[3leggedtable]

I had a student who was throwing his pencil in the air about 3-4 feet and then trying to catch it. I walked over to him and said "Please stop throwing your pencil into the air." and he replied "I am not throwing my pencil". I was just floored by his answer; this is 6th grade.

So how would you have responded to his answer/lie?

[Munchkins]

Do not engage. I don't argue with children. I would have taken the pencil and had him finish his assignment on his own time.

[Subinnc]

Middle school kids do this all the time. In that case I would have just said that I didn't want to see the pencil in the air again, which shouldn't be a problem since he wasn't doing it to begin with.

Whoever posted above me (I can't see now) and said not to argue is exactly right. No one wins in an argument with a middle schooler.

[travelingafar]

There is no need to argue about anything. If he continued to throw the pencil I would have taken it away from him.

[MaineSub]

Some sixth graders have a need to play with us--I don't see it so much as lying or an argument as them testing the water to see if they can outsmart us... I might have been tempted to ask him "Then what do you call what you were doing?" (Tone of voice is important--it has be genuine curiosity.) The answer actually doesn't matter, but if he said something like "I was actually tossing it," I might have complimented his vocabulary and then said, "Then stop tossing it" or "Well, you need to gain control of your pencil." I also like subinnc's negating the issue by sorta saying, "It doesn't actually matter how it got there, it just can't be there again."

Power plays with any aged kids are dangerous, but banter can be fun.

Lying often comes into play when a student is trying to defend his behavior. "I didn't do it." I have on occasion used a very directive approach. "There is nothing you can say that will justify what you did--here's what needs to happen" and focus on the expected behavior rather than doing a forensic analysis of what happened (or didn't). I know it sounds picky, but I would more likely have said, "That pencil needs to be in your hand or on the desk."

[4048]

I hear this often, especially when asking someone misbehaving what their name is, Back in my era lieing was a punishable infraction. It apears to be more acceptable these days with all they see in politics and phoney roll models. I wish I had a contemporary, politically correct answer for you.