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Joshua'S Story

Jana Hletko
Andrews High School
Andrews, SC

When Joshua first told me he was Dawn's brother, I thought he meant Duane. I didn't think Duane had a younger brother, but I dismissed it from my mind. Even the last name didn't put it together for me. After all, I purposely do not compare siblings. And, since I do not live in Conway, I don't know the families and relationships in the community.

Dawn had been my star last year on our newspaper staff. She was self-motivated and motivating for others. She single-handedly planned our winter center spread, began a journalism portfolio, and determined that she would be a journalist when she grows up. She wrote the best lead sentence of the year and won state awards in two categories, bringing glory to the Whittemore Park Press. Yes, I missed Dawn in my classroom. If I could have cloned her, I would have.

No wonder that I made no connection between my prize pupil and Joshua. He was uninterested, arrogant, and obnoxious. He did not usually bring his book to class and never did any outside work. He would seldom participate in class discussions. In spite of all this, I knew he had some ability because of his performance on class work. Joshua would earn an A or B on some things completed in class or dealing with review. He could answer most questions if they required past knowledge. Consequently, at the end of the first nine weeks, he was managing to pass—but just barely. The zeroes in my grade book were a major problem.

The second and most of the third nine-week grading periods passed with Joshua going downhill. I had several short phone conversations with one of his parents, but there was no improvement. At that point, Joshua was in imminent danger of failing for the year. I still had not connected him with his sister, though I certainly should have.

Imagine my surprise when I asked for a personal conference, and Dawn's mother walked in! I never admitted my confusion, even when she went on and on about how it made such a difference to Joshua that I had not once compared him to Dawn. Though he was failing, he still appreciated that I treated him on his own merits. During the conversation, his mother and I reviewed what we both knew. She was convinced that she should just let him be retained for the year. She thought that might show him that he is responsible for his actions. Somehow, based on my scant reading on the subject of retention, I did manage to convince her that would be a bad idea. Then, we had to figure out what we could do so he would pass on his own.

Fortunately, the last two projects I had planned for the year were exactly right for Joshua. With his mother knowing the due dates and expectations, I was quite sure Joshua could at least pass my class. What I didn't know was the profound effect the two projects would have on him.

The first was a book project. Students in my composition classes wrote and illustrated books for kindergarten and second graders at South Conway Elementary. The elementary students filled out questionnaires that had been developed by my middle school authors, who then tailored the stories to each child. The students bound the books with help from parent volunteers and delivered the books to the elementary school with a special reading session. I told the students right up front there would be 100% compliance with the assignment. If nothing else, I appealed to their sensitivities and sensibilities, telling them they could not have their assigned student not receive a book on the delivery day. Therefore, all deadlines would have to be met.

The second was the portfolio project. Since grades depended only on completion of each step of the process, everyone could receive a very good grade for the last nine weeks.

Joshua loved the book project from beginning to end. As he received positive comments on his story—a bizarre tale of green and red peppers falling from the sky—he worked harder and harder. Each day, he showed up in class with his most recent version typed and sketched out. He was almost hooked.

We then began to intersperse our portfolio project, going through the year's writings and looking beyond our English classroom. Once again, I noticed Joshua pouring over present pieces of writing and artifacts he was bringing from home. He showed me a writing award he won in fourth grade, a science project completed in sixth grade, and his latest report card—all F's.

As he worked on his "blurbs," explaining his choices, he wrote, "My writing award shows I can write. I'm sorry I haven't done my work this year. My science report shows I can figure things out. My report card shows I haven't done very good this year, but now I understand things better. I can do better."

The day we were to deliver the books to South Conway Elementary was an exciting one. First of all, seventh graders love to miss their classes. Even though we were to be gone only two hours, they were all very excited. Of course, they were also very anxious to meet their book recipients.

Not having done this project before, I was quite nervous that I had forgotten something. What if we got there and I had misplaced some questionnaire and therefore we had no book for that little child? What were we going to do with my student if the younger child was absent? Who would read to the younger children for the five of my students who were absent? I had the procedure all figured out, but would it work?

So, when Joshua passed a folded piece of paper to me, I was irritated. I had asked him for some overdue homework three days in a row. This was surely not the time to be handing it in. Couldn't he see how tense I was? I almost said, "Not now, Joshua."

Luckily, I accepted the piece of paper and out of habit took a quick look at it. His lovely note said:

Since the begining of the year I have been writing. I have done better and better. At the begining of the year I only wrote what I had to. Now im writing this. This is to Mrs. Hletko. She is my 7th grade Reading and Language Arts Teacher. She is not just a Teacher but a friend. She has helped me understand I don't have to work unless I want to. I made 4 F's on my report card. I brought them up to S's on my interim. I brought them up because I began to have faith in my teacher Mrs. Hletko.

I have faith that Joshua will be back on track in the fall. He is attending summer school to finish the math class he failed, but I'm pretty sure that was his last failure. As a matter of fact, I have so much faith that I have accepted him as a member of the newspaper staff for next year. Who knows? Maybe next year I will recognize him as Dawn's brother.