1. Case Study:Working With Mike Anna Toone

2. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 2 Classroom Management I believe that classroom management is as much the teachers responsibility as it is the students – they should both work together to ensure that everyone feels safe and welcomed in the classroom. The teacher is responsible for providing the students in their classroom with a safe learning environment both physically and academically All students should feel as though they are physically safe in all areas of the school and academically safe to voice their questions about anything that is unclear during lessons Students and teacher should come up with the classroom rules as a group at the beginning of the year – for both the students and for the teacher in the room Students and teacher should work together to implement the classroom rules throughout the year so as to create the safe environment Teacher should be responsible for monitoring the students to ensure that they do implement the classroom rules and all students needs are being met inside the classroom. The students should feel that they are beginning each day with a clean slate with the teacher. If there were disciplinary concerns with a student the previous day, the students should know the teacher starts the day with a positive attitude towards the student and that there are no grudges or hard feelings.

3. Classroom Community In a classroom that has a healthy and clear sense of classroom community – students and teachers act respectfully and responsibly towards one another, are willing to provide help (both academically and socially) to any and all other students in the room, and are accepting of everyone’s differences whether it be academic or social. In a classroom where there are students that have a learning disability or a behavior disability, it is important to make the students feel that they belong and that they are no different then the other students in the class. If students feel that they do not belong (students do not accept them, the teacher thinks they are too far behind to work with and help, etc..) they can sometimes shut down both academically and/or socially which would hinder their growth in both areas All students should feel that other students want to be their friends and interact with them and that the teacher and the other students are there to promote their learning and help them be successful students would feel safe to ask questions and inquire about different concepts without feeling as though the other people in the classroom are judging them which is vital to the learning process. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 3

4. Student Profile Mike is an eleven year old, fifth grade student He has never been officially retained, however, it has been considered at the end of third and fourth grade as well as this year in fifth grade Parents are divorced and he lives with his mother and her boyfriend Often quoted saying the he can not wait until he is 18 years old so that he can go live with his father Mother says that his tic started when his parents separated but attributes it not to the divorce but rather to a hair cut that he received shortly after Mike had longer hair that was in his face before the separation His whole to part scores are: Word identification was a second grade level and his print processing and listening comprehension were both on a second grade level. Classroom grades in math, reading, and writing are a low two/high one which indicate that he is significantly below grade level (some where around second or third grade) Does not socialize with other students unless the other students approach him Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 4

5. Student’s Strengths and Needs Enjoys reading picture books and rarely reads chapter books Really likes comics and books based on movies that he has watched (especially science fiction) When it comes to math, Mike is a visual learner who needs verbal cues to reinforce what he sees in the books but when it comes to reading, Mike is almost strictly a verbal learner who rarely retains information that he himself read. Needs a lot of diagrams and visual representations of any mathematical concepts that are taught in class such as fractions, decimals, and multiplication/division facts When writing, Mike relies heavily on his own experiences and things that he has seen on television (visual) Needs a teacher to write down his thoughts because he gets so hung up on trying to spell words correctly that his ideas are lost Enjoys telling stories to anyone that will listen and is very imaginative – provides entertainment to the other students that walk around the track with him Very knowledgeable about science fiction and animated novels and television shows which the other students admire. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 5

6. Data Collection Throughout the course of the semester, I used a table to keep track of Mike’s behavior and progress. A sample is provided on the next slide with a few instances that occurred over the semester When ever there was an instance in which Mike zoned out during a lesson, did not complete his homework or class work assignment, had an outburst with another student or with a teacher during an assignment, etc… I would quickly make a note on a post-it note At the end of the day, I would take all of the post-it notes and type the notes that were taken into the table In the table, I would record the date and the time (which lesson we were working on), the instance that happened, anything that I noticed about the situation, and any comments that were make by Mike at the time Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 6

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8. Behavior Intervention Plan When planning for Mike’s behavior intervention plan, I took three different areas into consideration: Completion of assignments in a timely manor (homework and class work), zoning out during lessons, and expressing his emotions to other students in the classroom. To assist Mike in his completion of assignments in a timely manor, a timer was given to him on his desk. He was asked to complete his assignments by the time the timer went off. In order to keep Mike’s attention and to help him not zone out, we came up with a system to keep him focused during lessons Mike needed to work on his social interactions with his peers through working on his expression of his emotions to others Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 8

9. Timer Mike rarely completed his class work assignments in the time given to him to complete them because he would r either zone out during the lesson and did not understand the content of the assignment or because he would zone out during the assignment and ran out of time. A timer was placed on Mike’s desk and it was set for an appropriate amount of time for him to complete the assignment. If he completed the assignment in time, he was allowed five minutes at the end of reading to draw about what he was reading about. This intervention worked for Mike as long as he was able to complete the assignment in the given time. When he was unable to complete the assignment before the timer went off, Mike would become very frustrated and would occasionally have an outburst in which he would throw his pencil down and usually exclaim that he couldn’t do it. If Mike were to complete the assignment in the given time, he would become very happy and be confident in the next lesson. Even if the timer were not set, Mike would focus on his work with it just sitting on his desk as though it were set and this intervention really worked. Mike became more focused as the semester went on and his work was completed more regularly. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 9

10. Completing Assingments/Zoning Out Mike would regularly zone out during lessons, both group lessons, small group lessons, and individual time. To keep Mike focused we allowed Mike to stand at his desk when he felt that he was beginning to zone out and we allowed him to “take five” which would allow him to walk the back of the classroom by the book case for five seconds It was Mike’s responsibility to ask to take these breaks unless we saw that Mike had zoned out during a lesson and needed a reminder As the school year progressed, Mike took more initiative in taking his breaks and needed fewer reminders To work on completing homework on time, we had him enrolled in an afterschool homework help group The local church has an after school program where students spend three hours completing their homework with one on one help and working on social interactions The one on one help helped Mike not only to understand the assignments but also to stay focused on them for long periods of time Social skill building time also worked on controlling tempers, expressing their emotions to others, and appropriate behaviors both in and out of the classroomand we saw an improvement in his social interactions in and outside of the classroom. He began expressing his emotions (both good and bad) to his peers and he even became more social with the other students. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 10

11. Expressing Emotions In addition to attending the afterschool program that worked on his social behaviors, we developed a system in the classroom to help monitor and express his emotions. Mike was given a journal in which he was allowed to write down what he was feeling in situations in which he felt uncomfortable expressing how he was feeling. If Mike were to feel angry or upset about something that someone did, rather then just keeping it bottled up, he wrote it down and we (the teachers) would read it and respond to it with suggestions on how to handle the situation in the future. With the notebook, we saw an improvement with Mike’s behavior in the classroom, there were fewer outbursts because he had a way to express his emotions, however, Mike struggles with his hand writing and writing in general and he sometimes did not want to write his feelings down so sometimes we would have him draw his feelings or write down just one or two words about the situation and the teacher would make notes about it for him later on. The combination of the notebook and the after school program helped Mike to make tremendous progress with expressing himself. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 11

12. Progress/Monitoring Progress In each case (timer, zoning out, and expressing himself) Mike was held responsible for monitoring his behavior with occasional input from the teacher. Mike was in charge of getting up and walking around if he were having issues focusing, Mike was in charge of writing down his thoughts when he felt frustrated or angry, and Mike was in charge of monitoring his time when the timer was set The teacher would monitor his walking around to ensure that he was not just walking around to walk around and the teacher would set the timer if they saw that Mike was having trouble completing an assignment, and the teacher would monitor the emotions that Mike was writing down in his journal but we really wanted him to self monitor and he has for the most part – the teacher just needs to be there for guidance and as a reminder. These strategies have helped Mike to focus on his work (in and out of class), focus on expressing his emotions in a healthy way, and on staying on task. However, it is still a struggle for him to constantly complete his assignments on time and remain focused and to express his emotions at times. He has made tremendous progress but it will take his future teachers continuing some of these strategies in the future. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 12

13. Technology Mike’s mom really wanted something that Mike could use at home to work on his homework with because he really enjoyed being on the computer and she felt that if he found something that he really enjoyed and that was educational that he could use at home that he would spend more time doing educational things rather then playing so we suggested http://eduplace.com/kids/hmm/ and his mother says that it has really helped keep him focused on his homework and that he really enjoys using it. We have asked him to explain the math manipulatives that he uses on his homework to show us that he is using the website and that it is effective and he has really shown an understanding of the math concepts and the manipulatives and how they work after using this website. This website provides Mike with interactive math manipulatives, a dictionary, reading connections (articles that connect different subject areas), brain teasers, and a variety of other really great resources that are fun for Mike to use while on the computer. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 13

14. Technology http://us.educationcity.com/start/ is a wonderful and fun website that Mike has been using all year in the classroom. It breaks down math, science, and language arts into grade levels and concepts. We started Mike off on a few grade levels below fifth grade (second for math and third for reading) and he gradually moved through the various concepts and eventually moved up to a current fifth grade level in math and a fourth grade level in reading. Mike was given a journal that he would have to keep track of the questions and the answers that he was going through (solving out the math problems by hand in an organized manor , writing down key concepts and vocabulary terms that he came across, and taking other notes throughout the lessons.) We have seen Mike make a great deal of progress in both the subject areas and his organization. Mike’s hand writing and problem solving skills have improved through him needing to organize the problems so that he can follow his thoughts and his knowledge of basic math skills has increased as he progresses through the site. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 14

15. Reflection Mike is a very interesting student with interesting learning strategies and a very interesting home life that I believe have greatly contributed to his learning disabilities. The strategies that we have begun using are working well for Mike both in and out of the classroom, however, there are a few that he is becoming accustomed to that might be starting to become less effective. If Mike is to succeed next year in middle school, it will be extremely important for his teachers next year to communicate with his current teachers and continue on with the strategies that we have been using and to add new strategies for him. Mike is going to need a lot of one on one help next year to keep him focused and to keep him engaged in school and there are several programs at the middle school he will attend that will be very beneficial to him next year. It was interesting to see just how well Mike responded to technology (both the websites that were given to him and the SMARTboard in the classroom). Any time something was shown on the SMARTboard he was much more engaged then in any other lesson. Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 15