Any teachers out there: I need your help!

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maycocksean

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I'm a teacher--I teach middle school language and have been teaching professionally for 8 years.

i've got this student and I don't know what to do next. She's a sweetheart, but very, very slow.

I've been working on her one-on-one with her grammar assignments, but even with my help, she just can't seem to pass her test on the unit we're working on. In grammar, I teach to mastery, so they stick with the material until they pass the test. Most students will pass pretty quickly on their first or second try usually. Exceptionally bright students test out quickly and move on ahead on their own, giving me more time with students like this one.

Well she's taken a test on this material (complements) like four times and while she's getting marginally better, it is happening very, very slowly. She still hasn't passed a test (her most recent and best score was a 56%). It's like she can't hold the information in her head for very long, and she forgets so quickly. To make it harder for her--though she takes in stride--there is only one other girl in 7th grade, and this girl is whipping through the material easily. She's finishing Ch.17 while this girl is spinning her wheels at Ch. 13.

So, my question is: What should I do? Should I keep trying to teach her, knowing that it could be months (!) before she passes this one test. And I know it will make her feel bad when she finds out she STILL hasn't passed the test. Or should I say--"Ahh, she'll never get it. On to the next chapter" (which she probably won't get either). Is there something else I can do, some other method I can use to help her grasp the material.

Any teachers that read this. . . I appreciate your advice.
 
Please don't just pass her through. If students don't learn grammar at this stage, they never will. I teach college English, and I get so many very smart students who don't know how to write a grammatically correct sentence. This is because they were never taught grammar in high school, and so they think it's not important. They don't realize that grammar errors make a writer look sloppy. I equate it to a person working hard to prepare for a job interview, then showing up in gym clothes. What kind of first impression does that really make?

In nearly every class I've ever taught, I've ended up having to spend a great deal of time editing students' papers (which I'll do once for them, then make them use my office hours if they want more help) and talking about grammar rules in class, even though we have plenty of other work to do.

I've found that it's helpful to make a student read his or her writing aloud. In fact, an exercise I like to do when I teach composition is to have the students line up around the perimeter of the room, each facing the wall. Then, I have them all read their papers aloud at the same time. They don't feel self-conscious, since everyone is reading, but they can still hear their own work, which helps them pick up on many errors they don't catch merely by looking at it.

It also might not be a bad idea to see if you can find a tutor for this student, so you're not bearing all of the workload. Perhaps contact her parents and see if they can help quiz her at home and help her practice? I agree that it's not a bad idea that she be tested for a learning disability, too.
 
WildHoneyAlways said:
Have you put in for a special ed screening? It's possible she may have a learning disability. :shrug:


Exactly my thoughts. Talk to her counselor. There might be a form that you'll need to fill out to prove that she might need testing. I teach 7th grade math, and I've done it several times. Even the counselor should observe her in class and make his/her own report. The counselor will also have access to her file. There might be a trend that will show up from her elementary school days. I'm pretty sure that this is something that didn't just start to happen this year. At the same time, I'd offer before or after school tutorials until she can get into something like a Content Mastery room.
 
i'll go ahead and echo what the others have said about the LD screening, as well getting her a tutor. there are some students need a lot of exposures and extra repetitions in order to master a skill, and there isn't enough time in the day for you to provide all of that. get her some outside help.
 
I'm not a teacher, however, I thought I would put in my two cents worth. First, everything mentioned here sounds like a very good idea. I was just wondering, have you tried to get another student, perhaps a friend, to help her?
When I was younger, one of my friends was behind in class, and a slow learner. The teacher obviously couldn't dedicate all her time to helping her. Instead, she got me to help teach her various things and even quiz her when we could afford to be away from class (like during reading time, etc). It proved very effective, and it was amazing how she would sometimes comprehend things when I explained them, that she didn't understand when the teacher did. Besides, it's also usually beneficial to the kid who is helping.
You may have already done this, but, it's a thought. :)
 
maycocksean's school is pretty small I think and the location is remote, I wonder if they have much in the way of special education programs.

Middle school language teaching is not something I know much about, but in general I think it would probably be worse for the student--self-esteemwise if nothing else--to simply move on to the next section when both you and she know she hasn't passed the current one. Unless perhaps whatever skill you're working on now is sort of a one-off and not likely to be built upon in future sections.

BrightestStar's suggestion may have some merit--sometimes it's a waste of time to have one student tutor another, but if that's not working you'd probably be able to see it pretty quickly. It is true that another student can sometimes connect a peer to the material in ways that simply wouldn't occur to the teacher. You have to choose the "tutor" carefully though.
 
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