Sometimes He Can't Say What He Really Means

Example: He said "I can't", regarding a timed short division test (there's 100 division problems all on one page and students have 7 minutes to do them all).

This was strange, since I've watched him do long division during homework, pretty easily. We initially thought that he meant he could not do division... so we tried to go over again how to do division... he blocked us out...did not listen.. got upset... said "I can't" again. Then he just wouldn't - was belligerent - gave up - refused to do it - called himself stupid - cried.

Later, we talked about it again... he said in frustration "I can do it, I just can't do it THAT WAY!" What he meant was that he could not look at one page full of the facts and do it just by looking... he has to write them down. We tried it this way - with a cover sheet on which he wrote the problem and worked it out - and went zipping through them with no problem. Now, with a cover sheet, he makes 100s on these tests.

Lesson: I have to be patient and remember that Coleman really is the type of kid wants desperately to please; he is as upset as anyone when "he can't" because his brain doesn't "work right"; sometimes "I can't" really means "I can't do it that way" and what is really needed is another way of doing it :-)