Building Trust

I have a student in my sixth and seventh period class. He is a senior and has struggled in school. According to his test scores, he is on a second grade level. Since the beginning of the school year I have spent a good amount of time getting to know him. I asked him to take the same test he took last year to assess his reading level, and this time he came out on a sixth grade level. How did he make such a remarkable change??? He actually tried this time on the test. He understood why I wanted him to take the test, and that was enough motivation for him to do well. This reminds me how important it is to build relationships with students in the classroom.

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