Thread: Extended Response

Start small and work up.

Give her small assignments and mark them - with lots of praise. Wroking up to the big final assignment.
When she feels comfortable wih you and knows you aren't judging HER just her writing she will do alot better.

I also find that stickers are a great motivator - even for my year 13 students. They complained when I forgot to give them a sticker for getting higher than achieved level. Hee hee. (Mind you they WERE sparkly Whinnie the Pooh ones...)

I give out post it notes haha. its a little funny.. but the kids like it.. She's starting to open up to me and she had me read a poem of her's and they seem a little sad or depressed... what do you think i should do about that... just let it go?

I have done much research on that subject and been there myself, and in response to the poem,

You shouldn't show her that you're worried, but show her that you care a lot about what happens to your students and that you're not just there because of the money you're being paid, there's a reason you became a teacher.
Don't be worried too much.. 1 in 5 people have gone through some sort of childhood depression, but that may not be the case. Keep listening and tell her that if she ever wants to talk, you're there- but don't make it sound like she should talk to you, just if she wants to, you're there.
Don't act on it (yet). A lot of times people will misunderstand a bad day's poem or an angry poem and cause a lot of harm by trying to force a psychologist on them, which is traumatizing to any student and their parents. If the poems worsen, you can still let it go unless you feel that they are sufficient to show that she is in some sort of danger to herself or others, and if not a physical danger, that there is enough there in the poems to assume that she is very sad more of the time than not. Then you should inform your school psychologist, who knows how to deal with these types of things. Just tell the school psychologist (if it gets to that point) what leads you to bring it up (the poems and their nature).

Insecurity is a common factor IN depressed people, and that may be part of it. Just keep an eye out and make sure she knows that you care, but don't force it on her. If she doesn't come to you for help by then and you think that it would benefit, you can tell your school psychologist based on the above.

Also know that EVERYONE in their lives could benefit from a psychologist at least one time or another, so don't act any differently towards her because of this. I had a teacher once who knew that I had to cope with stress related depression and she wouldn't stop staring at me like I was diseased- not in pity, in fear. Don't do that..