I am at my wits end with Charlie, an ADD student who is making my life miserable with his disruptive behavior in my high school American History class.
He is constantly yelling out inappropiate responses when I ask the class questions and he can’t seem to sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time. Charlie is well liked among his classmates, but I’m not making any headway on the goals of his IEP. Where do I go from here? Are there any teachers out there that can advize me on how get Charlie “on task” during my instruction? Where are the best places on the Internet to find out about successful strategies that real teachers have used to change students like Charlie? Please help me, because I like Charlie as a person and I don’t want him to fall farther behind the other students?
Re: Disruptive Behavior and ADD? HELP!
I see this behavior often in my Middle School classes and it is a problem. I have much less of a problem if a student is calling out good answers then when they’re calling out nonsense. Does he call out nonsense - anything that comes in his head - or is he trying to be funny? If he’s trying to be funny, then he has some control over what he’s saying. If it’s just nonsense, then sometimes I have a conversation with the student about “flighty thought associations” and share with them what that is and ask if that’s how they really want to represent themselves.
What is the reaction of the other students? And does he do it in other classrooms? I structure my classroom in a discussion - question and answer format - and there have been times when even one student can make me change that format.
Re: Disruptive Behavior and ADD? HELP!
I’m a middle school ld teacher and see great differences in behavior of a student from one class to another. You probably should check with your student’s IEP teacher and make that person aware of the situation. Also try and find out more info about him in regards to behavior in other classes and any other interventions that have been successfully used. Consider what you think the function of the behavior is for this kid. is he disruptive to get attention? detour you on behavior issues and avoid the academic challenges? It sounds like you care about him and that is going to help him because that means that you are open to dialogue with him, his parents, his IEP teacher that can only make the situation better. Good luck.
I am in no way a professional, just a mother of an ADD child trying to find answers for my own.
I just finished reading a great book that was titled “Classroom Success for the ADHD/ Learning Disabled Child”. The book is out in my car so I will have to get it so that I can provide the author.
Anyway, The book has many descriptions of children like Charlie. The theme is children always want to be successful and anytime that a child is acting out, there is a reason for it. They are having problems with something somewhere and the book helps you to sort it all out. Teaches you how to ask questions in a manner that provides you with the information that you are looking for.
It also had a great story about a child who was unsuccessful in all of his classes. Finally, one History teacher changed the way he went about his classroom routine to accomodate this one child. Instead of lecturing he made an outline on a plain piece of paper and gave one to the child and whoever missed class.He kept a file for students request. In lecturing he gave names and dates, details not in the outline. He wrote them on the blackboard and on a file card. The class was expected to copy off the board in a notebook.Astudent with good handwriting used a carbon paper. He than ran copies of the notes for the LD students.He then dated the cards and filed those as well.Agin students who were absent or who lost thme found them helpful.
The whole entire class was the most successful that the techer had ever had.
He had tricks for movies as well.
Hope this helps.
Stephanie