Download PDS Case Study - Penn State College of Education

Ian McCombs
The Pennsylvania State University
Professional Development Schools Intern
Case Study
February 2014
McCombs 2 As an intern at State College Area High School, I have had the gratification of
working with a diverse group of students, each with his/her own unique way of
learning. For some students who have been diagnosed with a learning disability,
this unique way requires an Individualized Education Program. (IEP) This case
study serves as a documentation of my focused work with an identified student
and the observations I have come away with as a result. To protect the student’s
identity, I am referring to him by the pseudonym, Frank. I have made a number of
observations while working with Frank and reading his IEP. I have learned the
nature of his disabilities and special needs, the accommodations that are
recommended in order for him to be successful and meet his academic goals,
input from his past general education teachers, and how he behaves and
performs in the classroom. As a result of these observations, I have also made
some recommendations for Frank’s future teachers.
The bell signifying the beginning of the 6th period English 11 class has rung
about two minutes ago. Frank, the subject of my case study, is a student in this
class and the following is a series of events that occur:
•
“Boy, is it toasty in here!” Frank exclaims as he makes his entrance
known. He walks to the back of the classroom to the spot that he has
become ever so familiar with, the heater. Frank does not sit in a seat like
the rest of the students to begin the day. Instead, Frank chooses to sit on
the heater in the back of the classroom and pull up a chair as a foot-rest.
Unconventional? Yes, but this has not caused him to become distracted
up to this point and his classmates do not seem to mind at all. We think
McCombs 3 that this has been a positive accommodation for Frank; it allows him to
feel as though he has some freedom in the classroom. I’ve found that
Frank responds negatively if he feels as though he is constantly being told
what to do. We do ask him to sit in his seat when we feel that what we are
doing in class calls for him to do so. Frank listens without questioning
authority.
•
I approach Frank with a smile and kindly make a suggestion, “See the
word wall up front? It would take you two minutes to get caught up with the
words you’ve missed.”
•
Doubtful that Frank would take the initiative to do this, I took it with a grain
of salt when he responded, “Oh don’t worry, I’ll get’em!”
•
I continue standing next to Frank while Teacher A presents today’s word
of the day. I don’t bother to ask Frank if he has a pencil, instead I grab
one off of my desk and hand it to him. “Well gee, thank ya!”, Frank
responds.
•
Today’s word of the day is alliteration.
•
“I know what alliteration is! It’s like slithery snake,” Frank comments in a
voice using a lisp. His comment was to me, but just loud enough to give a
few of his fellow students a chuckle.
•
Frank then adds, “Or like how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck could chuck wood!”
This time his comment was loud enough to capture everyone’s attention. Frank
tends to shout out his thoughts a lot in class. The responses from Teacher A and
McCombs 4 I vary, depending on the timeliness and appropriateness of Frank’s comment. In
this case, because Frank was attempting to provide an example of alliteration,
we went along with it. The following is a back and forth between Teacher A and
Frank:
Teacher A: “Well, I don’t know if that’s the best example.”
Frank: “How about Peter piper picked a pack of pickled peppers?” Frank
replies back.
Teacher A: “Yes, that is a great example! Good!”
Frank: “And Sally sells seashells by the seashore!”
Teacher A: “Yes, you’ve got it!”
Frank: (Responds with something that I didn’t quite understand.)
Teacher A (in response to Frank’s comment): “Woah, woah, woah. Okay,
let’s settle down... time to get quiet and get things started.”
More often than not, this is how this class period starts when Frank is present.
He is very outspoken, sometimes to a fault, as sometimes his comments are
impulsive and it’s as though he had not thought of the consequences of his
words before he spoke. On the other hand, Frank can be very insightful. I believe
that it his willingness to voice his opinion that sometimes causes other students
to be willing to participate and voice their opinions as well. To summarize, Frank
is a polarizing individual; he either can be a distraction to others or promote an
environment where everyone feels comfortable and makes valuable
contributions.
McCombs 5 The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) defines Attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as “one of the most common childhood disorders
and it can continue through adolescence and adulthood. Symptoms include
difficulty staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behavior, and
hyperactivity (over-activity)”. ADHD is categorized into 3 key behaviors:
inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity. Personally, I have observed
behaviors from Frank that could be considered inattentive and impulsive at times,
but not hyperactive.
According to his IEP, Frank's specific learning disability in written
language and his difficulty with attention to task affects his success across the
curriculum without learning support assistance and specially designed
instruction. As a result, the multidisciplinary team determined that he needs
learning support and specially designed instruction in order to participate
successfully in the general education curriculum.
Frank needs the following accommodations: assistance with
organizing/editing written work, preferential seating, graphic organizers, cues for
attention to task, assistance with organizational skills including completing and
turning in homework on time, assistance in studying for tests, and testing
accommodations to include extended time. The following is a chart of these
accommodations as they are presented in Frank’s IEP:
McCombs 6 Knowing the accomodations, I will need to develop a strategy to
differentiate my instruction accordingly. The U.S. Department of Education’s
Teaching Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder states the
following:
Teachers who are successful in educating children with ADHD use
a three-pronged strategy. They begin by identifying the unique
needs of the child. For example, the teacher determines how,
when, and why the child is inattentive, impulsive, and hyperactive.
The teacher then selects different educational practices associated
with academic instruction, behavioral interventions, and classroom
McCombs 7 accommodations that are appropriate to meet that child’s needs.
Finally, the teacher combines these practices into an individualized
educational program (IEP) or other individualized plan and
integrates this program with educational activities provided to other
children in the class.
The three-pronged strategy mentioned above consists of evaluating the child’s
individual needs and strengths, selecting appropriate instructional practices, and
integrating appropriate practices within an IEP for the student. I will utilize this
strategy in coordination with the observations that I’ve collected in my exploration
below.
When it comes to Frank’s learning, it seems as if he struggles with his
expression of the written language the most. To explore what exactly a disability
in with the written language entails, I decided to do some research. The following
is a quote that contributed to my understanding of the difficulty some students
have in communicating meaning:
Individuals with a written expression disorder have significant
difficulties in using writing to communicate meaning. They may
have trouble formulating sentences, organizing paragraphs, using
correct grammar and punctuation. They may have difficulty
generating ideas to write about and can be slow to get their
thoughts on paper. Their writing may be disorganized and
incoherent and they may display excessively poor handwriting.
Their ability to spell is often poorly developed. The difficulties in
McCombs 8 written expression significantly interfere with academic
achievement or with daily living activities that require writing skills.
(American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV-TR, 2000; Payne &
Turner, 1999.
I have observed Frank’s struggles with writing on more than one occasion.
During our “Writing a Review” mini unit, the students were asked to write a
review for a product that they are familiar with and have knowledge about. Frank
chose to write his review on a Duramax automotive engine. The students were
given adequate time to research their product’s specifications, manufacturer,
availability, price, pros, cons, and more. After witnessing Frank research his
product for two class periods, I asked him if I could see the progress he had
made on writing his paper. Frank resisted at first, but then after sensing my
sincere concern he gave in.
He showed me what appeared to be half of an introduction, to which I
responded, “Okay that’s fine, where are your notes?”.
“I’ve stored it all up here”, Frank replied while pointing to his head.
With this, I became really concerned. I asked Frank if he would go out into
the hallway with me. He complied, and I brought out a seat and desk for him to
work at. I brought out a laptop and another seat for myself and asked Frank if he
could verbalize his thoughts in a format that he would like to have them written.
At this point, I am well aware that Frank’s greatest strength is his verbal
comprehension and communication. I prompted him with questions about what
the pros and cons of the product were and then asked him to speak the
McCombs 9 sentences as he wished to see them written in his review. Of course he could not
remember all of the numbers, but I told him we could always go back and look
them up. He started to tell me the basics of the product, and I typed what he said
word for word. Within no time, he had an introduction. He then went on to tell me
the product’s pros and cons and I again recorded his words. In the end, Frank
was able to verbally communicate an adequate amount of information for a rough
draft. I shared this document with him and asked him to work with what was now
there. I told him that I did not correct any of his language, so he would need to go
back and proofread his work. To summarize, I acted as Frank’s scribe while he
verbally communicated the information for his product review. I did this as an
experiment, because I know that Frank did the work and the sufficient information
to write the paper in his head, but, for whatever reason, he was having great
difficulty transferring his thoughts onto paper. As a result of this experiment,
Frank was able to do the editing, formatting, and revision on his own and he
expressed that he found the practice very helpful for him.
Frank graciously volunteered to participate in my iMovie earlier this year.
During the process, I asked Frank what his thoughts on reading and writing were.
I purposely left the question to be open-ended and left very much to Frank’s
interpretation. I chose to do this in order to capture Frank’s true, unfiltered
opinion attitude to the two subject areas. Interestingly enough, Frank responded
with great honesty:
My views on reading and writing… (pauses) Well, I’m not the best
reader; it takes me a while to read stuff. Usually have to read it a
McCombs 10 couple times... I don’t like to do it, so I tend not to. I have to, but
that’s about it. Writing, I get really good thoughts in my head, but I
have a lot of trouble getting them on to the paper. So, it’s kind of a
love/hate relationship, but you just have to fight through it.
As you can see, Frank is well aware of his struggles with written communication.
In fact, he openly says that it is something that he has to “fight through”. This
made me ask myself, why is it that Frank has such difficulty with this process?
After reading extensively with this question in mind, I came across a quote that I
found insightful:
For most of these students, their writing difficulties are due to
problems with lower level transcription skills (e.g., spelling,
handwriting) rather than higher level composing skills (e.g.,
generation of ideas, editing, revising, organization) (Berninger,
Abbott, Whitaker, Sylvester, & Nolen, 1995). When students with
reading disabilities have difficulties with the higher level skills, it is
usually because the lower level transcription skills are not
automatized. Also, students who struggle with transcription skills
are devoting much time and energy to this lower level skill, using up
their attentional resources that could be directed at the more
complex tasks of composing and revising. (McCutcheon, 1988)
I find this quote relevant in Frank’s case because I have noted that he frequently
makes spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in his writing. I am beginning to
McCombs 11 think that Frank is focusing all of his energy in the thought process of how he is
going to go about writing (spelling, grammar, syntax, diction) as opposed to the
content he is going to write. He may have all of the ideas, as the quote suggests,
but is battling with how he go about phrasing them in a way that will meet the
requirements of the assignment. It is the lower level transcription skills that I was
attempting to eliminate for Frank when acting as his scribe. Although the
experiment proved to be successful, I know that this is not the long-term solution,
and that the key will be to build a foundation for Frank to build his skills off of.
Absences: Constantly Catching Up
Frank enters the classroom in a similar fashion to the observation I
recorded at the beginning of this case study. I do not feel as though his entrance
into the classroom was significantly different in any way worth recording.
What is worth noting is that it is Wednesday and this is Frank’s first day
attending school this week. Frank’s frequent absences from school this year are
troubling and problematic. Frank has fallen behind in his work a few times thus
far, and has had trouble catching back up when he returns. The reasoning
behind Frank’s absences remain unknown, but he is required to bring in a
doctor’s excuse for each absence this day forward.
The following is a series of observations I made during the class period:
•
I retrieve a pencil for Frank at the beginning of class and he thanks me.
•
Frank writes down the vocabulary word and definition as Teacher A
presents this information to the class.
McCombs 12 •
After word of the day, Teacher A explains today’s agenda. Afterwards, I
walk over to Frank and the following conversation ensues:
Frank: “What are we doing today?”, he says to me.
Me: “Didn’t you pay attention?”
Frank: (sighing) “Yeah”
Me: “Where have you been the past couple of days, Frank?”
Frank: “Sick.”
Me: “I’m sorry.”
Frank: “It’s okay, I had the flu.”
Me: “Oh no, did you see a doctor?”
Frank: “Yeah, he gave me some good drugs.” (chuckles)
Me: “I guess that’s a good thing.”
Frank: “Hey, can you sign this?”
Frank hands me a form for him to have signed. I hand it to Teacher A.
Teacher A: “Where are you going?”
Frank: “Florida.”
Me: “Must be nice.”
Frank: “Yeah, I go there every year around this time of year.”
Me: “Do you have family around that area?”
Frank: “Yeah, we have a place down there and my grandparents live down
there.”
Me: (realizing that time is being wasted) “Okay let’s get started your the reading,
Ryan will help you get caught up on the reading and presentation.”
McCombs 13 Frank: “We’ll just wing it.”
Me: “No, it’s two pages. You can read it very easily.”
Frank: “Listen, do you think George Washington had a plan when he led his
troops into battle? No. He just winged it.”
Me: “Okay, Frank let’s get…” (I am interrupted by Frank)
Frank: “Do you think Colonel Sanders had a plan when he made his famous
recipe? No. He winged it. He chicken winged it.”
Me: Ryan, please help Frank catch up with his work.
Realizing that I was giving Frank an audience, I decided to step away at this
moment. Only, his failure to stay on track with his work would continue
throughout the period. At times it would appear that he was reading, but then he
would have the urge to intervene in a conversation that was being held by a
group seated beside his own. Frank’s inattention and failure to concentrate on his
work is an issue in our classroom. I believe that Frank “fights” with the task of
writing so much that it leads him to be unmotivated and more distractible when
assigned a writing task. Frank is a very likeable person with a great sense of
humor and I believe he is aware of that as well. In fact, I think that he often times
his sociability and sense of humor aid in diverting his teachers, peers, and
himself away from the task at hand.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Frank is a student who I have found to be an absolute pleasure to have in
class. He is outgoing, confident, well-spoken, insightful, a leader, and has a great
McCombs 14 sense of humor. He is very passionate about Agriculture, and very
knowledgeable on the subject as well. Frank is very opinionated and has a lot of
productive thoughts running through his head that you will hear him voluntarily
verbalize, but reluctantly write down. As a result of having Frank in class and
conducting this case study, I have formulated a list of recommendations for his
future teachers:
•
Frank excels in verbally communicating what he knows and what he has
learned. He is very opinionated, and this can be used to your advantage to
create a discussion amongst the class. He is almost always willing to put
forth some kind of effort via verbal expression. When it is applicable,
Frank should be given the option to be assessed using this mode of
communication.
•
Frank’s biggest weakness is in written communication. Although Frank
has some great thoughts going on in his head, he has great difficulty
transferring them onto paper. I believe that acting as a scribe for Frank,
having him record his thoughts, and asking him to hand write during the
brainstorming process could be positive steps toward helping him toward
becoming a better writer. He lacks confidence in his writing abilities right
now. Because he can get down on himself, you may need to reassure
Frank that he is capable of performing the task at hand. Hopefully these
steps will help him improve and see for himself the potential he has.
McCombs 15 •
Do not give Frank an audience. He has a very likeable personality and a
great sense of humor, but don’t give in. Frank will only continue his jokes
and antics if he sees that you find him amusing. My best advice would be
to ignore his remarks, noises, singing, and other instances of him acting
out. If he does not receive a reaction, he will stop.
•
Be lenient. Frank has expressed (like most students) a distaste for the
confines of school. He feels as though school is “like a prison” and wishes
that teachers weren’t so strict. Frank will purposely try to find ways to
disrupt class if he feels as though he has no freedom or room to show his
personality. I would suggest asking Frank why he dislikes an assignment
as opposed to disregarding his comments. More often than not, he will
give you a rational reasoning and an insightful answer worth your time and
consideration. It is not any teacher’s goal to turn students into robots, so
this shouldn’t be much of an adjustment.
•
Try to show Frank the relevancy in what it is you are teaching. Frank is
very passionate about agriculture. You will capture Frank’s attention if you
can relate what you are doing to something he will need in his future
aspirations of becoming an agriculture mechanic. I am a firm believer that
relevancy fosters motivation. Judging by Frank’s contributions to my
iMovie, he does as well.
McCombs 16 Works Cited
American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV-TR. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical
manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Berninger, V., Abbott, R., Whitaker, D., Sylvester, L., & Nolen, S. (1995).
Integrating low-level skills in treatment protocols for writing disabilities.
Learning Disability Quarterly, 18, 293-309.
Payne, T., & Turner, E. (1999). Dyslexia: A parents’ and teachers’ guide.
Clevedon, North Somerset, UK: Multilingual Matters.
United States. Department of Education. Teaching Children with Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder: Instructional Strategies and Practices. Jessup: ED
Pubs, 2008. Web.
Wawryk-Epp, Lynne, Dr. Gina Harrison, and Dr. Bill Prentice. Teaching Students
with Reading Difficulties and Disabilities: A Guide for Educators.
Saskatchewan Learning, 2004. Web.
<http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/reading-difficulties-disabilities>.