Has anyone ever experienced this...

I have one young boy in my class who is diagnosed as MR. It is not severe, but enough where he can not recieve special ed help. I noticed from the beginning that he really doesn't participate well with his partners. If I ask the students to teach each other the rules now, he can do it because it has become so familiar. However if I use the teach-ok on new information, he freezes up and ends up throwing a fit. I realized that he's really feeling uncomfortable in these situations because it is extra challenging for him and it's leading to behavior issues. Once he gets upset it ruins his entire day!

So I have now moved him where he does not have a partner to teach with (his desk is still in a group of other students). When I can, I'll try to run over to his desk and help him repeat the info when we do the teach-ok, but I feel bad that this also prevents me from moving around the room to check for understanding.

Has anyone ever experienced this? Ideally he needs a very patient partner who could replace me, but he is so self conscious. I've got to work on it...

Many students hit the ground running with teach ok but some, especially the shy or embarassed, hold out longer. First I give them time to warm up to it by practicing general responses using sentence frames (which I have posted) My ELL's and lower kids often use my frames and fill in the blanks or have their partner help them fill in the blanks (orally). After a few weeks of warming up I get a gist of who needs to be strategically partnered. I tend to pair my shy students with someone who likes to talk but is not the most overbearing. You can use the "teach your sockless handpuppet" for those who are without a partner for the day, or designate this particular student as the mirror for a couple of weeks so he can mirror the gestures while becomming familiar with the new routine. My suggestion is to change partners frequently. The more exposure they have to others the less likely they are to end up always being the talker, or talked to, or partnered with someone that is to far off of their level for longer than they would like (or you would like).

I like the idea of the sentence frames. Thank you!