Alignment: Understanding Your Students

Directions

This is the first of four situational activities you will need to complete for this section. It is important that you complete the activities in the appropriate order.

Identify your three most challenging students in your classroom. Challenging may be defined as disruptive, underperforming, significantly economically disadvantaged, or any other situation that impedes student achievement. A challenging student is simply that-a student who is a challenge to you. The student may be difficult to motivate, uncommunicative, difficult to manage, or a challenge to teach because of learning gaps. Challenging might be a gifted student who appears disinterested in your subject area or the teenage girl who sees no hope in education. For these activities, you decide the criteria for those students you believe are challenging.

Without talking to the student or letting him or her know that you have selected him or her for this activity, complete the following survey for each of the three students you have identified. Please identify the students by their first name only.

Complete for Student 1:

• First name:
• This student likes or is interested in:
• Behaviors that this student has been exhibiting that led to you identify the child as challenging:
• Behaviors that the student has been exhibiting that you or the other classmates find disruptive (if any):
• Academic strengths:
• Academic weaknesses:
• Student's favorite subject:
• Student's least favorite subject:
• Student's learning style:
• Interventions you have tried with this student:
• Number of contacts (phone or personal) you have had with the parent:
• Estimated time you have spent working individually with the student:
• Estimated number of times you have praised this student for positive behaviors or performance.