Recruit It or Lose It!

Abstract

But it was different in Mr. Patterson's room. Jessica would only be on the third or fourth problem when first Clifton, then Gloria, and then two or three other students would call out, “Finished!” or, “I'm all done, Mr. Patterson.” That's when Jessica would usually stop working; she still had so many more problems left. “Jessica's always quiet and well behaved. She doesn't cause any trouble.” Fourth-grade teacher Mr. Patterson was talking with Ms. Marino, the special educator who works with Jessica. “She just never finishes her seatwork.” Ms. Marino was disappointed. For several weeks now she and Jessica had been working in the resource room on just that problem. Each day Ms. Marino would give Jessica several opportunities to see how many worksheet problems she could complete in 1 minute. Jessica would try to beat her score each time, and she and Ms. Marino marked each day's best total on a colorful chart. It was fun, and Jessica was learning to be a good worker in the resource room. She'd start her seatwork assignments immediately and keep working until she completed all the problems or items. Ms. Marino made a point of stopping at Jessica's desk from time to time to tell Jessica what a good worker she was.