Thursday I took a gig in a special ed class that was labeled as "moderate to severe" in the substitute teacher booking app. I knew what that meant, as I have covered those classes in the past. Many times.
Fifth period. The instructional assistant (IA) asked me to help DeMarcus with his packet work. (The IAs know the kiddos. I don't. I follow the IAs' lead.) I was warned I might need to write things out in highlighter for DeMarcus to trace as he didn't write well.
It turned out I didn't need the highlighter. The first page had DeMarcus choosing which of two items was more expensive. All he had to do was circle. Then he had to count boxes. He could write his numbers.
The third sheet he was to do was a coloring thing. There were various items on it, like cereal, chicken, grapes, and butter. He was to color fruits and vegetables green, dairy yellow, meat red, and grains brown.
Okay, easy enough.
We got the colors. I prompted him with the thing. "Are grapes a fruit or vegetable or are they a grain?" (When I gave him four choices, he said yes to all of them.) Then he'd color the thing.
It went pretty well until we got to the cereal. He figured out it was a grain. I told him to color it brown.
The look on his face...
He did not want to color it brown. (I knew what he was going to compare the color to. He did not say it, but his face told me what he would have said if he was going to say it.)
Well, we had a box of crayons. What would it hurt to color it something else?
So, I gave DeMarcus the choice. What color would he rather use than brown? He chose blue.
Works for me.
I left a comment in the note to the teacher that we substituted colors (so she wouldn't think that DeMarcus was just randomly using blue). Because, seriously, it wasn't worth getting into the argument.
Maybe he is familiar with blue corn chips? Or, just likes blue. Nice to offer the crayons. He could have picked all sorts of "ordinary" grain colors. At least you knew he knew, he just didn't want to do it the "right" way. I guess all the brownish and tans are rather the color he associated them with!
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could have pushed for a beige or something. It was about identification, anyway, not so much about the colors.
DeleteHe got the idea. Maybe he wanted blueberry flavored cereal.
ReplyDeletePerhaps.
DeleteGlad that he was able to complete the assignment, color issue aside. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit tricky for him. But that's why I was there to help.
DeleteMust not be a fan of Cocoa Puffs.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely did good in my opinion. :)
ReplyDeleteI rolled with it.
DeleteIt was good you gave him the choice. Brown is an ugly color, and really lots of grains aren't brown.
ReplyDeleteI do like brown. But, I can understand aversions to various colors. He didn't want to color the grapes green or milk yellow either, but the worksheet just had them using four colors.
DeleteTo me, not many cereals are brown, anyway. Yes, not worth the battle. I'm not an educator anyway but if he was resistant to yellow milk who can blame him - most milk isn't yellow and maybe he likes chocolate milk? Many grapes aren't green (which some call white grapes, just to make it more confusing). Kind of a silly exercise, in my view, but I know you have to go with it.
ReplyDeleteHe wanted to color the grapes purple, which was logical in my opinion. And yellow milk? Ew. But, that was the exercise. It was just about being able to identify things. I think it was aimed at 2nd graders.
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