Depending on the age of the students this can be a common situation. One of my students used to turn in her homework during break times so her friends, who were less inclined to do their homework, didn't find out. I pulled her aside and had a talk with her. I praised her work and discussed her career goals, reinforcing the link between the two.
In my College Success class, as it is the first class for most students, and we have a mix of recent high school grads and those who have been out of school awhile, I address the issue head on. I remind them of the investment of time and money they are making, with adult students this is effective. With recent high school students we talk about the different expectations in secondary education.
I agree learning teams
and varying groups can be effective, but I also think it is an issue that should be addressed directly with the student.
I think we all had the same problem as instructors My sugestion is to talk to the positive student and then with the negative student this way they know where they are standing academicly.
I agree that talking to the student one-on-one (outside of class, of course) is a valid way of handling this problem. As we know, students need to be more self-aware and should be given every opportunity to be involved in their own learning. This student may not have a clue about how pliable and easily influenced by others he/she is, so your classroom may not be the only place where the student is adversely affected by others. Therefore your input may have more far-reaching positive effects on this student's life than you think.
i have the same problem in some of my classes. What i try to do is separeat them from eachother but not stop them from talking to eachother. Then when i do see them clowning around i give them bissy work to do so they have to focse on the taske at hand.
Chef Abundio
When this happen to me I separate the students
I talk to hiom one on one and explain him the problem he will be runing to
Hi Chef Abundio,
Based on the first week of observation, test scores and completition of projects. I move all the students around into new groups that I create in the second week.
This may make me unpopular at this rearrangment, but I sell it as they have sat in the same seats for a week and I want them to met other persons and other ways of seeing this information.
And I assure them that I will move them around again and again each week to see how different areas such as the back of the classroom is different from the front seats. Or those seats near a door verses a seat in the middle of the classroom.
This seems to help with several situations to seperate students for their own well-being and learning. Also for a change of pace I will mix the arrangements to all women at a table and all men and have a mock test of a topic with a candy reward to the first correct answer. Then we go back to mixed gender table arragements. The final week I let the students pick there own seating perferance. I'm still learning...
That happened to me once, and the student failed the class, when he repeats the class the other student wasn’t in the same group, the result he passed with an A. The other student drop and he is doing great in school. I know that is not the same situation in most cases but if you can find a way of separating them and putting that student to work in small groups with others he might see an improvement in his grade and will be motivated to continue the hard work.
Hi Abundio,
I would create learning groups for the class. You can assign this student to a group that does not include the student that influences him negatively. This way he will be surrounded by positive students and his progress in the course will continue.
Gary
