After being in the classroom with the same sets of students for several months, you may feel as though you have a fairly good grasp on those students' personalities, abilities, and needs in the classroom. By the end of March, I had been working with a gifted and talented 9th grade Biology class for 7 months. I was confident that I knew what to expect from each student. Despite this class being at the GT level, there was a student in the class who had spent most of the previous 7 months being minimally engaged with the class. His test scores were lower than average, he wouldn't turn in completed classwork, and he rarely would participate in class discussions without being called on directly.
However, at the end of March, we were getting into the genetics unit which was proving to be popular with many of the students, including this particular one. Suddenly, this student was not only completing all of his work, but he was doing so correctly and was often the first one done. He always had answers for me when I asked questions to the class and even began asking his own questions to further understand the material. During one class period, he finished his work so early, that I gave him an additional assignment to complete, which he did excitedly and without complaint.
There are a lot of factors that can affect a student's performance in the classroom. Many of those factors occur outside of the classroom and are out of the teacher's control. This student made me realize that I should never make assumptions about student behavior, regardless of how long I have known them. If I always have high expectations for every student, there is always room for them to grow and improve. There is also a huge benefit to finding what interests students and allowing them the freedom to explore those interests.
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