Dear Ms. Wormwood,
After reviewing the comics of your classroom and looking at some motivations theories, we have some strategies that we believe will help you manage Calvin's behavior and help him succeed in school.
Calvin seems to struggle to grasp WHY he is learning specific content, Mrs. Wormwood should strive to instruct the class in a manner that provides Calvin, as well as his classmates, with real-world examples. In addition to providing examples, Mrs. Wormwood could encororporate physical and engaging tasks before a lesson that would give Calvin the opportunity to gain interest in the material before diving into the content. (Interest Theory) Mrs. Wormwood could also start the class with daily goals and end the class with reflection questions so that Calvin has a better understanding of the reasoning behind the content (Self Regulated Theory)
Calvin also struggles with finding a sense of belonging in the classroom, Mrs. Wormwood could promote a positive classroom community by providing the class with group work rather than individual assessments. (Achievement Goal Theory) Allowing her students to do group work would give Calvin a better sense of purpose within a small group, this could help his self efficacy and allow Calvin to find a place in the classroom. (Self Determination Theory) She could also allow students to have more creative freedom within the projects to encourage Calvin to engage with the content in his own way. If Mrs. Wormwood allowed him to engage with different aspects of the content that interested him, she could continue to steer him in the right direction once that initial interest is formed. In addition to encouraging his exploration, she shouldn't disregard his "random" questions. She is seen doing this in many comic strips and he quicky is disconnected from the content once he is shut down, these questions might be his way of connecting to the lesson and Mrs. Wormwood should use his curiosity to encourage more content exploration. (Expectancy Theory)
Furthermore, Mrs. Wormwood, in terms of assessing Calvin, I would advise you to provide a variety of structured choices for Calvin to choose from to demonstrate his learning. Assessment options could be, but are not limited to, Calvin giving a presentation, acting out a content driven skit, creating an art collage that captures the key ideas, or building something that exemplifies his learning. According to Interest Theory, such a variety of creative options would trigger Calvin's situational interest and his continued work on the assessment would maintain his interest on the topic that the assessment is assessing. Then the assessment would hopefully spark individual interest in Calvin, of which could foster greater interest within class and exemplary performance on the assessment and future assessments of choice. Likewise, according to Self-Determination Theory, by having an assessment that is relevant to what Calvin wants to do, he would see the use and purpose in what he is doing and therefore be more inclined to put forth more effort. However, I would advise that while Calvin's choice assessments options can be fun and engaging, they should also be structured with a specific rubric that is given to him. I would recommend having a complete and clearly outlined rubric to grade Calvin's and his peers’ assessments on. According to Expectancy Belief Theory, by having structure within Calvin’s assessment, in this case, a rubric, Calvin will have guidance towards what is expected of his assessment to receive a good grade.
Moreover, I would highly recommend organizing your assessments in a way that has your students initially set goals, revise goals throughout the assessment, and then reflect on the goals once your students have completed the assessment. According to Self-Regulated Learning, this implementation of goals will aid your students in regulating, evaluating and improving upon their practices throughout their assessments, hence yielding better results in the long run. Finally, Mrs. Wormwood, I would highly recommend that you keep Calvin's and his peers’ assessment grades private. Speaking to the values of Achievement Goal Theory, by not allowing assessment grades to be public information in the classroom, Calvin and his peers are not encouraged to see each other as adversaries battling for the best grade, hence allowing them to retain personal and private competency and more confidence as they complete future assessments.
Ms. Wormwood, the strongest classroom management starts with a positive relationship with Calvin. Self-Determination Theory says students need to feel a sense of belonging, so greeting him individually and getting to know his interests and life outside of school will help build the connection that makes him want to cooperate. Clear routines and expectations are also extremely important. Posting a daily schedule and creating classroom rules together gives Calvin the structure he needs, and Achievement Goal Theory’s TARGET framework explains that smooth transitions and clear consequences make class time more productive. It is important to build him up too. Expectancy Beliefs research shows that a teacher’s confidence in a student strengthens their self-efficacy, so praise Calvin’s strategies and choices rather than just effort or results, and do it privately when you can. Pair this with achievable, realistic goals, and using tools like a short daily goal that you check in on together follows the Self-Regulated learning cycle of planning, monitoring, and reflecting. Finally, value Calvin as an individual learner. Offering a few limited choices in how he completes projects, connecting content to his interests, and avoiding comparison with classmates ensures every student is treated equitably and has a path to success.
When interacting with Calvin, it is important to use expectancy theory to help motivate him. You should help him believe that his effort can lead to success and that his hard work will be rewarded. When handing back a test or reviewing homework, give him positive feedback and point out what he did well. If he makes mistakes, explain how he can improve instead of making him feel discouraged.
You can also set clear expectations and encourage him to try his best. For example, you could say, “I can see you worked hard on this. If you keep practicing and asking questions, you can improve.” By showing patience, offering support, and recognizing his progress, you can help Calvin feel more confident and motivated to learn.
The most imporatant thing for you and Calvin's parents is to be on the same page with each other. That way Calvin can recieve consistancy and repition to build structure in his daily routine. One thing that would be helpful is either in email or in an in person meeting, set up a couple of goals to have Calvin try to complete. Make sure that Calvin is involved in these meetings so that way he has buy in from his autonomy of goals but also make sure that the goals he sets for himself are mastery goals. What this means is that he is not comparing himself to anybody and rather is doing reflections on these goals in a manageble time frame set up and then re-setting goals based on how his previous goals went.
With this Calvin mostly shows no self determination to complete his work in school, which I am sure you know by now, but there are several solutions to help him with this:
One option, you could come up with a plan with his parents to connect it to his interests, like dinosaurs, when involving all the subjects. With math, connect it to counting dinosaur bones and with reading let him choose his own dinosaur books. Obviously this is not feasible all the time, but when it is let him in order to develop that sense of self-autonomy and love of reading in which he can carry over into other topics. If both you and Calvin's parents can connect to his interests then it is that reinforcement that the material is actually connected to what Calvin is interested in.
Another option is to create some external motivation for Calvin and create a system with his parents so it is consistant at both places. This could look something like a star chart to reward him for doing his classwork/homework. Using the same system in both places will allow him to start gaining motivation to work on school. Another way we can use the start chart is to keep track of his emotions and behaviors in order to track them and reflect on them. This will encompass a way in which Calvin can start learning motivation and accountability for his behaviors. The reflection is vital so that he can think about his previous expirences and learn from them in botht the classroom and the home.
With this, it is also important to celebrate Calvin and his wins! Encouragement is so vital to develop a students sense of confidence and trust with that adult that you and Calvin's parents need to show Calvin that you see the hard work he is doing in school. While he may not have a lot of moments, there are definitely moments where Calvin is doing amazing in school and both you and his parents need to act on those moments. Doing this will improve Calvin's self-confidence in order to give him the belief that he can do the work and change the expectancy of his cababilities.
Hope this helped! Please reach out again if you need support or clarification.
Wishing you the best,
Cody, Jayna, Aiden, Hayden, and Sarahi