5 Smart Ways to Respond to Student Work Refusal [Episode 227]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 227 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:13
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:28
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:36
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are sharing practical strategies for handling student work refusal, and we have a teacher approved tip for creating a simple prevention checklist you can use during lesson planning.

Heidi 0:50
Let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily, what’s our suggestion for this week?

Emily 0:57
This week try the Choice to Skip strategy. So when you’re giving an assignment with multiple problems or questions, tell your students that they can choose one to skip. You might say something like, everyone needs to do problems five and eight, but you can choose one of the other problems to skip.

Heidi 1:12
We know that this sounds counterintuitive, but giving kids permission to skip something often makes them way more willing to tackle the rest.

Emily 1:20
I know, it’s such a good strategy. So if you like this idea or anything else we share here on the podcast, we would appreciate it so much if you would take a second and give us a five star rating and review in your podcast app.

Heidi 1:31
Alright, let’s talk about one of those classroom moments that can make or break your day. That is when a student just will not work.

Emily 1:41
Yeah, we all know how it goes. You’ve taught a great lesson, given clear directions, and most kids are happily working away. But there’s that one student, or, you know, maybe a few, that are sitting there with their arms crossed, scribbling on their paper or finding every possible way to avoid the task.

Heidi 1:59
As a teacher, this is so triggering, it feels personal like they are provoking us on purpose. And I’m not fully convinced that they’re not.

Emily 2:09
Right. But if you only remember one thing from today’s episode, we want you to remember this, work refusal is communication.

Heidi 2:17
And even if it feels like what they’re communicating is defiance, I promise that it is much more than that. These kids are telling us something, and it’s our job, as the grown up, unfortunately, to figure out what that something is.

Emily 2:32
And that does not mean that it is not frustrating, but that does mean there’s a lot we can do about it. And let’s start with the single most effective way to deal with work refusal, and that is to prevent it from starting in the first place. That is basically our behavior management mantra. What can we do to stop it before it starts?

Heidi 2:49
And with work refusal, that really comes down to this. Are your lessons clear, engaging, and broken down in a way that supports student success?

Emily 2:58
And we promise this can be much simpler than it may sound. It just means asking yourself, am I giving students enough opportunities to do the work with me before I expect them to do it on their own? The more you build that in, the less likely you are to hit a wall of refusal when it’s time for independent practice.

Heidi 3:15
Now this doesn’t mean that you have to hand out a worksheet mid lesson for your students to work on. There are lots of quick and easy ways to get students thinking and doing while you’re teaching, without having to get out paper and pencil.

Emily 3:28
If you want lots of examples, go back and check out episode 161 where we talked about how to add active responses to any lesson using choral response, signals, signs, writing, and technology.

Heidi 3:41
Now, hopefully this single step of preparing engaging lessons magically solves all of your work refusal problems before they start.

Emily 3:49
Yeah, please, fingers crossed.

Heidi 3:51
And to help you with that task, at the end of this episode, we have a quick checklist that we’ll share that you can use to evaluate any lesson before you teach it.

Emily 4:01
Okay, but let’s be honest, even the best, most engaging lesson isn’t going to prevent every instance of work refusal. Sometimes what worked great yesterday may totally flop today.

Heidi 4:11
So let’s get you set up with a toolbox for what to do when, despite your best efforts, work refusal shows up anyway. The first tool is to understand what not to do.

Emily 4:22
Yeah, we want to avoid the “don’ts” that can take a rough moment and turn it into a full scale disaster.

Heidi 4:30
But if you see yourself in any of these, please be gentle with yourself, because it is so easy for this to happen. When kids refuse to work, it triggers some pretty strong emotions, and our first instinct might be to double down or to start threatening consequences, but don’t get caught in a power struggle.

Emily 4:48
Right. A power struggle is the absolute least helpful solution to this problem. We are after cooperation, not compliance. The moment it becomes a battle of wills, everybody loses.

Heidi 4:59
Our second “don’t” is don’t punish, especially by taking away recess. Kids need that movement, and the break time, and taking it away will likely cause more problems later in the day, not fewer.

Emily 5:12
And don’t assume students are being lazy or difficult on purpose, even if it seems like 100% that is what is happening. There is usually something else going on.

Heidi 5:21
Now, in desperate moments, we know it can be so tempting to resort to bribes, something like, if you just do this page, you can have extra computer time, but don’t do this. Bribes will work in the moment, but they’re not solving the underlying issue, and they can actually make work refusal worse over time.

Emily 5:40
The last “don’t” might be the most important. Don’t react out of frustration. When you feel that emotional reaction rising up, you know, the irritation, the anger, pause and take a breath before you respond. Regulate yourself first, because whatever you do next will either help the situation or make it a whole lot harder.

Heidi 5:59
And really, we know it is so easy to feel triggered in this moment. So please, if you have experienced any of these “don’ts” in the past, be kind to yourself, because we have all done it. Probably we’ve all done a whole combination of those.

Emily 6:13
Yeah, in tough moments, we don’t always respond as the best version of ourselves. And I can, like, just feel my blood pressure rising just talking about this and remembering what it feels like in these moments where you want to just get into it, like, no, no, you are going to do it, because I said so. But now that you have got some clarity about how work refusal might trigger you, remind yourself to pause and breathe before reacting in the future.

Heidi 6:36
And then once you have avoided that minefield of don’ts, you’re in a much better place for the next step in managing work refusal, which is to get curious.

Emily 6:46
Remember, work refusal is communication, like we said. Every time a student refuses, they’re telling you something, even if it’s coming out sideways through crossed arms and dramatic size. Our job isn’t to win the battle. It’s to figure out what’s going on underneath.

Heidi 7:03
When you are 10 minutes into writing time and one kid still hasn’t picked up a dang pencil, shift your focus. Try pretending you’re a doctor, and challenge yourself to evaluate this patient. Start by asking yourself, what might this behavior be trying to say, and what does the student need right now?

Emily 7:20
If one student is refusing to write their persuasive essay because they had a fight at recess, and another is refusing because they don’t understand the assignment, they need completely different responses from you.

Heidi 7:31
So try running through a list of diagnostic questions. Does the student have the academic skills to complete this task? Maybe the directions don’t click, or maybe they’re missing background knowledge. What looks like defiance might actually be a quiet panic.

Emily 7:45
And sometimes the issue is attention, not ability. Look around the environment. Is it too noisy or distracting? Is the student dealing with something outside of school that makes focusing nearly impossible in the moment? Maybe their little world is crumbling, and the last thing they have the bandwidth for is writing a persuasive essay.

Heidi 8:03
Also consider if the student actually knows how to get started. This is an executive functioning challenge. The student might have the right understanding, but planning out the steps feels overwhelming, so they just shut down instead.

Emily 8:16
And don’t forget basic needs. Are they hungry, tired, uncomfortable? Nobody can do their best work if their body is struggling.

Heidi 8:23
Now, if you can’t diagnose the problem from the outside, just try asking the student what they need in order to get started. When you approach with curiosity instead of judgment, the student feels seen instead of shamed, and that really changes everything.

Emily 8:37
And curiosity also gives you options. If it’s a skill issue, you can scaffold. If it’s planning, you can break down the task into smaller steps. If it’s focus, you can offer a quick regulation break.

Heidi 8:49
So instead of asking, why won’t they just do this work, flip it to what’s getting in their way right now, and how can I help clear that path?

Emily 8:58
Of course, kids can’t always articulate what’s wrong, and you’ll likely get a response like nothing, or, I don’t know.

Heidi 9:05
And when that happens, use your past history with the student to make your best guess about whether the problem is academic, emotional, or environmental. Then once you have a theory about what’s going on, you can respond in a way that actually addresses the root issue.

Emily 9:20
Once you’ve managed any outside issues that might be impacting the student, you’re ready for the next step, offering support that helps students re engage.

Heidi 9:28
Now let’s imagine that you have just wrapped up your top notch, super engaging geometry lesson. Next is time for independent practice. You explain the assignment and you turn the kids loose. It seems like everyone is getting to work, but then you take a closer look, and you notice one kid is drawing Pokemon on his paper, one is playing with the Gibbets on her crocs, and another hasn’t even noticed there’s a paper on his desk.

Emily 9:52
Ugh, those Croc Gibbets. You can feel your blood pressure rising by the second. Why did these kids have to make everything so hard? So the first thing is to remember the don’ts, don’t react, don’t get into a power struggle. Take some deep breaths and let your brain reset.

Heidi 10:07
And then while you’re breathing, get curious. What does each situation need? Use what you know about your past interactions with these kids to diagnose the problem. Are there any deeper, academic, emotional, or environmental problems at play?

Emily 10:21
Then address the issues you can and provide the support students need to get started. Maybe the girl with the crocs just needs a reminder to leave her shoes alone. But if students need more support, we’re going to use a tool from Fred Jones’ book Tools for Teaching, called praise, prompt, and leave.

Heidi 10:38
Now I swear by this technique, it can absolutely save you in a tough moment, and it has saved me in plenty of them. So let’s talk about how this works in action. You walk over to the desk nearest you, maybe it’s the kid drawing the Pokemon pictures, and you find something to praise about what they have done right so far. Now this might be tricky if all he’s done is draw Pokemon pictures.

Emily 11:01
Yes, but even if all you can say is, I’m glad you’ve got your pencil ready to go, starting with connection will help keep the situation positive.

Heidi 11:09
The type of praise you use in this moment really does matter. Try to focus on effort, not ability. Something like, “look how quickly you got started on that first problem” is more useful than “you’re so smart.”

Emily 11:21
After praising whatever action they’ve taken, give them one simple prompt about the very next step they should take. Don’t go over the whole assignment, just the next step. Say something like, “the next thing you need to do is circle all the angles.”

Heidi 11:33
And then you leave. Don’t hover or wait for them to complete that step. You will circle back in a few minutes to check on progress, but don’t wait for them to get started before you move on. The goal is to scaffold their independence, not make them dependent on you, walking them through every step.

Emily 11:51
Now let’s say you’ve calmed your emotions, you’ve gotten curious about what’s going on, and you’ve tried to praise, prompt, and leave, but the work still isn’t getting done. We have all been in those situations, it can leave you feeling really stuck.

Heidi 12:03
But we promise you are not stuck, because you have got some more tools to try. When you find yourself in this moment, the next step is to make the work feel more manageable. A lot of the time, work refusal comes down to the task being too big or too out of the student’s control.

Emily 12:19
Yeah, think about how you feel when someone hands you a 10 page form to fill out. Oh, the worst. Large assignments can be daunting, even to adults, so let’s do what we can to limit that overwhelm for our kids.

Heidi 12:30
So how do we shrink that mountain down into a hill that a student can actually climb? Two of the best tools we have for this are chunking and offering agency. Emily, can you tell us more about chunking?

Emily 12:42
Yeah, well, when we say chunk an assignment, isn’t it such an elegant word to describe it? This means we’re breaking the work down into smaller, bite sized steps. So instead of expecting students to face a whole page of math problems, cover all but the first one or two and say, work these, then we’ll check in.

Heidi 12:59
This also works with other assignments, like writing. Instead of “write a paragraph about your favorite animal,” you can try chunking your directions. “First choose the animal you’re going to write about, and then write one sentence about what it looks like.”

Emily 13:12
You can also try chunking the time. Use timers to create mini deadlines, like, “Work for three minutes, then let’s see how far you get.” Each small win builds momentum, and before you know it, the student who couldn’t even start five minutes ago is suddenly halfway done.

Heidi 13:25
Besides chunking, you can make work more manageable by offering agency. Kids are much more likely to engage when they feel that they have some say in what happens.

Emily 13:34
Now before you have a heart attack, that absolutely does not mean turning your class into a free for all. Think of it more like choices within structure.

Heidi 13:43
Yeah, you’re likely to find students much more engaged in their work if they have some say in how it gets done. So try offering limited options and see how quickly it changes the mood in your room. Just make sure that you can live with whatever they choose.

Emily 13:59
Yeah, don’t offer students the choice to either do their work independently or with a buddy if you don’t want to manage partner work at that moment. It’s fine, there are lots of simple ways to give students options that don’t make your job harder.

Heidi 14:11
An easy one, for example, is to try offering students the choice of where to work. “You can stay at your desk or take your paper to the carpet,” or, “You could work at the top of your desk, or you could turn around and use your chair as a desk.” You know, little tweaks make a big difference.

Emily 14:25
You can also give students the choice of how they work. Can they use pen, pencil or crayon to complete the assignment? Or maybe give options about the format of their response. “You can write this out, type it, or draw your response.”

Heidi 14:38
One of my favorite options for students, and one of the easiest was to let them choose the order they do the problems. If it doesn’t really affect the outcome, just let them pick. “You can start with the first three problems or the last three problems. It’s up to you.”

Emily 14:51
And that choice to skip strategy from our try it tomorrow fits perfectly in this category.

Heidi 14:57
Kids love that one. Honestly, it will make you their favorite teacher.

Emily 15:02
Another way to offer choice is to invite the student into helping solve the situation. Ask them, “what part feels hardest,” or “what would make this feel doable?” Empowering students to solve their own problems can be just the nudge they need to turn things around.

Heidi 15:16
As helpful and powerful and useful as these tools are, sometimes the wisest decision you can make is just to do nothing.

Emily 15:24
Yeah, as a teacher, you need to learn to recognize when the battle isn’t worth it. If anything you try is just going to escalate the situation, just leave it alone. Assuming the child isn’t in any danger, a short reset or coming back to it later can be more effective than forcing compliance right now.

Heidi 15:40
Maybe they need a few minutes to cool down, or maybe the timing just isn’t right. You can always circle back when they’re in a better headspace.

Emily 15:47
When things have calmed down and it’s time to have that conversation, the most important thing is to listen. Don’t jump in with your thoughts about what’s happening. Let them talk first. You really might be surprised what you learn.

Heidi 15:58
And if work refusal becomes a persistent pattern, that’s when you might need to involve other support, school counselors, administrators or parents. You don’t have to solve everything by yourself.

Emily 16:08
Okay, let’s do a quick recap of our strategies for handling work refusal. First, prevent it when you can with engaging, well-scaffolded instruction that sets students up for success. When it does happen anyway, avoid power struggles, punishment or bribes. Regulate yourself first, get curious about what the behavior is communicating, like, is there an academic, emotional or environmental issue at play?

Heidi 16:33
Next, provide support with praise, prompt, and leave. Make the work feel manageable by breaking it down and offering choice within structure. Involve students in collaborative problem solving, and know when it’s better just to let it go and come back later.

Emily 16:46
Remember, work refusal is communication, not defiance. You have tools to respond without burning yourself out. These kids aren’t trying to make your life difficult. They’re trying to tell you something, and now you know how to listen.

Heidi 16:57
We would love to hear how these strategies work in your classroom. Come join the conversation in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Emily 17:05
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher approved tip is to create a simple prevention checklist for lesson planning. So tell us about this, Heidi.

Heidi 17:18
Well, we mentioned earlier in the episode that prevention is your best strategy for avoiding work refusal. So we want to give you some specific questions that you can ask yourself during lesson planning. These literally take one minute to run through, but they can save you 20 minutes of redirecting and re-teaching during work time.

Emily 17:35
Here are the questions. First, academic readiness. Can most of your students do this independently after your guided practice? Is there a clear model or example they can refer to? What’s the hardest part of this task, and have you taught that piece well enough?

Heidi 17:49
Next, engagement and motivation. Why would a student care about this assignment? Is there any choice, movement or novelty built in? Can you explain the why behind this work in kid friendly terms?

Emily 18:00
Then overwhelm prevention. Does this look doable at first glance, or does it look like a lot? Can you break this into smaller chunks or steps? How long will this realistically take your slowest worker?

Heidi 18:12
Also consider environment and logistics. Do students have everything they need to complete this? Are there too many distractions happening during this work time? Is this the right time of day for this type of task?

Emily 18:24
And finally, differentiation reality check. What will your struggling learners do when they get stuck? What will your fast finishers do so they don’t become distractions? Do students understand what being done with this assignment looks like?

Heidi 18:37
And here is my favorite question of all. If you were tired and this assignment landed on your desk right now, would you want to do it? If the answer is no, your students probably won’t want to do it either.

Emily 18:48
These questions help you catch potential work refusal before it happens, and honestly, they make your teaching more engaging for everyone, not just the kids who might refuse to work.

Heidi 18:57
We will put the full checklist in the show notes so that you can reference it easily during planning time.

Heidi 19:02
To wrap up the show, we’re sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 19:08
I’m giving extra credit to Noco cookie cakes on Instagram. She’s also on Tiktok. I randomly stumbled on her account like a month ago, and I got sucked in watching these videos. So it’s this woman who, last year, I believe, lost her job, and I don’t really understand why, but she got this idea of making cookie cake. So she’s making just like a big chocolate chip cookie, and then using frosting to decorate it. But she is not a decorator. She’s not really good at writing or drawing anything. So already like the outcome is hilarious.

Emily 19:38
But the best part is she does a voiceover of the recording of her, the sped up, you know, clip, edited version of her making this cake. And it just delights me. She’s hilarious. I saw on her Instagram, she described herself as a cookie cake comedian. And I was like, yeah, that’s accurate. I wish I lived in Colorado. I’d get myself a cookie cake so that she could make fun of me while she makes it. Because she always makes fun of like, what people request on their cake, or laments, why do people keep making me write things, and anyway. And the other funny thing is, she says all the time that she doesn’t like frosting, like she would not want to eat one of these cakes, which makes it even funnier. It’s so good. If you need a laugh, I will link to it in the show notes. Noco cookie cakes.

Heidi 20:32
Highly recommend. I did see though today, I don’t know if you saw this, she hurt her hand.

Emily 20:36
Oh no.

Heidi 20:36
She hasn’t been able to decorate her case.

Emily 20:39
No, I haven’t seen that. What a tragedy.

Heidi 20:41
I know. So everyone’s a bit concerned. Hopefully Noco can continue.

Emily 20:46
Yes, please. I’ll have to check in on that. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 20:51
Well, I’m giving extra credit to the picture book A Fall Day for Bear by Bonnie Becker. I love these bear books so much. It’s about like a grumpy, surly just want to be on his own, introvert, bear and a peppy, extroverted mouse who adopts him as his best friend.

Emily 21:10
Against as well.

Heidi 21:11
Yeah, so they have all kinds of hijinks together. Yeah, a fall picture book is always a win. And then this is just so cute. And this one, though, it’s a bit of a role reversal, because mouse is having a really bad day, and so bear has to step up to cheer him up. So it’s very sweet. It’s a perfect book for fall. I know we did some vocabulary for Christmas for Bear and Mouse. I think we have a vocabulary resource.

Emily 21:36
Yes.

Heidi 21:37
So if you have not met bear and mouse, this is the moment you need to jump on that.

Emily 21:41
Yeah, and I did not know about this new book, so I’m excited to check it out.

Heidi 21:44
It’s very cute.

Heidi 21:46
That is it for today’s episode. Remember, work refusal is communication. Your job isn’t to force compliance. It’s to figure out what your students need and to help them get there.

Emily 21:56
Try our strategies for handling work refusal with curiosity instead of frustration. And don’t forget our Teacher Approved tip for creating a prevention checklist during lesson planning.

Heidi 22:07
We hope you enjoyed this episode of teacher approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 22:11
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 22:18
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 22:24
Bye.