Children who often display behavioral problems tend to be put into the classification of “At-risk”. These children may exist in any grade level and may display multiple signs. These “at-risk” behaviors may range from slight behavior trouble, such as bad grades and disinterest, to more sever behavior, such as violence and rage. These children risk not only failure in school, but failure in life as well. They may drop out of school, become members of gangs, act in fits of violence, and become drug addicts. Teachers must be aware of signs and intervene when a child shows such behavior.
In this assignment our case study is a sixteen- year- old tenth grader which could be male or female since there is no specific gender description. For this paper we will refer to our student as a girl named “Sally”. Sally demonstrates behaviors which include defacing school property, reading at a sixth-grade level, sleeping in class, and refusing to answer direct questions in class. Sally does not have many friends, and is living in a single parent home with siblings.
A particular behavior which Sally demonstrates that is particularly troublesome is her poor reading skills. She is probably likely to feel as though she cannot join in with her peers. Erik Erickson believed that students feel he or she is distracting themselves by “defacing school property” to act out her frustrations in her inability to keep up with the class (Erikson). As her teacher I could assign her special books, and reports which cater to her level of abilities. She could attempt these special assignments at home so she is not singled out. Also, I could make class assignments to include students reading aloud in class, so that she may be able to follow while she hears others aloud. Additionally, I would spend time outside of class or during specific exercises in class which she may not need to be fully involved in, to work on specific lesson vocabulary to increase her abilities.
Another behavior of Sally’s that I would address is her lack of sociability, and friendships. Sally may be withdrawn, or just shy. Children who are shy tend to have lower self-esteem and think of themselves as less friendly than their more outgoing classmates (Hyson & Van Trieste). One way to put Sally into a more social situation would be to assign cooperative learning exercises. While splitting the classroom into groups, I may put Sally with other quieter students. Placing Sally in a group of other quiet students will require them to speak with each other instead of more outgoing students taking the stage in the group. Another project I may implement would be a personal hobbies project. This project would include creative methods to express their personal interests. Hopefully, with this exercise students, especially Sally, may find other peers which have some common interests. After implementing the exercises I may rearrange the desks of the students to group with similar interests. I would arrange the classroom with in groups of four desks facing each other. Another way to get the students to be more socially active will be to assign classroom “jobs”.