Jonathan

has a learning disability: He shows average or above-average abilities and behaviors in many
areas but has difficulty with certain cognitive processes essential for reading. Jonathan can
sound out most words but struggles with comprehension of what he is reading. It often takes
extra time for Jonathan to understand assignments but once he does he is eager to get to work.
Jonathan is a poor speller, which makes it difficult at times to understand what he is trying to
communicate in writing. Other children in your class make fun of Jonathan if he has to read out
loud to the class so he avoids this task.
Andrea
has an emotional/ behavioral disorder and ADHD: Her behaviors are sufficiently disruptive that
they interfere with her classroom achievement. She suffered a severe emotional trauma
because of the death of her younger brother after prolonged hospitalization. In class she when
she gets overwhelmed she cries and asks to see the nurse. She does not complete work
regularly but what she does turn in is average to above average. Andrea has few friends, is
bored easily, often challenges authority figures, blurts out answers in class, does not like to wait
and is absent at least once a week.
Angelo
is gifted: He displays advanced language development, learns easily on his own, and is bored
by school assignments that dont challenge him. When Angelo gets bored he often get into
trouble. He can be found in detention on a regular basis. He has a sophisticated vocabulary and
prefers to hangout with his one best friend. He is aware that he is gifted and has no interest in
being the teachers helper and instructing other children. He offers unusual, clever or unique
responses to open-ended questions in class. The school does not have a gifted program or a
G&T teacher.
Chris
is labeled as being on the autism spectrum. Chris is doing fine academically, he completes work
and mostly keeps to himself. Often you will see him sitting at his desk waving a pencil in front of
his face watching it very closely. He does not work in groups or with a partner. He avoids
making eye contact and reacts negatively to physical contact. He likes structure and keeping to
the same schedule everyday. Loud noises, like the fire alarm often make him scream like the
noise is hurting his ears. When Chris comes to class he first checks to see if the spines of the
books on the bookshelf are arranged in rainbow color order. If they are not, he will rearrange
them no matter how long this task takes. He becomes very upset if he is unable to engage in
this ritual.