We’ve all had an Alfredo. The smart kid who needs to be Alpha Dog. He is usually bright and well-liked. He can be personable and charming. But, when he walks into your classroom, his only goal is to disrupt the flow and show that HE is boss. In my experience, Alfredo has always been a male, however, I’ve had many conversations with teachers who have an Alfreda (a female).
Over the years, I have approached my Alfredos differently: initially, I would scold them, send them to the office, or assign detention (this was also when I was teaching using traditional textbook methods). Those methods were somewhat effective in neutralizing Alfredo, but they created a negative feeling in the classroom that I did not like.
The Alpha Dogs
I had a student a few years ago who was in a classroom FULL of Alpha Dogs and he was bound and determined that HE was going to be IT. Worse yet, his mom and I were friends. Whew, that was a battle! This was just after I had changed to CI/TPRS methods. I wasn’t always sure of what I was doing, and it showed. He needed me to step up and BE THE BOSS. So, I did. It wasn’t fun, but I did it. I brought all the textbooks back just for that class. And for three days we did boring grammar lessons and we had three vocab quizzes in a row. The entire class was furious at Alfredo, because they all knew he was the reason they were no longer having fun in class. And I was furious that the entire class had to learn grammar and not acquire language. It went against everything I now knew to be true about L2 language acquisition.
On the third day, we had a showdown.
Alfredo didn’t like this kind of learning. It wasn’t fun. It was BORING. If you ever find yourself in this position, you have to be prepared to not back down. He started to act up that day, and I not-so-calmly explained the facts of life. I told him in front of his peers that I wasn’t going to bother to send him to the office, nor was I going to give him a detention. I was going to do far worse (for him)… I was going to call his mom and dad, my friends, and schedule a meeting. Right then. From my cell phone. I wasn’t going to email or text. I was going to call. I had my finger on the send button… and he apologized. I also made him apologize to his classmates. That was much harder than apologizing to me.
If you find yourself in this situation, you can’t back down. Your actions must follow your words. Fortunately, I work in a community whose number one priority is getting their kids to a four-year college. Also fortunately for me, this particular Alfredo knew that he was going to be in much more trouble from mom and dad than from our administration. That definitely worked in my favor.
Starting over.
The next day, I spoke to Alfredo in the hallway. I re-introduced myself and told him that it was such a pleasure to meet him. He really thought I was off my rocker, but I was willing to be silly to build a little trust. I welcomed him to class and told him that today was a new day and we were starting our relationship from scratch. I will not say that I never had a problem with this Alfredo again, but, our relationship was much better from that day forward.
Is that the only answer?
The following school year, I had a different Alfredo. This kid was very accustomed to being sent to the hallway, the office, and getting detention. I did not have a relationship with his parents – I didn’t even know them. I had observed other teachers get mad and “be tough” with no success. So, I decided that I was going to try a different approach.
What did Alfredo NEED?
I thought long and hard about what this particular Alfredo needed. He was very smart and I had observed in other classrooms that yelling or reprimanding him only fueled his fire. He was funny and liked to be the center of attention. And, I discovered, he liked to have a little power.
So, I decided to give him some power.
First, I moved him to the front of the class because he was ‘so smart and I liked his jokes.’ I openly laughed when he said something clever (always in English) and commented on how funny that was. I told him many times that only smart people are funny and since he was really funny, he MUST be really smart. He liked being told in front of the entire class that I thought he was smart. He started coming to class with a smile and even participated occassionally.
Another tactic I tried with Alfredo was to give him jobs. He had never had the ‘note taker’ job before. So, one day I handed him the class notes book and asked him to pay special attention because Susy was absent and was going to need good notes to copy when she returned. That worked really well! He was more focused that week than he had been ever in my class. (Class notes are assigned for a week at a time so that I don’t have to do it every day). I tried other jobs, too, but the one that kept him busy was the class notes.
This Alfredo caught on to what I was doing and even had a conversation with me one day about how our relationship had changed. I gave him all the credit and told him that one day he walked into class and decided he was going to like me. (When in fact it was me who had done that!) He agreed and said he didn’t know why that happened, but it did. We have a very good relationship now and he even greets me in the halls with a wave and an, ‘!Hola, Señora!’
What is your Alfredo story? How did you win yours over? Please share in the comments or email me: SenoraJotaJota.gmail.com
