Error Analysis
Error Analysis Case Study Assignment (Madison and Elais)
EDUC 323
Prof. Tencher
September 13, 2025
Error Analysis
Madison: Level A, Case 2
I decided to take a look into Madison’s case first to see what exactly she was struggling
with. Madison is in Ms. Brooks’ second grade class, she seems to struggles in math because of a
learning issue. Madison has an IEP which states that tangible items help her to accomplish her
work correctly hence why she was able to comprehend the idea of money throughout the
lessons. Her use of play money as a tangible object to assist Madison helps her to understand
the concept was the reason she was so successful in that lesson. Madison did not perform as
well though in the subsequent session, which was about telling time.
“A STAR (STrategies And Resources) Sheet provides you with a description of a
wellresearched strategy that can help you solve the case studies in this unit” (Page 6). After
going over the scenario as well as the STAR sheets, I was able to recognize the many kinds of
mistakes that Madison made in her work. There was a total of ten questions about telling time
on Madison's test. She gave accurate answers to seven out of ten questions, while the other
three were wrong. All of the quiz's mistakes appear to have been factual.
It is clear from inspecting Madison's case that the mistakes she made had to do with
terms that she had previously learned in the money unit. Madison had previously mastered a
unit on money, according to the teacher, and she had used pretend money to help her recognize
coins and what each of their values were. Due to the students telling time in the next lesson, the
teacher had brought up a quarter, just as they talked previously in the last unit. I believe that
Madison seemed to struggle or she may not have fully understood the vocabulary concepts of
quarter past or even quarter to as they related to time when she was finishing her quiz on time.
I think
Madison assumed the quarter meant the same thing in terms of telling time because she had
already learned that it was worth twenty-five cents. I can see why that may have confused her in
the sense that she needed that extra help to identify the difference between time and money.
Error Analysis
Looking back at Madison’s quiz, her first error occurred on question number six, where
she was required to draw a clock's hands for the time shown beneath it. Madison drew the
hands to show it at one twenty-five, even though the time shown was actually quarter past one.
She then answered question number eight incorrectly, which followed the same instructions as
question six. Madison drew the hands to show at three thirty-five which should have been
twenty-five minutes before four, even though the time displayed was fifteen minutes until four.
Lastly, Madison had made her last mistake on the quiz's tenth question. In contrast to the
others, this was a word problem which required the students to illustrate the clock's hands in a
way that matched the time it stated, which was a quarter past two. Madison drew the hour
hand accurately once more, but the minute hand indicated that it was twenty-five minutes past
two.
According to Madison's IEP, using physical items can significantly improve her learning.
She might illustrate the difference with the minute hand by using a toy clock that she can move
to show the difference. She can literally see where each hand goes and how they appropriately
match the worksheet or quiz with hands-on experiences. Seeing how she works and what she
does to finish an activity is another method to assist. It can make all the difference to see if she
completes it on time, correctly, and whether she gets angry or agitated. Lastly, she should be
given the toy clock to finish the assignment once with an adult's assistance, then once with the
clock alone, and one final time without the clock and without assistance in order to determine
whether she is learning the material she should be remembering. This will enable us to
determine whether she is understanding the content independently.
Elias: Level B, Case 2
Elias is in a special education class with Mrs. Gustafson in second grade, he seems to be
struggling in math as well. Elias has a learning disability and it seems as though he is struggling
to retain anything regarding math, Mrs. Gustafson is working to do monitor and collect data, she
is going to conduct a diagnostic assessment to see where exactly he may be struggling.
Error Analysis
Mrs. Gustafson believes that Elias may be making one of two errors. “One is that Elías is
making a conceptual error, and the other is that he doesn’t understand or is not applying the
correct procedure” (Page 37). Mrs. Gustafson will have to identify the causes of Elías's mistakes
because the educational modifications she had made will be based on his error pattern.
Looking back at the worksheet Mrs. Gustafson, it is clear that Elias missed four out of ten
questions. The first question Elias missed, it looks like instead of carrying the one over from the
eight, he added the eight and two to get ten, then added the one and two to get three and in
total it would be three hundred and ten when it should have been forty. For question five, he
did the same exact thing as question one. It seems as though he is not understanding that he
needs to carry the one over instead of adding it to his answer. He should have gotten forty-two
as his answer instead of three hundred and twelve. Question eight, Elias once again added the
extra one instead of carrying it over. He ended up getting one thousand one hundred and twelve
instead of one hundred and twenty-two. Lasty, he had gotten question ten wrong, just like the
other three problems, Elias did not carry the number over, he had gotten seven hundred and
ten as his answer when it should have been eighty.
Elias appears to struggle with remembering to carry over numbers that are too large.
Similar to the other questions he answered, which were all right, he seemed to simply add
everything up. Given that he has a learning issue, I can understand why he could have added
things up that way. There are several strategies that could help Elias get past this obstacle. The
initial strategy is to use building blocks and pose targeted questions that he is familiar to
answering accurately and confidently. After that, he can work on increasingly challenging
questions with an adult to ensure he is comfortable and comprehending the material. Finally, he
can attempt working on it by himself to see whether he can finish it correctly without assistance
from an adult. Another strategy than can be used is by putting a box on top of the worksheet's
left number to remind him to carry the one over which may be very useful in his case. To test if
Error Analysis
he remembers to add it on his own, he can do it without the box on top after he develops the
habit of remembering to add that number on top.
All things considered, reviewing and comprehending Madison's and Elais's difficulties
with math was fascinating and enlightening. Since I have also struggled to understand certain
math-related assignments, trying to determine the best way to assist these students has piqued
my interest in being as supportive and helpful as possible when they are having difficulties. I'm
happy that, for once, I was able to examine an error analysis rather than merely examining how
a child completes their work differently from other students.
Works Cited
Bernethy, M. (2025, January 17). 13 common regrouping mistakes and how to fix them
easily in regrouping math problems. Saddle Up for 2nd Grade.
https://saddleupfor2ndgrade.com/regrouping-mistakes/
Elizabeth Mulvahill, B. A. (2025, September 10). 31 fun ways to teach kids how to tell
time. We Are Teachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/5-hands-on-ways-to-teach-telling-
time/
Vanderbilt Peabody College. (n.d.). Mathematics: Identifying and addressing student
errors. Mathematics: Identifying and Addressing Student Errors .
https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_case_studies/ics_matherr.pdf
