Mesa View Middle School is located in the Farmington, New Mexico School District.  It sits on a mesa several miles southwest of town.  It serves a community of students within a 60 square mile area, from the Colorado border on the North, to the San Juan River on the south.  Mobile home communities surround the school on the East, and  by middle-income housing on the North and West.   All of the students are bussed to school except the children from the nearby middle-income housing neighborhood.

            My classroom is located on the lower floor of the West wing, the wing designated for just sixth grade.  The sixth graders are divided into two teams, the All Americans and the Navigators.  The student’s core classes are held in the sixth grade wing, but they must travel to other parts of the building for their exploratory classes.   I teach Reading, Language Arts, and math. The two students that I decided to study have me for all three subjects.  One is a male the other female.

            The first student that I chose is a boy almost twelve.  He is Native American, tall for a sixth grader, thin, and usually always has a smile on his face. He lives in a mobile home one and a half miles from the school.  He lives with his parents as an only child. He has many cousins who live nearby and he loves to spend time with them after school. His father works and his mother stays at home. 

He caught my attention right away because of his smile and tendency toward being mischievous.  He laughs quite often and teases and pokes his neighbors, which gets him in trouble with his teachers.  He spends his homeroom time either playing games in the gym, or playing games on his computer.  He is not very responsive or happy if he must work on assignments during this time.  He hurries through all of his assignments, in all classes, so that he can play games on his computer.  His current passion is a game called “Runescape.” He also hurries through his lunch so that he can get outside and play games.

When I first began teaching him, his comments during Reading and Language Arts were not appropriate, he would answer nonsense as if he wanted to be funny, such as “because he wants too,” or “because you say so,” or, he would mutter the answer under his breath so that you could hear but not understand. His written grammar is unintelligible; it is hard to tell what he is trying to say.  He leaves out articles, and the subject verb agreement is not there.  It is very hard to decipher what it is that he is trying to communicate.

As part of our Language Arts class we write in journals daily for ten minutes, sometimes about an assigned topic and sometimes they are free to write whatever they wish.  His early entries were very short, one or two lines. He often complained that he was bored and just wanted to go home and play on his computer. However, in math he participates very well, he asks questions, and provides answers.  He generally gets all of his work done and rarely has homework.  His grades reflect the interest he has in each of the classes.  He has typically received C’s and D’s in Reading and Language Arts and B’s in math. 

 Recently his attitude and interest has increased in Reading and Language Arts.  When we have brainstorming activities, I write down what he says, even if it is only meant to be silly or funny. It has gotten his attention. He does not make quite so many silly remarks, they are relavent. I have been giving the students menus of assignments that they must accomplish on their own during the hour, with choices of things to do, and he seems to really love that.  His latest journal entries have been longer, and he is now writing about how happy he feels because he is “getting so much done.”  I also announced to the class that we would only be A and B students from this time forth.  His first response was “yeah right, I always get C’s and D’s and even some F’s.” The next assignment was an F paper, and yet I returned it to him to correct it, and the second time it was an A- paper.  When I handed that back to him he was so excited he just about couldn’t stand it.  He showed it off to me, to the cooperating teacher, and to several of his friends. It boosted his confidence and he is more interested in what we are doing. 

            The second student I chose to follow is female, just turned twelve, and fairly small for her age.  She lives about six miles from the school along Highway 64.  Hers is an older neighborhood with large industries on both sides.  She lives with her parents and one younger sister.  She is close to both her grandmother and her aunt.  She has two cats that she loves to play with and make videos of. She spends most of her free time playing games on the computer.

            She caught my attention because she would not respond to me when I greeted her in the mornings at the door.  She just walked by as if she did not hear me.  And when I tried to make contact with her by asking for help doing projects or figuring out computer programs, her response was to just look at me and then shrug her shoulders that she did not know.  I began to watch her during class and noticed that she never participates in whole class activities.  Even if she is directly asked a question the teacher must wait quite a while if they are going to get a response from her; and most teachers do not wait, they go on.   She works fairly well in pairs and small groups as long as her friend is there with her, otherwise she tends to just sit back and watch what is happening.  When I asked other teachers about her they did not have much to say, mostly that “she is quiet and gets her homework done.”

            I watched her in the lunchroom and on the playground and noticed that she has about six other friends, girls I do not know.  Upon investigation I found out that her friends are all on the other sixth grade team.  Although they all seem to be good friends she is still quiet and does not talk much, she mostly watches and listens.

            Her journal entries were very minimal in the beginning; one or two lines, some doodling, and mostly she would write, “blah, blah, blah.” Lately however, they have changed.  For whatever reason, she began to write about a trip that she went on with her aunt to California, and each day she wrote more about the trip and filled about seven pages.  When she finished that story she began writing about a trip she is going to take with her family to the Grand Canyon this summer.  She has chosen to write her research paper on the Grand Canyon.

            I still have not figured her out, and am not sure how to make contact with her.  There is nothing wrong with her grades and she seems to be learning very well.  It is just that I don’t have a relationship with her yet, and I do not know what interests her and gets her excited except perhaps travel.

            According to child development experts, children at this age use achievement as motivating factors in building confidence and self-esteem. I have seen this happen in student one, when he got an A on an English assignment he grew in confidence several inches.  They also say that for children this age best friends are very important and I see that in student two, she works harder and smiles more when she is with friends.  A third thing that is very important to children this age is a sense of increased independence.  As I have given student one more choices and responsibility, he has risen to the occasion and is being more productive.  Also, for children this age, their circle of influence is increasing, and yet their family is still very important to them.  Student two reflects this in her writing about family trips. 

            What I take from this experience is that I need to continue to provide opportunities for students to be successful.  I need to remember that friendships are important at this age and allow students to work with their friends on projects.  I will continue to give students choices and responsibility so that they may develop their independence, and I will honor their family relationships.

Sources:

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1826/Child-Development-Stages-Growth.html