I wish I had that magic wand for those argumentative students. Those students that think they are smarter then the teacher and challenge everything. Ugh! It is just exhausting and takes so much teaching time away from the other students. I have a fourth grader and a fifth grader that is going to kill me this year with all their questioning and challenging of everything.
Today actually I had the entire class rewrite their lab sheet from yesterday to fix all capitalization, punctuation and the format that I insisted that all the students write their hypothesis in but for some reason they forgot or felt they really did not have to. I went over that we ALL need to take pride in what we turn in and EVERYONE had to rewrite the lab sheet, even if they felt nothing was wrong. This particular student raised their hand and said did he have to rewrite since he only had a few mistakes that he could erase? OMG! I lost it! Now remember that I had this student last year and he constantly did the same thing. I went off asking if he was the king of my class? I also said that I am the queen of that classroom and no one is to argue with me. That the only person who can is another adult pointing to my very big male co-teacher (By the way he is awesome but that is for another post.). Then I repeated that everyone had to rewrite and he better get busy. I am always amazed that some children think they can question, argue and think the rules do not pertain to them. I was raised VERY differently and I barely said boo and that was only when I was forced to answer. Any suggestions I am up for trying anything. Please!
I have another student who always has to tell his way he did a math problem even if most of the time it is not correct. Plus if I purposely do not call on him because of the confusion he instills with his classmates then he yells out. Today I told him that he cannot put his opinion in on every answer that there is others in this class. Of course I get huffing and puffing. GRRRRRR! I do have something I might use with the entire class that may work. Each child gets two Bingo chips. For every question or comment they have to give me a chip and when they are done they cannot ask question or comment. Then the only students that can ask a question is the students with chips left. Hmmmmmmm I may try this next week. Keep your fingers crossed. Sorry this was a long ranting post. If you have any suggestions please pass them on. This is a short week for me since I had to take off tomorrow to take my daughter to a doctor's appointment.
Happy Friday Everyone,
Thanks for your post. Your class sounds like mine this week. It is good to have some place where we can all vent.
ReplyDeleteI have had a few kids like that (thankfully it has been one at a time!) What I have found works for me is the phrase "I win." When I realize that a child is challenging my authority in the classroom I have a private conversation with him (normally while the other kids are in lunch) We talk for a few quick min. I remind that child that they can have a fun year with me or a miserable year with me, but I will always win. They can either be obedient and positive or disobedient and negative-the choice is up to them, but I will always win and they will have to deal with the consequences of their choices. I ask them how they want it to be, a fun year or an awful year.
ReplyDeleteAfter that talk-when they first start to be argumentative again all I do is I look at them and say "I win." That normally makes them stop and assess themselves and stop. If they don't stop you do need to be prepared to give them some type of consequence (so they know that you really do win.)
Just a suggestion of something that has really worked for me.
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You could try the phrase I use on my own kids when they try to argue with me.... "Already answered". Thats it. Ive learned that getting into an arguing match with a child just makes them stronger and us weak. This simple statement usually just defuses any continuing backtalk.
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