On Difficult Students

Q: How do you deal with a consistently disruptive student who spoils lessons with his/her attitude and behavior?


Jack: Shame them and love them, deal with them publicly and privately, ignore them and focus on them. It's a tall order.

Disruptive students want attention and often don't know what is or isn't appropriate in seeking it. That being the case, they need to be shown exactly what will and won't fly in the classroom - I remember spending half of my young life in various administrative offices wondering what had gone wrong and never getting much help figuring how to stay out of those offices. Class rules, whether formal or informal, need to be clearly articulated to the class as a whole and to the student in question. They also need to be consistently enforced.

If disruptive students don't figure out how to get positive attention, the clarity and consistency of class rules won't change behavior, though. They need to be told outside of class what you need from them and how you're willing to help them, and then shown in class that you're willing to hold up your end of the bargain. A lot of teachers have trouble recognizing the fact that their status as teachers doesn't automatically make them trustworthy; in fact, it often signifies the opposite.

Disruptive students have also probably been through this a number of times before, though clearly not successfully enough to have made a real and lasting difference. Keeping that in mind, students who have shown some progress in classroom behavior should be allowed to slip up from time to time just like any other student. They and their parents should be given usual feedback on how they are doing, and they should be given realistic goals to meet.

Finally, you as a teacher have to remember that the presence of a disruptive student in your classroom is not your fault. It is also important to keep in mind that something can be done about the problem and that given the choice between succeeding and being disruptive, almost all young people will choose to succeed if they can just figure out how. Being an ally and a mentor to young people is ultimately what teaching is all about, and sometimes it doesn't have much to do with your curriculum.


Douglas: I have a short and simple answer for this one: I treated attendance in my class as a privilege. I would send any student who acted inappropriately out of class and tell her/him to come back when he/she was ready again. That went for acting out, speaking out of turn, insulting a fellow student, whatever behavior I didn’t want in my classroom. This has to be applied evenly, so that all students, even normally well-behaved students, get sent out when they do something the crosses the line.

Kids (and I guess adults) act inappropriately for attention, so I removed the chance for attention. Usually a kids sent out would try to come back immediately but I would usually not allow them back for a few minutes. A timeout, so to speak. Almost always they would come back much more well-behaved and over the school year, after expectations were set, it happened a lot less. One or twice, a student wouldn’t come back in and would sulk outside for the rest of the period. I ignored that too. The message I was trying to send was that learning is something valuable and if you act inappropriately, I’ll take it away from you.

I don’t know if this would work for everyone or in every school environment, but it worked for
me.


Moses: 1) Have clear expectations for student engagement/involvement/behavior. By making your expectations clear at the start of the year (and creating some sort of student buy-in to those expectations), you have a leg to stand on...if not, I've learned that you leave yourself more open to students feeling that they're being picked on. Plus, as an added bonus, thinking about your expectations beforehand will help you to arrive at a clearer sense of what's important to you as a teacher. Is it being on time? Being respectful? What do each of those actually look like, specifically?

2) Think about why this student or this student's behavior feels so disruptive. Is it keeping them from learning? Is it hurting other students? Is it not bothering anyone except for you? I've sometimes found that identifying what it is about the distraction that's actually helps me to be more clear and effective in the rest of the process.

3) Ask yourself: how can you use this to make your classroom a better place for learning? There are a lot of reasons for students to be disruptive, but I think a major one is feeling like the class doesn't have a place for them. How can you create that place? Does it mean adding some variety to your lessons? Changing the pace? Crafting an activity that plays to the disruptive student's strengths? Give them a chance to be a success.

4) Talk to the student. I'm a big fan of calling a spade a spade: tell them what you see, emphasize that you think they can be a positive influence instead of a negative one, ask them what they see, ask them how you can help them to be a more positive contributor. If I have to err, I err on the side of making sure the student knows that I am on their side. I have expectations and a commitment to the other students, but I am on their side too.

5) If there's an advisor or homeroom system at your school, or someone who knows the student more broadly than in your class alone, tell them what you see and ask if they know of any helpful information. Classes in which they've had some success? A broader sense of what other teachers have noticed? Other important contextual information?

6) In the broadest sense, gather information from other parties. Check in with the parents - again, emphasizing that you're there to help and not to seek punishment. Ask the administrators: what options are open to you (sending the student out of the room, conversations with a school counselor, etc.)

7) If possible, don't lose sight of the other students in your classroom. If there are 20 students in the class and 1 who isn't focused on learning, you may still have 19 who are...but not if you spend all your time dealing with the 1.