“Do you need help, Jasmine?”
The second grader’s big brown eyes flicked to Mr. Gonzalez’s face, then back to the blank paper on her desk. She shrugged.
Alex glanced around the classroom at the other students. He had asked them to write a few sentences about their favorite thing to do, making sure to include one of the vocabulary words from that week. Some were writing furiously, while others were studying the word of the day Alex had just added to the board. Still others, like Thomas, appeared to be watching something fascinating through the window. Jasmine sighed loudly.
“I dunno what to write.”
“Well, that’s okay. Just write anything you want. You could tell me about something that happened to you yesterday, or outside during recess. Or tell me a funny story. It doesn’t have to be about your favorite thing to do, that was just an idea to help you get started.”
Jasmine scrunched up her face for a few seconds and sighed again.
“I don’t kno-ow!”
“I’ve got an idea: Why don’t you start by writing down three things you do for fun. I’m going to go talk to Thomas, then if you still need help deciding what to write about, we’ll take a look at the ideas you came up with, okay?”
Jasmine nodded and Alex moved away as quickly as possible. He knew pressuring her more would only frustrate her, and judging from the extra syllable she threw into her last response, she was already frustrated enough.
As Alex tried to guide Thomas’s attention back to the task at hand, he thought about how far his kids had come since September. It was halfway through the year and he had seen some real progress. Of course, there were always issues. There were kids who acted out, refused to do their homework and struggled on tests. There were kids he would worry about until the last day, most of whom started out at an incredible disadvantage when it came to academics or social interaction, or both.
Jasmine was different. She had plenty of friends, she was sweet and funny, and when a subject caught her interest, she followed along well with the rest of the class. But it was difficult to get her interested in anything. Time and time again, when it came to the simple classroom work Alex would assign every day, Jasmine just didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t know if it had something to do with a lack of motivation or the way he presented the assignments, but he knew she was capable of much more.
But what could he do differently? There had to be some piece he was missing. Maybe if he could figure out more about what interested Jasmine, he could reach out to her more successfully. He hated to admit it, but he hadn’t been able to give her the attention she probably needed.
Alex decided to eat lunch in his classroom. It would give him a chance to read over the vocabulary assignment and prepare for their next lesson. He smiled at the ways his students had fit “friendship,” the word of the day, into their writing that morning.
Basball is fun. I go outside with my dad and he throws the ball and I give it back. My brother plays some times. but hes little and he cant throw good. Then we eat cus its dark. My favorit thing is probly basball I like it cus it’s fun. I like friendship.
And then there was Jasmine’s. Alex saw her hunching over her paper right before they turned them in, but he didn’t know what she had decided to write about. Despite how engaged she looked, she hadn’t come up with anything to write exactly. Still, she had turned something in, and that was a start. It was a picture. Actually, it was a really good picture. It was the faces of two girls smiling side by side. He could tell the one on the left was Jasmine, but he wasn’t sure who the other girl was. Under the picture she had scrawled one word: friendship.
This was what Jasmine cared about. She loved to draw. He should have seen it earlier. She had always had an easier time completing art assignments in class, and he had noticed that she was one of the better artists. Now he realized it was because she enjoyed it so much. Unfortunately, art was not exactly one of the main focuses in the classroom, and Alex had limited supplies and time to set aside for art lessons. But maybe he could be doing a little more.
Alex remembered how much he loved to color and draw when he was in school, and it was a shame he wasn’t able to do more of it in his classroom. But maybe he could come up with some ways to include art in the lessons he had already planned, at least for Jasmine, to help inspire and motivate her to complete more of her in-class assignments. It might be just the thing to help her gain confidence in her ability to be successful in the classroom. And that’s just what he did during their free reading time later that day.
“Jasmine? I loved your drawing,” Alex said, placing the drawing in front of Jasmine during their reading time later that day.
Jasmine looked up in surprise.
“I didn’t write anything,” she blurted out apologetically.
“You like to draw, don’t you?”
Jasmine nodded shyly as she picked up the picture.
“Well, I like seeing your drawings. That’s why I was hoping you could tell me all about this one, and then maybe you could finish it for me.”
Alex pulled out a box of colored pencils from behind his back and put them on top of Jasmine’s desk. Her face brightened and she began to talk, more than she had in a long time. And when Alex encouraged her to write down what she had described to him, she actually did.
It was difficult, and it wasn’t always possible, but Alex knew it wasn’t enough to expect his students to be engaged in his lessons; he had to show a personal interest in them as well. And in that moment, he felt proud to be a teacher. He had identified the issue and they had taken a huge step forward. But as proud as he was of himself, it could never match the look he saw on Jasmine’s face.