Student Contributor: J.Moore
This tool is used when a student needs to be able to still be in class but does better when they can only see the teacher. It is helpful because it allows the student to feel like they are at their own table group but if need be, they can see will work with a group.
To use the private table, you need a tumbling mat placed between a student and the student’s desk that is next to them. It is important that the student knows that this is not a punishment but a tool to help themselves and their classmates be more successful in the classroom. An important element of this tool is that you make sure that wherever you set up the student, they are in a direct line of sight for you and that you are in their direct line of sight. This is a tool that my mentor teacher and I use in our classroom. This used to be a temporary fix that we were using to help a student focus better, but they then decided that they actually liked being able to have their “own” desk group to themselves because they noticed they could focus better and if they were having a rough week, they did not have to distract everyone else.
This tool relates to the phase of Supportive because this tool is being used during class time by not only the student but also the teacher to help the student be able to focus better within the classroom. This tool also relates to the other two phases because it helps prevent any behavioral issues and it is related to corrective because it is correcting an issue that was occurring quite regularly within the classroom. The theories of Influence that this tool fits are, Teacher-directed, then collaborative, and finally student-directed. The reason for this is because this started out as a teacher-directed tool because the teacher is using it to correct and prevent behaviors. After a few weeks, the student and the teacher start to collaborate on when to use the tool. Finally, it is a student-directed tool at least in my classroom because the student has chosen to keep the pad up because he has noticed that he does better when he can not see the other students and he has noticed that the other students do well when they can not see him.
More Information –
Tool Source: Sara Holwegner
