Why You Should Give Extra Attention To Difficult Students The First Week Of School

No, you’re not going to ignore their misbehavior.

It’s just that . . . well, let’s back up a little.

When you first receive your roster for the coming year, it’s normal to want to get the lowdown on your new class.

As a teacher it’s normal to seek out teachers from the grade below to see if you have any especially difficult students.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But by doing so, you can in reality trigger their misbehavior. I should mention here that you can cause these challenging students to jump right back into the same bad habits they struggled with the year before.

Too often teachers who know ahead of time which students have a proclivity to misbehave will inevitably try to nip it in the bud. I think they’ll try to prevent it from growing into a major problem.

Teachers may seat them in the front of the room. We as adults can pull them aside for pep-talks, warnings, and reminders.

They’ll try to catch them doing good and use their hovering presence as a deterrent.

But what this does is send away the message that nothing has changed from the year before—or the year before that. It is important to know that teacher after teacher has employed the same strategies.

It is bound to happen that they continue to disrupt learning. They continue to be silly. It is bound to happen that they continue to argue, play around, and get up and wander the room during lessons.

“Because the extra attention, especially during the first week of school, is a form of labelling.”

It tells them loud and clear that they’re not like the other students. It tells them that they’re not good enough, that they can’t control themselves, and that they need special attention.

However the truth is labeling has a profound effect on individual behavior, more so than any other classroom variable.

It reinforces the false narrative difficult students already believe about themselves that “behavior problem” is who they are—as much a part of them as their eye color or shoe size.

So, on the first day of school, when they find their assigned seat in the front of the room, when they notice your frequent and proximate attention, when they’re asked to line up behind the most well-behaved student in the class . . .

Their heart sinks.

Believe it or not they know that no matter what—new year, new class, new teacher—they can’t escape their destiny.

Resigned to their fate, they shrug their shoulders and give you just what you expect. It is often said that they become a walking, talking, misbehaving self-fulfilling prophecy.

It’s sad and tragic. Yet it’s a scenario that is repeated again and again in classrooms all over the world, with the same predictable results.

I am going to explain that from the moment the new school year begins, if your behavior is in any way different around those few students with a reputation they’ll recognize it immediately.

After all, they’re looking for it. They’re highly attuned to it. They know it intimately because they’ve been on the receiving end of it their entire lives.

So what should you do instead?

“Treat them with the same gentle kindness, humor, and respect you do all of your students”.

This works wonderfully Don’t go out of your way. Try not to seat them in front of the room. Don’t pull them aside for reminders, if-I-were-yous, false praises, warnings, and the like.

I suggest that you give them a chance to turn over a new leaf.

Try and pretend they are already perfectly well behaved.Here I am asking that you act as if they’re already successful. Also show them that you believe in them by interacting with them just like you do everyone else.

I think you should give them hope that this year is going to be different, and those backbreaking labels, which are causing so much of their misbehavior, will begin to slide off their shoulders.

Their eyes will rise to meet yours. Their expressions will soften. Their breathing will deepen.

Relief will wash over once them once you treat them differently like a summer rain.

For whatever reason this doesn’t mean that you’ll ignore their misbehavior. You’ll still move your classroom management plan to the letter. You’ll still hold them accountable.

Just like everyone else.

Give these school weary and teacher wary students a opportunity to become the potential you see in them.

Grant them a new prophecy.

As I am wrapping up the article I think you should rewrite their story.

Then they’ll never be the same.