Student Case Study

EDI 310 03
Madison Brusak
 Participant Information
★ Jack is a 6 year old half African American
half caucasion male in a first grade
Spanish Immersion.
★ Home Life:
○ Lives with biological mother
○ Has six brothers and sisters total
○ Parents are separated
★ Strengths and Interests:
○ Loves books about sharks and
dinosaurs
○ Curious
○ Creative and artistic
○ Athletic
○ Social
○ Math
★ Areas of need:
○ Reading - words with multiple
syllables; Spanish vocabulary
○ Writing - spelling; writing complete
sentences
○ Behavioral challenges
★ No IEP or 504
★ Reason for selection:
○ I selected Jack because I saw that he
has a lot of potential, but just needs
extra support in managing his
behaviors to reach that potential.
 Classroom Context

Information Set-up Daily Schedule

★ 25 students
★ 20 years of experience ★ 8:00-8:15 Morning Work
teaching Spanish ★ 8:15-8:30 Calendar
Immersion (K-4) - trained ★ 8:30-9:00 Writing
in restorative practices Workshop
and Capturing Kids’ ★ 9:00-9:15 Recess
Hearts ★ 9:15-9:30 Snack
★ Students are expected ★ 9:30-10:00 Reading
to follow the “Class Intervention Groups
Promise”
★ 10:00-11:00 Reading
★ Held accountable to Workshop
follow expectations
★ 11:00-11:15 Chromebooks
★ Focus on positive ★ 11:15 Lunch
classroom community
 Description of Behavior and Strategy #1
★ Behavior: Inappropriate physical and verbal responses
○ When Jack experienced conflict with his classmates, such as when there was an invasion of space
or disagreements, he used inappropriate physical and verbal responses towards his
classmates (ex. throwing/moving others materials and yelling).
★ Strategy #1: Individual Behavior Plan
○ In conversations with us about these behaviors, Jack understands his behaviors are wrong and
can come up with better alternative behaviors like using words before body. When he is praised
by us for showing good behaviors like dealing with conflict appropriately, he is more motivated
to make good choices; therefore, we decided to implement an individual behavior plan that
rewards him for positive behaviors. When we notice Jack is displaying a positive behavior, he can
receive a chip. However, when he is displaying negative behaviors, chips can be taken away. It is
important to give/take away chips immediately after he displays behaviors so he recognizes the
immediate consequences for his actions. At the end of the week, he gets a reward. The more
chips that he has, the greater the reward he will get. His mom gave input as to which rewards
would be most motivating to him: 10 chips = prize from the prize box; 15 chips = free iPad time;
20 chips = date with mom.
 Analysis and Reflection of Strategy #1
★ After implementing the individual behavior plan, we noticed significant changes to Jack’s
behavior over time…
○ Pride in his progress
■ He often came up to me the next day to show me how many chips that he earned
when I was gone.
■ Telling us about how much fun he had on his date with his mom.
○ Decrease in physical aggression
■ More conscious about using words before body
○ More effort during work time
■ More engaged in academic work
★ Communicating with his mom about his behaviors and involving her in the individual behavior
plan was very effective. Family involvement increases student achievement and this is evident
through the progress we have seen in Jack’s behavior.
 Description of Behavior and Strategy #2
★ Behavior: Disengagement and frustration during individual learning activities
○ Jack gets easily frustrated when he does not understand how to go about an individual learning activity.
He struggles to manage his work and often resorts to “I don’t know what to do!” He might crumple up or
scribble out the work on his paper, or completely disengage. This disengagement likely stems from his
academic struggles; he has a lower reading level and has little experience Spanish which makes reading
and writing workshop especially challenging for him.
★ Strategy #2: Try 3 Before Me; Raz-Kids at Home
○ The strategy Try 3 Before Me provides him with a poster that has a list of strategies he can use when he is
stuck on his work; for example, ask a friend, skip it and try again later, use the anchor chart, re-read the
directions, try a different way, look what classmates are doing, stop and think, etc. After trying 3
strategies, he can ask the teacher. The goal of this strategy is to guide Jack to use thinking and problem
solving skills before his emotions so he has more confidence and independence in his learning, and as a
result is more engaged and productive during work time.
○ Jack is the only one in his family in the Spanish Immersion program and his family does not speak Spanish
at home, so it is hard for him to practice or receive extra support outside of school. His mom agrees that
his academic struggles and lack of confidence using Spanish is a major cause of his frustration and
disengagement in school. My MT provided his mom with his Raz-Kids account which is a digital learning
platform that has hundreds of Spanish eBooks at his level that can be read out loud to him. He will do this
on the iPad at home for 30 minutes each day. The goal is for this extra practice at home helps him grow in
Spanish literacy, making learning activities easier for him.
 Analysis and Reflection of Strategy #2
★ After implementing the Try 3 Before Me strategy and doing 30 minutes of Raz-Kids each day at
home, Jack became significantly more engaged during work time…
○ Asked more questions to classmates and teacher
○ Turned in assignments were more completed
○ Decrease in impulsive responses (throwing away/scribbling out work)
○ More interest in books (always wants to show me interesting things he finds/ask me
questions about what a Spanish word means)
○ Learned how to let his drawings guide his writing
★ Jack still heavily relied on asking the teacher for help, but that is okay. The most important thing
is that he is asking for help and is wanting to know something that will help him be able to
continue working.

Context
It is important to understand the
context behind students
behavior. Students want to do
good, sometimes they just do not
know how. In Jack’s situation, his
disengagement was an emotional
response to his academic
struggle and low confidence
using Spanish. This is not
something that should be
punished. Anyone would be
frustrated if they were given
something to do with no idea how
to do it, and didn’t have the
strategies to help them manage it.
As an already curious and bright
learner, that is all Jack needed -
strategies that guided his thinking
and problem solving skills.
Conclusions
Communication
Family involvement increases
student achievement and
positively impacts students
behavior. Therefore, when
students are displaying recurring
challenging behaviors, it can be
helpful to communicate these
behaviors with families - they
can give good insight into what
could be causing these behaviors,
helpful strategies they use at
home to manage them, have
productive conversations with
their children, and contribute to
behavior plans. When students
are held accountable for behavior
expectations at home and at
school, their behavior and
learning are more likely to change.
Positivity
When it comes to managing
challenging behaviors, solely
relying on punishments is not
always effective. Taking a
balanced approach is ideal
because recognizing and
rewarding positive behaviors is
just as, if not more, effective. It
reinforces what is expected and
motivates students to continue
making positive choices in the
future.
 Recommendations
★ Be explicit in ★ Show interest in ★ Get to know
explaining and their work. them on a deeper
modeling when Students are level.
giving going to feel Understanding
instructions. proud and their backgrounds,
Students like Jack motivated when interests, and
will be more you are interested insecurities helps
engaged when in what they are you adapt your
they have a clear reading or writing teaching to better
picture of the about. support them.
expectations from
the start.
 References & Learner Profile and Analysis
Learner Profile and Analysis References
Document
★ Individual Behavior Plan - created by
★ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5
MT
ACG8GXhp_9VBaXxify0aeXXuWGmIb0/e
★ Try 3 Ask Me Strategy (adapted)
dit?usp=sharing&ouid=101206460400704
887874&rtpof=true&sd=true ★ Raz-Kids