Tutoring Reflection 2-17
Greetings,
Today, I went to help tutor during 5th hour in Mrs. Smith’s* 8th grade Algebra class. However, her class was taking a test on probability. I was still of use, as I took a student, Leonardo*, out of the classroom in order for him to take the test. Leonardo has Attention Deficit Disorder and thus it is easier for him to take a test when it is quiet. While I was doing little more than ‘babysitting,’ I had time to try to think about how having a student with ADD would affect my perception of him or her, and how it would affect the student.
Although I would like to think that I approach each student with an open mind and a positive demeanor, I also know that I tend to develop opinions that tend to quickly become strong. During my previous visit to Mrs. Smith’s room last week, I had met Leonardo and noted that he did seem quite antsy and had difficulties focusing on his work. Three years ago, I would have allocated that to a problem with his mental capacity or ability. Now I attempt to identify what it is that causes that, the change might come from experience, perhaps from maturity. Either way, today, when I was observing him take a test, I took a look at his notes (they are allowed to use previous homework as guides on their tests), and noticed that Leonardo is actually quite smart, just disorganized.
From this line of thought, I continued to think ‘if this was how I could have misjudged him, then how would having ADD affect him?’ Since I have few problems focusing on a subject or work, I can only theorize. My first thought was that it would be frustrating, always being distracted easily. This frustration would be compounded if the student realized that other ‘normal’ students seem not to have this problem (which, by this age is probable).
Continuing along this line of thought, what would this do to the student? My first thought would be that the student would be discouraged and lose his or her motivation to learn things. I believe this would one of the many reasons why a student might misbehave.
So, how, as a teacher, might I re-motivate such a student? My initial answer would be to use more hands on activities, which would at least re-engage the student in the class and assure that the student learns while in school. However, would this actually re-motivate them? I would have to answer negatively. While the student would be motivated, as soon as the lesson is over, the student would probably return to his or her original behavior patterns. A second idea would be to ‘force’ the student to participate, via notes to parents or paper contracts. While this would work, it could also backfire, causing the student to become even less motivated due to the forced nature of his or her participation. The only idea that I would see as flawless, although it might not always work, would be to find out what the student enjoys doing and relate the subject material to his or her interests and possibly find an important figure in the field they are interested in with ADD. Overall I would find this more motivating, recognizing the fact that even with his or her condition, s/he could still achieve a prominent place in society, including wealth, popularity, or affluence.
* the name has been changed.
