Ptasienski

Lindsay Ptasienski
CI 475
October 29, 2010

Individual Child

Introduction

For the individual child report, I studied Joe Gardner (name changed for confidentiality),

a sixth grader at Edison Middle School in Champaign, Illinois. Joe is one of 110 sixth grade

students on his team, and the school population as a whole is about 672 students. The classroom

that I am doing my practicum in is a 6th grade social studies classroom with Mr. Cain. Mr. Cain

has been teaching for the last 11 years. He has been at Edison for the last 8 years, and he became

a teacher because he has always loved social studies, and because he came from a poor

elementary school experience, so he wanted to make it better for others. He would like to see his

kids increase in their reading comprehension. Joe Gardner is African American in a class of 23

students, and the race ratio is 43.6% white, 37.6% Black, 9.7% Hispanic, 8.9% Asian/Pacific

Islander. About 52.5% of students are living in a low-income family, and about 45.6% of the

students receive free and reduced lunch. For this project, I observed a 6th grade literature class to

get a better idea of where Joe stands academically with reading and literature.

Observation of Classroom Literacy Environment

While observing the literature classroom, I was able to watch Ashlee Kersestes lead her

classroom in a very different way than Mr. Cain. Ashley has taught for the last 4 years at Edison

Middle School, and she is Caucasian. She has only taught Language Arts in sixth grade, and she

became a teacher to help aide the students in developing their character. In her 8-9 period class,

Ms. Kersestes has 19 students of Mexican, Caucasian, and African American descent. Ashlee’s

classroom has desks in rows facing the front of her classroom with many posters on the walls,

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books organized on the bookshelves, flowers hanging from the ceiling, and papers organized in

folders. She has assignment expectations posted along with classroom values, and consequences

posted on the walls as well. She developed the classroom values and rules with the students.

One of the things I noticed about her consequences is that they all end with “apologize.”

There is not a classroom library, but rather, a growing collection of books on two shelves

in the front of the room. The class itself is not very multicultural, but she does have a small

collection of multicultural texts. Of the multicultural texts, there were no books that were

bilingual. The tone of the classroom is very positive. The students help to direct the teaching

and they all contribute and share their ideas and opinions. The students are willing to take risks

and answer aloud. They share their thoughts and opinions with the rest of the class. Ashlee

encourages her students to be courageous in answering, and as a result of doing so, they will get

rewards. When they get enough rewards, they will be able to choose from a list of classroom

prizes. Ashlee has incredible classroom management skills. She knows how to encourage the

students with positive reinforcements, while still knowing when to reprimand them as well.

The class was split into small groups when the Ms. Kersestes began teaching. She had

the students split up to describe mysteries. The small groups then came together as a class to

share their ideas with one another. Typically, she uses literature circles, and has the students

split up and read books at their level. The students are all at about the same reading level

because they are all in this specific class because of their lower reading scores. She said that she

will read to the class aloud to help the students who struggle reading at grade-level. She does not

just simply read to the class, though, she has them answer comprehension questions when she is

finished reading to be sure that they are fully understanding what is happening in the story. The

students have learned to take notes during read-alouds, which helps them to recall the details.

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Ms. Kersestes uses the Smart Board which all of the students really enjoy and engage with. She

created a word web about mysteries, and the students had to fill in their definitions of what a

mystery was. The class that I observed was a class that is, as a whole, a slower reading group.

The school decided to blend periods 8 & 9and have Ashley Kersestes and Ralph White teach the

class as a team. They reported that the students are benefitting greatly from the new program.

Writing and reading are combined in this class. She has the students “read as a reader” to

enjoy the book and interpret what is happening in the story; then she has them “read as writers”

to pay attention to what makes the setting, what makes the story interesting, and what makes the

plot engaging. The different aspects of writing are reviewed and explained as a class while they

read a book together. On the wall the class put up together the “Six traits of good writing” and

the students are able to use that as they work on writing a mystery of their own. The teachers

utilize the Smart Board to get the attention of and participation from the students. This also

helps to meet the needs of diverse learners. She does not have ELL students specifically in this

class, but she said that she allows her dialect speakers to use that language in class, but not to

write their final drafts in. Since her entire class is low-performing, all of her lessons are based

around providing for their needs. She does so by scaffolding their learning greatly with all that

their learning in class. She offers extended time to students that need it, and she also

incorporates diverse, cultural literature so that all students are represented in class.

Student Information

When talking to the Literature teacher as well as the special education teacher, I

discovered that Joe Gardner has specific reading and writing learning disabilities. As a result,

there are modifications in place for him. He receives extended time on tests, small group

instruction, flexible schedules, and test items read to him as well. Joe received a 30 on his DRA

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testing in 2010, which shows that he is reading at about a third grade reading level; a 235 in

ISAT reading, which is barely meeting expectations; and he scored a 3.7 on his Gates McGinity

testing, which shows that he is reading at third year 7th month reading level. Joe does not have a

hard time completing class work, but one of his greatest struggles is making sure that he stays on

task to complete the work. When he does not have assistance, he does have trouble completing

things on time. He fails to turn in homework often, especially for math class.

Joe does have many strengths, though. He works hard and is motivated to achieve. He

has a good understanding of age appropriate material and has on topic responses to classroom

discussions. Joe shows leadership skills in small group discussions and cooperative learning

groups. He enjoys reading and is eager to read aloud in class and to share his ideas. He writes

well, and has a great writing voice. He writes paragraphs that are detailed and on topic. Joe

could definitely grow in the area of word analysis skills and learning to read new words. He also

needs to improve on his reading comprehension as well. In terms of writing, Joe needs to work

on conversations in his writing. He has trouble using dialogue in his assignments. As far as

speaking goes, Joe needs to work on having appropriate conversation with his peers.

In order to help with fostering Joe’s growth, teachers are encouraged to provide Joe with

positive feedback for the work that he completes. He is continually checked up on by Special

Education teachers throughout the day and during all of his classes to see how he is doing.

Ralph White, the special education teacher, has conversations with Joe daily to check up on his

progress. Some long-term goals that are set for Joe are to increase his reading level to 4th grade,

and to see him be able to write an essay with little or no assistance from Mr. White. Short-term

goals currently set are recognizing and reading new words by using skills being taught in class,

and to be able to edit his own writing by correcting any capitalization or punctuation errors.

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Typically for reading conferences and determining reading levels, the Lexia reading

program assessment is used. This program evaluates how the student has improved. For writing,

personalized tests are made for Joe with Mr. White, where Joe is required to correct sentences

that include incorrect grammar and punctuation. Overall, Joe’s learning is being monitored

closely by school personnel at Edison middle school, and all of his teachers are aware of the

adaptations that need to me made in order for Joe to succeed.

Interviewing Focal Student

Attached are the actual interview questions and answers that I received from Joe while

interviewing him. I would like to mention and discuss some things that I found extremely

interesting and significant during the interview, though. When I asked Joe what word first came

to his mind when he thought of reading, he replied, “hate”. Clearly, Joe is resistant to reading,

and does not enjoy it. I continued with that thought in the interview, and I asked if Joe would

consider himself a good reader. He tilted his head back and forth, and said, “I guess I’m okay,

but I don’t read too good.” He said that he found reading difficult at times because he doesn’t

know the words. He did mention that he really enjoys when the teachers read books aloud to

him, though. Of all books to read, Joe would prefer to read Fiction books, and he really enjoys

reading about history. At home he owns about 10 books, and he reads to his little brother for ten

minutes every few days. He really enjoys mystery books, and a book that he recently read in

class was “Freak the Mighty” which quickly became one of his favorites. Joe said that he does

have a library card, but he has only used it twice to get movies or music. Joe said that he lives

with just his mother and his three brothers, and that his mom only will sometimes help him with

his chool work. Joe wants to go to college and play sports, but he is afraid that he won’t be able

to because he isn’t smart enough. Joe told me, “I am willing to get help. Actually, I kinda want

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help so I can get better.” If Joe could do anything better, he said he would want to be better at

school.

Analyzing Student Data/ Summary

While looking at Joe’s ISAT, Gate’s McGinity, and DRA test scores, it is clear to see that

Joe is behind where he should be. In interviewing him, he explained his weaknesses of reading

new words and comprehending that which he reads in frustration. He knows that he is not where

he needs to be and that is frustrating to Joe. While he struggles, he still longs to do better in

class, and he values his education. As I observed him in his reading and literature class, he

participated often, he worked well in a group; he wrote on the board and was willing to share his

work with the class. He asked for help when he needed it, and practiced summarizing the stories

that he read. He did need to be asked to refocus, but with that one warning, he got back to work

taking notes and raising his hand. He is interested in class, and as previously stated, he is willing

to accept help when he needs it so that he can be a more successful student. As I studied Joe in

class and interviewed him more than once outside of class, I began to realize how important it is

to track my students individually, especially those that are low-performing and in need of extra

attention. Through these observations and data collection, I was able to get a better grasp on the

Joe’s demeanor as a student, and his individual needs in the classroom. Not only did I learn the

importance of getting to know the students and their learning shortcomings and strengths in

reading, but I also learned how important reading is to every other subject in the curriculum.

Reading is a skill that students need across the board, and when they lack in that area, it effects

every other area of their education.

Based on my analysis of Joe Gardner, I talked to him about implementing two goals in

order to strengthen him where he seems to be lacking. The first goal that I have is to help Joe

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with his reading comprehension. In doing so, I thought it would be a good idea to implement

reading short stories and writing a three sentence summary of what he read. In doing so, this will

increase Joe’s overall ability to actively engage in the text and understand better the meaning of

what he is reading. When Joe does read these short stories, he needs to implement the strategy of

self-checking and rereading. If Joe cannot understand what he read at the end of each sentence,

then he needs to backtrack and read it again so that he can increase in understanding. This need

is evident in his reading scores and in talking to both Ms. Kersestes and Mr. White about Joe’s

weaknesses. Joe agreed to this being a good goal for him, and he affirmed it by saying, “Yeah,

sometimes I just keep reading when I don’t get it.”

The second goal that I set for Joe is to increase his ability to read new words and use the

strategies that he is taught in class to do so. Mr. White is working on this with Joe a little bit, but

I suggested speaking with Joe’s mother and having him work on a list of ten words each week,

learning to read two each night. He can use the strategies of sounding out, and also of

implementing the phonics rules that he has learned in class to do so. After suggesting this goal,

Andre agreed again. “I want more help reading words. I get mad when I don’t know them and

other kids correct me,” Andre stated. “Do you think that could be a part of why it’s hard for you

to understand what you’re reading, too?” I asked. “Yeah cause half the time I don’t know the

words, Ms. Ptasienski.” The cooperating teachers agreed with these goals, and said that they are

things very relevant to the success of Joe’s learning. They have been working on implementing

similar strategies in class already.