Question: What do you do with students who resist doing written work?

Student in question is a 5th grader who seems to have the
necessary skills for assignments. He has a history of  
resisting work but in past years was more compliant
with redirection. He especially resists written tasks.

IDEAS:

**Understand that students may be learning much from

just listening to what is going on.  Sometimes we stress over

completion of work as teachers.  

**Consider the purpose of the task.  If it is to demonstrate learning,

how can the student demonstrate through a different modality?

**If parents are cooperative, make an agreement that the student

can skip two assignments at school and take those home to complete.  

During those times, the student can opt out quietly

but can only do this twice in a day.  Have a folder for the opt out assignments.  

**Make an agreement with a student that completing a certain part of

an assignment correctly and thoroughly buys his way out of the rest.  

This can be done by circling 3-5 key problems and telling him that

doing those are the most important.  He should be proving to you

that he knows how to do the work.  They must be done thoroughly

or he will need to do another.

**Funny story about one way this was handled-- Mrs. S had a student

years ago in her 3rd grade class.  She made an agreement with a boy

(who was allergic to work) and his mom that he would be a “watcher”.  

The conversation that morning went something like this:

Mrs. S: “I’ve been noticing that you don’t like to do school work,

and I’ve done some research.  I learned that some kids learn by doing

and some learn by watching.  I’m thinking you are a watcher.  

Would you like to be a watcher?”  He agreed so she showed him that

he no longer had a desk or books.  He had a chair only.  He was thrilled

as the morning progressed, but when they went out for recess and was

told to stand by her to “WATCH”, he was not as happy.  PE- yes, he watched.  

Then about an hour before lunch, she called him over and told him

she hadn’t really thought this through.  How was he going to get

nourishment by just watching others have lunch? Hmmmm.

Perhaps this watching wasn’t such a good idea. She assured him that

she would think about it more.  He came to her a few minutes later

and asked if he could be a doer instead of a watcher.  She gave him

some work from the morning to complete to show he was a doer,

and he went to lunch.  The struggle did not vanish but got much better

from that way forward…. AND as a successful adult, he remembers this day

and laughs about it now.

**If a student does not have automatic skills in math, they may be feeling

unsure about their independent work.  Having a way to be checked frequently,

such as after every problem, can move them forward. I knew one teacher

who had students do their independent math work one problem at a time,

to include tests.  Students would work one problem, explanations and all,

and hold up their hand.  An adult would then put a star for independent attempt,

and check for accuracy.  If the problem was correct, she put a star, if not she put a

circle around the item number.  Then she gave an extra prompt as to what needed

fixing (she had already indicated they missed it for scoring purposes) and they

could fix it or not and move on.  Working  in math was not an issue in her class

because everyone felt confident that they could please her.