Alexa Knoderer

2/5/2021
ED 493
Case Study

1) Demographic Information
a) Age: 13
b) Gender: Female
c) Race/Ethnicity: Black
d) Grade Level: 8th
e) Academic Achievement Levels:
i) Math: Scored 67% and 85% on progress monitors during 8th grade.
ii) ELA: Scored 100%, 67%, and 37% on RACE paragraphs.
iii) ILEARN: below proficiency in all areas: ELA, math, and science
f) Grades: Term 3 (Current Term)
i) A+ in PE
ii) C/C- in : ELA, ELA intervention, Pre-Algebra, Art
iii) F in science and social studies
g) Number of Years since being identified: 4 years
h) Amount of time spent with special educators: About 3 hours a day within the
general education curriculum.
2) Observations:
a) Similarities and Differences of this student to neurotypical peers:
i) This student plays on the basketball teams and participates in the general
education curriculum. She is very social and has friends.
ii) She is different in that she needs more support and struggles with
motivation and work completion. However, some of that is common in
middle schoolers.
iii) She struggles with attention, focus, and organization at a level that is
different than her neurotypical peers.
b) How do these characteristics compare to what you learned in class:
i) I think class is a great foundational level of understanding, but every
student is much more nuanced than class can prepare us for. I also think
that class prepares us for how disabilities present themselves in white
boys as opposed to students of color or girls.
c) How might the exceptional characteristics of this student impact
i) Education Activities and Learning: Her disability makes it much more
challenging for her to get her work done and stay organized when she
has many classes to keep track of. Additionally, she struggles to engage
on her virtual days and stay focused for a whole class during block
schedule.
ii) Daily Life: She is easily distracted by her phones, earbuds, or apple
watch.
 iii) Interaction with friends, family, and overall social abilities: Due to her
disability, her performance is school is hit or miss with grades. This can
make her ineligible for sports or benched which affects her socially. She
is really motivated to work and wants to do well in school.
iv) Family: Her struggles do put a strain on the relationship with her and her
mom as her mom pushes her extremely hard to do well without giving a
lot of guidance or hearing out the student’s concerns. Her mom really
wants her to be successful, but doesn’t know how to give her what she
needs.
d) Is this student on Medication? If yes, how does this impact them?
i) Yes she is. We have never seen or met this student without taking their
medication.
e) Does your student exhibit any behavior problems, either in class, or within the
school outside the class? If yes, are these behavior problems due to differences
in the student’s culture, language, medical background, or environmental
background?
i) No she doesn’t have any behaviors, but she desperately wants to fit in
with others. She is easily influenced by her peers even if that means
breaking school rules. For example, having her phone out or becoming
distracted by her earbuds and apple watch. She will also disengage with
lessons if other students are doing the same.
3) Description of parents or guardians and their involvement with this student with
exceptional needs
a) How does the extent and role of family members support the development of this
student? Was the family actively involved in the language, academic learning,
social and emotional development of this student? If yes, give examples. If no,
give examples.
i) I am not sure about the rest of the student’s family, but her mother really
wants her to succeed and is worried about her success. I also do not
know the family’s involvement in her early childhood development.
However, I do know that the student has been in special education since
about 3/4th grade which means the parent has some level of involvement
in getting her student services. Now that the student is older, her mother
has gotten really concerned about her performance in school and is
extremely hard on her daughter because of her performance and being
easily distracted in school. I really do think that the parent wants her
daughter to be successful, but she doesn’t realize that berating her
daughter for all the things she doesn’t or can’t do doesn’t create the
conditions necessary for her child to succeed.
4) Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Background
a) Is this student from a non-English speaking family? If yes, give details.
i) No she is not.
b) Is this student from a rural/urban/sub-urban location? From a low/middle/upper
income family? Summarize with 2-3 examples of how the student’s linguistic and
socio-economic background can influence the student’s learning, including
identifying his or her exceptional needs due to cultural variations impacts your
communication and collaboration with parents and family members, especially
addressing their traditions, beliefs, and values.
 i) This student is from an urban background and has attended urban
schools for both middle and elementary school. We do not know much
about the student’s socioeconomic background but I can say that the
student has nice things. That doesn’t necessarily mean that her family
isn’t struggling financially. However, mom and dad are not together, and I
do not believe dad is involved. Mom has been working to support the
family, and that could be why her daughter is struggling on the days that
she is virtual because she doesn’t have the structure or support
necessary to complete work.
ii) The student and I come from somewhat different backgrounds although
we attended or do attend the same middle school. Her mother has a
different approach to getting her daughter to do things than myself, my
cooperating mentor, or many other teachers I’d assume. To me, it feels
harsh the way she talks to her, but that could be a cultural difference.
Because of these differences, it is hard to ensure that positive conditions
for learning are created for the student both at home while the student is
doing virtual learning and at school. However, I do know that what I view
as harsh, is the mother trying to help her student and comes from a place
of genuine care for the wellbeing and success of her daughter.
5) Use of assistive technology to improve education and communication skills of the
student with ELN
a) Do you think that this student would benefit from the use of augmentative and
assistive communication (AAC) devices or strategies? If yes, which strategies
and tools/devices will you recommend to improve the educational, language and
communication skills of this student?
i) No, I don’t think this student necessary would benefit from an AAC device
or something to aid in her communication. However, I do think there are
technological tools that would support her academic development.
Currently, she has access to Snap N Read, a software that reads
documents aloud to students. She doesn’t use this software regularly as it
would make her look different than her peers although she really does
need the accommodation that the software provides. Additionally, I think
she would benefit from using text-to-speech technology in her writing.
However, students often get frustrated with this software because they
talk how they would normally talk instead of talking how the software
should write it. Because of this, they have to go back and edit quite often,
and in the past, it has been difficult to make them understand how to
make the software work better when they speak.
b) If your student’s primary language is not English, what additional communication/
language training activities and resources will you use to implement subject
matter learning and communication (with both student and his or her family).
i) The student’s primary language is English.
6) Analysis and Recommendations –
a) How does this ELN/disability manifest itself?
i) For this student, her ADHD manifests itself by affecting her attentiveness
and focus in class. This leads to her having lots of missing assignments in
classes where teachers aren’t right on her to get things turned in. It also
 causes her to rush through her work to get to a preferred activity.
Additionally, it also makes her feel different from other students.
b) How do students with ELN cope with their challenges?
i) Her disability makes her feel different, and it is a major priority for her that
she fits in and has lots of friends. She copes by being a strong athlete
and finding support and comfort with her peers on the team. Additionally,
she copes by simply not doing some of the assignments if that teacher is
not strong and consistent with holding her accountable to having no
missing assignments in their class. She will also distract herself with her
phone, earbuds, or watch.
c) How do teachers, peers, and parents deal with this student with ELN?
i) Teachers do not have many struggles with this student, but they do need
to consistently be after her to get work turned in and done properly
without rushing. Not all teachers are able to do this for her so her grades
are also a reflection of who is getting on her about the missing work.
ii) I do not think her peers are really aware of the challenges she faces as
she doesn’t have any behaviors that would hinder her from being
accepted by peers or that would ostracize her.
iii) Her mother is extremely hard on her because she wants her to be
successful. She will yell at her when she doesn’t complete all her
assignments or when she has poor grades. She definitely doesn’t accept
the student’s lack of focus, effort, and motivation, but also doesn’t really
show or verbalize a lot of understanding for why the student struggles
with organization and completing assignments. I think her mother is really
scared about her daughter’s future success.
d) Overall, what factors are supporting or hindering the student’s development?
i) I do think that being in person 2 days a week is helping this student. She
receives a lot of support in her academic areas and is motivated to do
well because she enjoys her electives. Her TOR will pull her from gym
and advisory if she has any grade below a C in order to give her more
time during the school day to get things done and receive supplemental
support if necessary. I think the constant and consistent support of her
TOR and ELA teachers regarding her grades is an essential support for
this student.
ii) I think the distractions of the phone, earbuds, and apple watch are
hindering her ability to focus, stay on task, and take her time with
assignments. Additionally, she struggles to engage on her three days
virtually, so I think virtual learning is hindering her ability to be successful
in some of her classes.
e) What changes to the environment would benefit the student?
i) Currently, we are trying to get this student on the 4 day a week program,
so that she can be in person 4 days to receive additional support and to
get her grades up. I think this would immensely benefit this student as her
virtual days are when she accrues most of her missing work. This would
also give her two more days to receive supplementary instruction to
support her in the classes that she’s currently failing. When considering
IHSAA eligibility, they look at student’s 8th grade grades to determine
whether students can play sports. Sports are so important for this student,
but if we aren’t able to get her in 4 days, she may not be eligible to play
sports.