This week presented me with a few moments where I just wondered why. I felt like I have put a lot of effort into putting together a unit for my Year 10s - my inquiry - and it seems to be slightly falling apart.
I see my Year 10s three times a week (not many at all!).
On Tuesday, Student D sat there, not engaging at all in his novel. He then claimed that "this is boring", and continued to not read. He hadn't read much either, in total, and had only done a bit of the work on the chapters. I thought to myself, "Okay, that's okay. I can handle this" and then proceeded to offer him the short stories that had been on offer in the first place. He chose the Evan Hunter short stories, as they were about 'gangs' and that grabbed his interest. I asked him to keep reading his novel for that lesson, as I had to get the short stories and resources organised for him.
The same lesson presented Student B claim that she "hated her book" and "why did you have to choose such boring books?" Ahhhh. I keep trying to remind them that they selected these out of the choices that were on offer, and that a usual class would all be studying the same novel and not yet a choice. I asked her to keep persisting, as she was a reasonable way through the novel, and had also done a reasonable amount of the comprehension work on what she had read.
Not a focus student, but that lesson also had a student be 'blue slipped', as she did not want to engage in the work and was being quite defiant. Student A and E were also absent (Student A has been away quite a bit, in fact - must check up on attendance statistics there).
The next time I saw them was Thursday. This lesson Student D attempted to wag my lesson, but was brought back and was not interested in completing any work. Student A and E were still away.
Friday I see this class Period 5 (after lunch and the last lesson of the day). Boy, what a challenge. Student C was away. I gave Student D the short stories, to which he was grateful, but then didn't really start reading them (he is more interested in his 'new' girlfriend, who is also in the class). Student A and E returned.
Student A was so distracted and when I suggested that perhaps he needed to take the book and work home, so that he could catch up (and they were told right from the get-go that they would need to complete some work at home) he completely, flat-out refused, claiming that he was busy every night and that his parents would not make him do it! Extremely frustrating. He went on to read 1 page in 45 minutes - not progress that is incredibly encouraging. He has read a total of 7 pages thus far. This is a novel that was initially put out for intermediate aged students.
Student B continued the protest of 'hating' what she was reading, and was being silly and mucking around. She kept trying to avoid doing the work on the novel, and was very argumentative.
Another boy, again not a focus student, continued refusing to work or follow simple instructions, so ended up being 'blue slipped' - I checked up once class had finished, as he told me as he left that he wasn't going to the office. And, indeed he didn't.
Student E worked well, mostly.
It seems about half the class is really flourishing and enjoying what they are doing, and the other half are still just as unmotivated as before. What to do? What to do? I have tried a lot of things to engage this class, and not much seems to be working. Let's hope for a better week this week.
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