Student Observation (5th Grade)

Today I conducted a student observation. Due to an early dismissal, I had limited observation time. I guess I should tell you why I chose to observe this child. Having been in this classroom for a few weeks now, I have become aware that this student never turns in any assigned work. I got a chance to view this child's planner and there is not one page without the teacher's red markings. (The teacher marks her students' planners when a child doesn't complete an assignment) This makes me wonder, what's going on here?

I started by observing the posture of the struggling student. While the teacher held a discussion with the class, this student was somewhat slumped in his chair, never raising his hand to any of the teacher's questions (as most of the class did). He didn't really seem to be paying attention to anything the teacher had to say.

After the brief discussion, all of the students were given a worksheet to be completed as a class to build on the discussion. The teacher read the first question and asked for volunteers to give the answer. After an answer was given, all of the students (except the struggler) wrote the answer on the sheet. My student was stretching while just staring at the paper. By the time the class had gone over about 3 questions and answers, my student struggler decided it was time to start writing. But having been so far behind, he had to ask the teacher for the answers to questions 1-3.

The end of the worksheet was near, and the teacher had the students answer the last question on their own and then turn in the paper. All the students completed the worksheet, except for the student I was observing. It was at this point when the class was dismissed to go home due to power outages. I would really like to get to the bottom of why this student refuses to complete work and turn it in. In some cases, I can witness that the work is actually complete, but he just doesn't turn it in. I think there is definitely something going on here.