Attuning a Student Case Study - All Kinds of Minds · Case Study Instructions Ideally, when learning the Attuning a Student process, participants will have the opportunity to implement

Attuning a Student Case Study

CHARLES Seventh Grade Student

Case Study Instructions Ideally, when learning the Attuning a Student process, participants will have the opportunity to implement the process from start to finish with one of their current struggling students. However, we realize that this scenario is not always feasible. For these participants, we have provided the enclosed case study to simulate a “real” student to the extent possible. Using the case will help you understand and practice each of the stages of the process. This case study packet includes the following materials:

• Narrative about the student (Charles) • Completed Parent’s View for Charles • Completed Student’s View for Charles • Completed Teacher’s View for Charles • Several work samples from Charles

Complete the following steps with this case study prior to the next Attuning a Student: Process and Tool module session*:

*NOTE: If you are using this case study for the online Making Sense of Data module, complete these steps before you begin that module.

1. Read the case study narrative about the student and skim the enclosed Views and work samples to

begin getting to know your case study student.

2. Log in to the All Kinds of Minds web site (www.allkindsofminds.org) and click on the Attuning a Student link. Click on Enter the Attuning a Student Online Tool.

3. Create your personal profile.

4. Create a record for your case study student.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Assign the student the name “Case Charles”.

5. Assign respondents and Views as follows:

• Charles’ teacher (assign yourself as a respondent): Early/Intermediate version of the Teacher’s View

• Charles’ parent: Early/Intermediate version of the Parent’s View

• Charles: Intermediate Learner version of the Student’s View 6. Enter the data from the enclosed Teacher’s View into the online tool.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: The “General Strengths and Weaknesses” and “Affinities” sections of

the Teacher’s View are not completed. You will need to complete these two sections based on the “What You See in the Classroom” section of the case study narrative. It is not necessary for you to complete the “Strategies that you have tried” part of the “General Strengths and Weaknesses” section.

• Not all sections of the Teacher’s View were completed for Charles. However, all sections – even those that were not completed – are provided in this packet for your reference.

PLEASE NOTE: When logging in as Charles’s parent and as Charles, you will be acting as “Respondents” rather than as a “Profile Coordinator”. Charles’s student record information will not be accessible from the Respondent screens.

PLEASE NOTE: Refer to the Guide to Using the Attuning a Student Online Tool for assistance in using the tool. This tutorial is available in narrated online format as well as in PDF format on the Attuning a Student home page.

7. Log in as Charles’s parent (using the login information provided by the tool) and enter the data from the enclosed Parent’s View into the tool.

8. Log in to the online tool as Charles (using the login information provided by the tool) and enter the data from the enclosed Student’s View into the tool.

9. Once you have entered and submitted the Teacher’s, Parent’s, and Student’s Views, generate a Views Consolidation Report.

10. Print the Views Consolidation Report.

11. Mark up Charles’s work samples, noting aspects of the work that are strong and aspects that may indicate a weakness. Remember that, at this stage, your comments on the work samples should reflect objective observations only, not analysis or interpretations.

12. If you are using this case study for the on-site Attuning a Student: Process and Tools module, bring the case study packet and Charles’s Views Consolidation Report to the next module session. If you are using this case study for the online Success for Puzzling Students: Making Sense of Data module, be sure to have the case study packet and Charles’s Views Consolidation Report available when you begin the Making Sense of Data module.

Still have questions? Contact your All Kinds of Minds facilitator(s) or [email protected].

Charles Narrative BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Charles is in seventh grade. He has attended three schools. His current school is private, and his first

two were public. His father reports that Charles’s school difficulties became apparent in first grade. His

first grade teacher thought Charles had ADHD because he was constantly in motion. His second grade

teacher considered him to be “hyper,” and urged the family to seek an outside evaluation. Charles’s

parents took him to his pediatrician who prescribed Ritalin, and Charles’s parents reluctantly put their son

on the medication. They were never sure if Ritalin was an effective intervention, however, because they

were moving to a new city at the time, and weren’t able to carefully monitor Charles’s response to the

medication.

When Charles entered his new school at the end of second grade, his parents decided to discontinue the

Ritalin. The second grade teacher at the new school reported that Charles was a polite boy, but she

expressed concerns about his ability to wait to hear directions. She was not as concerned about his

activity level, per se, but wondered if he could somehow be slowed down. She expressed regret that

Charles had transferred to her class so late in the term, giving her only 8 weeks to work with him. She

had wanted to focus more on his peer acceptance, because his quick style was interfering with his ability

to make friends.

Charles’s third, fourth and fifth grade teachers emphasized that it was important for Charles to take more

time to read and listen carefully. His fourth grade teacher suggested speaking with the school

psychologist about options for managing Charles’s hurried style and lack of follow-through on homework.

His parents did not pursue this option, believing that medication might be suggested, and they did not

want to pursue that path again.

By sixth grade, Charles was spending a fair amount of time in after-school detention for incomplete work,

talking out in class, distracting his classmates, etc. His parents worried that there would be no way to

redeem his reputation in the school, so they placed him in a private school for seventh grade.

Charles lives with his parents, two sisters, and one brother. His grandfather also lives with the family. His

mother describes Charles as affectionate and caring. She says that he plays hard and then crashes,

often taking naps on weekends or after school. Charles has difficulty waking up in the morning, and this

is becoming an area of tension in the home. His mother reports that he was a late-talker compared to her

other children, but that he “hasn’t shut up since.” She and her husband are concerned that there is such

a disparity between what they think Charles can do, and the work he produces in school. They are

dismayed that the smaller class size and individual attention available in a private school does not seem

to be making a difference in Charles’s school performance.

When interviewed, Charles stated that “if the teaching is slow, or if I already know it, I feel sleepy and

doze off.” He also said, “I learn best not by someone telling me, but by someone showing me.” Charles’s

favorite subject is math, and he hates grammar and foreign language. He says that he has lots of friends,

although his teachers indicate that there are several students who ask to be moved away from Charles,

or not to be placed in learning groups with him, saying things like, “He always goofs around and ruins the

projects. If you want an A, you can’t work with Charles.”

Charles belongs to a youth group at his church that does community service, and he enjoys that

immensely. He wants to be an architect or engineer, and speaks excitedly about his building projects that

he does with his grandfather at home. They have made a grandfather clock together and are now

working on a garden bench. While not an agile child and not involved in official school sports teams,

Charles loves to play many sports (football, basketball, baseball), and he participates on intramural

teams. He has an excellent memory and, as such, is the sports trivia expert in his family, creating quiz

games of esoteric sports history facts for his relatives to play.

WHAT YOU SEE IN THE CLASSROOM:

Charles frequently interrupts his teachers and his peers when they are talking. He blurts out information

without raising his hand and, on the rare occasions when he has raised his hand, he will often say, “Oh, I

forgot!” by the time he is actually called upon to answer. He shares his commentary about the

contributions of his classmates spontaneously and audibly during class, and yet, he does not seem

malicious, just tactless. Charles almost always approaches his teachers after directions have been given

to ask for clarification regarding the assignment. Recently, he approached his science teacher, test in

hand, asking “What are we supposed to do here?” (referring to a section of the exam requiring

compare/contrast short answers).

Charles takes every opportunity to move around the room and school during the day. If he is sent to

another location (e.g., from study hall to see a teacher for individual help), he is not efficient in getting

there. He will often meander through the halls, stopping to get a drink of water, waving at peers in

classrooms, stopping at his locker, visiting the restroom, etc. In contrast to this motoric activity, Charles

will sometimes actually fall asleep in school! For example, the other day, when he was sent to work on a

project in the computer lab, his teacher found him curled up on the floor in the corner of the computer

room “resting.”

Charles has an excellent fund of general information, and he can usually speak knowledgeably about

topics in history class. For example, during the study of ancient Egypt, Charles shared detailed

information he knew about hieroglyphics, as well as information he knew about various other alphabets

and recording systems from other cultures.

Charles can understand the literal and the inferential when studying literature. His insights about

literature reveal an understanding of human nature and an appreciation of literary devices. However, his

oral expression is sometimes awkward. In discussing how the protagonist in a story could improve his

relationship with the people of the village, Charles said, “He could tell them ‘sorry,’ and offer if he could do

something extra.” When discussing the primary election system in history class, he said “They should

appoint new laws.” When Charles reads aloud, his reading is not at all fluent. He repeats many words

(often getting them right on the second or third try), and misreads or omits the little words such as “an,”

“on,” “to,” etc. He reports that the words often run together when he reads. Interestingly, when he

speaks, he often has to repeat words to say them properly. He tends to sequence incorrectly the

syllables in such multi-syllabic words as “conductivity” (cod-nuk-tivity) and “recombinant” (re-con-bom-

ant), etc.

Charles’s mental quickness serves him well in math class, where he grasps concepts readily and

performs calculations correctly and efficiently. Charles has expressed frustration at having to explain how

he gets answers in math, believing that “the right answer should count more than writing how I solved it.”

In physical education class, Charles often decreases the time the entire class has for activities, because

he does not dress for gym in a timely manner. When he is finally in the gym, he often starts an activity

before the teacher is finished explaining it, and continues the activity long after the teacher has called an

end to it. He cannot catch or throw a ball with age-appropriate accuracy, and his running is not graceful.

Charles seems to enjoy being in PE class, nonetheless.

Writing Assignment: Today you will complete an in-class writing assignment. You have 45 minutes to write your paper. The topic is to describe a perfect day.