All Seeing Eyes

While there are many reasons to get to know students, one is to find out their ability. On the one hand, I was lucky that I taught an entire class of struggling readers, because I knew what the score was when it came to their abilities. Other content areas may not be so lucky, with one student being the valedictorian and another reading on a third grade level. Even within my class I had students of varying ability, and just because I had two students reading at a sixth grade level, it didn’t mean they each had the same reading strengths and weaknesses.It's especially hard for first year teachers to juggle content, their new job, and helping all the students with their various abilities, but it does get easier as the year progresses. Like my regular eyes, I still don't have 20/20 vision in my all-seeing-teacher-eyes, but things are coming more in to focus.

On the first day of school there should be a lot of “getting to know you stuff,” which should provide some insight into their abilities. First, make sure this student has been tested or has an IEP, otherwise it might be your job to bring it to someone’s attention. There was a bout two months of school left before a student came to me and admitted he might need a vision test because the words were jumping around on the page. That’s another reason to build a relationship with students, if they don’t trust the teacher, they won’t reveal that kind of information. It’s easy to spot a kid that squints at the board, but it’s not easy to spot what’s going on inside their gray matter.

If the student has an IEP, it needs to be followed, not just because it will help the student; it’s also the law. A lot of times the information in the IEP will be what the student needs to be successful, such as: modified tests, assignments or read-alouds. Many students are embarrassed about their mods, especially ones that separate them from the heard, but they’re in place for a reason, and many of those students really needed those read alouds or those seating assignments. Just because that student can’t read very well, doesn’t mean they’re not capable of functioning like a scientist or have interesting experiences to bring to the class.

The more that student is utilized in class and the more comfortable they are means they won’t act up as much and are more likely to do the work. It might mean you have to grade them differently or assign them less, but all students deserve success. When making group for that student, place them with a student that has higher abilities, remember they’re going to learn more from their peers than they are from you jawing.