Not a Group Assignment

Monday. Middle school English. (Ms. A had something like four seventh grade classes and two eighth grade classes.)

Ms. A had this sign on her desk:

And I was kind of feeling it with them.

Third period. The first thing the students were to do was to put their backpacks in the back of the room. About a third of them didn't. (There was a huge space for their backpacks. Hooks. Shelves. Clearly this was a daily expectation. That they didn't tells me they were on sub behavior.) 

Then I went to take roll, and a couple girls were not in their assigned seats. 

Delani and Nellie had chosen seats next to each other. When it was clear what I was doing, Nellie quietly removed herself back to her assigned seat. Delani on the other hand was not budging even though I asked her repeatedly to move. She was going to "in just a minute". Sigh.

It was a "work day", meaning they had the period to make up any work they needed to complete. The end of the quarter was on Friday, so this was the last chance they'd have to pull up their grades before report cards went home.

Most of them were "completely caught up". As I had no way to check, I trusted them. I let them play games on their computers. 

Delani came up to me. (This was after she finally was back in her assigned seat.) She said she had a history assignment to complete. That was fine with me.

But, Nellie had the same history teacher as her, and Delani "had to" work with Nellie on the assignment. (She did not say they had the same class. She said they had the same teacher.)

Um, what? 

Delani didn't say it was a group assignment. She didn't say she needed help (which I was willing to provide). It didn't even sound like anything more complex than a regular homework assignment.

I told Delani she could work on the assignment on her own.

"What the f***?" she said.

Seriously, she said that.

Having prevented the seat change (which is what she wanted), the class remained relatively calm. Delani? Did no work. 

"I thought you had a history assignment," I said.

The concept of her doing it on her own escaped her. She wouldn't even consider it.

I... I just don't understand. Why couldn't she do it on her own? 

I imagine they would have just copied each other. Or talked about something non-school related. So, really, I was doing them a favor. Of course, they didn't see it that way.

I wrote a whole paragraph about Delani in my note to the teacher. I wonder if she's like this all the time. (One of these days, I'm sure I'll find out.)