best strategies for oppositional/defiant kids

What do his parents say? Sometimes kids who act like this have very troubled home lives. Sometimes not, of course, but it sounds like an investigation of any possible deeper issues is in order, and then if appropriate either counseling or a behavior plan implemented in conjunction with home.

This sounds like my coworker.... nothing will be done about him either. some things don't change I guess.

Just read that the session is over and you're looking for strategies for next time. Why weren't you given his IEP before the session started?

That's ridiculous. How can you be an effective teacher without the student's IEP?

Dorichatelain said:

Not the same thing! ODD is a DX you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. The name of that school is appropriate though...Warehouse School? Yep, that's what most places would like to do with these kids...warehouse them. It take incredible patience and hard work on the part of parents, teachers and administrators to work with kids like this. Google the diagnosis and read up on it. 

You make some HUGE assumptions here and as a parent struggling every. single. damn. day. to parent my teenager with mental health issues, I am really offended by this statement. Please never assume that a parent doesn't care or didn't attempt with every fiber of their being to bring up their child to have manners and compassion because a child doesn't act according to your norms.

I had a friend with a child with ODD. It's a mental disorder for sure. I am not denying that at all. He would lash out at her and call her an FB for no apparent reason other than he was enraged. She would say please eat your lunch and he would go berserk. (Scientific term of course).

In all my years going to school which were many I never saw a student with such a disorder. Is it something new? I can't imagine it didn't exist 30 years ago, but how come now are kids getting diagnosed with it?

Those kids were suspended and then expelled from public schools.  They ended up is Warehouse-type/alternative schools or private schools. 

We had a defiant kid in one class of mine. He wasn't angry though. He didn't call people names or threaten them. He was just a badnick as we called them. He probably dropped out in grade 10 and is selling drugs due to the fact he was consuming a lot of drugs even as early as Grade 8.

So our Warehouse school is where these kids go. There is a high school that might be trained to have them, though. But it's my own "bias" that thinks they would go there. I knew a counsellor there and she was a saint. She was forced to retire at age 70 or so. She was a saint.

Have you ever seen a girl with ODD? What are they like to deal with?

I just wonder what a girl with it would look like. How would she behave? Would she yell out the same things as a boy?

I teach general ed now, but was a special education teacher for over 10 and my masters is in Disability.

I taught a congregated classroom (a room for just sped kids) and now my classroom tends to get a higher proportion of our students with very exceptional needs. It works for me and my school mostly because I'm good at it. Not bragging, just realistic. Not everyone can program for students with special needs.

I was a bit short upthread, mostly because our OP often has questions about sped kids but never seems to come back. But I'll elaborate a little since the thread is active.

If I got clarification that ODD was indeed the diagnosis, I would be very interested to see if there was a co-morbidity (usually ADHD) and then I'd do some thinking about what is the real presenting problem. My experience is that excellent programming removes most (but not all) of the students inability to access a positive educational environment. That means the student works on meaningful, relevant and personally interesting material in their zone of proximal development. Chunking, scaffolding, immediate feedback and collaboration of personal educational goals would be some of the strategies I would use. Finally, I have frequently found that students with this kind of profile benefit greatly from peer tutoring when they are the ones doing the tutoring. Buddy reading with younger kids and being the teacher-assistant in a younger grade are fantastic and very worthwhile opportunities for this kind of student to find success yet still meet both educational and social skills learning outcome.

Pardon if there edu-speak. This is a topic close to my heart.

That's not legal...not at all.  That IEP would have also included a FBA/BIP so you and others would know how to work with him. I teach EBD HS kids and those pieces are VITAL to everyone who works with that child.

Our ESY (extended school year) teachers are given access to ALL parts of a student's IEP/FBA/BIP.  That's just wrong all the way around and not at all legal.