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Savannah Smith
TE 801
Case Study Project Proposal
10/18/2015
Part I:
For my case study, I would like to examine a student who always has a smile on his face,
but typically does not want to participate in anything school-related. My mentor and I this
individual for two classes, and in both of them, he has turned in some of the assigned work, but it
is done incompletely and is often late. As such, his grades are consistently low, but he always
maintains a smile and always comes to class. This is a student who has social know-how, but
does not perform well academically in school. At the beginning of the school year, he would
often use an excuse to go to the bathroom as a reason to skip our entire class period and periods
afterwards, but the school in general and staff are now aware of this, so that behavior has been
stopped. When he is verbally disciplined (sternly asked to stop) for being on his phone, strolling
into our classroom during a different hour, or disrupting other students, his reaction is to laugh
and continue to smile. He then typically will find another way to resist if it was a specific
unacceptable behavior (such as sitting on a desk), but with things such as side conversation and
the use of his phone, he will continue that behavior or alternate between the two in any given
class period. He is very social and friendly towards the other students in the class, but the others
have begun to get frustrated with his joking antics, and when there is group work, most choose
not to work with him.
On the other hand, since he does come into our classroom often even when it is not one
of his actual class periods, I do believe he finds our classroom to be a safe space. He trusts us and
feels comfortable around us, as shown by the fact that he let my mentor feel his forehead one
time when he was feeling quite unwell, and he has also asked about good medicines to take for

colds, and expresses when he is tired or is having a bad day. He also is interested in helping out
with the way the class is run, often making suggestions to students for how to pass out the
textbooks in a more efficient manner, or asking if we knew about a certain meeting that would
cut into class time. He also is very conscious of whether or not discipline is being executed fairly
in the classroom, and he will hold my mentor and me accountable. The few times we have asked
him to help pass things out, he is very receptive to it.
This case is very important to me because this is not ones typical case of student
resistance. I am very good at reading the angst-ridden, sullen, teen version of resistance, which
is often a clear cry for help if a teacher will take the time to listen, and I believe other teachers
are good at this, too. This student, however, presents like he does not have a care in the world
because on the outside it seems as if the reprimands of students and teachers alike do not affect
him in any way through his constant smiles and laughter, along with his lack of apology for any
behavior that others see as disruptive, inappropriate, or even hurtful. Many teachers get frustrated
with him and read his constant smile and seemingly happy resistance as a sign of disrespect to
them. I think his smile might actually be hiding some learned helplessness. Anytime there is an
in-class activity, discussion, or a long-term project, this student refuses to show me any work that
he has done. On quizzes, if there are any parts where he has to formulate his own sentences, he
leaves that blank. For some reason or another, he does not believe that it will help him to try in
the activities we do or to ask me for help. Perhaps, for whichever reason, whether it be that this
student does not believe he can be successful in school or that he should be successful in school,
it is easier to treat the school setting like a joke. This students constant smile may actually
signify extreme apathy as a form of self-defense and perhaps the defense of others from an
educational system that does not listen to them. I want the space to analyze this student in an in-

depth manner because I have not encountered nearly as many readings on this kind of behavior
as I have had on students that are openly negative, and I believe I still have a lot to learn in
relation to the many unique ways resistance can manifest itself, along with how to reach all
students.

Savannah Smith
Case Study Part II
11/1/2015
I believe that the struggles that my student has academically are due to many contributing
factors, and there are some factors that stand out more than others. In looking at his work in both
our Creative Writing and our general Junior Composition/Literature course, when this student
turns things in and they are complete, they are done well. He just turned in a first draft of an
essay to me, and his ability to make inferences and formulate his own argument surpasses the
abilities of many of his peers. He failed a majority of his classes for the first marking period, and
in the past years, his grades across the board have been fairly low in most of his classes (mainly
Fs and Ds). Given his poor grades in English in the past, he probably has missed a lot of the
core skills that he needs to be successful in our class, but, as I said, the draft that he handed into
me recently shows that he does have some basic grounding in writing and literary analysis. His
main issue in our class is that he, up until this point, has not turned in much work. After ParentTeacher Conferences, however, I have seen a shift in his behavior, and he has been very
intentional in trying to complete all of his work. I have been giving him as much positive
reinforcement as possible, but at the same time, he is still working on his academic issues that
stem from disengagement.
Since he is not struggling with English in particular, I believe that many of his issues may
be social and cognitive in nature. I have moved past the basic idea of learned helplessness and
disengagement to look at what the specific causes of those two issues could be. The general
disengagement with school is actually part of Southfield-Lathrups student culture in general,
and this is most likely due to our school having middle-class biases that make school culture

seem like something quite separate from home for the majority of our students, many of whom
are working class and lower middle class (Toshalis, 2015). Toshalis more specifically brings up
how in many cases, students are told to better themselves, which implicitly hints at a ranking
system that those classified as less or worse should resist. Specifically at our school, many
students have vague goals of becoming rich without knowing what that means or how one can
even achieve that goal, but for many it does not include college. They are resisting the emphasis
on college that is promoted in our school. I know that sometimes I justify what I am teaching in
class, such as argumentative essays, by saying the skill will help my students get into college and
will be a practice they will continue to do. I do this because a lot of my students said in their
literacy surveys that college is important to them, but I know for other students it may be
alienating.
Along with the lack of support in academic ventures, so many other social factors, such
as peer pressure, bullying, violence, and the like, are weighing on my students minds, so grades
may not take top priority. All of this working towards a future mentality that our school often
promotes could seem completely irrelevant if one knows that someone wants to fight him or her
in an hour, for instance. My student is friends with several of my other students that have been
suspended for getting into fights, and he himself has been suspended for skipping class. Since
my student is dealing with the peer culture of our school, it makes sense that he, too, would
disengage from school and not put effort into what the school, and sometimes my classroom,
deems important.
On top of resisting due to class differences, Rosenbaum (2004), in Its Time to Tell Kids:
If You Dont Do Well in High School, You Dont Do Well in College (or on the Job), discusses
how nearly all high school seniors believe that they are going to collegeand that bad grades

won't stop them, which is not incorrect, since many colleges are less strict in their admission
policies. The author shows how grades in high school determine if one will actually complete
college and be successful in college courses, therefore proving how dangerous the idea that
grades in high school do not actually matter truly is. Along with all of the other issues my
students often deal with at Southfield-Lathrup, the idea of college is pushed on all of them at
assemblies, PSAT meetings, etc. It is true that colleges come to visit, but students often come to
my mentor and me with questions about how GPA and ACT scores influence admission, along
with how to write a good college essay, which shows that there are not many college-related,
school-sanctioned resources for our students. I find myself falling into the trap of telling my
students that they should all go to college without acknowledging how hard that truly is to do
just because I do not want to discourage them. It is difficult to find a balance between being
honest with them about the struggles they will face, while still showing them that there is value
in the attempt. Perhaps this student does not realize how his school performance now sets a
precedent for his opportunities later in life, since our school, me included, is not very transparent
about what it takes to get into college. On the other hand, he could know very well that his
academic performance will not lead him down the college path, and he just continues on the path
he is forging for himself without fully understanding or not caring about the weight of that
decision. His mother warned him in front of us at Parent-Teacher Conferences that she would not
be letting him stay in the house after he turned eighteen, and since then, as I have mentioned,
there has been a significant change in behavior, so perhaps his future is becoming more
imminent and tangible to him.
A final potential hypothesis for some of this students disengagement with my class
would be an inability to self-regulate. Weinstein and Novodvorsky (2015) mention that [s]ome

students might not realize how often theyre out of their seats or how frequently they sit
daydreaming instead of focusing on their work. Toshalis (2015) elaborates on the issue of selfregulation by stating that the teen mind is sometimes a bit unruly with its social preoccupations,
academic insecurities, emotional reactions, and theoretical deliberations all simultaneously
interacting without fully developed executive functions to regulate them. It is important to
remember that my students brain is not done developing. He needs help learning the kind of
restraint and logical decision making that adults practice on a daily basis in order to get their
work done. I often will see my student playing billiards on his phone or staring off into space
instead of working on a classroom task. When I ask him What are you doing right now? Why
dont you get to work?, he just smiles and laughs. If I get stern with him, he shuts down and
gets angry, questioning my treatment of him, so I know he may not like when people (family,
friends, and even teachers) are upset with him. On the other hand, he may not have the resources
to reflect on or adjust his behavior just yet, so he could be smiling in hope that people will not be
frustrated and forgive him. I often try to give him tips on things he could do to help himself get
the task done, such as writing some basic bullet points for a paper brainstorm, and he always
smiles and says, Okay. When I check in on him again, he is back to his previous disengaged
behavior, so I need to re-evaluate the ways I try to help him because I do not want to address him
openly in class more than I already do. This could lead to him believing I was singling him out
and to his peers teasing him. There has to be a way to help him take steps towards productivity
without having to breathe down his neck every step of the way.

References
Rosenbaum, J. E. (2004, Spring). Its time to tell kids: if you dont do well in high school, you
dont do well in college (or on the job). American Educator. Retrieved from
http://www.aft.org/our-news/periodicals/american-educator.
Toshalis, E. (2015). Make me! Understanding and engaging student resistance in school.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Weinstein, C. S., & Novodvorksy, I. (2015). Classroom management: Lessons from research
and practice (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Part III:

There are many approaches that I could and have taken to help this student to flourish
within my classroom that address my hypotheses above. In relation to my student being part of a
student culture that is generally disengaged and does not see itself within the school
environment, there are many practices I can employ that will combat issues of class found in
school. Toshalis (2015) discusses how teachers can teach resilient strategies that are key to
students in lower-income situations in respond[ing] to marginalizing experiences not by
outwardly resisting but instead by enhancing their resilience. Some of these strategies that
Toshalis mentions that would be very helpful to my case student include practicing selfdiscipline, teaching good communication skills, and learning how to challenge authority
respectfully and productively.
For all my students, I try to structure the class period in such a way that they know
exactly how much time they have to work on any given task, so that they may learn how to best
use the time they are given and be productive, since many, including my case student, struggle
with that. This is an attempt at heightening self-discipline. My case student is also one of
many who challenge my activities. His main tactic is to give answers that avoid the actual
purpose of the activity, such as giving the answer of far, to my question, How far would you
go to protect your freedom? When students, including my case student, question what we are
doing, or show that they think they cannot do it, I ask them the questions: What is tripping you
up right now? What about this is really making you overwhelmed? With these questions, I hope
to help students truly articulate their thoughts so they can ask questions that will attend to their
needs, rather than blanketing a whole activity with negativity. I do also thank them for their
concerns and feedback. This has been a practice of mine since the beginning, and I have noticed
in the past week that my case student will start to say a sassy comment, then pause, and rephrase

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what he is saying for me in a respectful way. This ties together good communication skills and
productively challenging authority.
It is difficult, however, while teaching resilient strategies, to give attention to all students
that need it. Often, those that are challenging and resisting will direct the attention towards
themselves, when I also have students that are highly engaged in what we are doing and want to
be challenged academically. I also run into the issue of students that are not resisting because
they need help, but because they want to derail the class and not have to do work (which of
course can be routed in systemic issues too!) With those students, I have to weigh the costs and
benefits of engaging the behavior, and sometimes it is just better to dismiss it and move on with
the days lesson so the students that want to learn can learn. My case student will sometimes fall
into the category of simply not wanting to engage with the class for the day, and sometimes he
does cross a line of disrespect towards other students or me where I must reprimand him (such as
asking another student inappropriate questions about certain provocative dance moves and
whether or not she can do them), or other students will not see me as someone who can maintain
a safe space. Therefore, I am not taking every opportunity as a chance to teach the resilience
strategies detailed above, and there are a lot of close calls. This is something I am going to have
to continue to practice and reflect on.
Another approach I could employ with my students in general relates back to my case
students (along with many others) impulsivity and lack of self-monitoring. Weinstein and
Novodvorsky (2015) offer solutions such as having students observe and record their own
behavior, specifically focusing on a targeted behavior, ClassWide Peer-Assisted SelfManagementin which students monitor themselves and their partners, self-evaluation
forms, and behavior contracts. I am hesitant to make this be something that just my case

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study student, along with other students with behavior or academic problems, do. Since my
students in general are very self-conscious and assert themselves as grown, I do not want it to
seem like I am picking on them. Two things I want to add to the classroom are a homework
checklist for the week, so students can see all the assignments and hold themselves accountable,
and an exit slip how many times they look at their phones during a class period for a week to
reflect on how much attention they are really giving their learning. Even these practices,
however, are contingent on my students actually doing the task, and with my case student this
could still be an issue. For him, I am going to continue repeating directives to him. When he is
not attending to the task at hand, I also plan on asking him, What are you doing right now?
What could you be doing to help yourself in this class? How can I help? Hopefully, this, paired
with the homework sheet and the phone tally, will force him to begin to reflect on his behavior a
little more. I already noticed this past week that my case student has begun to monitor his use of
profanity around me more, and he will admit to not knowing why he is doing a given behavior
(such as sitting on top of the desk rather than in his actual chair). It seems like he is already on
his way to being able to self-monitor. The approaches above are all things that would begin to or
continue to benefit my class as a whole, and I think they can be combined to manage and
empower my students by providing many forms of self-reflection in the classroom.

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References
Toshalis, E. (2015). Make me! Understanding and engaging student resistance in school.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Weinstein, C. S., & Novodvorksy, I. (2015). Classroom management: Lessons from research
and practice (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Part IV:

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For my case student, I decided to implement primarily the self-monitoring strategies,

along with attempting resilience strategies to combat issues of class when it seemed prudent. My
mentor and I often reflect on this student, since he has been asking for more help lately. In
relation to my action plan, I employed the phone tally idea, and my case student actually
helped me collect the sheets and told me about how he tried really hard to look at his phone less.
I still see this students phone out when students are given time to work independently or in
groups, but I do not see it out while I am explaining or engaging in class discussion. The list of
weekly homework assignments generally confused my students because, even though I explained
it thoroughly several times, many thought the assignments on the list were ones that were already
due, rather than just a checklist for the week. I modified this to just be a slide on my presentation
every day that explained the expectations for the week. My case student still struggles with
turning in homework and long-term assignments, so it seems that neither of these practices have
helped him specifically.
My case student has gone through some changes since I started this project. A friend of
my case student has transferred into the class, and she is very vocally oppositional. He no longer
jokes in class or tries to participate. He just puts his head down on the desk and disengages
completely. He usually attributes it to a headache, but when I give him concrete tasks to do, he
will sit up. He also will tell me when his friend deserves to just be kicked out of the classroom.
He has also lost his book bag and no longer has materials to participate in school. For my case
student specifically, since this new wave of disengagement does not lend itself well to much selfregulation, I have been trying to teach him the resilience strategies such as better communication.
When he first lost his backpack, I would ask him if he needed paper, pen, and the like, but now
he will ask me for things he needs during activities for points in class. Unfortunately, when it

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comes to homework or longer projects, this student seems to want to do better, but cannot take
the steps to follow through. He reminds other students of the class website that contains all of the
assignments and asks me many questions about a given activity. He has even asked me if he can
revise a final paper one more time, which I permitted but never received. I have actively tried to
remind him every time I see him about projects that really count grade-wise, but I rarely receive
the work. My hypothesis about self-regulation seems to heavily contribute to my students lack
of academic success. I can only help him be on task during my class, and I cannot control all of
the other distractions in his life when he leaves. I will continue to work with him on it with the
time that I have with him daily and be open to his requests for help.