Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Motivation Issue, Attention Deficit, or Something Else? Last year I had a 7th grade ELL student who struggled to pass my language arts class. He would sometimes fall asleep in class, gaze off into space, struggle with task initiation and meeting deadlines, and simply keeping pace with other students. He was not disrespectful at all, but he appeared to want to be anywhere else but class. Since he had been living in the US for 3 years and conversationally seemed to understand my conversations, I assumed something other than language was at play. First, was I correct in this assumption? Second, what do you think was going on with this student? Finally, what could I have done to improve his overall achievement in my class? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I think your assumption was fair, however, maybe scheduling a meeting with the parents to further discuss the student's distractions would've also been helpful. His lack of motivation could be due to the lack of inclusion of things that involved his culture or his interests.