Ben was working on his legos when I arrived. I asked what he was working on and he said, “I don’t know.” (In a rude tone). I said, “Ok Ben.” And got my things out ready for class. He said, “What? What do you want me to tell you?” I told him to put his things away and that we needed to do some work. In between problems he grabbed his Lego piece and said, “I just started working on this. But I’m not sure what I’m creating.” I stopped and said, “Ben, how come when I asked you what that was originally you were rude in your response instead of saying what you just said?” I told him when he responds with one word quick answers it comes off very rude and disrespectful. He apologized and said he comes off rude no matter what he responds. I said not necessarily. It’s ok to not feel like explaining something, or not feel like talking, but there’s also a way to say that without setting the tone the way you did today. He seemed to understand.
I was able to get him to do several problems together. We are still on the same content, properties of exponents, because I want Ben to feel comfortable with this before moving on. The section we’re at in the book assumes Ben has some prerequisite skills that he does not, so before we do the actual Algebra 1 content, Ben needs to have all the properties of exponents down pat.