what to do when kids don't learn

Here's what not to do when kids don't learn:  get mad at the kids for not learning.

I felt like such a failure today.

After 3 weeks of teaching several concepts related to place value, I gave a test and both of my students (yes, I only have 2 math students), did horribly.  I was disappointed.  But I regrouped.  I broke down the concepts further and spent more time on them.  By my observations, which are very reliable due to the fact that I only have 2 students to observe and there are not even any other kids in the room, they were really getting it. Hooray!

So, I gave the test again.  This time, I even simplified the format of the test further. 

It was kind of a long test so I just gave them about 10 minutes to work on it for a few days.  At the beginning of the week they were doing pretty well. Yes, I was disappointed to see that both boys thought 305,360 should be written as "three hundred thousand five thousand three hundred sixty," and that four hundred eighty thousand, eighty-two should be written as, "480,82."  It was also painful to see a number that should have been in the millions have only 4 digits.  I didn't fall apart over these errors though. 

Then today, as they finished up the test, I looked at one of my friend's papers. On the test there was a large number.  1,659,034.278, to be exact.  The questions that followed simply asked for which digit was in the thousands place, millions place, tenths place, etc.  I thought this would be the easiest part of the test.  What I saw written on his paper nearly made me lose my mind. 

Looking back, I should have collected the paper and returned to it when I had composed myself.  I wish I had done that.

Instead, I started asking him questions thinking that I could get him to realize how outlandish his answers were. 

Me:  "Wait a minute.  Let's look at this again.  What digit is in the ones place here?" 
R:  "Um. 7?"
Me: astonished eyes
R:  "0?"
Me:  "The ones place? The ones place?" 
R: "3?"
Me:  "The answer is actually on the board.  Please look at the board."
R: looks around the room
Me:  "Wait. Point to where the answer is."
R:  looks around more
Me:  "Where do we have the answer written?!!"
R: finally points to the place value chart right in front of him
Me:  "So what number is in the ones place?"

It went on like this for awhile.  My voice was getting louder and louder and the poor child started guessing more and more. 

I pulled out his homework which was reviewing rounding. He is really good at rounding.  But here is where I wanted to pull my hair out. You have to know place value to be able to round! So how can he identify the digit in the tens column on one paper and not on the other?!?!

I asked him.  He didn't know.

He kept looking at the door.  His class was going to P.E. Part of me wanted to say, "No! You can't go to P.E. You have to stay here and learn this.  Let me shove information into your head and make it stay there and make you able to retrieve it and apply it and REMEMBER it. I MUST TEACH ALL THE KIDS." 

But I guess I had some sense left in me.  I told him he could go.

....

Later on.  The same child was sitting in my room while his class watched a movie.  He had not done his reading response homework for 3 weeks in a row.  The first week he told me he left it at home.  Then he was going to do it over the weekend.  Today, I said, "Enough is enough.  If you can't do it at home, you need to do it here."  Therefore, he had to write 3 reading responses before he could watch the movie (in addition to several other pieces of missing work).  I was very nice and helpful the whole time, but it took him forever because while I could give him examples, I could not think of the ideas for him.

I told him I was proud of how hard he was working. I apologized for getting frustrated earlier.  He said, "What?"  I asked, "Didn't you think I wasn't very nice during math?"  He looked confused and said, "No." 

Hm. Well, I still think I should do better next time.