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The other thing is that, regardless of his issues, you can't cut him any breaks you aren't giving everyone else, barring a diagnosed disorder that's in an IEP. Accommodations and modifications can't be selective handed out for students who aren't part of a special ed program. Maybe he does have anxiety problems. Maybe he's just a dick. Maybe he's a dick who has anxiety problems. It really doesn't matter. The point is, if you're prepared to offer him work-arounds and alternatives for getting the assignment done (whether he's taking them or not, and the fact that he's not taking you up on any of them speaks volumes to me), you really ethically have to make those options available to every other student, as well. You don't know how many students you may have grappling with the same anxiety, but just trucking on out of sheer force of will because they don't know there are any other options, ostensibly, but not getting special treatment because you're not aware.....
What I bolded is what a lot (all) of the posters who think making the kid present is unreasonable. If he's not identified (and he may very well have "issues" but I tend to think not) and is offered accommodations then every other kid in the class has to be offered those same accommodationswhether they ask for them or not.
Going back to my thinking not. Remember this is a specialty class so the typical kid in it is going to want to be in it and be more focused for it. The fact that the kid has been offered options not available to the rest of the class and has rejected them would indicate that the kid just doesn't want to do the assignment for whatever reason.
Also, a class that small (8) lives on interaction. We're at the end of the school year and now the kid has a "problem" talking in front of the other 7?
Also, a class that small (8) lives on interaction. We're at the end of the school year and now the kid has a "problem" talking in front of the other 7?
This is what makes me think you don't 'get' it. It doesn't matter how long the class has been together, how well they know each other. What matters is that it's a group. More than 2 or 3 people and it's no longer intimate and it's going to cause some people to freeze up.
(and I really don't see an issue with giving the entire class alternative ways of presenting the information, again this isn't a speech class)
It is quite different to undergo a behavior that makes you feel uncomfortable as part of exposure-response therapy that is being supervised or part of a treatment plan than the attitude of "just do it." People suffering from clinically diagnosed anxiety issues should only do something like this under the guidance of a therapist or psychiatrist. We just don't know if this kid has a mental health illness or not. And yes, anxiety is biological that manifests itself behaviorally, but caused by anatomical dysfunctions.
In my area, a 45 minute period is set aside one day a week, every single week for parent engagement. This is the time when parents can drop in without an appointment to talk to a teacher or the teacher can request the parent to make an in-person or phone appointment. Parents are encouraged to work with teachers. If a parent is not informed about a situation by the teacher, then the teacher could be held accountable for disciplinary action. If a parent complains, "why didn't you tell me," you can bet that teacher would be in trouble. On the other hand, if a teacher informs a parent (and keeps documentation to prove it) and the parent ignores it, then the teacher would not be in trouble.
This is what makes me think you don't 'get' it. It doesn't matter how long the class has been together, how well they know each other. What matters is that it's a group. More than 2 or 3 people and it's no longer intimate and it's going to cause some people to freeze up.
(and I really don't see an issue with giving the entire class alternative ways of presenting the information, again this isn't a speech class)
Do you teach? Didn't think so. Of course you don't see a "problem".
Using alternative methods wasn't an original option. The kid was given options, which no one else was, for your "alternative" methods and still refused.
You're the one who doesn't "get" it even though you've complained in the past about students not being accountable..
What I bolded is what a lot (all) of the posters who think making the kid present is unreasonable. If he's not identified (and he may very well have "issues" but I tend to think not) and is offered accommodations then every other kid in the class has to be offered those same accommodationswhether they ask for them or not.
Going back to my thinking not. Remember this is a specialty class so the typical kid in it is going to want to be in it and be more focused for it. The fact that the kid has been offered options not available to the rest of the class and has rejected them would indicate that the kid just doesn't want to do the assignment for whatever reason.
Also, a class that small (8) lives on interaction. We're at the end of the school year and now the kid has a "problem" talking in front of the other 7?
Is this a speciality class? I thought it was German 2, the second year of a foreign language program, usually a requirement for 4 year colleges. It's small because German is no longer a popular foreign language to study in high school. If the kid already took and passed German 1, then he is not going to want to start over again with another foreign language. Perhaps, this kid chose German over the more popular Spanish because he is of German extraction or someone in his family speaks it so he had some sort of affinity with the language. He may not have been thinking of the small class size or the need to give class presentations when he selected this foreign language to meet his foreign language requirements for graduation or college admission. Did this kid have to give a presentation in class when he took German I?
This is what makes me think you don't 'get' it. It doesn't matter how long the class has been together, how well they know each other. What matters is that it's a group. More than 2 or 3 people and it's no longer intimate and it's going to cause some people to freeze up.
(and I really don't see an issue with giving the entire class alternative ways of presenting the information, again this isn't a speech class)
And you're right, this isn't a Speech class. Using that logic then in History that kid doesn't have to write because it's not English. In English he doesn't have to read The Charge of the Light Brigade because it's not History class. In Science there's no math because it's not Math class or reading because it's not English.
When I was in 5th grade, I was required to present in front of the class. No one believed me when I said I couldn't do it - until I threw up on the kid sitting in front of me because I was so wracked with fear. I bet he wished I hadn't been forced to stand up.
I never made another presentation in my academic career. I survived just fine. Your student's reaction to your alternatives is not atypical of people with a certain fear - would you rather him break down in tears? Would that make you understand better?
If you want kids to present, make it extra credit. No kid should be penalized for a teacher's ignorance. You yourself said he was a good student.
Also, the ability to chat to someone one-on-one, as you said he does in class, has nothing to do with anxiety.
I can't agree.
I'm also the product of public education in a state that REQUIRED (probably still does, I don't live or teach there anymore) a class in public speaking to graduate. Everyone (barring special education students with modifications in their IEPs, particularly nonverbal students, obviously) had to take it, nonnegotiable.
There is no compelling reason to make class presentations extra credit, versus standard, assignments.
Some people have a high level of anxiety when it comes to public speaking. Some have a high level of anxiety about all kinds of potential assignments. If everything that potentially causes high levels of anxiety in students were presented as optional, there's a lot that wouldn't get learned. In fact, it pretty much guarantees that I wouldn't have taken a high school level or higher math class, ever, given the high incidence of what I now recognize to be panic attacks surfacing around attending my freshman algebra class. Yes, stomach pains, yes, nausea, yes, on occasion, throwing up from the nausea caused by my heart racing.
Assigning presentations to students is in no way an indicator of "instructor ignorance."
Do you teach? Didn't think so. Of course you don't see a "problem".
Using alternative methods wasn't an original option. The kid was given options, which no one else was, for your "alternative" methods and still refused.
You're the one who doesn't "get" it even though you've complained in the past about students not being accountable..
I am not referring to just this one specific student. Yes, this student refused an alternative so there is obviously something else going on with him. In general however it doesn't change the fact that the attitude that people should just suck it up and deal with it is wrong.
I don't have to be a teacher to tell you that this can cause more harm than good. How about the fact that I'm coming from the other side of the argument as someone who has suffered from being forced to do public speaking. Or is this meant to be a one sided argument with everyone telling the OP that they all agree with him?
Yes, I'm all for students (and their parents) being accountable. I also realize that sometimes teachers go off on tangents that are more about control than teaching subject matter. If a student can show that they have mastered what you are trying to teach isn't that the important thing, and not making them prove that in some manner that you have decided arbitrarily is the only acceptable manner?
The purpose of speaking with the parents is to gather information. Is this student just being lazy or does he/she have some sort of genuine anxiety issue? Has he done this in other classes. Is the child genuinely phobic? If this is a behavioral issue, then it will be necessary for the parents to be on board with assisting this kid. And if the kids is just being lazy, I would want to know that my kid is about to flunk because of his laziness. In my area, the classes are relatively small. Teachers are expected to have regular communication with the parents, even at the high school level. The communities are also small so everyone knows everyone else and teachers are likely to run into parents outside of school.
Getting information from parents is great, obviously.
That said, if you call parents, they confirm that, "Yes, Johnny has anxiety around public speaking. Please exempt him from doing any assignments where he must present to the class, this is very traumatizing to him," it's still not something you can ethically do unless you make opting out something that every single other student in the class may choose to do, as well. Otherwise, you're letting parents call in special favors and holding different students to different standards unfairly.
If there is a documented behavioral issue that qualifies the student for an IEP, that's obviously another story, altogether. But you can't just go by "This causes my child stress, so he should be exempted."
Remember this is a specialty class so the typical kid in it is going to want to be in it and be more focused for it. The fact that the kid has been offered options not available to the rest of the class and has rejected them would indicate that the kid just doesn't want to do the assignment for whatever reason.
This reminds me of another thing...foreign language is an elective.
Band is an elective. Performing is part and parcel of taking band. If you are in band, but the idea of getting onstage and performing makes you uneasy, you certainly aren't required to take band. Nobody takes band, and assumes that they'll be able to opt out of the performance component of the class, simply because it makes them anxious. Some schools require participation in solo and ensemble contest, as well, which is pretty darned analogous to a public speaking assignment, only in front of a panel of judges. It stands to reason that in a foreign language elective, you are going to be asked to speak. For this particular assignment, the speaking isn't even in a foreign language, it's an English language presentation, which should in theory make the assignment much easier and less stressful than it could otherwise be.
I haven't ever experienced a foreign language class (took Spanish, myself), where practice wasn't a large part of the class, whether through paired conversations that the rest of class observed, role plays and enactments, giving presentations in the language of the class, reciting literature in that language, etc. So any student enrolling in a foreign language class should be well aware that speaking is an integral part of the coursework, and determine if it fits their skill set and comfortability level or not.
I also agree with you that the student's response to the alternates offered speaks strongly to this not really being a public speaking anxiety issue, but an "I don't feel like doing this assignment" issue.
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