Once upon a time, in a resource math classroom not at all far away, there was a student who could not bring himself to speak to me. My cooperating teacher warned me, on my very first day in his classroom, that I would need to give this student time, that I would need to “grow on” him. So I haven’t taken it personally; I’ve just tried to be patient and give him his space. During our second (maybe third?) class period together, I was walking around talking to each student briefly just to make sure I had each of their names correct. I spoke to this student on that occasion and he curled up into a ball in his desk. The cooperating teacher got him to answer my question, but generally speaking, he ignores my presence completely.
That changed last week, if only for a brief moment. He read something aloud, to no one in particular, but was reading a word incorrectly, a word that was critical to getting the assignment right. (This was a worksheet that had math problems that would lead to solving a word problem.) I happened to be standing pretty close to his desk, so I glanced at his paper and asked him if the word he’d said was the right one. He examined his paper more closely and then read aloud the correct word. (And then he went back to ignoring me completely, if I recall.)
Nonetheless, it does feel like progress, even if it’s tiny. I’m not familiar with this student’s situation, so it’s particularly difficult to work around a problem I am legally not allowed to have identified for me, but I feel like my patience and willingness to respect his space may have paid off a little.
In the future, I hope to remember and apply this lesson. Sometimes, the best thing I can do may be to back off.
