I don't get it!

In one of my very able groups, there is a girl who thinks she is not so able. Short and Sweet declared to the class at the start of the year that she 'shouldn't be here', and had thought she was going to move down a set. She's small and sparky and cheerful, and nuts about badminton. After a few lessons I found that she does have some difficulties, but her background knowledge is pretty good and she is perfectly capable of the work we are doing - given enough time and encouragement. And that's a lot of encouragement.

 

Every lesson, I'd get 'This is way too hard for me!', 'Miss, I don't get it' and 'I give up!' loudly and repeatedly. Sat at the front of the class, she's throw her hands in the air at the slightest difficulty and start complaining. If I replied that I'd be with her as soon as I'd finished writing on the board/explaining/talking to someone else, she'd start telling the class about how stupid she was, and she was the worst at maths in the whole world. I got so sick of it.

 

One week, she didn't do her homework and forgot to turn up to a lunchtime detention for that, so I had her in an after school detention. As she sat there doing some work, I thought about why she was annoying me so much. I'd just been teaching a bottom set who are older than her, who had been struggling with basic concepts but persevering and building their confidence slowly, despite real difficulties. Short and Sweet, in contrast, had higher than average maths ability, even though she was near the bottom of her set. She didn't know how lucky she was.

 

I found the last test I had given the bottom set and took it over to her. We talked about why she thought she was bad at maths, and where she was in her year group. I asked her what she thought 'bad at maths' really looked like, and showed her the test paper - pointing her to where the student (whom I'd made anonymous) had tried to write the numbers from 1 to 20, but had gone wrong.

 

Short and Sweet was gobsmacked, especially when I told her that this kid hadn't given up, but was still positive and hard working. If this kid hadn't given up, I said, Short and Sweet had no right to give up. How could she throw in the towel and declare herself stupid if kids like this were still trying? How much would they give to have her maths ability? She looked like she was going to cry, so I toned it down a bit and explained how frustrated I felt seeing her give up when I knew she had the ability, and hearing her comments which to me were completely unacceptable - when she said she was stupid, what was she saying about the kids in the sets below her? I told her we were done and she ran out of the room.

 

She hasn't been perfect since, but I think there's been a basic change in attitude. She doesn't panic so much, or shout so loundly that she doesn't understand. Perhaps its the realisation that it's normal to make mistakes and find things hard, even if most people in her set don't. It raises a major and continuing problem, though: how can I push the very brightest, who have been bored by too easy work, and challenge them to push themselves, without making students like Short and Sweet, sat in the same classroom, feel inadequate? I know the answer involves more differentiation, where the ablest are given no method or the bare bones of one, and Short and Sweet gets a scaffolded method, but in a competitive atmosphere even that can dampen self esteem. I'm worried that her positivity is only temporary, and I want to make it last.