended and
> behaved exactly as well as they had to so that they would not
> be incarcerated again. They’d basically been told by the
> judge “don’t assault a teacher, show up, and you can stay out
> of jail.” They made it pretty clear that was their
> motivation and suggested I not anger them to the point that
> they forgot about that motivation.
>
> I basically had nothing to motivate those kids (one or two
> of them). They’d already decided what their priorities were.
> I did my best so they created as little a hazard and torment
> to others as I could. They did have some habits of extortion
> of money from students but of course not in front of the
> wrong witnesses, and with the dept. head letting them use his
> outside line to set up their drug deals, they thought school
> was a pretty good place to be.
… he was in their classes?
So is his current placement the “angry, difficult group of kids?”
Why is he improving his attendance and behavior? My most difficult students in a rather difficult school attended and behaved exactly as well as they had to so that they would not be incarcerated again. They’d basically been told by the judge “don’t assault a teacher, show up, and you can stay out of jail.” They made it pretty clear that was their motivation and suggested I not anger them to the point that they forgot about that motivation.
I basically had nothing to motivate those kids (one or two of them). They’d already decided what their priorities were. I did my best so they created as little a hazard and torment to others as I could. They did have some habits of extortion of money from students but of course not in front of the wrong witnesses, and with the dept. head letting them use his outside line to set up their drug deals, they thought school was a pretty good place to be.