Another student, GE, is definitely choosing an oppositional persona for getting by in this class.

I noticed that he wasnt working, and he hid behind his folder and whispered to his neighbor, Is she still looking at me? Is she still looking at me? I told him I wanted to read what he wrote, and when I came back I asked him to write one word and he wrote ha and bye. I wonder if he is doing this partly because he is an early-stage English Language learner; he is at the table of students who are English language learners. When I spoke to him in Spanish, he said, I speak English! When I made the mistake of asking a girl who was sitting next to him if the reading was hard for her, he immediately said, unkindly, She cant read, even though he had also not been reading. He whispers in Spanish to his seat-mates. He participated much more in the math lesson than the literacy lessons. So, I am noticing the student with attention-seeking behavior. The question is, how do I respond to him in a way that supports his learning and the learning of other students in the class? 1. Radiate a constant academic signal. One thing that clearly worked was that when I walked by him and he said something rude in Spanish I looked at his math worksheet, which he had done correctly, and said, firmly, Good work. I felt like I was ignoring and refocusing him in a way that was helpful. 2. Catch him being good. See above. 3. Develop a relationship. I am planning to ask students to volunteer to help me brush up on my Spanish over lunch, and I hope all of the Spanish-speakers will take turns volunteering. 4. Have an explicit conversation where we acknowledge together that he is acting out to get attention and make a plan to address it. 5. Find other roles for him in the classroom. How else can he get attention? I need to get to know him to get ideas of where he could bring his strengths, but one idea is to look for ways he could help others, or give him an important job helping me. 6. Be disciplined about making sure the attention-seeking behavior doesnt work in getting my attention. Try ignoring. Certainly, make sure to actively give attention to all the students. (I am going to do a mini teacher research project next week where I observe 8 kids a day so I see the whole class in the first week.)