Child+Study

Child Study Project

I conducted the child study during my first rotation in Fallston Middle School. Student J was a male in the beginning of his 8th grade year.

Classroom Observational Notes Date: September 10th, 2013 1. Actions and context of those actions: Student yawns and stretches, but generally pays attention. During the read aloud of text (//Flowers for Algernon//) he follows the text with his eyes. During class discussion he actively looks for noted evidence. He puts his head down into book but quickly lifts it. Occasionally scratches his neck and fidgets legs. The student is unable to find a third trait on the worksheet when instructed to – only records material the teacher records. He sits with his head in his hands. During group work that follows teacher modeling, he edits his work according to what his group-mates say. It takes the student longer to record information than his peers. His materials are organized in a binder.

2.Words and context of those words (be specific about what was said and the situation): When the teacher asks what a rabbit’s foot is for, he mutters “for luck” under his breath. He asks the aid of his special educator at points to read material to him. When the teacher asks the student directly how the character in the text feels about failing the text he responds, “Bad.” Prompting is required for his to answer. When talking to peers to decide on work responses, he actively participates. He says, “K, what else? Nervous, you wanna do that?” For justification he uses the text citation, “I had a test today and failed it.” As the student records, he speaks the text out loud, though not always.

3. Participation in class (raising hand/not trying unless prompted/never raising hand/turning in homework, etc): When the class is instructed to fill out a worksheet, the student takes his time doing so. He follows directions but doesn’t volunteer. He records information faithfully. The student raises his hand to say he agrees with a classmate’s statement even though he is the only person to raise their hand. The student becomes completely engaged in group work. After class the student will ask his teacher about assignments; he will only ask for clarification when he is not in front of his peers.

4. Interactions with teacher and classmates: The student appears reliant on mentor figures, specifically his Special Educator. In group work he is active and focused. He often copies what classmates write as if seeking their approval that he has the correct answer. Classmates notice his copying and attempt to make it easier for him by moving their papers closer to him. During group work he is willing to challenge classmate’s ideas if he doesn’t disagree, but he does so in a kind way – “How so?” His tone is curious and challenging, but not condemning. He gives no response to positive reinforcement from teachers. When his classmates sing Happy Birthday to one of his peers, he does not sing and neither does the majority of the class. Classroom Observational Notes Date: October 3rd, 2013 1. Actions and context of those actions: The student participates in class work. He had a typed copy of his rough draft for the Algernon essay ready when he entered the class. The student stays in his seat all period, listens attentively when the teacher speaks, and actively talks to friends and peers after his work is finished. He will not actively seek aid in reading and writing, but immediately accepts the aid when it is offered with relief in his voice. Even when other students get up and walk around the room, he stays in his seat until the teacher says that the class may leave for the next period.

2. Words and context of those words (be specific about what was said and the situation): During individual, aided reading with me, he asks, “How is that word spelled?” repeatedly. When prompted, he will answer questions. He pays attention to, and can analyze, what is said in a text: “They don’t explain their quotes at all.” “The ending doesn’t actually say anything.” However, the student is confused when asked to analyze punctuations and spelling. He will answer with statements about the context instead of the sentence structure. Me – “Is this sentence’s structure correct? It’s punctuation?” Student J – “The statement doesn’t explain why they used the quote.”

3. Participation in class (raising hand/not trying unless prompted/never raising hand/turning in homework, etc): Student J had all of his materials ready; he was prepared for class. He edited his peer’s rough draft (with my aid of verbatim reading) and gave it back to his peer. However, the student had no interest in even attempting to read his peer’s edits of his own draft. Once his work is ‘done’ the student stops doing any additional work unless otherwise directed. He prefers to talk to his friends instead.

4.Interactions with teacher and classmates: Classmates say, “Hey J*!” when they are not engaged in the lesson and waiting between activities. Student J responds, “Hey N*!” and waves. The students sitting next to student J point to statements on his and their papers; they all giggle together. Another student walks by after the lesson’s work is done and says to Student J, “Let me see that bracelet of yours”. Student J responds, “No.” In response, the original student says, “Fine, next period then.” Every response he makes is kind, but he has firm boundaries. While the student is not directly engaged in conversations, he follows what other people are doing around the room by watching them. Classroom Observational Notes Date: October 8th, 2013 1. Actions and context of those actions: The student wraps his arms around his legs (wearing shorts), seemingly because he is cold. He plays with his socks discreetly before sitting up straight with his hands folded in his lap. Student J’s body language projects an interest in the videos shown of Christopher Reeve discussing his accident. The student does not fill out his worksheet during the videos; instead he waits for breaks in order to ask the special educator for aid. When instructed to record his homework, he gets out his planner and writes down the assignment, copying the directions from the board. When he puts his work away, it is into an organized binder. Until dismissed from class he remains in his seat.

2. Words and context of those words (be specific about what was said and the situation): Student J laughs when another student refers to Christopher Reeves catheter bag as a “body bag”. Later in the period he asks the Special Educator for aid: Student J - “How do you spell this?” Special Educator – “Ad…” There are multiple occasions where the student will ask educators, privately, how to spell words in his writing. Correct spelling is obviously important to Student J. This period he is relatively silent as most of the class period was watching videos of Christopher Reeve.

3. Participation in class (raising hand/not trying unless prompted/raising hand/turning in homework, etc): Student J completes all assignments and is attentive to my mentor’s directions and instructions. He sits silently in an attentive posture for the majority of the period; when he does fidget it is discreetly. The student continues to not raise his hand when questions are asked of the class. He never calls out, instead Student J watches everything that occurs and listens to everything his classmates say.

4. Interactions with teacher and classmates: Me – “Would you like me to work with you on this?” in regards to the Interest Survey I passed out to the students. Student J – “I’m good right now.” He enjoys being asked questions in regards to things he knows or enjoys. Specifically, when I asked him about some of his answers on the Interest Survey he was eager to share. During this period there was a substitute Special Educator. She sat down next to him the entire period, an action that his traditional Special Educator would never do as it singles him out as needing the most aid. Student J leaned slightly away from the substitute Special Educator throughout the entire period. The student continues to ask educators for aid. At the end of class when his peers call his name, the Student looks at them and smiles expectantly.













Child Study Reflection Student J is an eighth grade male in a below target class. Before selecting this child for my child study I noticed that he is socially active with all of his peers, actively engages in English class, and is concerned with behaving courteously to all adults in the school, myself included. Not only does this student engage well with his peers, male and female alike, he is also accepted and liked by his peers. The discrepancy I observed while originally engaging with the student is that he has an IEP which requires all texts to be read to him. At first, I wondered if this accommodation was included because the student had not been taught how to read effectively and independently; however, I noticed that as the recordings of the texts were played in the class the student was able to easily follow along with the words in the text. The student was also able to, as well as desired to, actively engage in small group discussions about the text; going so far as to be able to look back at the text and identify text citations to support his ideas. Following a discussion with my mentor I decided to focus on Student J for my child study in the hopes of determine the precise cause for his IEP modification of having all materials read to him. A majority of my understanding of the student’s needs came from my discussion with his school guidance counselor, from observing him during the eighth grade field trip to Washington D.C., and from the parent conference with his mother on October 3rd, 2013. Student J’s guidance counselor has worked with him since he entered middle school in the 6th grade. She emphasized that the majority of her interactions occurred with the student when his mother called regarding an issue with his accommodations not being implemented in the classroom; the student will not acknowledge his frustration when an accommodation is not provided for him during the school day, but will immediately talk to his mother when he gets home. The guidance counselor informed me that his tendency to hold his frustration in until his is home with his mother stems from his desire to avoid being humiliated by his peers. As such, he will not advocate for himself at school. Physically the student is healthy and active in sports throughout the year, specifically soccer. Socially, he has many friends and communicates well with others. Emotionally, the student adapts to new situations well, but as stated above, fails to advocate for himself when it comes to his reading disability. While examining Student J’s cumulative folder with the guidance counselor, I paid specific attention to the reasoning behind the implementation of his IEP. According to the student’s folder, his need for aid derives from a developmental/cognitive deficiency, not a socially or environmentally constructed complication. The student is able to read a text, but is unable to comprehend words that he will recognize orally; he has severe trouble decoding words. The student is competent at comprehending and analyzing picture representations, symbols, and active demonstrations, but words and numbers tend to be impossible for him to decipher when combined into words or equations. Before his IEP was implemented, the student consistently received D’s in all subjects, but once his IEP accommodations were implemented the student’s grades rose to A’s and B’s across all subjects. Finally, the meeting with Student J’s mother on October 3rd, 2013, revealed that the student needs additional time to complete work and established that the student is not allowed to refuse verbatim reading during school. My observations of Student J during the fieldtrip to Washington D.C. supported my initial observations as well as the information I learned from his guidance counselor and cumulative folder. Student J was actively engaged with all of his peers and enjoyed the activities, like all of the male students in his group, which allowed him to directly manipulate or touch something. While he shied away from reading texts, the student easily became engaged in visual representations and became excited when he could share his discoveries with peers and adults. Finally, it is important to note that the student responded positively to encouragement and praise during the fieldtrip and tended to increase his participation when it was provided. While I learned more from active discussions with Student J’s special educator, his guidance counselor, my mentor, the two articles I read regarding challenges with decoding offered some interesting ideas that may aid in instructing Student J. The first article I read, //How word decoding skills impacts text memory: The centrality deficit and how domain knowledge can compensate//, stressed the importance of building a child’s prior knowledge base before reading instructional and literacy texts. The study found that students with poor reading comprehension and decoding skills who had background knowledge of a subject prior to reading were able to better comprehend texts because the knowledge base served as a prime, cueing the reader to the ideas that should be attended to and recalled. The second article, //The fluency fallacy//, emphasized the importance of not mistaking reading fluency for reading comprehension. In the article, the author provided seven activities that may be implemented in the classroom to aid students with poor reading skills to improve their text comprehension. Examples include oral readings by the teacher, repeated reading of a text, reading student materials on the wall, engaging students in a reader’s theater, echo reading, and read-alongs to audio-books. By drawing from the information I learned about Student J, my discussions with other educators, and the articles I read about reading comprehension for students with challenges in decoding, I have concluded that there are multiple classroom practices that would better serve this student in his instruction and learning. First, providing audio-books for the student as well as hard copies of the texts for the student to be able to engage in read-alongs to the audio-books would aid the student in his instruction at home as well as in school. Second, providing graphic organizers for the student as he reads and for classwork would aid the student in focusing on the overall meaning of activities and readings instead of allowing him to become distracted by minute details. Additionally, the student should be provided with work that allows him to actively construct or manipulate it whenever possible and should receive positive feedback consistently to bolster his self-confidence; this could lead to a willingness in the student to self-advocate. Due to the student’s enjoyment of small group work, such an environment should be integrated into instruction whenever possible. Beyond his enjoyment of the activity, Student J actively learns from his peers during discussions and is able to voice his opinions more frequently without as large of a risk of embarrassment as exists during class discussions. From the journal articles I read the two most effective instructional activities that would aid the student are echo reading where a teacher or parent reads to a student aloud as they both read from the same text and building the student’s background knowledge so that he is familiar with the subject matter he reads. Finally, it would behoove the student to have a personal word bank that represents how Student J phonetically sounds out a word and how the word is actually spelled. Reading comprehension is a necessity for all human beings across all subject areas. Having focused on a student who requires additional aid in learning how to comprehend texts will aid me in my future classroom to address the needs of students who have trouble with reading comprehension due to their lack of experience with reading and being read to, as well as students who cognitively are challenged by decoding. All of the activities that I have listed above can be used with students in classrooms across all grade levels in order to increase text comprehension as well as fluency. I am also better equipped with knowledge and understanding for developmental disorders that are not obviously evident in students in order to addresses the student’s social and emotional needs to ensure that the student feels safe in my classroom.

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