Last week I observed a funny situation in the class. One of my boys who doesn't necessarily engage with writing and struggles to stay motivated in class for long periods was acting in his usual manner. It was Monday and we had begun our writing of a narrative which was going to take two lessons to complete. He was sitting there day dreaming with hands on his chin and chatting happily with his friends from time to time, doing very little work. In fact very little is an understatement.
Onto day two, Tuesday. The lesson begins as normal but this time he has fingers on his keyboard and I can hear the occasional tap. His friends are talking away like usual and then suddenly he gets up and moves to a quiet spot by himself without a word being said to his buddies. Now his head is down and there are a lot of fast little taps coming from his direction.
Five minutes later one of his friends comes wandering over and starts talking and mucking around. He tries to look interested in what his friend is saying but he then notices me watching and stands up and moves again to another quiet spot. Five minutes later his friends turn up again and he looks at me and says to them leave me alone you guys are annoying me.
From then on the same steps in the dance kept happening except I decided to keep cutting in. His friends are very active and as soon as my back was turned would try and sneak over. Basically I spent an hour running interference for him. His friends were for the most part on task, but they just like to talk about it a lot.
So this all made me think about the difference between kids who need support and the comfort of their friends and those that just need some space and time to create on their own. How do I cater for both parties? Something for me to ponder.
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