Meet Karma M.

I find myself often-telling friends and family members about the more challenging students in my class. These students are continually at the forefront of my mind simply because they require more attention and energy. But today I’d like to talk about one of the students in my class who is perhaps one of the best-behaved students in Room 206. And yet, even so, Karma W. presents we with a different but, nonetheless, challenging problem. Karma does not talk to any adult at VOICE charter school.

The first week of school Karma came in to the classroom a shy little girl. As we went through the attendance that day, every student said, “here” when his or her name was called. When I got to Karma, however, I almost marked her absent because she said nothing. She didn’t even raise her hand that day. It was only because another student spoke for her informing me that she was in fact present that I marked her present that day. Of course, that day I made nothing of it and moved on to the next student.

But over the course of the last month, it has become increasingly clear that there is more than just shyness here. Karma is selectively mute around adults. For the first 2 weeks I never once heard Karma’s voice. She remained respectful and clearly was engaged in the class. Her reading and writing was at grade-level and her math was excellent. But anytime an adult was near her or focused their gaze on her she would close her mouth and refuse to speak. Interestingly enough she grew increasingly talkative with her peers. I even managed to get close enough on occasion to hear her giggling with a friend and chatter with her partner during reading pair-share. Recently I have even been able to communicate via “yes” or “no” head nods or thumb signals.

 I did some research by talking to Karma’s previous teachers. Apparently, she spoke to teachers until she got halfway through 1^st grade. But then she just stopped and has not spoken to adults since then. That is all the information I could really gather to help piece together this mystery, which is far from resolved. I am concerned that Karma’s inability to communicate with teachers will hinder her academic and social progress in the years to come. This week, I’m going to try a new strategy—writing notes back and forth with Karma. I feel like she is starting to build a certain level of comfort in the classroom and I would really like to harness this momentum to slowly start building a relationship with her. We’ll see how she responds this week, but I remain optimistic.