In August, I went to a class to learn strategies for students with more extreme behaviors. The researcher emphasized the importance of first building relationship with our toughest students. This year, one of my students opposes authority. This means, he refuses to do classwork, homework, and any kind of activity where "everyone is doing this". Sounds like a great candidate for relationship building.
So, I arbitrarily chose one assignment he refused to complete - a bar graph about the way he learns best. I know he likes Minecraft and Star Wars, so every day, I google one of those topics and write a post-it note for the bar graph. I place the graph and note on his desk in the morning, and wait for his reaction.
At first, I thought the plan might backfire. Matthew (not his name) would make eye contact with me, crumple up the note, and say, "You won't win this one," or "I'm never finishing this dumb graph!" The funny thing, was, he would then always place the unfinished graph back in the Turn In Box. Being a kid who's not afraid of destroying papers, I would have expected him to shred the graph, not just the post-it note.
He's still engaging this with me, I thought, and googled "Yoda speak".
One day, a post-it with a warning that a Minecraft creeper was out to get him and the finished bar graph was his only defense, lay stuck to my laptop. Matthew had written on the back, "COMEDY GOLD." I looked over at him and he was grinning from ear to ear.
Game on.
From there, he got pictures of Darth Vader, saying, "Matthew... I am your bar graph...." and Yoda encouraging him, "Give up never, you will. Bar graph finished, happy you will be." Matthew told me he almost wet his pants when he saw Darth on his desk.
Slowly, he stopped keeping his hood on all the time. Slowly, I'll catch Matthew raising his hand to participate in class from time to time. Slowly, he'll say good morning to me every once in awhile.
All because of relationship.
And google. I seriously know squat about Minecraft.
