Lorber 1

Eric Lorber
A43424666
TE 803 Sec. 18 Student 9
March 18, 2015
Case Study Evaluation
The case study action plan that I composed called for me to alter my instructional strategies to
emphasis synthesis of textual content by allowing students to reconstruct literary elements and to
engage in creative exercises in day-to-day (informal) activities. The more rigid components of writing
would only explicitly required on formal, academic essays. I believe that my course of action reflected
this plan.
Informed by my need to accommodate students who function on the autism spectrum (or
normal students who simply struggle to intuitively understand instruction), I composed a five page
long instructional packet that explicitly outlined my expectations for their most recent analytical essay.
I realize that the volume of the packet may have been intimidating, but it included fill-in-the-blank
paragraph templates that would facilitate quality essay composition (if followed correctly). I also
adjusted altered my typical essay grading rubric to primarily consist of objective, yes or no points. If a
student simply read instructions and followed the bullet-pointed parameters, he or she would receive a
70/100 at the very worst (regardless of aesthetic qualities, grammar, or spelling). The other 30 points
were rewarded for demonstrating knowledge of textual content and observing Standard English
conventions.
The way that I implemented their analytical essay reflects the literature that I referenced in the
action plan. Following the advice of Ronald Ferguson, author of Helping Students of Color Meet High
Standards, I compassionately attempted to answer clarifying questions about the assignment. I did not
have to field a lot of questions because the expectations were clearly communicated (as Ferguson
suggests). The tedious nature of the pre-writing handouts was supposed to allow me to reward students
for working hard and encourage high quality essays, a strategy informed by Daniel T. Willingham's
Why Don't Students Like School?.
Day-to-Day activities, as of late, have followed the same pattern: 10 to 15 minutes of in-class
reading (popcorn style) and devoting the rest of the time to an activity. Twice per week the activity
requires students to conduct a scavenger hunt and identify literary components in a given passage of
text, while the other three days are devoted to illustrating characters, dramatically reconstructions (i.e.
acting out scenes), or some other type of creative synthesis.
Thus far I am happy with the way that I have implemented my action plan, but I am a bit
disappointed by the results. A substantial amount of my students did not follow the explicitly
communicated guidelines from the pre-writing assignments and the instructional packet. Quantitatively
speaking, approximately 7 of 67 students followed the parameters and received all of their objective,
yes-or-no points. Many students managed to lose things in translation when transposing their fill-inthe-blank pre-writing handout into their analytical essay. In day-to-day exercises, students do not seem
to take the artistic output assignments very seriously because they (appear to) perceive creative
synthesis to be academic. In fact, informal observation has revealed that the majority of students would
rather copy one of their peers instead of brainstorming and creating a unique piece (despite my
insistence that effort will be rewarded and that there is no objectively right or wrong aesthetic quality).
Currently, I do not know how to effectively address these inadequacies. I know that I could
utilize class time to read instructional handouts outloud as a class to make sure that students read all the
instructions at least once, but I feel that it would be a bit insulting to self-motivated students and it

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would be an inefficient use of the limited class time that I have. In terms of the lack of apparent
ambition in the day-to-day work, I have not decided how to respond students clearly communicated
that non-traditional (i.e. artistic) litearacies are more affirming, or at least less alienating, than
traditional literacies, but do not respond to the opportunity with adequate fervor. As of know, I plan on
endeavoring to be more transparent about the teacher reason for issuing an assignment and
explaining how the task is academic. If students are more aware of the instructional purpose, then they
may be more motivated.