One of My Students

I have a student who sits in the back row and does not participate at all. He’s a football player, very popular, good looking and nice. He doesn’t bother anyone, but he also doesn’t contribute anything. He is missing two assignments, which in turn has lowered his grade to a D. Without even really knowing this kid, I judged him as a football player who cared more about sports than school.

I gave my students their first writing assignment last week. It was a simple, one paragraph essay, but it was to help me see what kind of writers I have. As I was grading these papers, I read one bad paper after another. Grammar was terrible, incomplete sentences, misused quotes, no structure whatsoever, etc. Probably the worst papers I’ve ever read. I was really frustrated with my students, and I was tired of circling every single problem I found. Every paper had red ink all over, and I was at the point where I wasn’t even correcting stuff anymore, I was just circling.

Then I came upon the essay from this boy. As I was reading, I could actually read the paper without having to mark it up. I wasn’t circling anything. It was almost perfect. His grammar was correct, he had complete sentences, he used big words, and his paper flowed nicely. He actually knew how to write! I wrote a huge compliment on the bottom of the paper in order to encourage him. Someone has taught this kid well, and I was really impressed. Out of all the people in my classes, I didn’t expect such a great paper from this kid. He got the highest grade out of all my students, and I told him that. When I gave him back his paper, I told him good job and to keep up the good work. He kind of gave me a shy grin and didn’t say anything.

Today, my students had to take an Acuity Test. It’s a non-graded test to help me know the strong points and weak points of my students. As I was walking through the testing room, as students finished their tests, I was seeing scores such as 15/30 and 14/30 and 10/30. Obviously, my students were struggling a bit with this test. This particular boy finished his test and came up to me so I could help him log off. I walked over to his computer and he had scored 28/30. By far the best score of the day! I told him good job and helped him log off.

I kneeled down beside him and said, “Do you excel in all your classes or just English?”
He got really shy and bowed his head. I could barely hear him, but he said, “I excel in all my classes.”
I said, “You do well in math and science, too?”
He shook his head yes.
I asked him what his favorite class is, and he said Social Studies.
I asked him if my class bored him. He said no.
I said, “I can tell you’re really smart. So far you’ve out scored all your classmates.”
He got really shy and smiled and said, “Thanks.”
“But, in order to get a good grade, you’ve got to do your assignments. You’re missing several assignments, which has lowered your grade. If my class bores you, we can get you moved to an advanced class. You’re obviously very good at English, but I need you to do your work in order to get a good grade.”
He agreed that he would do his work. He said, “Thanks,” once again, and I walked away.

I really hope this kid does his work because he’s obviously very smart. I’m going to have to find creative ways to engage his mind so he’s not bored while all the other students struggle to understand. And I’ll be the first to admit that I judged him incorrectly.