Seven year old Ana has just come to second grade at Walton Elementary. She is originally from Mexico but has moved around from place to place without settling down with one teacher. This has caused her to shy away from getting to know people or being active in class. The teacher does not call on her because she feels that she will embarrass Ana since she does not speak English well. After talking with other teachers they come to realize that she can speak English well. Other teachers have also observed her being helpful to others whether in computer or in the hallway.

As a collaborative effort, all teachers need to observe her to see if she is functioning at all in any of her classes. If she is functioning in other classes, her homeroom teacher must decide what is going wrong in her class. If she is not functioning, then it is time for all teachers to sit down and get to the root of the problem. I would recommend that teachers allow her to help other students so that she can become a stronger student in whatever she is helping them in.

Case Study: Reteaching

            Eight year old Sam has just transferred from an inner city school. He seems to be behind the other students in the classroom. Upon arrival the teacher decided to give him a pretest to assess exactly what skills he knew, which ones needed to be retaught and what he does not know at all. After the assessment, the teacher realizes that several basic skills need to be retaught so that he can make progress in math. In math all skills build on one another and if he does not have a solid foundation then he will not make the necessary progress to proceed to the next grade.

As a collaborative effort, all teachers need to do pretests especially when a student enters in the middle of the semester. In this situation I would identify the skills that need to be taught over and start from scratch since I am unsure of what methods they used before. We would have to have manipulatives for him and his personal dry erase board so that he can work the problems out at his desk before going to the board in front of the class. I would also select a peer tutor for him and suggest some after school sessions with teachers or academic tutors.

Case Study: Behavior Management

Twelve year old Andrew seems like he comes to school to only bother the other students and harass them. Andrew refuses to do work, but loves to go to the gym and play basketball. Teachers have observed that when he is not working or bothering other students, he sleeps all day. Around the first week I noticed that he continued to sleep the entire time he was in there. I tried to wake him up so that I would not be punished for allowing him to sleep in my classroom. On the second week I noticed that he started to focus on some of the smaller students and wanted to bully them.

As a collaborative effort, I have advised all teachers that if Andrew comes to class and sleeps do not wake him up. Allow him to sleep so that they can continue with their class and help the students that actually came to learn. If Andrew is up encourage him to leave others alone so that he can be rewarded by being sent to the gymnasium.