You are a first-year teacher in a sixth grade classroom. Most of your students are very good, but two or three of the young people are really becoming problems, though for different reasons. One student is so passive that the other students are beginning to make fun of her. She seems to fear working with others and is almost a perfectionist in the work she does submit. The other students see her as a loner and they are beginning to call her names, though not to her face. Two other students who are doing the name-calling are almost combative with everything you suggest. They argue with you, often without cause, and are leading a small group of "follower" students in lots of covert, negative behaviors that are really beginning to compromise your teaching.

These few passive and aggressive students are eroding the quality of the classroom environment and your principal has asked you to write down the characteristics of the students' behaviors and to make some specific suggestions for what to do in order to respond to the problems.

1		Write down what you think some of the characteristics of passive and aggressive students might be. Then outline some specific suggestions for what you would do to handle the situation with your "problem" students. Need a Hint?