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Perspective Paper Three: Student

Lauren Dellojoio

ECE 4475

Dr. Adams

April 5, 2022
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In this paper, I am expressing the viewpoint of a second-grade student who I will refer to

as Student W. Student W is Tier 2 for both reading and mathematics. Their family is Title One

and receive support related to poverty prevention and aide. Student W comes from a two-parent

household and has an older brother who is in third grade. Student W is frequently referred to as a

“troublemaker” who has too much energy and likes to tell on other students. Teachers believe he

has poor impulse control or simply doesn’t care. I will be exploring how Student W may actually

feel when he misbehaves versus how his actions are perceived by his instructors.

Mrs. Murdock’s classroom is one that values working quickly and quietly, staying on

task, and working well with others. Student W tends to have trouble with three of these values.

They tend to take extra time with work and need individual or small group help. They also tend

to have problems telling on others for small things causing conflict between themselves and

others. Student W fits in to the classroom community, whilst also struggling to maintain good

footing with his peers and instructor. He tends to be one of a few students who get tokens taken

away throughout the school day and teeters the line of having no tokens or being in the

negatives. Due to this, many students tend to keep their distance during class time as they are

afraid of being roped into misbehavior by association. This can feel isolating and must be hard

for a seven-year-old child to digest this type of rejection. I feel that this can develop into

frustration and dislike for authority in the future, as the root of his rejection comes from his

teachers. If his teachers didn’t call him out for his misbehavior so consistently, his peers would

stick by his side more often and he would not be rejected. I think Student W feels a need to

belong like most people do, and struggles to gain positive attention in the classroom.

It is early in the morning, only 10:00 am when Mrs. Murdock’s second grade class

transitions into shared reading. Student W dreads this time of day and struggles to get through it.
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Rarely does this time of day go by with a complaint or negative grumble from Student W. In

shared reading, students are paired with a fluency partner and given a county assigned chapter

book to read. The pair shares this book as the entire class is expected to read aloud in unison.

They are expected to follow along and read for around 20 straight minutes or more. Even from

the teacher’s perspective, many of the books lack in being engaging to the modern child. They

lack pictures and modern terminology that can allow children to connect to what they are

reading. Shared reading is important as its time to work on oral reading and comprehension, but

it is also painfully boring at times. Needless to say, Student W is not the only child who struggles

during this lesson, but he is the most open with his distaste.

During this time, Student W will cringe and declare that his stomach hurts very badly. It

is hard to know if this is true or if he is just trying to skip this lesson. A part of me believes he

may actually have an upset stomach at this time, as directly after this is lunchtime. I feel that the

boring lesson can drone on and then his hyperactive brain become very aware that his stomach

hurts, and his nose is running, and the girl he is reading with is elbow him, and it’s annoying.

Student W needs something to help him feel connected with what he is reading and more

pictures to analyze. He doesn’t feel challenged during this time in a way that he enjoys. He likes

science and math but reading and writing is a type of difficult that just isn’t fun. For that reason,

he will do anything to get out of participating in shared reading. This includes, refusing to

participate and losing tokens. Somehow this exchange is worth it, which is telling of just how

frustrating reading really is to Student W. He would rather get into trouble and be rejected by his

teacher and peers than have to participate in such an awful task to him.

Other classmates, like his fluency partner, may look at him with confusion and

annoyance. They wonder why he cannot simply do what is being asked of him. His fluency
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partner especially seems annoyed. She rolls her eyes at him every time she tries to help redirect

him; the way she sees teacher do. He will give her some snarky remark back, resulting in further

tension between the two. Other students seem to feel responsible for each other. They want to

help their friends succeed, so when one seems uninterested in this offer, they take it badly. All

students, other than Student W, seem engaged enough to complete what is expected of them

during shared reading, which makes Student W stick out like a soar thumb. This can further his

feeling of frustration, and rejection. He doesn’t want help from other students. He feels

embarrassed that they are paying so much close attention to his inadequacy, resulting in feeling

like it is better to simply not participate at all.

To summarize, Student W is a second-grade student in Mrs. Murdock’s class. I

highlighted his struggles in literacy instruction like shared reading time and how he may be

feeling during this time. I explored how the classroom operates and what type of actions and

behaviors are valued in the classroom. I also illustrated how his peers behave and how they may

have an effect on him.