What to do about Stephanie?

[Dumb]

I'm in Honduras right now, teaching English and Social Studies to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade classes. So far, the students are great, though their writing skills are far below what I had hoped for. (I'd expected that English writing would be an issue, but it seems that these students' Spanish teachers hadn't even taught how to compose a paragraph).

So, I've been going over how to outline an essay, how to compose a thesis statement, how to construct an introduction paragraph, and so on. Since it's a good crop of students, their past instructors notwithstanding, I've been very pleased with the overall progress; the students really do seem to be getting the hang of constructing a basic essay.

The only concern I have now is with a 9th grade student, Stephanie. She's neither a bad kid nor a bad student - quite the contrary, in fact. The only problem is that, while she was born in Honduras, she spent the last decade or more in Louisiana and has only lived in Honduras since June. While her writing reads a little roughly, her English is mechanically flawless and she has already learned all the essay-writing skills that I'm having to teach her classmates.

Unsurprisingly, Stephanie gets a little bored. While she does all her work, answers questions, turns in everything and is totally non-disruptive, I see her falling asleep, or sitting with her head on the desk, and I don't blame her one bit. The question, though, is...what could I do to help her? What can I do so that my instruction will be of some value to her?

[jake williams]

Ask her. If she's non-disruptive and she simply doesn't have anything to learn about the skills you need to be teaching everyone else, ask her what she'd like to be doing with her time. As long as she's not bothering anyone else, and she's learning or already knows what she needs to know, and she's handing in her assignments, and your ass is covered - ask her if there's anything else she'd be interested in doing with her time.

[Dumb]

She said that she'd talk with friends back home in Louisiana to see what they're learning this year in English. I just don't know how fruitful that inquiry would be, especially since I don't remember any teacher ever telling me in 9th grade, "Oh, hey, this is everything we're going to teach you for the entire year!" I could see finding what her friends have learned in the last couple weeks, but as far as planning a couple weeks or even a month ahead...

[Ostrinski]

Introduce her to reading maybe?

[Rusty Shackleford]

introduce her to some nobel prize winning books that are short and to the point. or maybe some honduran classics. i dont know if Jose Marti(Cuban) would be appropriate but who knows. how about the stranger by camus?

maybe giving her a special assignment on a book and have her write a simple essay on it? if she is relatively advanced then it might help. reading may help her writing.

im probably giving terrible advice though.

[Lobotomy]

When I was in early high school I think I read some John Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe and George Orwell. Maybe recommend some of that to her.

[~Spectre]

9th grade is usually Of Mice and Men, Romeo & Juliet, 1984 etc. Some of the greek myths are usually thrown in.

[#FF0000]

I think short stories would be better than books (with the exception of Shakespeare's plays or books as short as The Stranger).

Maybe she could help other students?