Case Study

This is the Blog Version of the Case Study 

University of Puerto Rico

English Department

       

Elementary School Nueva Urbana

Cooperating Teacher: Mr. Rivera

Dalymirka González Rubert

842-03-3322

Edpe 4018   Dr. Anibal Muñoz Claudio

Case Study Phase I

I.            Identification:

The student I chose for my Case Study development is Little One.  Little one is six years old.  At this point John is enrolled in first grade from the Elementary School Nueva Urbana in Ceiba.  This first grade is the homeroom of Mrs. Cruz. 

Parents information

Dad	Government employee	7th grade
Mother	Student	3 years of BA

II.         Justification

The main reason why I selected Little One as my candidate for the development of my case study is his willingness to participate and develop any given task.  As I have observed Little one I noticed that he is a student that has the possibilities to meet the grade level expectations.  Little one is a student that when new material is presented he is very risk taker.  When I observed Mr. Rivera’s lesson I noticed that as many other of the students, he would easily get distracted.  I noticed that Little one is a really shy little boy.  As I continued doing my observations, I noticed that Little one in not capable of writing a word.  At this point of being a first grade student, he does not know how to copy words.  Mr. Rivera communicated me that he does not write but that he participates in the class development. My main aim with Little one is to give him the opportunity to be at the same level of competencies than his classmates.  I  want Little one to be able to write.  I understand that this is what Little one needs the most.  I consider that is unfair for Little one to know the material but he is unable to complete a given test due to his lack of writing skills he obtains a satisfactory grade.

Hypothetical account

As I have observed Little one he is an excellent student in terms of behavior.  He is a student that follows instructions in order to complete a given task.  Little one is able to participate in three of the language arts except for writing. I have developed different lesson and Little one is a student that participates without any problems.  In the classroom setting he is a bit shyer than his classmates but this shyness is not taken to the extremes.   He is able to cope in any class setting. I believe a percentage of his shyness is due to the inability to write.

 I consider that the possible cause for Little one status is that he was not provided with an individual help in the lower levels.  Little one is a student that needs to be provided with individual help.  This student needs help at school but also he needs the support of his parents.  I have observed Little one  when trying to write and he knows how to make different symbols.  Due to the fact that he knows how to write symbols I consider that his inability to write is the lack of practice. 

 Phase II

V.  Throughout these past months, I have been able to observe that Little one  is a student that has no support from his parents.  I have given him different types of homework that aim at the orthography skill but unfortunately he never completes them.  Moreover, since Little one has no support I have been creating lessons where writing has been encouraged, benefiting Little one in terms of self esteem.  Due to the fact that the whole class is engaged in orthography improvement, Little one does not feel he is being singled out.  Ever since, Little one  has shown an excellent improvement in orthography development.  Currently he is still having a several difficulties writing a few letters, such as s, e and b. 

Phase III

VII.  I believe that Little one has the potential to have the same ability in calligraphy as his classmates.  So far he has demonstrated to me that his inability to write is due to the lack of practice and motivation.   I consider that the fact that little one has barely any support from his parents makes him feel less motivated.  I consider that children like Little one also need feedback from their parents and family members.  Moreover, taking in consideration the lack of parent support instead of having John develop home contingency task, I decided to involve the whole class. I started to develop lessons where the students were encouraged to write.  I also encouraged my students to develop writing exercise on the board.  This strategy allowed the students to acknowledge diversity in terms of calligraphy. I consider that this strategy was effective with John because he was able accept the challenge by trying to imitate his classmates level calligraphy. I made this decision because I wanted to avoid having Little one to feel different or special from the rest of the class.

          As of this moment Little one has had a great progression in his calligraphy. Now his calligraphy has evolved from a primitive point to an advanced system which allows a better communication.  I consider that in order to allow Little one to keep progressing in his calligraphy all of his teachers should involve activities where the four language arts are reinforced.  If the students have the opportunity to practice diverse activities that encourage the four language arts they will sufficient level of knowledge to not only meet the grade level expectations but also to exceed them.