Case  Study Reflective Journals

Diversity

History

Yolanda was a ninth grade student at Kennedy-King High School. Spanish was her primary language, although she had limited English skills in reading and writing. She had recently moved from Mexico to Mississippi and didn’t have any friends at her new school. The classroom was rather large, with about twenty-eight students. She was quiet  and sat in the very back of the classroom because she was shy and didn’t know anyone. When asked to pair up and do cooperative learning, everyone would pair up with their friends while Yolanda would ease down in her seat, feeling rejected and unwanted. Many times when she didn’t pair up in groups, her teacher didn’t even notice. By her mid-term evaluation, she was failing her class.

Problems

• She only had limited English skills in reading and writing.
• She did not have any friends.
• She sat in the back of the classroom.
• No one wanted to work with her in groups.
• She went unnoticed by her teacher much of the time.
• She was failing her class.

Reasons

            Yolanda is from Mexico and doesn’t have much experience with reading and writing in English. Because she is shy, she does not talk to her classmates, which causes her to go unnoticed by them. Because she is quiet and sits in the back of the classroom, she goes unnoticed by her teacher much of the time. She is failing her class because she doesn’t know English well, she doesn’t have a partner to help her, and her teacher is not providing her with the assistance she needs to be successful.

How I Would Approach the Problem in a Collaborative Effort

            The very first thing I would do is to get a copy of her TOEFL exam results to see how well she knows the English language. Based on those results, I would adapt my teaching to match her needs. I would provide her with skeletal outline notes instead of having her copy the notes from off the board. This way, she could spend more time familiarizing herself with the English language. I would allow her to bring a tape recorder to class to record lectures so she could replay them over and over to grasp a full understanding of the lesson. I would also provide remedial assistance to her after school to enhance her writing skills.

            I would then focus on making sure I group students by their abilities. For example, I would place her with a student who has very strong skills in order for her to learn from. By constantly pairing her with another stronger student, her English skills would be enhanced and she would develop more social skills. This would make her feel more comfortable around her peers and she would easily be able to make friends.
            I would move her to the very front of the classroom and make her feel wanted in my classroom. I would provide opportunities for her to share her heritage with the rest of the class, thus causing the other students to notice her and become interested in becoming her friend.

            By providing this student with extra attention, remedial assistance,  and a “study buddy,” she will excel in my classroom.

Re-teaching

History

            Mrs. Davis is teaching a lesson to her sixth grade class. She shows her class a diagram of the various parts of the human eye which included the lens, cornea, and retina. She then explains that people can see objects because light from the sun or some other source bounces off those objects and into the eye. To illustrate this concept, she shows her students a picture of a sun, house, and a boy. An arrow is drawn from the sun, to the house, and from the house to the boy’s eyes. She then asks, “Do you all understand how our eyes work?” Some of the students nod their heads. The next day, Mrs. Davis gives her students a picture of the sun, a tree, and a boy. She asks them to draw an arrow to represent how light travels so that the boy can see the tree. Over half of the students draw the arrow from the boy to the tree.

Problems

• Most of the students have not learned what Mrs. Davis thought she taught them.
• Mrs. Davis used vocabulary terms that the students were unfamiliar with.
• The students need to be re-taught the lesson.

Reasons

Based on Piaget’s theory, students may have assimilated the new information into their existing knowledge of how people see (by looking at something) and misinterpreted what Mrs. Davis actually said.

            Based on Vygotsky’s perspective, the learning task may have been beyond the students’ zone of proximal development or the teacher may have provided insufficient scaffolding to enable the students to truly understand what she was explaining to them.

            From an information processing perspective, the students may not have adequately processed what Mrs. Davis said. For example, they may have not been paying attention during her teaching.

How I Would Approach the Problem in a Collaborative Effort

            I would begin by allowing the students to define the unfamiliar terms to get an understanding of what they mean. Once they have obtained an understanding of the vocabulary terms, I would re-teach the lesson. I would introduce the lesson by first reviewing the vocabulary terms. Then I would re-teach the lesson being careful to be very clear and specific in my teaching.

Instead of simply asking them if they understood, I would check for comprehension by asking them questions. Lastly, I would present an assignment to them that they could respond correctly to only if they had a true understanding of how light is involved in human sight.

Behavior Management

History

            Timothy seems to cause problems wherever he goes. In the classroom he is rude and defiant. He comes to class late, slouches in his seat, puts his feet on his desk, yells at his classmates and his teacher, and refuses to participate in class activities. Timothy shoves and pushes his peers in the halls, steals lunches from smaller boys in the cafeteria, and gets into fights every week.

            No one at school likes Timothy very much. His classmates say he is a bully, and his parents tell him he is a “bad apple” who is rotten to the core. Even his teacher says negative things about him and is beginning to give up all hope for him. Timothy is waiting for the day he can legally drop out of school.

Problems

• In the classroom, Timothy is rude, defiant, and often late. He slouches in his seat, puts his feet on his desk, yells at his classmates and teacher, and refuses to participate in class.
• Outside of the classroom he is a bully who shoves and pushes his peers, steals their lunches, and gets into fights.
• At home, his parents tell him that he is a “bad apple” who is rotten to the core.
• His teacher, along with everyone else is beginning to give up all hope for him.

Reasons

Timothy probably behaves the way he does because of issues at home. He might come to school angry each day as a result of what previously occurred at home. Maybe he lives in a high crime neighborhood in which violence is common and aggression is the best way of self-defense. His peers not liking him and his parents talking harshly about him are factors that contribute to his aggressiveness.

Timothy may notice that no one cares about him and everyone is giving up hope on him. In the classroom and at home, his teacher and parents may not be providing him with the attention that he desire.

How I Would Approach the Problem in a Collaborative Effort

The first thing I would do is show Timothy that I really care about him. Students have hope in themselves when they see someone else does. I will explain to him that there is hope and that if he changes his attitude and stop doing some of the things that he does, then more people would like him and want to be around him. I would simply tell him that I like him but disapprove of his actions.

Moreover, I would encourage his parents to do the same. Although I can not change his neighborhood or what goes on at home, I could tell his parents to say positive and encouraging things to him everyday. If he is constantly getting the attention he desires from his parents and teacher, he may be less likely to behave in an inappropriate manner. Also, hearing positive things about himself each day will motivate him to do positive things and behave in a positive manner.

            Furthermore, I would set up a positive reinforcement system that would reward Timothy for each appropriate behavior he models. For example, if he is obedient, on time for class, and shows respect toward his classmates and teacher, he would receive more time doing something he likes to do, such as getting on the computer. This intervention strategy would be an attempt to decrease and/or eliminate his inappropriate behaviors and increase the target behaviors.