The primary aspect of Billy's scenario is that he has the propensity to be disruptive. I believe that this tendency of his is due to the fact that he is able to complete his work relatively quickly, the work is easy for him to accomplish, and then he becomes bored. The larger issue involved here is the fact that he evidently needs to be on an advanced track for learning, and is involved in a school in which homogenous learning occurs.
That said, Billy is one of the primary candidates to benefit from community-building -- mostly because it will allow him to apply his considerable intellect to some other aspect of academics that he has not already mastered. There are several facets of his character that make him perfect to become involved in perspective taking. He is naturally gregarious, so the essential concept of community-building is already ingrained within him. Moreover, he has the scholastic potential to understand concepts that may be more advanced than the usual, which will only assist him in applying learning to community building. Finally, there is a distinct correlation between community-building and discipline that would be beneficial to him (Jankowski, 2002, p. 1).
There are a number of specific strategies I would utilize to help Billy understand that he is an integral part of a larger community, the likes of which can assist in his learning. The aforementioned example about field trips was both hypothetical and pragmatic -- as such, I would be delighted to take Billy and his class on trips in which they could actually see concepts that they are learning about put into action. For instance, if in his language arts class they are studying aspects of history, or perhaps in his social studies class, I would like to take this class to a museum so that they could truly connect with the surrounding community -- and context -- to which this subject matter pertains. The overarching point, of course, would be to expose students like Billy to the fact that there is a bigger purpose to their studies than just pure scholastic value. That purpose, of course, is in the creation and sustaining...
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