Monday, August 1, 2011

Question of the Week: August 1, 2011- How to Deal with "Clueless" Students


I have a particular student whose response to any given question during our lessons can be predicted with 97% accuracy (I say this because there are some rare instances when he surprises me). That response is:

"I don't know."

It doesn't matter what the question is...What do you want to work on first today? Do you think that phrase 3 is the hardest phrase? What does the title of this piece suggest to you?...it seems that no matter what question I ask, I always get the same response.

I've tried various manners of approach. Sometimes I'll give him a few options, hoping that providing some guidance will help him make a decision. I try to draw him out with leading questions and hints. But nothing seems to work, in the end it just seems like I have to sit there and tell him everything.

I like to teach by asking lots of questions and helping my students find the answers rather than sitting there and telling them what I want them to do all the time. But it seems that this just isn't working with this child.

So...any suggestions from other teachers out there? Have you ever had a student like this who seems to not want to answer any questions in their lessons? How did you deal with it?

5 comments:

  1. I had a student like that...she always said that, even if I knew she knew the answer. After playing a few games with her it got her to open up a little. I really had to try to incorporate a game into every lesson or it seemed like she shut down again. Sometimes students say that because they are a little insecure answering questions or because they are people pleasers and don't want to dissapiont you by getting it wrong. playing games got her to open up. I guess I showed her I was human and not someone to be afraid of. Being silly together helps sometimes I guess.

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  2. I agree with Lacy, some students hold back by not engaging. Then they feel safe. Others hold back because they don't want to give or commit. To me that resistance is a passive aggressive way of saying "I don't know if I want to do this." it is frustrating and requires much more animated work on our side, as teachers, to bring them along.

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  3. Lately I've been trying to reiterate with my students that there are "no wrong answers" - only answers which lead us to more questions. Sometimes this works. I notice this "I don't know" problem to be especially prevalent with my pre-teen students. They want to please you, so they're terrified of saying something "wrong." Like others have said, it makes our jobs as teachers a bit more complicated. We have to do the "question dance" to get any responses.

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  4. Thanks so much for all your comments! They've given me some food for thought all week, and encouraged me to take a different approach with this particular student.

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