Student
Case Study
Student: Idalia – 4th grade student
Background
Idalia is a 10 year old girl
in grade 4. Her father holds a high position in a foreign invested company, her
mother a business woman running a chain of shops selling jewelry, purse, and
lady’s accessories. Idalia has one
younger sister in PreK. Her parents are dynamic and supportive members of the
school community. Her mother is an active member of the PTO and uses to help in
school wide events. Sometimes she drops and picks her children at and from
school, however mostly their caregivers take care of these two girls. Her
parents are original African but work and stay in UK for a long time. The
children were both born in the UK and obtain the UK passports. The family has
traveled frequently and children often skip many school days. Idalia has
registered many after school activities like dance, music, and art.
Idalia's strengths include:
- A native and well developed oral
vocabulary because she was born and grew up in the states until 9 years
old,
- Ability to confidently perform in
talent show of the school, especially music and dance,
- Ability to confidently share a broad
base of knowledge with adults in One to One conversation,
- Ability to make valuable
contributions to discussions in Music and Visual Arts,
- Ability to demonstrate Art skills
at her grade level ahead of given time
- Grade appropriate skills in social
studies and reading
- Grade level test taking skills
During the first two months
of Grade 4, I noticed the following areas of concern:
- Frequent absences in my class for her
family travels
- Talks constantly about how rich her
family is and frequently interrupts teacher and peers by her laughter
- Gets out of seat and wanders around
inappropriately
- Argue and conflict with other
students in groups, especially girls and new comers
- Often make noise while sitting on
a chair
- Risk taking to the dangerous level
like sitting on an unbalanced two leg chair instead of a firm four leg
chair, and standing on a tissue paper roll
- Spreading paints all over her
hands and on her own T-shirt and intentionally on other’s ones
- Jam herself in cleaning teams and
make troubles by splashing water everywhere
- Squeeze two different colors of
paint in a running water to see how the color being mixed
- Deny her fault when provided
feedback on behavior (interrupting, disrupting)
- Hide herself after others in
presenting group’s ideas in front of the class
- Incorporate with others in group
works/projects and difficult to find a common solution with peers for the
same assignment
- Take potential risks relating to
the health of others. One day during the PE class, she
found the kit on the field and reported to the PE teacher. He immediately
recognized it because the diabetes cases were already alerted and all
teachers were trained to take needed action in case. So he requested her
to return the kit to the girl who lost it. She came to my classroom and
noticed me that she found something special on my paper shelf. The girl
who lost it immediately felt unsecure and cried. The whole class was
paused to solve the issue. On that day, it took me 15 minutes to solve the
problems, handled the relating persons to the nurse, and came down the
intense atmosphere in the classroom.
Action plans
1. Bring the concerns to the school Counselor
and other subject teachers
I discussed these concerns with Idalia's other
subject area teachers. It turns out that the impulsivity and hyperactivity had
been observed in other classes. I made an appointment with the school counselor
and was confirmed with evidences she used to be like that in the previous year,
and especially this year she happens to have more lunches in the Principal or
Counselor’s office.
2. Report internally to colleagues and to
parents regarding the potential health risks she might cause to her friend
I drafted a fact based report to the School
nurse and related teachers on the day the missing diabetes kit was found in my
classroom. After reviewing all reports from teachers in this case, it turned
out that she played tricks on us even though she clearly knew who has diabetes
and needs special help from teachers and peers. The mother came to the school
the day after and had the meeting with relating teachers, the counselor and the
nurse. She apologized and promised to take actions with Idalia at home.
3. Review rules and behavioral expectations
4R is our agreed rule set at the beginning of the school, which
stands for respecting others, materials, environment, and yourself. The class
gathered in a circle and discussed about how we show our respect in Art
classroom and at school. Then students work in groups to share and present
their ideas in a poster, and signed their names on their work and hung their
poster on the wall. Idalia participated in her group discussion and seemed to
realize her actions are inappropriate.
4. Seat Arrangement
Arrange her seat in order to ensure she can stay focus, not
bother others, and in my close eyes.
5. Peer Assessment
Art Critiques is a method to evaluate and judge other’s artwork.
Generally, her artworks demonstrate her grade skill levels; however she likes
to mess them up after finishing by accident or by intention. When she realized
that artworks will be evaluated and assessed, and not everyone can get the same
good score, then she cared more for her products
6. Peer-helper
One friend in the class broke his hand during a weekend and he
could not continue his paper mache African Mask within 3 periods. In this project,
Idalia was the first student who completed her work nicely and neatly. I then
asked her to pair with him and help him. She accepted with a big proud and
shiny smile. She actively came to sit with him, showed him step by step and
became his second hand. They both made two creative animal masks for the
exhibition in the last December.
7. Promote Responsibility with Positive
Comments and a Praise system
To educate Responsibility along with an awarding system, I hang
a big poster down from the ceiling in the center of the classroom and a
bulletin board for “Responsibility Counts” placed on one class door. To count
each responsibility, I define expected responsibility into small jobs and
students who can complete their jobs will collect stars and either place them
on the board or on their own portfolio.
Surprisingly, Idalia was the one who collected the most stars in
the class. She realized how many works I had to prepare before her class came
and after they all left. She came to talk to me and willingly stayed after
class to help cleaning all materials and dust brought into my class after their
PE time. Some other students were affected by her attitude and also decided to
lend us a hand. They all sang and worked happily, shared storied how they
helped to clean bedrooms, gardens, and kitchens with their mothers.
I was truly touched by her attitude and decided to record that
lovely moment. When we shared this clip with the whole class and officially praised
her and others in front of the class, she was confident to stand up and spoke
to the whole class her feelings to become a teacher’s helper. She was then
voted as a class end clean-up manager, her team now has more and more helping
members who are not only responsible for their own working space but also for
the whole class.
Being generous with immediate and positive comments has a
tremendous impact on students particularly. It is one of the most common sense
for everyone. Praising plus constructivism always works better than criticism.
Conclusion
Idalia is not the only case among my 240 students. Elementary
students are active agents who store unlimited source of energy the whole day
long. They see me one per four days and mostly fall into the afternoon, after
lunch. Keeping them focus and engaged after lunch time is a big challenge for
me. Learning from Idalia’s case, I have been making many changes in my ways of
teaching and controlling the class. Children love exploring, in their space,
and with novel ideas. Physical class design and setting for circulation,
individual and group works are very important. Giving them opportunities to
bring value to the class by meaningful action with peers and for teacher will
help to boost the confidence, the engagement, and the continuous effort.
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