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Stink-o-Copter
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12 thoughts on “Stink-o-Copter”
Love every single word of that response. Every. Single. Word.
As for worksheets, I would not go there. It’s more work for you, and I don’t believe in students dictating a teacher’s teaching style. (Our CI-educated students don’t get to complain to grammar-based teachers and overthrow their worksheets when they move on after our classes!) There are all sorts of more structured ways to deliver CI (dictation, novel reading) that might help a ‘rote’ student feel more comfortable in the classroom, but I would steer clear of changing my curriculum for just one student.
…or not, and it’s the only way to quell that kid and parent. He might not want to acquire French. Is it our job to force him? I presict that the worksheet thing doesn’t last long. The “i + 1” for that kid is higher, but he can toooootally hit his limit. It’s a sneaky move, but if he wants worksheets just give him enough to stay busy until he’s bored or it gets too hard and then wants to play ball. Use assessment from readings as evidence after a couple weeks when you say to mom “he’s understanding less because he’s spending too much time on the worksheets.”
I agree in principle Eric but can’t recall a single instance of a child staying with worksheets on their own more than a week or so. Usually one period of isolation brings them back with redoubled effort to make the class work for them, because most teens are such social animals. It’s just a ploy, a trick to get them to appreciate class. In more extreme cases, if we catch it early enough, they drop the class. If we aren’t so lucky, they sit in class and learn nothing*, which is no different than what happens so often in grammar classes. The worksheets have always worked for me in the few cases I have actually used them because when we have these really rote learners and they sit in class with their mom-inspired negative attitude about having to show up as a real person in class, they lose because every single kid sitting around them is rocking the house. They are really hiding from real social interaction. My offender yesterday, when I suddenly stated in the middle of class yesterday that I was grading them right then and there by looking in their eyes for light, actually put the book in front of her face and peeked out from behind it about four times during read and discuss of our SSR text. It was funny and kind of sad, to see a human being avoid human contact with those around her. Those rote learners are such sad people. The world is sad when robots run it. No blame. Just sayin’.
*we do much damage to ourselves when we don’t recognize and emotionally avoid kids who are not prepared to benefit from us. This is a factor in teacher burnout. Another is our desire to be the best language teacher in the world. Re: those kids who are in too much pain to learn – would a medical doctor run around frantically trying to save every sick person in their vicinity? And those people WANT to be healed. It’s like in the Serenity Prayer from Reinhold Niebuhr: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
You just reminded me of a story we read in my (totally unrelated to Spanish) 9th grade seminar class. Have you read “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman”? A world run by robots indeed.
It actually makes me kind of sad to have a parent describe their own kid as a ‘rote’ learner. It’s a limiting word, and shouldn’t a parent see more potential than that?
When I get those, though, I point them to Quizlet.com. They can drill flashcards on their own time if they feel they need that. It certainly couldn’t hurt. And I know that StudySpanish.com is good for conjugation drills (surely there’s a French equivalent?) if that satisfies the parents’ need for rote learning.
“It actually makes me kind of sad to have a parent describe their own kid as a ‘rote’ learner.”
Kind of like saying, “My kid is a stuff it in and regurgitate it back type of learner.” What was the parent thinking? Or was he? Maybe just a line he memorized from a book somewhere.
I am both impressed and frightened by this letter. I know I don’t have the chops to write something like that. What would I even say to a parent? I’m still getting my feet wet in my first year teaching foreign language (ESL has limited parent engagement for a variety of reasons) and I am legitimately scared of parents now.
I wonder if there is a way for teachers to ward off parent calls/letters. Maybe portfolio assessment and/or sending home examples of student work pre-emptively?
Thank you for sharing this. I may be less blind-sided when this happens to me.
I wonder if we should have a category for responses to parents. I have a couple that I could share. They do take some crafting and maybe we could save one another some work.
Good suggestion Angie. I added “Parent Letters”. I’ve got “Parent Conferences”, “Parents Night” and “Parent Letters”. What should I do about that? Keep them separate or have only one category for “Parents’? My concern is that too few categories is that they get so big that they are hard to negotiate. Like the category here for TPRS has almost 3,000 articles which would take some time to go through. We are down now from 649 to 46 categories. One thing is certain, if people want to find something, the search bar is best.
“Parents” makes sense to me as a category, because a lot of the things we might say or need would overlap — any kind of interacting with parents.
In this kind of situation, I think I might make a phone call (even though I really prefer writing) and inviting the family to meet in person, if possible, to share most of what’s in the response email. Then, after meeting, send a shorter email with the main points discussed so that you have a written record, too. I also like Ben’s idea to OFFER the kind of worksheets the family believes fit the student’s “learning style” and let the student choose what to do. I wouldn’t require the student to do separate work. I’d discuss that in the meeting, too.
I have a long story from earlier this school year that makes me say both of those things. Even if you have admin support, it can come back as a hassle later that you removed a student from general class activities or even that you communicated with parents by email (rather than call; even though it’s good to have a written record). That’s where I am with my situation now.
The student hiding behind her book, Ben, wow. That is sad.
Also forgot to say — the title of this post makes me smile.
“Mrs. Nameless-Helicopter-Mom-Who-Thinks-She-Knows-How-To-Teach-French-Because-She Got-an-A-In-It-In-College-By-Memorizing-Verb-Charts”
Hahaha. I loved this Ben. Sadly I know too many of these moms!
I laughed at the word “Stink-o-Copter”.