Observation of struggling student has been conducted from September 26 to October 8. This struggling student never wants to answer any questions when you ask him. He doesn't do his work in class; instead he just looks around the room or talks to students at his table. His grades are low in every subject and he doesn’t try to do his best in class. Recently, he has been answering questions and doing his work in class. I can see a big difference in him over the past few weeks. The host teacher told me that his parents were getting a divorce and that neither of his parents would watch him. She had seen him at the playground with his brother after school hours. He told me that he stayed up late and didn’t have time to do his homework or study for his spelling test. I think this is part of the reason why he is struggling in school.
Observation of a high achieving student has been conducted from September 26 to October 8. This high achieving student is always raising his hand to answer questions in class, and always gives his best in every subject or project that he does. He is also in the “gifted” program and is taken out of class every Thursday to participate in different activities that will challenge him. He is always one of the first people done with the assignments and helps other students if they need help. I have also noticed that he is always receiving 100 on all of his assignments, or at least an A on all of his homework. He is very smart and talented; I could tell from the beginning that he was a high achieving student.
Interviews
Interviews conducted on October 10, 2012 with one struggling student and one high achieving student.
Question: Do you enjoy school?
(SS): Yes, because I get to see my friends.
Question: What kind of student are you?
(SS takes a long time to respond and didn’t really answer the question; he shrugged his shoulders): Math is my favorite subject and I think I am kind of smart.
Question: What do you do for fun outside of school?
(SS): I like to play football when someone is outside and play X-Box.
Question: How would your classmates describe you?
(SS takes a long time to answer this question): Fun
Question: Who are you friends with? What do you and your friends do together?
(SS): Tanner, William, Taylor, Christian F., Austin, and Ton (football name). We play football together.
Question: Tell me a good memory you have about school.
(SS again takes a long time to answer this question): Whenever we did a science activity in this class about bird beaks.
Question: Tell me a bad memory you have about school.
(SS): Whenever I got tracked down by girls because they were mad at me for not wanting to date their friend.
Question: Describe a “good” teacher or tell me about a favorite teacher you had in the past.
(SS): My favorite teacher was Mrs. Reckart (2nd grade teacher) because we did fun stuff with her. (Then he went on to describe a bad teacher he had for kindergarten) I didn’t like my kindergarten teacher because she told us all that we were going to fail.
Question: What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you?
(SS): When I grow up, I want to be a dirt-bike driver.
Question: Do you enjoy school?
(HAS): Yes, it is fun and you never know what you are going to learn each day.
Question: What kind of student are you?
(HAS): I like math and reading. I think I am pretty smart; my parents think I am smart, too.
Question: What do you do for fun outside of school?
(HAS): Hiking and fishing
Question: How would your classmates describe you?
(HAS): Funny, smart
Question: Who are you friends with? What do you and your friends do together?
(HAS): Jacob, Ally, Kristian, Jonathan, Alexis. We go into the woods and explore.
Question: Tell me a good memory you have about school.
(HAS): Last year in second grade when we made a perfect pet house by using scaling.
Question: Tell me a bad memory you have about school.
(HAS): I cannot think of a bad memory that I have about school.
Question: Describe a “good” teacher or tell me about a favorite teacher you had in the past.
(HAS): Mrs. Hagedorn was my favorite teacher because she was fun and didn’t take things too seriously, except when she needed too.
Question: What is one thing you wish your teacher knew about you?
(HAS): I always take things seriously, when it comes to my schoolwork.
The struggling student didn’t really want to partake in the interview and had difficulty answering questions about school. I can tell that he has a low academic self-concept because he doesn’t think he is good at any subject. He does like math, but he doesn’t think he is very good at it. This interview took a long time to complete because he couldn’t think of any answers for a few questions.
The high achieving student has a high self-esteem and academic self-concept. I can tell that he really enjoys school by his answers and that he wants to succeed. He takes all of his school work seriously and wants to get good grades. Also, he likes lessons that are engaging and memorable. He likes coming to school because he likes to learn.
I like that the struggling student stated that he thinks he is smart.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that his academic self-concept is all that low but I think he is experience inner-conflict about how he see's himself and how his teachers see him.
Interesting stuff!