Students misbehave for a number of reasons. Have you ever wondered why your student is not complying? There are a number of reasons that it could be, and every student is different, but have you ever considered that maybe, just MAYBE, he’s masking his inefficiencies?
What would you do, if you were dropped in an advanced foreign language class and you didn’t speak a single word of the language? How would you respond when you were being
called on to translate complex sentences and then scolded for your inability to do so?
How would you hide your embarrassment of your lack of skills? Your bad grades? Your frustration that you didn’t feel like the teacher was helping you because nothing made sense?
Many of your students feel the same way.
They can’t do the math work in your class, because they never mastered the previous skills required to do the work. So they’re supposed to be doing long division, but they still don’t know their times tables.
Instead of being frustrated with them, I recommend trying to serve them, by meeting them where they are. Instead of continuing to mandate that the student learns long division, first teach them to master their times tables. Then, with that skill under their belt, have them learn how to multiply double digit numbers. And continue moving through the skills until they master long division.
You will find that in doing so, the student is less likely to be a discipline issue, and more likely to become successful as their confidence grows. That student will also begin to enjoy class, math, school, and even you.