Friday, April 24, 2009
Social Issues
I have two new students this week, and both are quickly becoming handfuls. One has explosive anger issues like I've never seen, and the other sits in the back of the classroom with his head down the entire class. Like I said, they're both new this week when we're about 1/3 of the way through poetry. I'm having trouble involving either of them in the classroom because my kids are so close knit, and they both seem to feel left out as near as I can tell. Has anyone had to incorporate new kids recently? Any strategies? With other new kids I just kind of waited for them to mesh in with my class, but the year is so close to being over (!), I feel like they'll loose way too much of the rest of the year.
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I've had success with asking the new student to see me at lunch/after school to "get caught up," and I use that time to get to know them and see what their various strengths/weaknesses/comfort zones are.
ReplyDeleteI usually have a few kids working or hanging out in my room, and I include them in the conversation. If nobody's around, I'll ask a student if he can help the new student out with explaining the first half of the book/sharing class notes.