This student needs a lot of support. First of all, be patient and know that you will do your best for this child but that there are a lot of issues that you will need to get help with. I would get the school counselor involved to help with the social and emotional work. The counselor is trained to help students with peer relationships. I would also start the tier process and get the student in RTI (response to intervention) so you can get more eyes on the student. Document the interventions you implement. Also get assessment data to your EIP reading teacher and ask for support. Do some community building activities in the classroom and try to build some bonds between the students. Ask for a conference with the parent and try to get her involved in a positive way. It will be difficult but this student needs a caring and positive role model!! It could be you!

I agree with the previous solution. But, probably the most important and most difficult thing you can do for this student is to love them and give them positive reinforcement and praise for apporpriate behaviors. Be the best role model you can be, it looks like the student needs one!!

My first suggestion is to be very patient. These children are difficult to work with and you can become easily frustrated. As a teacher you cannot do much to change their life at home, but you can at school. Pull the student aside as often as possible, work with small things. Do not try to put them on a forth grade level, instead scaffold, build upon what they know. It will take time, but your student will start to catch up if you are patient enough to work with them.

Love the student as much as you can! And understand that the student does not choose to be this way, but is mimicking their parent.

One possible solution is to set up an incentive program for the student. Find out what he/ she enjoys and create a system to help them achieve this goal. I would start with one of the issues at hand first, maybe behavior. Come up with a plan and involve the student, try to keep it positive. If the student works toward or meets a goal you may see that over time he/ she will change their behavior (even if it is slightly). I used clips for my students and the ones with individual behavior plans have 6 clips, each with 5 minutes on the iPad after school. The number of clips on green at the end of the day determines the amount of time on the iPad. Although my students are younger they respond well to the system, especially knowing there is a physical reward at the end of the day.

As hard as it can be (believe me I have those kinds of students who drive me up the wall too), be there for them. Take time at recess or lunch to sit with the student and talk to him so he can see that you are also a friend. Also, find something that you can use as an incentive for him and create a type of reward chart (when he does x amount of homework, he gets that incentive). Just keep on working with the child. You could be the difference he needs in his life!

A possible solution would be to speak to the child and give the child the support he/she needs that is lacking at home. Bad home life translates to bad school life. Try a reward system with the student that is specific to this particular student, which will give he/she motivation to possibly do the right thing. It sounds as if this student is seeking attention whether it be good or bad attention. By not doing homework and not getting along with other students this student is getting a lot of attention although it is negative. Try encouraging the student and focusing on positive attention.

I would pair the student up with a "Big Brother", so someone can check in with him and discuss his life.

Try to talk to the child and let him know that you're there for him and understand what he's going through. That way he may look up to you a little and want to please you. Be his mentor and help him as much as possible, have weekly meetings to establish goals and go over the week. If none of this works, then get an administrator or guidance counselor involved because this issue is clearly more than can be handled by a single person. Come up with a plan together and address the child and their parent together - maybe it'll be a better idea for their child to continue their education somewhere else if simple rules and procedures can not be followed by him or his parent.

It seems there is always that "special friend" in the classroom and this student seems to be one of them. While they may be the toughest challenge, in regards to students, this just means that you will have to put a lot of time and energy in to and understand that this students needs that the most. They need a supporter, a teacher, a friend, and a parent. I would maybe try an incentive approach for him to get him started? Maybe pull him one-on-one and see if there is something going on in the home life? A lot of times, this acting out is a result of something going on in the home.