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.