Student Interviews

Interview with a struggling student:

Do you enjoy school?  No (responds quickly, he’s very sure of his answer). 

Why not?:  Because it’s boring, you have to do math.  Math is kind of hard. 

What kind of student are you?  A good one.  (seems hesitant)

What makes you a good student?  I don’t get recharges, and I help my teachers. 

What do you do for fun outside of school?  Play football or kickball

How would your classmates describe you? (takes a long time to answer, sounds somewhat upset) I’m not sure. 

Who are you friends with? Scott

What do you and your friends do together?  Play basketball, kickball, or football

What is a good memory you have about school?  P.E., Library, Music, Lunch.  In music you get to play instruments.  (when asked for a specific memory, the student had trouble understanding the question)

What is a bad memory you have about school?  I get bored.  At football, someone wouldn’t let me kick the ball and we yelled at each other.  I got in trouble. 

Describe a “good” teacher:  A good teacher has Fun Friday and lets you play on First In Math. 

Describe a favorite teacher you’ve had:  (current teacher) because she lets me be a helper.  (last year’s teacher) because he let us bring in toy cars to have  race. 

Did you measure the distance and stuff like that?  Yeah

What is one thing you wish your teacher this year knew about you?  That I really like computers and want to use them more.  I like to play Pop Trouble. 

During the school day, the student in this interview is commonly removed from the classroom to participate in special education services for mathematics and language arts.  When in the classroom, he rarely is able to participate in the activity or lesson that the class is working on, and usually he is off task and disengaged from the setting.  He is given modified assignments when in the classroom, and this modification has seemed to create a self fulfilling prophecy where he now only expects himself to be capable of that amount.  Even when the activity is appropriate for his skill level, he will insist that “he only does 5 questions.”   This stigma has obviously ingrained itself into his brain, and unfortunately made him doubt himself even in situations where he could be successful.  He struggles to fit in socially as well as academically and as reflected in the interview question, he does not have many friends.  

Interview with a high performing student:

Do you enjoy school?  Yes, it’s fun to learn.  For me at least. 

What kind of student are you?  A good student.  I like helping people to get better. 

What do you for fun outside of school?  Play board games.  I like monopoly

How would your classmates describe you?  (without hesitation)  That I’m a good student, everyone went nuts in class when they found out I was student of the month for 3^rd graders. 

Who are you friends with?  Kalieigh, Sarah, Abby, Tylee, Kenley, (wants to continue, I stop her.  Listing friends is much easier for her than the first student interviewed)

What do you and your friends do together?  Play tag, or play on the spider (a climbing piece on the playground)

Tell me a good memory you have about school:  Being student of the month

A bad one?  Getting yelled at by some of my teachers. 

Describe a “good” teacher/tell me about your favorite teacher:  A good teacher teaches me a lot about spelling, writing, math, listening.  I like all of the teachers that I’ve had.

What is one thing you wish your current teacher knew about you?   That I’m shy in front of a big group of people, or when I meet someone new. 

This student is very social and also very intelligent.  She is being referred to be evaluated and possible placed into a gifted program.  Despite this, she is not always on task in the classroom.  She often works ahead, or on something else entirely, while the class is reading a story or completing a worksheet.  Usually, she is able to finish this other task and return to the place the class is at as if she hadn’t been doing something else.  She will complete a worksheet, for example, while the class listens to a story being read aloud.  When it is time to answer questions about the story, she can do so.  Often, she seems uninterested in the current level of learning, possibly because it is too basic for her. 

The range of abilities within the classroom can be vast, as illustrated by these two students.  Compensating for this and engaging all students in meaningful learning is therefore an extremely challenging task.  One that, inevitably, I will not be successful with all of the time.  Speaking from experience, my second lesson was yesterday which was a webquest I had designed.  I felt that all students in the class would be able to participate regardless of ability level because the sites used were kid friendly and had minimal text.  I was wrong.  The students in the classroom with less computer literacy struggled greatly with just navigating through the links, let alone finding the answers to my question in the text.  Overall, the experience caused them (and me) anxiety and frustration.  Unfortunately, it is hard to ensure that your lessons will be both engaging and accessible.  Learning to do this will surely be a continuous journey.