Case Study
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Case Study
Student Name
EDUU 350
Instructor Name
Date Submitted
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Case Study
The student I chose for my case study is a third-grader at Heritage Elementary School
named Ricardo. After speaking with his teacher Mrs. Smith, I was told that he comes from an
English and Spanish speaking middle class home. His mother is older and his siblings are in their
twenties. According to the teacher, Ricardo’s mother tends to enable certain behaviors such as
carrying his lunch and supplies to class, taking off his jacket before she leaves, and dressing him
in the mornings. I have found from observing other households this often comes from wanting to
take care of the last baby in the home.
Mrs. Smith described Ricardo as having a hard time focusing in class. She said he has a
slow processing time when asked questions, and is usually the last to finish assignments. This
has left him with grades of D’s and F’s. I was told his coping mechanism when he gets nervous
or uncomfortable is rocking back and forth which I also witnessed when working with him on a
reading assessment test. The instructional strategies the teacher has found helpful with Ricardo is
peer tutoring as well as repetition and reminders. His strengths include his knowledge of
geography and he is a good reader of words but lacks comprehension. He has a very hard time
with social interactions, collaborations and he is physically behind in coordination.
When I had my one-on-one interview with Ricardo, I was able to get a feel for him. He
was very soft spoken and shy but once I gained his trust, he opened up to me. He explained that
his favorite subject is math because as he says he gets to “add everything” but his least favorite
subject is anything involving reading because “books are so long, it’s like a one-hour movie.”
His favorite activity in class is drawing and he does not like answering questions in front of the
class because he is afraid he will answer incorrectly. When asked if the teachers and staff make
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him feel safe, he answered “yes” and with the sweetest little voice told me they all looked “so
kind.” He explained his teacher will pick a partner to help him learn and when he has trouble
with an assignment, he said he asks a friend. The last question I had for him was what he does in
his free time, he said he relaxes and watches television. I asked if he played outside when he is
not in school or played games with his family to which he answered “no.”
From my observation, I noted that Ricardo is a well-dressed, clean young boy. What I did
notice in his appearance was that his nose was completely clogged and he never attempted to
clean it out which I found as a possible developmental issue. I know most children will blow
their nose if they feel it clogged or ask for a tissue but it was almost as if he did not notice. While
observing him at recess I saw him walk ahead of the class out towards the playground. He did
not have any friends around but I did see him try to talk to some younger students who did not
pay attention to him. I know when children are behind socially, they tend to gravitate to younger
children because they feel less intimidated. I watched as he showed signs of parallel play, you
could tell he wanted to play with the other kids but kept to himself next to the playground. He
would walk and run in a rectangular shape for the majority of the time, walk a few steps then run
in a straight line over and over again. Later, there was a little boy who ran up to him and joined
in his walk /run pattern.
There was very little classroom engagement from Ricardo. When I first came to the
classroom before he was even pointed out to me, I noticed a little boy staring out the window and
not participating with the class. I was later told he was the boy I would be observing. When Mrs.
Smith was reviewing the previous day’s vocabulary questions, he was the only student who
wasn’t raising his hand to answer the questions while the other students all excitedly wanted to
answer. When he was finally called upon (without raising his hand) he was very nervous and did
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not answer at all, instead a classmate nearby whispered the answer in his ear, which was
encouraged, by the teacher, and both students were rewarded for the answer. I did a reading
comprehension test with him and he did fine with his reading but it was very apparent he had a
hard time with comprehension. One of the questions asked was how the grandpa in the story felt
when he saw his grandson and he responded that he smiled. I asked some probing questions on
what a smile meant and he said a smile is when you are mad or plotting something. I thought
maybe he misunderstood so I smiled at him and pointed to my expression and asked if he
thought I was mad at him and he said no. I asked the question again and was given the same
answer that a smile means you are mad. These basic expressions are taught very early on so I
was shocked that he genuinely did not know that a smile implied someone is happy.
I also noticed he had trouble with simple tasks such as tearing his math homework from
his workbook. The other students tried and if it ripped would tape up the page but Ricardo did
not try or ask for help, instead, he just sat there. The little boy sitting next to him noticed he did
not do it and told the teacher he needed more time and she helped him with the task. It was very
apparent that Mrs. Smith had a clear understanding of Ricardo and his individual needs and
would make sure he was following along and helped him when needed. Without constantly
checking on Ricardo’s progress on assignments, he would fall behind terribly. He showed no
initiative and did not participate throughout the day. The last observation of the day was
lunchtime; similar to recess he walked ahead of the class and sat at a table by himself. The same
boy from recess joined him for a minute or so but soon left to join another group of boys leaving
Ricardo alone for the majority of his lunch.
When deciding which learning theories applied to Ricardo, I immediately thought of
Vygotsky’s theory of Cognitive Development. I do not think group collaborations would be
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helpful for him because I could tell by his interaction with his table group that he would not have
any input on a group project and would more than likely observe without contributing. Besides
group interactions, Vygotsky also believes that adults play a huge part in a child’s learning and
students learn most when they need a slight amount of help from an adult. Giving Ricardo an
aide to help him throughout the day could be beneficial to him. He could have someone there for
him when he has questions, which may make him more comfortable to ask when he needs
assistance. Erikson, Piaget and Kohlberg’s theories all rely on motivated students who are able to
take initiative, which I don’t believe would work for Ricardo until he gains some confidence in
himself.
An instructional strategy I think would be beneficial to Ricardo would be providing
practice through in-class assignments. Since he is often behind on tasks, it could help if he has
more background knowledge of the topic, making him feel more confident when given a big
assignment. Since practice can be done through art, acting, manipulatives and other activities, it
may help him retain the information. I also believe conducting discovery and inquiry activities
may help him, he likes to work alone and giving him the power to experiment and find answers
through discovery could be something that he would enjoy knowing there is not a wrong answer.
The last instructional strategy that is currently being used and that has helped Ricardo is peer
tutoring. Peer tutoring gives him get the extra support needed.
The classroom management strategy that I think would be most important for a student
like Ricardo is to create a productive teacher-student relationship where he feels comfortable
asking for assistance and knowing that his teacher wants more than anything to see him succeed.
Modifying instructional strategies is something that Mrs. Smith does and it is helping him to be
successful in the classroom. I would also suggest the strategy of accommodating students with
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special needs. Ricardo has not been tested as having a learning disability but he is clearly behind
and if special accommodations such as peer help and keeping up with his progress were not
done, he would get further behind. Assessments that could benefit Juan Pablo are standardized
tests because there are many that are made specifically to point out “academic and personal
needs” which may explain some of the trouble Ricardo is experiencing (Ormrod, Anderman, &
Anderman, 2017, p 501). I also believe formative assessments may help to get a better
understanding of where Ricardo is having trouble throughout a lesson to get him more help along
the way instead of waiting until the lesson is over.
This observation showed me that it is extremely important to know your students and
how to help each of them succeed. For Ricardo, I believe he is socially behind and his lack of
initiative in the classroom will cause him to become more behind academically as the years go
on. As a teacher, I will need to be aware of these signs and make sure each student is given the
specific support needed to help with their struggles. All students learn differently and hearing
which subjects and activities Ricardo enjoyed most further proved that point. Many teachers do
not include many art and drawing activities. For a student like Ricardo that was what he enjoyed
most, and it could be used as a tool to help teach him other subject areas. I see more now after
my observation that teaching is not as easy as presenting a lesson that the students all understand
and then moving on to the next. You have to be aware of the students who are behind and make
sure they are understanding and maybe even alter the lesson in a way to make it clearer for those
having difficulties.
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References
Ormrod, J. E., Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2017). Educational Psychology:
Developing Learners. London, England: Pearson.