The Problems We Face

I work on a three-person team teaching 6^th grade Language Arts and Reading. As part of our team we see 57 students for 74 minutes each day. Our day is divided into block schedules so that we see the students for two periods in a row. As a team we meet everyday to plan and discuss student needs. This is where the problem arises.

We have a couple of students on the team that do not follow many of our school rules and show an interest in learning. They are constantly interrupting the other students learning while they are not engaging in what is going on in the classroom. We have met with the parents and with our school’s social worker and psychologist and have tied to figure out how to get these students on track.

Our school and district have implemented the Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support (PBIS) (http://www.pbisillinois.org) program to try to help solve some of these types of students and to create a framework and language for all the students to understand and follow. We have a PBIS team that helps with challenging students to plan ways to get these students on task.

My grade level team and the PBIS team along with the parents have tried to figure out what the factors are that create the situation where the student is not succeeding. We have looked at various models and tried to eliminate factors that we as educators can control and factors that we cannot control. We have also tried to look at what will motive these students.

Because PBIS is about positive behavioral interventions and not disciplinary measures we have implemented a check in/check out system with a point sheet working towards a goal. If the goal for the day and week are met the student is rewarded with an opportunity to be apart of something that they are interested in; for example extra computer time.

This plan has been in place for at least a month and the interesting thing is that for one of the students his behavior in the classroom has improved. He is no longer shouting out and yelling at other students (most of the time). But for the other student his behavior has stayed about the same. He has his good days and his bad days and reminding him about his point sheet does not seem to motivate him.

Part of our model and plan was that if we can take away some of the behavioral struggles these students would be able to start performing academically. The truth at this time is that they are not performing any better. Their effort in and out of class is still minimal. The student, whose behavior in class is better, has helped because he is not distracting the other students and not taking the teacher’s time away from teaching to redirect him.

In our team meeting we spend a lot of time discussing and planning for these couple of students and at times are neglecting some of the other 55 students in the grade. As we try to redefine and restructure our model the old adage comes to mind: You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. No matter what the teacher, team, or parent does the student has to take some ownership in his or her own education. We need to be partners not adversaries.