Congratulations! You’ve signed up for one of Level Up Village’s incredible courses; you’ve been matched up with an international partner; your collaborating educator abroad seems just as excited as you; the introductory videos are in and your class is excited. The classroom buzzes with chatter as your students animatedly share their hot takes on the first round of asynchronous recordings and how they’ll reply.
Everyone is ready to rock and roll….well, almost everyone.
Buckle up, fellow educator, because you’re about to have to deal with a student who…(brace yourself)…doesn’t want to cooperate.
They’re Just Not That Into It
For a multitude of reasons–or excuses–this student is just not having it. Maybe they’ve “done something like this before,” and so the novelty doesn’t impact them. Or maybe they’ve “already been to that country” and so they’re an expert on all the things. It could be that they already had to read The Giver, or I Am Malala, in a different class. Perhaps they’re shy and refuse to appear on video. They could even be embarrassed about some aspect of their home life.
For whatever reason, they privately (or publicly) have expressed their lack of interest; and it ranges from slight annoyance to downright refusal. Like it or love it, you’re going to have to figure out what to do. So, let’s consider how to navigate this situation.
Vive la Résistance!
First off, it could be worthwhile to normalize their unwillingness. Yes, despite your own conscience, admitting that this asynchronous, weeks-long foray into one’s community, sustainable water, or music, or cooking, or whatever, might actually not float someone’s boat, may actually be the first step forward. Talking to strangers? Sharing personal opinions? Being on camera? There’s actually a lot not to like about participating in a virtual exchange, if you think about it from your student’s POV.
Naming the discomfort and, to whatever degree is natural, acknowledging the challenges that come with the LUV Course will help ease some of the tension with the student. A conversation that validates the uneasiness of any of these factors can be a great way to ingratiate yourself with the unwilling pupil, and lessen the tension that might arise from their apprehension.
Right or Wrong?
Our teaching lingo can often create, for a student, false dichotomies. Think, for example, about the connotation with participation, in such classroom expressions as “participation grade.” A student could easily read this word to mean “the bare minimum I have to do to get credit.” What if, for this virtual exchange, you’re instead giving everyone a contribution grade? Well, now it looks like something that’s willingly given, instead of demanded!
Think, too, about how to frame your students’ weekly videos: is there a wrong and a right answer to certain prompts? Or is there some value in qualitatively assessing what answers were real? Especially when it comes to a student who is unwilling, asking them to fake interest could really backfire and be seen as ungenuine.
Even renaming the LUV virtual exchange to a class project could help leverage the need for contribution. Explain to the reticent student that this isn’t just about the individual’s set of videos and responses: you’re creating a tapestry of replies that help your international partner experience your community. The mosaic of culture that’s formed from everyone’s individual offerings is really the point of your LUV course, and explaining this could help the pupil in question understand that they’re a part of something bigger than just their own experience.
Who’s Driving This Thing??
Sometimes, discomfort can really just emanate from a lack of control over one’s circumstances. This could easily account for a large part of what makes school unpleasant for students who don’t love to follow rules and conform. However, knowing this can be a source of power for us educators, because we have the distinguished position, in the capacity of learning facilitator, to help differentiate the approaches for our myriad pupils.
Sure, the Level Up Village course maps everything out about the virtual exchange, from secure platform soup to video prompt nuts; but that doesn’t mean you–or your students–can’t customize things to your liking. What if you told your disinclined pupil that, if they come up with a better way to fulfill that week’s project, that you’d consider it? What if you added a choice element to the prompt–either three different questions to answer, or perhaps propose three locations where to shoot their video? Choice is huge for young learners, because it allows them to exercise their autonomy, and therefore increases their buy-in.
Give in to “Peer Power”
Don’t forget, as willfully as your unwinnable pupil might be depicting the problem as their own, you are still teaching a class and can always utilize the group–and its dynamics–to your advantage. Consider, for example, celebrating small wins, by mentioning student’s work, or even (with their permission) showing their videos to the rest of their classmates for a look at what worked in their videos, or what you particularly liked about them. Even a tech malfunction or a blooper could, so long as it’s not embarrassing to anyone, turn into a teachable moment and a room full of laughter. The joyous kind, not that nightmare middle school soundtrack that haunts you.
In addition, you may want to consider other methods of using the group dynamic to alleviate the troubles of the one or two. Pairing up pupils for a week could be an awesome way to build some dynamic in the LUV course, and allow group members to steer clear of the parts of the asynchronous video exchange that they dislike. In addition, peer review could be a good motivator, since it now puts the dependability and feedback into your students’ hands, and so they might see showing up for each other as something more timely and deserving of their attention.
In the End, It’s Not About Compliance—It’s About Connection
At the heart of every Level Up Village course is the idea that we’re building bridges—between students, between cultures, between perspectives. And sometimes, building a bridge takes a little extra scaffolding.
The disengaged student isn’t your enemy; they’re just not on board yet. With a little empathy, a dash of flexibility, and a strong sense of purpose, you can usually find a way to bring them into the fold. Maybe they never become your class MVP, but if they show up a little more honestly, a little more courageously, and a little more connected to the world by the end of it? That’s a win.
And who knows? The “problem child” of Week One might just end up being the student who surprises you most by the end.
