Sixth Grade Adventures: Knowing when to cut your losses

That's right. For my first week teaching drama to my lovely sixth graders, the teacher gave me two hours with each class so she could finish doing the reading assessments with students individually that I started last week.

With two classes, and one with all the students with special needs together, adjustments always need to be made. I planned five or six activities to meet similar curricular goals. The main hope-- to get these students to work together without killing each other. I mean "Students work productively with others in teams. Students will...participate productively in discussions, plan agendas with clear goals and deadlines, set time limits for speakers, take notes, and vote on key issues." (6.28)

So the original plan had the following possible activities:

Heartbeat Ball

Data Processing/Group Shapes

Mirror

Human Knot

Islands

Poster Dialogue

Compliment Web

And then there was the reality. The first class could not even grasp passing a ball around a circle at a consistent pace. So adding additional objects around the circle, which got caught on the rug fell apart. The roll of tape that they were supposed to pass got stuck and that distracted everyone. At least we had an opportunity to talk about distractions when we are trying to focus in class. I scrapped the activity for the second class and did a simpler group warmup.

Data processing. Talk about an eye opener. The goal is to challenge students to organize information without talking. "Get in a line from tallest to shortest." "Create a line in order based on the month you were born in." Some students' solution? Push others across the room. Not very productive when you are trying to avoid shoving matches that caused a student to turn a desk upside-down the week before. We're going to get there together somehow. :)

Mirror. Seems like a simple enough idea. Face each other while one student follow's their partner's movements like the second student is the first student's mirror image. Notice a through-line yet on these activities? ;) The first class was able to get started after their initial "Ew my partner is so and so and I don't want to look at them, or face them, or acknowledge their existence." During the latter class, that point didn't really come. So I asked for volunteers to help model the activity where I was the mirror image. Two or three students did pretty well and enjoyed it. However, when I sent everyone back to try again, I saw that they were still just sitting around. So I scrapped it and transitioned into the next activity. No sense in beating a dead horse. At this early stage, my goal was just to get them to work together, and that was not being met, so I moved on. They need to learn to work together to be successful in drama, in school, and in life. Drama is an entirely new experience for these students, and scaffolding is a careful process. I began to see in these activities what the students' abilities were so that I can better plan in the future to build on those, while helping them discover new talents.

Human knot. I know that you should never say never. Or always. Or constantly. But I'm going to break that rule. Never, ever do human know with sixth graders. Between being at an age where they are discovering their bodies, and the frequent pushing, and the not wanting to touch someone, or not wanting to be touched..............

Poster dialogue showed me so much about the students' interests, needs, and relationships with each other. Four large poster papers throughout the room each had a question:

What is drama?

I wish more people knew that...

If I could be anyone or anything, I would be...

If I could teach my teacher anything, it would be...

I invited the students to use a marker and write a response on each one, and if they finished quickly, to go around and place a check mark next to any answers they agreed with. The most common response? The students wanted to teach their teachers Spanish. I'm going to try to find ways to incorporate that into my lessons.

The most heartbreaking and challenging moment was when I asked the students to write a little more about themselves, to create a poem of sorts. The first line was "I am [their name]."

Each line after that started with "I am" and they would then add phrases or sentences that described who they were. A student. A brother. A dreamer. A dancer. As I walked around the room, I saw one student had written only a line or two. "I am a life hater." How do you respond to that? I asked him what he liked. Nothing. I asked if he was a brother. Ah, there was something. He was the youngest. Then I would give him two options and ask what he liked better. Neither. When he added a few more, it was a repeat of the original line. What have you done in similar situations?

We closed with an opportunity for everyone to share one thing they learned during our time together and or their favorite part of the lesson. I was surprised to hear that some parts that I thought did not go well were the parts they remembered and liked. Go figure.

Know when to cut your losses--when it comes to your lesson. If the students aren't getting it, they're not getting it. Adjust. Scrap it. Try something else. Ask a different question. But students themselves? Is it ever appropriate to cut your losses if you feel there are students you just can't reach? It's with mixed emotions I listen to the teachers talk about students with behavior problems. School barely started, but they are already running out of ideas on how to help him. How do you respond when you hear teachers hoping one of their students leaves?