Valeria Ojeda

Roster #16

Case Study #3: Carol Brown

Carol Brown is a first grade teacher who wants her students to have trust among one

another as each of the students were diverse. In a different culture classroom, she is troubled by

the fact that one of her student pencil cases was stolen. What I mean by the different cultures is

that in the classroom, there are rich students and half of them are poor kids that their parents

were barely able to buy a sweater. With this stolen pencil case, many closed wounds are

beginning to open up, when students begin to believe that someone in the classroom stole the

pencil case. Carol Brownattempts to solve this problem and maintain trust with every student

toward each other and herself.

1. What is Miss Brown’s problem?

The problem that Miss Brown has is that she is trying to figure out what happened to John’s

pencil case. Miss Brown believes that he must have misplaced it but all of the students believe

that it was stolen. The problem within this problem is that her classroom has students from

diverse backgrounds. Some students were from the richest part of the city and others were from

the poorest parts of the city. The last thing Carol wants is that the poor kids get accused of

stealing the pencil case just because they could not afford a pencil case like the one John had.

2. What do you think Carol’s objectives are for the class?

Carol's objectives for the class are far more than just teaching the curriculum, she's trying to

teach her class how to coexist and accept others despite their differences. Another objective of

hers now that the pencil case was stolen, is how to teach her students to respect each other's
property. Also, classroom rules are another thing she is teaching to get the students to understand

why she is saying what she is saying about stealing.

3. What should Carol have done?

I think Carol did ok, until she became honest with the students and said that if she really wanted

something, she’d steal it, that’s not very good to tell kids. First Carol could have checked the lost

and found before opening the discussion of feelings. Then, Carol should have expressed deeply

how bad stealing was, but also tell the students that people make mistakes. Since she knows her

high risk students, she should suggest that someone come forward and no disciplinary actions

will be taken. One, you’ll get the students’ trust and two you can surely address the problem by

explaining to the student right from wrong and address the class of it being misplaced.

4. What should she do now?

Now, Carol should do as I suggested and ask the students if they have any info on the pencil case

to come talk to her alone. Also, she should now make a lesson/class about the wrong of stealing

and where it could end you up, because it’s a bad habit to have. Another thing I would do is to

teach the kids about respecting one another. Respecting your peers is something that’ll take them

a long way, because respect creates less problems. Lastly I think Carol should not harp on the

situation as much but start to do little things like no center time, so kids know it’s bad to steal

and it’ll be consequences for their actions.