There's a certain kind of student that will predictably make a curious response to any given task ; I watched one today. I gave a fairly clear-cut task to the class, and watched as she spent literally 15 minutes digging through her bookbag, arranging and rearranging papers in folders, opening and closing her binder, rummaging some more, etc.
Though not in this case, often this behavior is paired with obsessive pencil-sharpening to where the point is no more than a couple of microns wide.
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There's another kind of student that comes into a composition class with a frown, and never budges. The one today sat in the back (of course), and for the second class in a row was completely checked out. Following basic instructions is beneath him--and while everyone else worked on drafts, he hunched over his book as if he were reading it. I'm always torn about this type: do I try to help him out, or do I (as is my first instinct) let him hang himself out to dry?
I try to be helpful & accessible, but I don't want to waste my time on a person who doesn't give a crap.
2 comments:
try to help him!
sometimes people give up because they feel like other people have given up on them....
aw, man! Why do you got to start appealing to my soft-hearted side? Now I gotta help the hipster.
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