DESPERATE for inspiration/ideas!!!

amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:03 pm

First the question, details below:
Can ANYBODY who has ever taught 6th grade, been in 6th grade, or had a child in 6th grade please tell me what kinds of things teachers have done that your kids found interesting? Any (secular) subject will do, I need them all.

Anon because I have begged everyone I know for help and I don't want them to find me on here now...

Here's the situation:
I'm student teaching for special ed. My kid is smart, adolescent, and unmotivated. His technical skills in reading and math are just fine, amazing actually. Higher level thinking, reasoning, organization - not so much. Vocabulary/memory/communication also not so sophisticated (though far from dismal.)

Problem #1: Everything we learn in our special ed methods courses is geared towards kids with more blatant disabilities. How to teach ABC's to dyslexics. What to do when your kid has no number concept. This kid is miles ahead of everything we're learning, so I have to scrounge for my own material and ideas.

Problem #2: When this kid is not motivated, we get nowhere. It is almost the end of the year; believe me I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of and then some, but I am running so dry. He is not interested in a single topic I bring up. He does not care if I make things into a game. Doesn't care if I let him use my computer for work. Doesn't care if I offer him prizes or nosh or games at the conclusion of work. The work ITSELF has to be interesting to him, and I can't figure out what it is he finds interesting!

So... Can ANYBODY who has ever taught 6th grade, been in 6th grade, or had a child in 6th grade please tell me what kinds of things teachers have done that your kids found interesting?

marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:12 pm

I can try to help.

1. Are you able to include other children? That will make a HUGE difference. Kids work very differently in a group than one-on-one.

2. What topics interest him in general? What does he do when at home, on weekends? Any hobbies? What school subjects is he particularly good in? Is anything easier for him than other stuff? What kinds of books has he read? Which movies has he liked?

3. What are you supposed to teach him? Is there a set curriculum and you are helping him catch up? Or are you generally supposed to teach higher level reasoning skills and improve memory?

4. What is the disability that he has been diagnosed with? Why is he in special ed?

5. It would be very helpful if you gave a detailed example of how a failed lesson goes. You come in, give him worksheets and tell him that he will play computer games if he is done by 2:30 and he looks out the window? Or you come in and give the instructions and he fiddles with his shoes and does the first problem and asks to go use the restroom, etc, etc, until the time is up?

mummiedearest

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:17 pm

what are the kid's interests outside of schoolwork?
you need to address his personality here.

is he musically inclined? you can incorporate music into teaching. the simplest thing to do would be to play some music in the background while you work with him. if that doesn't work, and it may not, you will have to do some seriously creative lesson plans involving music. I am an auditory learner, and I used to jump rope while reciting the times tables out loud. jumping rope gave it a good rhythm and helped me remember things. it also kept me interested. I can memorize things very quickly when I want to, but if I don't want to I need incentive.

move away from desk learning. sit on the floor, have him jump around, make floor charts he can walk on, turn a lesson into hopscotch, etc.

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:20 pm

Answering questions in order:
1. No other kids. I just have this one. Sad

2. No idea what interests him. Whenever he has time to kill he plays nintendo DS (mostly YuGiOh and Pokemon lately). He likes YuGiOh cards. However, he is NOT interested in mixing them with learning. Tried roping him into a writing project with DS or YuGiOh as the topic and he shuttered up fast. Brought in some article about the future of video gaming - Nope. Too much like work. Sigh.

3. No set curriculum. I'm supposed to decide on my own (with justification) what skills need improving and work with wherever he's at. So I figured he needs the most help with organization, reasoning, and organized/developed communication.

4. He has ADHD, probably also an LD diagnosis if he's in this program at all. Why is he in special ed? Well first of all he isn't quite functioning independently at grade level (though he is doing fine with the support he is getting in school). But mostly he's in my program because his parents are upper class people who expect their kids to ace everything. And while he is passing special ed, he isn't accepted into Harvard yet. Shame.

5. Will try to think and post soon.

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:28 pm

OP again, responding to mummiedearest:
Not into music.
He seems to me a kinesthetic learner but he is lethargic, impossible to get him really moving. Every time I try a moving type of activity he moans and groans until I just let him do it at his desk. Also part of this is that he hates change and moving around would necessitate changing location... prefers to stick with routines, stay in place.
Also he's an older kid. Not really tempted by things like hopscotch, etc. He knows exactly what work is and gets resentful when I try to sugarcoat it.

zigi ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:51 pm

we had to make a developement project. we went to a peice of land and had to come up with a plan write it up make a model and advertise. it was a lot of fun

are there any fairs or contests that he can enter in?

↑ marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:54 pm

1. If he likes YuGiOh, he would like fantasy & comics/anime. Has he read/watched HP and other fantasy books? What is his reading level? Name a book that is easy for him and one that is hard. Does he like making comic books? You can use that in so many ways. Has he explained YuGiOh to you? How does he do with explaining the game rules to someone who doesn't know them? Have you tried offering cards as a reward for work/speed/focusing or playing YuGiOh with him at the end of the lesson?

2. If he is in special ed, he has an IEP with specific instructions. Have you seen it? Does it just say general things? Would the teacher like you to parallel what the class is working on? If so, it would make sense to use the class materials, unless he is so behind ( say 3-4th gr. reading level) that it doesn't make sense to do that. What is the class working on? What book are they reading in his general 6th grade literature class? What are they doing in math? There are loads of fun & educational things to do with kids outside of classroom material, but teachers and parents usually like it when the sped teacher mimics the classroom material.

3. How often does he see you? For how long? Is your job mostly to organize and focus him and train him to be independent & self-monitor in class or are you supposed to teach him actual skills like for writing: topic sentence/supporting paragraph, intro, body, conclusion and reading comprehension and how to add fractions with different denominators?

I think I can list a bunch of creative lessons but if they are not geared to the skills he needs and the level he is on, it will be a waste, so tell me more about his present skills and where he needs to be. Again, maybe just a description of a few unsuccessful lessons will give a good picture of where he is.

avimom ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:57 pm

how about animals such as snakes or spiders? Sports? modern day pirates?

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 6:59 pm

OK, will try to reconstruct what a failed lesson looks like:

1. Enter room. Kid is sitting there playing DS. He is always there early because he comes straight from school which ends much earlier than I can come. I try to make a bit of small talk but get one-word answers to anything I ask. (How was your day? Fine. Learn anything interesting lately? No. Well, what boring stuff have you been learning then? Nothing.) I set my stuff up meanwhile, give him a 1-minute warning to save his DS game and shut down, and give him a little preview of what I have planned.

2. Math first; it's his best subject because he's a whiz at computation. My math goals are to organize his thinking and ability to show his work (to minimize careless errors and as a test taking skill because they all make you show your work), and secondly to build his math vocabulary and geometry skills. So here, the way the lesson flops depends on what I've planned.
A) Game - Unless the math is integral to the game, he insists on doing it purist - give me the work, forget the cards and the menchies and whatever. I prepare the games anyway for my supervisor's sake because I would flunk student teaching if all I ever gave was worksheets. He will do a bare minimum job on the examples, ignore my instruction in how to do it better, and if he gets something wrong and I try to guide him in learning the right way he just says "fine, fine! Let me be!" and doesn't listen to my explanation. Just writes something different because he knows his first try was wrong and then plunges onward. Wants to get it over with.
B) Trying to teach organization, sometimes I will provide an outline or graphic organizer for a certain type of problem. He will insist that he can just do it in his head or his way on paper, I say I'm sure you can but now I want to see you try a new way. He goes "fine fine" again and scrawls whatever he's doing into the organizer, but doesn't really pay attention, certainly not enough that he would be able to do it in an organized way himself if need be (which would be the ultimate goal)
C) Building language: Refuses attempts to get him to explain anything. "I did it right, I know I know I know... Who cares! It just is!" Most I can get if I demand cooperation is a very basic, superficial explanation (I mean a few words tops)
D) Whatever the topic I choose, it will flop if he happens to have just learned it in school. Then he's like "Yeah yeah we just did that. I know it already." Like I said, he's not dumb - if he learns it, he gets it, generally. And his teachers have him more often for more time than I do, so very often they will get ahead between two of my sessions and catch him up on whatever he hadn't gotten.

3. Next we'll do language arts, this is often the best part of the lesson. I usually plan some kind of game for this. For example, for a few sessions we played Taboo to increase descriptive language. Here, too, he tries to get by with as limited responses as possible, but I try to make the activities demand short responses so it works out. Like vocabulary dominoes or go fish - can do it even without a high level of response, you just need to put down the right card. HOWEVER, what I really need to reach some academic goals is to see him using the skills himself, which is nearly impossible - if I ask him to use one of the vocabulary domino words in a sentence, well that's asking for too much response. He is not dumb enough to be really oppositional because he knows he'll get in trouble, but he'll try to shtuch me by making up a nonsense sentence on purpose ("Aliens are perpendicular." "Hydrate is a stupid word.") If I try to hold my ground and insist that he cooperate, he has plenty of patience, we could easily spend the whole hour in a stalemate.

4. Break time. For some people and their students, this is a time of bonding and camaraderie. Also a good time to informally work on behaviors like taking turns in games, good sportsmanship. Not so for us. He will choose to either go to a vending machine, in which case he deliberately walks a few paces ahead of or behind me, again just to tease. (There was a time when I would tease back and we'd race the whole way there and back. At least it would get our blood flowing. But I'm too pregnant now for that.) Alternatively, he can choose to stay in the classroom and play a game. I usually insist that it at least be a game between us but he SO prefers another 5 minutes on his DS. It feels foolish but sometimes I give in just to keep him happy; goodness knows I'm not doing a great job making the learning fun for him so he may as well enjoy the break.

5. Reading. As I've said, his technical reading skills are great. His receptive vocabulary is quite good too. His basic comprehension is very solid, but he doesn't do that higher level engaging with the text that current reading programs are so into. So, if I can find something that interests him, I can get him to read. (Finding something interesting is not easy, especially since his interests seem to change by the minute, so if he seems interested in something one session and I spend the whole next week looking for books or articles about it, by the time I see him again it's old hat) So let's say it's a miracle day and my topic interests him - he will read but nothing else. If I give him questions he will give the bare minimum answer he can get away with. If I try minimizing the response required by making it multiple choice, he will just guess and resist any of my attempts at discussing answers (space out when I'm talking and give non-answers when I ask him anything) No deeper engagement.

6. We SHOULD have time for another learning activity, but because he's spent so much time whining and complaining about how boring I am we usually don't. I try to wrap up the session on a positive upbeat note but he is not interested and just runs off home before the session even officially ends. My supervisor watches me pitifully calling after him to have a good week while the other student teachers are happily discussing progress with their cute little lingering students.

↑ avimom

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:06 pm

can you use the DS as an incentive?

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:13 pm

Re Marina's new questions:
1. Not interested in HP (self proclaimed). The only book he has confessed to liking is Diary of a Wimpy Kid but he has already read them all. I tried bringing in some age-appropriate graphic novels and he wasn't interested. His reading level seems about average for 5th-6th grade - his basic skills are fine, it's just the higher level inferential stuff that he skips. He likes to read quickly and superficially.
I tried asking him to explain YuGiOh to me. He wasn't interested; upon my begging he offered about a minute of tutorial and then proclaimed me hopeless. Rolling Eyes

Really it's his own powers of organized explanation that need work, but he is just SO uninterested in working on them. Sigh.
I did do cards as a reward at the end. It worked for a few months but frankly he can get whatever cards he wants from his parents. After a while he started saying my cards weren't cool enough... Anyway, that motivated him to do the bare minimum cooperation, I.e. not totally resist work. But it wasn't enough to get him to really engage in learning - for that he needs to be truly interested.

2. His IEP is a little old. I tried getting in touch with the teachers a few times but never succeeded in actually making contact. I am allowed to parallel what he is learning in school but can't use his school materials because part of the student teaching requirements is that I have to make everything up myself.
Whenever possible I try to parallel what he's doing in class because that's at least a teeny bit motivating (will help with his school performance, that's pretty motivating) but it's hard to keep up because they go pretty fast in his class and I only see him at most twice a week. Last I heard he was learning about circle geometry, but I'm sure they will be finished with that by now, don't know what's next. They don't seem to be following a specific program, the teachers seem to go with their own logic which is fine but unpredictable.

3. I see him twice a week for 75 minutes each. My job is to help him with ANY learning skills that I can defend as being important to him individually. So specific skills, fostering independence -- all good. I try to mix up a little of both.

4. Some of what hasn't worked recently (mostly bombed due to lack of interest):
Webquest I designed on a topic of his choice (trying to teach research skills, organizing info)
Tic tac toe trying to fit vocabulary words into sentences
Always/sometimes/never game (logical thinking with math concepts)
Reciprocal teaching reading strategies
Making tesselations to practice transformations in geometry
Quadrilateral picture sort (to practice vocab and features of shapes)
I've tried everything I can think of and then some - this is just a sampling from the past few weeks

↑ marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:13 pm

Okay, that last post was very helpful.

1. The DS is the best thing you have going for you. Use it to your advantage. Start him with ten checks which will be ten extra minutes on his DS during the break and ten more checks after the break that he can use to end the lesson early. He gains or loses checks by cooperating with what you want him to do up to say 15 checks per break. Make cooperation easier in the beginning so he is successful quickly. Even though you will lose 20 minutes, the time that you have will be much more productive and enjoyable.

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:14 pm

DS as incentive - nope. Incentives don't work for him. He has to be into the activity itself. Besides, he knows perfectly well that as soon as he's done with me he can spend the rest of the night playing DS at home, regardless of whether he performed for me.

↑ amother ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:16 pm

I'm sorry if it may seem like I'm just shooting down whatever anyone says. It ain't so - really I appreciate all ideas. It's just that I've tried an awful lot of things over the last SEVEN months with this kid so when I say been there done that, it's really true... SIGH. This is seriously frustrating. And my degree hangs on my being able to show that this kid made some progress this year.

↑ marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:17 pm

Ok, here is more feedback.

1. You sound very creative and like you have tons of patience.

2. The kid sounds like he does not need much help and this is all happening because the parents are pushing for it and you need the licensing requirments, is that right?

3. 75 minutes is SOOOOOO long. I can't handle class for that long, I can't imagine a 6th grader. For sure use the DS to incentivize longer breaks like I said earlier.

↑ marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:18 pm

amother wrote:

he will have less time with you and more time with DS if he cooperates, that should work.

↑ marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:22 pm

Math ideas:

Have you tried the stock market? There are specific stock market simulations games out there, but I did it with a class of 4th graders with just newspapers and fake accounts, it was great fun and very educational and it will impress your professors too. Basically, you explain how the stock market works, give the kid a pretend amount of money, have him pick his investments and figure out how they did over time. We only had a week for this, but the kids all loved it. You can have your own pretend account too to see if your stock picks will do better. There are many, many math concepts to use here- graphing, fractions, multiplication, patterns, etc. This also impresses parents. Here's a fancy web version http://www.smgww.org/

Mimisinger ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:22 pm

So basically, you're wondering why an adolescent male, who has been in school all day, who then has to wait for you, is too tired and "over school" to be excited to learn?

Is he always lethargic? It's probably a)because he's tired, b)how long does he have to commute to get to you c)is he overmedicated? - that's a huge issue with adhd kids who are in 6th grade esp. because they're going through puberty and so the meds always get messed up.

Is this public or private school? Frum kid?

I taught 6th grade for a bunch of years - public. There are 2 ways to get kids the most involved - 1) inquiry projects 2) a topic that is controversial.

So for inquiry projects, it's A LOT of work, but it's all student lead, you can include multiple genres as well, which they love.

Controversial topics: Pick something pseudo taboo. I read an article about tookie williams to my kids - he was a leader of the crips gang and was responsible for thousands if not millions of deaths (it's a long story, which I can elaborate on is desired) but he's turned his life around and is working to keep other kids out of gangs. Does he still deserve the death sentence? What if you were the family of one of his victims? Etc.

↑ Mimisinger ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:24 pm

For a frum kid, you could discuss rubashkin, or any issue in Fru society.

↑ marina ↓

Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:27 pm

Quote:

Controversial topics: Pick something pseudo taboo. I read an article about tookie williams to my kids - he was a leader of the crips gang and was responsible for thousands if not millions of deaths (it's a long story, which I can elaborate on is desired) but he's turned his life around and is working to keep other kids out of gangs. Does he still deserve the death sentence? What if you were the family of one of his victims? Etc.

Also excellent.
Here's one that kids like. Cannabalism. Summarize or review the Queen v. Dudley case and have him try to explain why Dudley should or should not get the death sentence.