Case Study

Case Study 2011-2012

August 2011:  I chose this particular student to be my case study because of an experience that I had with him on the first week of school.  I had taught a lesson on "What's in a Name" and had an activity where each student learned where their name came from and what it meant.  We did several getting to know you activities with this lesson.  Toward the end of the lesson I put a writing prompt up on the Smart Board and asked the students to write in their writing journals for ten minutes.  This student raised his hand and so I went over to help him.  He told me that he could not do the writing prompt.  When I asked him why, he told me that he could not read what the prompt was.  At first I thought that maybe he was joking with me, but as I talked with him more, I realized that he really could not read what was displayed on the board.  Later that day, I wrote a note down in my Teacher's Notebook to remind me to check into the student's CRT scores and to try and find out who his teacher was the previous year.

As far as behavior goes, this student is very easily distracted and has a hard time staying on task.  He will try to get up and wander the classroom during whole-group instruction, constantly tries to leave and go to the restroom, taps on his desk with his pencils, fidgets constantly, leans back on his chair, bounces in his chair, blurts out at inappropriate times with things that do not pertain to what is going on in class.  I know that he is not intentionally trying to disrupt the class.  He is a good kid, it just seems at times that his mind is racing 1,000 miles per hour and he is unaware of how to control it.

September 2011- After much contemplation about this student, I decided that the best thing that I could do for him was to give him as much small group and one-on-one instruction as possible.  I have been able to pull him back often and also made arrangements for him to go to Mrs. West, our reading aide, for half an hour four days a week.

I was able to find his CRT scores for his fourth-grade year and found that he scored extremely low on all of his CRT's.  I figured that would be the case since he cannot read.  I talked with his teacher from last school year and tried to find out if this student had been referred for Special Ed testing.  The teacher said he had never referred this student, but did not really have an explanation as to why he did not refer him.  I decided that I wanted to refer this student so that I could try and get him all the help I can before he enters sixth-grade next year.

I met with the student's mother at SEP's and discussed with her what my plans were.  She was more than grateful and even broke down in tears thanking me for being the one to finally get her son the help she has been asking for since he was in the second grade.  It was a very emotional meeting, and to be honest, I too had wondered how her son had made it to the fifth-grade and not been referred by any of his other teachers.

I met with my PLC Leader and was given the paperwork to fill out in order to have the student referred for testing.  I contacted the student's mother and let her know that her child had been referred and to look for more information to come home.  I hope that the referral process does not take too long.  I really want this student to get the help he so desperately needs. 

October 2011- I have been able to find some successes with my case study student, which really excites me.  I realized that he was understanding math and how the mathematical concepts worked when we were doing whole-group instruction.  However, when his test scores came back, they were consistently 30 - 40%.  I knew from his answers in class and when I worked with him in small groups that he knew the concepts better than his scores showed.  I decided that I would pull him back to my back table during our math tests and read the questions to him and have him work the problems.  The very first time that I did this, the student got 100% on his math test for the week.  The look on his face when I told him that he had 100% made my entire day.  He was so excited and told me that he had NEVER gotten 100% on ANYTHING in school before.

We took a science test on matter.  I wanted to try having the student take the test on his own and then have him retake the test with me reading him the questions to him.  He took the first test and received 30%.  Later that afternoon, I pulled him back to my table and read each question to him.  When I scored the test that I read to him, the student got 90%.  That is a 60% improvement.  I know that he is very bright and understands the concepts when they are taught, there is just a disconnect in his reading that we need to try and find a way to solve.  Once he can start reading and comprehending what he reads, the sky will be the limit for him in his studies.

The referral process is taking much longer than I anticipated.  I really hope to hear back soon to see if he qualifies for extra help in reading.

November 2011- My case study student was tested for ADHD this month, but has yet to be tested by the Special Education teacher.  I am glad that some of the testing has been started and hope that he will be tested soon with the other tests to see if he qualifies for Special Education.  Because the student does not have an IEP stating that I can read the Treasures Unit Tests to him, it is always heartbreaking to see him struggling when we take those tests.  I know that he struggles, and I know that if the tests were read to him that his scores would be significantly higher than they are.  Each time we go into the computer lab to take one of the unit tests he asks me if I can help him read it.  I feel horrible when I have to tell him no.  I can see him struggling to try and decode the reading portions, he tries for a while to read them and then gets frustrated and just starts clicking answers on the test.  It is hard for me to know what he really knows or needs extra help with because I know the questions have all just been answered by guessing.

I have continued to pull him back and read the formative tests to him in class.  His math tests have continued to stay extremely high.  He scored an 80%, 85%, 100%, 100%, 100% on the last five math tests.  As long as he knows what the question is asking him to do, he is able to understand how to work the problems.

He continues to struggle with his reading.  After giving him several fluency tests and going over his DIBELS tests, he is on about a late first or early second grade reading level.  The problem is that because he spends so much time trying to decode what he reads, by the time he gets to the end of a paragraph, he has no idea what he has read.  There is absolutely no comprehension connecting in his reading.  I pull him back and work with him as often as I can, but it really seems as though there is some kind of an issue that may need more help that I am able to give; however, I will keep trying to help him find as much success in this school year as possible.

December 2011- This student continues to find a lot of success in math and science when he is given help with the reading portions.  I have also started giving him the bubble style spelling tests in order to try and help him to gain some confidence in his abilities to spell.

I have noticed that he is very comfortable now to come and let me know if he does not understand how to read something.  I try and push him a little bit beyond what he thinks that he can do because I don't want my helping him to read to become a crutch for him.  I still want him to stretch himself as far as he can so that we can try and raise his reading abilities as high as possible this year.

The student is still very easily excitable.  He gets off task quickly and has a hard time maintaining concentration for any period of time.  Often times he will kneel on his seat or stand next to his desk.  At first I would try and make him sit down in his seat the right way, but I realized that he really needs the stimulation of changing his sitting position.  If he is trapped in his seat for long periods of time, he becomes very loud and fidgets even more than normal.  He will still blurt out at inappropriate times with things that do not pertain at all to what is being taught.  He is very respectful when I remind him that he is off task and will do his best to try and get back on task  I can see his mind moving a million miles an hour and his body just wants to try and keep up with his mind most of the time.

January 2012- I am still waiting for testing to be done on my case study student.  I am frustrated because I know that if he had an IEP that I would not feel so much like my hands were tied with what I could and could not help him read during testing.

I have seen small improvements with his reading.  Nothing major, but he is getting better at decoding and I have seen some improvement in his comprehension.  Still nothing near a fifth-grade level, but improvement none-the-less.

I talked to the school counselor about getting my student one of the exercise balls to sit on instead of a regular chair.  I read an article on how the exercise balls helped to stimulate some students who had a hard time focusing in class.  I have been tracking how many times I have to redirect the student to be back on task and when we get the exercise ball I will compare the difference between the redirects with a regular chair and an exercise ball.  It will be interesting to see if there is any change.  The exercise ball will probably be in my classroom by the end of this month and I will see if there is any improvement or not in this student's ability to concentrate.    

February 2012-  Still no testing.  I have decided that even though it seems that my referral at SST for my case study student is taking forever that I will keep trying different strategies in class to help this student.  I have tried to pull him back in small group instruction as often as possible.  Small group makes it easier for me to keep in focused and on task.  He has a very short attention span and anything I do to help him stay focused seems to be helpful.  I have noticed that anything I can do to help him stay busy is also helpful.  Since he cannot stay sitting still for very long, if I have him do things for me that keep him up and moving around a bit more than the other students, that seems to help so he does not complain about being bored or from disrupting other students.  

I changed his Math Team this month and made him a "Co-Team Leader".  Since his math skills are high, I know that it is possible for him to do the math and to help other students do math problems they are stuck on.  It seemed to be a boost to his self-confidence knowing that he was able to help other students with their math.  Last week he came and asked me if he was one of the best math students in class.  When I told him that he was, he seemed to grin from ear to ear.  His mother met with me and told me that she has seen his confidence in his abilities at school grow by leaps and bounds this year.  She also thanked me for all that I have done for her son and told me again how grateful she is that he is in my class.  It made me feel good to know that his mother has seen improvement.

The exercise ball seems to help this student.  There are times when he will get a bit out of control and bounce like crazy on it.  Usually all it takes is a gentle reminder that it is a chair not a toy and he will slow the bouncing down.  It is still much better than when he had a regular school chair.  He was constantly leaning back on the chair, standing up, kneeling on the chair, rocking on the chair, etc.  The ball seems to help him focus and has made a difference.  I am certain that I will keep him on the exercise ball for the rest of the school year, unless for some reason he decides that he does not want to sit on it any longer.

March 2012- 5 months. Hard to believe that it was five months ago that I referred my case study at SST.  His mother is anxious to get him tested and I know that I am anxious for testing.  I have talked to my staff developer and asked her if it normally takes this long for testing.  Since this is my first experience with referring a student I have no idea how long the process normally takes.  I have visited with the Special Ed teacher on several occasions and she just keeps telling me to be patient.  

During SEP's my case study's mother was very frustrated and concerned that her son is still waiting for testing to be done.  She told me that she is going to meet with the principal and ask why this process is taking as long as it is.  I hope she can get the answers that I cannot seem to get.  Last time I asked, once again I was told to just be patient.  It is hard when I see a student with a need that is not being met and it is taking so long for him to get the help that he needs.  I am trying to stay positive and at least know that hopefully by next school year the process will be done and he will be given the tools he needs in order to help him find success in reading.

I met with Mrs. West and we discussed the progress that she has seen with my case study student.  She told me that she has seen small progress with his reading comprehension and so she feels like what I am doing with him in class and during small group instruction is helping. She has worked with this student for 2 years now and feels that he definitely needs testing done so that he can be diagnosed with whatever struggles he has with reading comprehension.  She feels that the student will not overcome his reading disabilities without extra help of some kind.  

April 2012-  It has now been six months since I referred my case study student.  He was pulled one day for some testing after his mother went and spoke with the principal.  They said that further testing would need to be done, but I have heard nothing about anymore testing.  I plan on meeting with the Special Ed teacher again later this month just to see if she has anymore answers for me or not.  I was really hoping that his testing would be done before he had to take CRT's so that he could have some help with the reading portions.  It doesn't look like this will be the case.  

The student has started a program called Success Maker which tracks the grade level of the student in Language Arts and Mathematics.  He is on about a second grade reading level, which is up from the beginning of the school year.  At the beginning of this school year, I would have placed him on about a first grade reading level, or even a little bit lower.  So, definitely there is some improvement.  His math skills continue to be his strong suit.  He is continuing to score high on our math assessments and on Success Maker, he is nearing a 6th grade level in math.  I feel that he would be even higher in math if he were able to read the math story problems without having to decode so many of the words.  As far as computing math problems, he is able to do that with ease.  

I have noticed that the student has very strong memorization skills.  He is able to quickly memorize concepts and instructions.  He uses memorization as a way to compensate for his lack of reading skills.  He will ask me or another student how to spell something and will quickly memorize it so that he can use it in his writing.  He will ask for instructions to be read to him and I can see him trying to memorize the instructions so that he does not have to ask again.  It is great to know that he can memorize, but it would be so much more beneficial to help him find a way to decode and read at a higher level.  I think my greatest regret this school year will be that I have not been able to get him the help he so desperately needed. 

Case Study 2012-2013

My case study this year was a student who came into the fifth grade reading on a second grade level.  Even though he read on a second grade level, his comprehension skills were far below that.  He spent so much time decoding as he read, that by the time he got to the end of the paragraph, he had no idea what he was reading about.

I chose this student because he had come to me at the beginning of the school year and had expressed the desire to become a better reader.  He told me that he wanted to be like the other kids in class and wanted to be able to read books on his own.  I talked to him about the things that we could do in order to achieve that goal and he seemed receptive to them.

This student's home life is quite difficult.  He comes from a large family and has a single mom trying to make ends meet.  The children are often home alone and there is not a lot of support available at home to help the student when he needs it.  One of the aides at our school lives next door to my case study student and she has a son his age.  She has offered to have my student come over to her house in the evenings and work with her son on homework and reading.  My student has gone over a few times, but it is nothing that has become a habit.

The student struggles just having his basic needs met and at times comes to school and asks if I have a granola bar or something he can eat because he didn't have breakfast.  We do have breakfast available at school, but often times he shows up so late that breakfast is over.  The student also comes to school in the same worn out clothes day after day.  His shoes are completely worn through and his shirt has several large holes in it.  I was able to find some clothes to give to the student and he was so excited to get these "new" clothes.  I was trying to make arrangements for him to get some new shoes, but thankfully his dad came to visit him one weekend and bought him a new pair.

I work with the student each day in small group instruction.  I give him constant  POSITIVE feedback and suggest ways that he can improve.  I call home often and leave messages with his mom letting her know successes that he has had in school that week so that she can play a role in the positive feedback.

The impact that all of this had on the student was easy to see.  He made significant improvement in his reading levels and his overall attitude about school changed immensely as the year progressed.  He would get so excited when he would score well on an assessment or when he would finish a book in reading group.

I spent a lot of time evaluating what I was doing with the student and continually looked to find ways to build on and improve on his successes.  I am happy to report that because of his hard work and determination, that the student scored on grade level on all three of his CRT's (science, language, and math).  This is the first time he has passed his CRT's and he could not have been more proud of himself!

Case Study 2013-2014

August- October 2013

I chose this particular student for my case study because I feel like she could use some extra help in staying caught up in class and with testing.  When the school year started, I found out that this student had suffered a significant loss a year ago when she lost one of her parents to cancer.  The student currently lives with her grandparents and seems to be doing well emotionally, at least for the most part.

I noticed that she was gone quite a bit a couple of weeks ago and found out that it was the anniversary of the death of her parent.  Some of her friends told me she was struggling emotionally and went home to spend some time with her aunts and cousins.  Because of these absences, she has fallen behind in her schoolwork and is having a hard time getting caught up.

I have been working with her in interventions to make sure that she gets the missing work completed and I have also spent time in class, when possible, helping her with the concepts that she is missing.
When we took our first test, she scored well and was so happy about it.  She came up and told me that she wasn't expecting to pass the test and that she could not believe that she had.

Since this student did not pass the CRT's in science last year, I will continue to work with the student and make sure that she does not fall behind in her classwork.  I will also make sure and refer her to EXCEL and interventions, when needed, in order to make sure that she has the extra help she needs at times.  My goal is to help her gain a deeper understanding of the science concepts taught and so she can pass the CRT in science at the end of this school year.

November-December 2013

Absences continue to be an issue with this student.  In order to help her stay caught up, I stamp her to come into interventions on a regular basis.  When she comes in for interventions, I always try and make sure she has the work she is missing and I will sit down and work with her one-on-one or in small groups.  I have also assigned peer tutors to work with her and help her complete missing assignments.

The student is so quiet in class, often times it is difficult during class time to know if she is grasping the concepts.  I have found that if I work with her in small groups during interventions that will usually give me a better idea of what concepts she needs help on.

First term she had 7 absences and scored 80% on our Standard 5 Test and had an overall grade of an A-.  Second term she had 15+ absences and scored 72% on our Standard 1 Test.  She ended up with an overall grade of a C- for this term.  It is obvious that her attendance does have an impact on her learning outcomes.

January- February 2014

After Christmas Break I sat down with the student and put together all of her missing assignments.  I went over as much of the information as possible.  It is difficult when a student misses over two full weeks of instruction.  There is a lot of background information needed in order to understand the concepts once a student comes back from being gone.

I am continuing to work with her in small groups during interventions.  I have her in my interventions 3-4 times a week.

March- April 2014 

At this point in third trimester my case study student has 15 absences and 1 tardy.  She is currently missing five assignments and has not yet taken our Standard 4 test because she has so much missing work to make up before she will test.

I will continue to work with her as often as I can during interventions.  I am still pulling her in 3+ days a week.  Basically anytime she is not stamped for another class, I am pulling her into mine and working with her.

May 2014