I strolled into the room about 10 minutes into the session and noticed a student sitting alone at the table, not building the model. This young man is full of personality when you interact with him one-on-one, but is not a strong student. It is not uncommon for me to see him just sitting in class, not doing his work. I know that he is a past STAAR failure and was retained in elementary school. I also know about his home situation that is not something I would wish on anyone. Despite knowing all this, when I saw him just sitting there, a story began to form. In my mind, I believed that he was just choosing not to engage. I thought he was just being lazy. I sat next to him with the intent to tell him how disappointed I was that he was not respecting the opportunity he was being given. When I asked why he wasn’t building, he said, “I don’t know how.” This seemed unrealistic and I told him just to look at the picture and make it look like that. I watched as he struggled to connect the pieces. At that point I gathered up pieces and began to build. He watched intently and within a minute, he was going. I watched his momentum build after his “aha” moment. We continued building together. I asked him if he had ever had Duplos or Legos as a kid. He said that he had not. I am ashamed of the story I told myself about this young man. Some might think that he should be grateful that I cared enough to sit next to him and help. The reality is that the biggest learning that happened that day was on my part. This young man taught the principal to beware of the assumptions we make about why students disengage. It is a lesson that I won’t soon forget!
What are your go-to questions that you ask of students when they appear to be disengaged?
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