ANN
BIANCHETTI
Diary #30
Every
Class Has Its Personality
It is interesting to me how different classes function in vastly different dynamics. Usually it's two or three students in a class that have such a strong social influence that the rest of the students conceptualize themselves around those students. They develop their school identities in relation to their closeness, acceptance or rejection of the popular or more vocal students in the class.
Often it's these popular students who set the tone in the classroom because the majority of the kids want to be like these popular ones so they act like them in class or exhibit behaviors that they believe will be deemed "cool," funny or cute by the popular ones, thereby gaining some sort of acceptance. Then there are other students who don't care about the popular ones but nevertheless see the social reality of the class. They don't challenge those with high social influence, nor do they seek out their approval. But they don't speak up either. They sort of process the class in an inward style. These are the kids that teachers will say are"smart, but quiet," or "she doesn't say much in class, I really don't know her." These are the kids who are usually the loneliest in their individuality. Middle school is tough for those who follow a different drummer, for those who won't or can't conform to the popular kids' mandate of what normal is.Then there are the disengaged students who don't do much work and don't respond to teacher caring or prompting. These are the students who are always the last ones to class and the first to bolt out the door when the bell rings. These students seem impervious to low grades, parental anger or school discipline. They calmly say, day after day, "I don't have my homework" and do not take the extra help offered by the teacher.
These disengaged students usually are not dealing with learning disability issues but rather personality issues. They sometimes have the lowest grades and yet they can be most intelligent, offering insightful comments in class and grasping socials studies concepts quickly. They just choose to avoid work, to avoid what will give them a good grade.
Each of
my classes has a personality
Along these lines, the classes/grades in my school have taken on very
specific personalities based on the strongest, most popular kids in the
class. (Remember that I teach grades 5-8, so I see a wide spectrum.)
The fifth
grade has become the "bad" class. This class has about four popular and
confident kids in it, who consistently talk in class, talk back to teachers,
talk during assemblies, just talk talk talk. The other kids in the class
choose to participate in this talking because they want to be in the "in"
crowd, they want that great feeling of acceptance and fitting in and being
cool. It's worth a teacher getting mad at you for talking in class if
you get to sit with the popular kids at lunch. As a result, the class
has taken on the personality of "bad."
The sixth grade has the distinction of having two labels. One is the "gossipy,
mean" class. Again, it's about four popular kids who happen to love to
gossip and put others down. Every week this class has someone in tears
due to a rumor about him or her, or being cut out of the popular group,
or having mean things said to her. Their homeroom teacher has worked with
them over and over on kindness lessons but she still despairs. "They are
so mean and cutthroat with each other."
The other
label for this class is "slow and flighty." This sixth grade has a large
number of students who are extremely slow. They are routinely late to
class (one child is always ten to fifteen minutes late) and unprepared
once they get there. Each teacher has learned to say, before she starts
teaching, "Ok, who has their textbook? Notebook? Pencil? Who needs to
go back to their locker?" The homeroom teacher must go around the school
at the end of each day to pick up backpacks, instrument cases, textbooks
and notebooks left all over the place by her class. We all know to make
double the number of handouts we need because, inevitably, many in that
class will lose theirs.
The seventh grade is known as the "brainy and good" class. This group
of students are all working above grade level (I am using a high school
level textbook with them, the seventh grade one was way too easy). They
are the class that the teachers know can be counted on. All the teachers
love having them and look forward to teaching them since we can use high
level thinking activities and we know they will actively and joyfully
participate in the lesson. They are, indeed, a teacher's dream class.
Many times
when other classes would say, "can we have free time," the seventh grade
says, "keep going, keep teaching." They are all well-behaved as well.
It's the seventh grade class who teachers turn to when we need tour guides
for incoming students or need students to run an errand. It's not surprising,
then, that the student council is also largely seventh graders. Just as
in the other grades, in this class it's four or five popular kids who
set the tone. These popular kids love to learn, do all their homework
and are smart and well-behaved. They establish the class climate.
The eighth grade is the "party" class. They will find any excuse to have
a party; they have often planned "cafeteria parties" on their own.
They like to fool around and be silly; often, teaching them can be difficult.
Once one or two students say something goofy or outrageous (which can
be counted on to happen in every class) the class is lost in laughter
and it's very hard to bring them back to learning. As can be expected,
it's the popular kids in this grade who are silly, loud and goofy —
often falling on the floor in laughter or saying crazy things during a
lesson.
Reflecting on labels
So, what
can a teacher do? Labels like this have two sides to them. On the one
hand they can be destructive if the label or climate is a negative one
(like the fifth and sixth grades) or one that takes away from learning
(like the eighth grade). Teachers and students also fall into the self-fulfilling
prophecy trap. Once a class gets a label, teachers tend to view them through
that lens. Once a teacher has in her mind that a class is bad, is it any
wonder that she looks for that behavior and treats them like she expects
them to be bad? A class, in that case, would have an almost impossible
time of breaking out of the pattern. As they progress through middle school
their class personality grows with them and takes on a life of its own.
On the other hand, labels can help a teacher reach a class or give her
starting points for lessons. In the case of a bad class (our fifth grade),
the teacher could incorporate character lessons into her plans or model
appropriate behavior in class. The class could, together, write a mission
statement such as "by the end of the next school year we will be the ____
class" and fill in the blank with any positive adjective. This gives the
class something positive and affirming to work toward while also building
team problem solving skills together. With the teacher now viewing them
through this new lens, of what they can become, their behavior will start
to change; and what a wonderful feeling of accomplishment they will have
once they reach their goal.
So, we must be wary of labels and of how they can hurt the potential of particular students and classes. But we must also be willing to embrace labels and class personalities in order to meet the kids where they are and set them up to succeed. If we try to force a class to learn in only one way, or in ways that don't fit their group identity, we will be setting them up to fail.
