TELL

(January 2017)

For this month’s issue of TELL, we offer advice to teachers and parents on their concerns. For this month, we focus on grades 3 and 4 students.

Dear TELL,

I am a teacher at an inner-city elementary school, and I have noticed that some of my students often arrive to school late without eating breakfast. I have started to see a trend where on the days they do not have breakfast, their behaviour turns problematic throughout the day. However, for days where they do have breakfast, they are like little angels. There is a breakfast program set up at the school, but some of these students do not participate in this free program! What can I do?

From, Flabbergasted

Dear Flabbergasted,

Children need food for energy, and when they do not have a healthy meal to start their day, it will affect their behaviour and their learning abilities. For the free breakfast program that is offered at your school, it may cause families stress as they may find it shameful or difficult to accept. A way that you can step around this is to have an emergency supply of snacks that you can offer discreetly to these students. Nevertheless, you should communicate with the students’ caregivers to find out more on why they are missing breakfast, and let them know how missing meals can affect their child’s academic performance and social behaviours. If it is a matter of finance, try to arrange something with the school discreetly for them. By communicating with caregivers, you can also find out some valuable information, such as why the child may be arriving late on some days and how the school can help.

From, TELL

Dear TELL,

Our school recently accepted a group of refugee students, and some of them have been placed in my classroom. In the beginning, they were shy – which is understandable – but there was still excitement in their movements. However, it has been a bit more than a month, and I have noticed that there is one particular student who is having trouble adjusting and often displays their frustration through physical means. I am at a loss for what to do! Please help!

From, At A Loss

Dear At A Loss,

This type of behaviour is typical for refugee students as they are still adapting to their new environment and trying to resettle in a new country. They are going through different stages of adjustments, and there are ways that you can help as a teacher. The stages are Honeymoon, Hostility, Humour, and Home, and you can learn more about them from the BC Ministry of Education. It seems that the student in question is going through the Hostility Stage, which is where they experience language challenges, culture shock, frustration, and confusion. How you can help as a teacher is to set goals with them, help boost their self esteem, and show compassion and understanding. Don’t forget that there are also resources available for you at the school. Remember that you are not a counsellor or a social worker, so refer to your school team for additional support!

Dear TELL,

My child is a grade 4 student and I recently received her report card without a letter grade on it! I spoke with her teacher and was able to obtain a grade upon request. I am a very busy parent and I don’t understand why teachers just don’t give letter grades the first time around and have to make us busy parents trying to earn a living and feed our families come in the school to get it!

From, Confused and Annoyed Parent

Dear Confused and Annoyed Parent,

This is actually a very common topic of interest within our parent and caregiver readers. Your child’s teacher is more than likely simply following the school’s protocol on giving report cards and letter grades, and not because they are out to get you. Unfortunately, letter grades are not a good indicator of your child’s progress. Research has shown that it takes the motivation out of learning; Students tend to see the content they are learning as a means to an end where the end is the grade and not the retention of knowledge. Schools have slowly begun to pick up on this fact and are using different forms of reporting a student’s progress, such as informal conferences with caregivers or descriptive summary on reports. These are better indicators of how students are doing in schools than a somewhat subjective letter grade that does not explain much.

From, TELL

Dear TELL,

I have a student in my art class who likes to throw paint at their peers whenever we are using them for a lesson. This student is on the spectrum, but is high functioning. I have tried taking the paint away from her until it is time to use them, supervise her while she is painting, and have even done the work for her while she guided me! I want her to have fun while in art class, but her behaviour makes it really difficult for me to not supervise her. What should I do?

From, Messy Apron

Dear Messy Apron,

More often than not, physical action or consequences is not the best method to respond back to neurotypical students. Instead, a more helpful, effective, and less stressful method is to use a social story. A social story helps explain a problematic situation through pictures. Each of these pictures represent something related to the situation: 1) what is happening, 2) why, 3) how people think and feel in the situation, and 4) what to do. These are essentially flowcharts in visual form that helps neurotypical students learn to self-regulate. It describes the problematic situation, why it is problematic or how it came to be, how other people may think and feel about this problematic situation, and what the child can and should do. If the child has an EA with them, communicate and collaborate with them to find out the best strategies to support this student.

From, TELL

Dear TELL,

When I ask my child what he did in school today, all he says is that they danced and played during reading time! I spoke with his teacher and found out that they have been doing some drama in literacy. I do not see the point of this as physical activity should remain in the gym, and not in the classroom – especially not during reading time! Can you explain the reasoning behind this as it seems like my child is in acting school instead of receiving a proper education?

From, Not Overdramatic Parent

Dear Not Overdramatic Parent,

I understand your concerns that you fear your child is learning nothing but how to perform using crocodile tears in school, but I believe his teacher is using this drama method as a means of developing the class’ literacy level! Drama is a very effective way of learning text, and the kinetic movements actually help students retain information better! In addition, when students step into the shoes of a character in the story, they are able to empathize with them and understand from their perspective, which leads to greater writing skills. I have just named a few things, but there are actually a lot more benefits that drama in literacy offers for children!

From, TELL

 

(Note: All pictures taken from Freepik.com)