Christine Houle

TE 803
Case Study of a Struggling Student
Description:
Student A is a student that arrives to class on time, sits down in his seat, and even has a
brief conversation with me about life and topics outside of the English classroom. One of the
biggest topics discussed is our love for satirical cartoons and television shows, like Its Always
Sunny in Philadelphia and South Park. During the satire unit, he would come to class and would
tell me about a funny piece of satire he saw on television the night before. I would engage in the
conversation with him because I also love satire! For the final assignment, he was able to pick
any piece of satire to write an analysis essay on, and to determine what made the satire effective.
I thought he would love the assignment! He even came into class and told me he was working on
writing it. I gave him a high-five and told him I looked forward to reading to it. I told him I
would be pleased to read anything, even if it is was one paragraph. I gave him many reminders,
and I e-mailed, and called his dad when it never came. I received no response back.
I have tried contacting his dad, who I met at back to school night and at parent teacher
conferences, about his childs lack of participation, in the class, several times throughout the
year. In each e-mail and phone call, I explain what he refused to do and how he is very capable
of doing the assignment. His dad expresses mutual feelings, and says that I am not alone in the
frustration.
Getting this student to do his work inside of the classroom or outside of the classroom is
extremely difficult. I have tried the tactic of having a good relationship with him and bonding
with him. We share jokes, and discuss music that we like. I often share a story from my personal
life, and he will show me a bracelet he made in jewelry class. It does appear that he respects me.
I have had one-on-one conversations with him about what is going on in his life, but he never
expresses too many problems.
He scores high on quizzes and exams and rarely misses a day of class, which makes me
think that is actually learning while sitting in class. This is also what made him able to pass the
class last semester with a D-. Last semester assessments, projects, and large writing assignments
were worth 40%, homework and quizzes were worth 25%, and in-class work and participation
were worth 35%. Nearly the only assignments he was completing were assessments and quizzes.
He was riding the cusp of an E and a D-. The final exam, being 20% of the semester grade, is
what pushed him into the D- category. This semester assessments and quizzes are 50% an
everything else is 50%. I wonder why he will not do the journal entry? Or the grammar warmup? Or open the book when we are reading out loud? He even promises me his assignments
tomorrow. He makes a point to come up to me before or after class and tell me he is going to
turn it in. Yet, he has the I dont care attitude. He has specifically told me that he does not care,

that he cant wait to get out of high school, and he wants to move to a warmer state to work with
his uncle doing a trade job.
I have sat down with him on many occasions and expressed the importance of doing his
work, even if the only focus was on passing the class so he doesnt have to re-take it This student
is extremely intelligent, but he is not pushing himself to do well in the class. When he decides to
participate in class, he almost always has the right answer, close to it, or is able to express
insightful ideas. I know that the entire yearlong class is not challenging to him, but there is
definitely a chunk of each class that is focused on critical thinking. I do know that he has ADHD
and possibly Tourettes. However, I dont think that those are the sole reasons he doesnt do in
class work, or a 60 point essay on a book he enjoyed, or anything for that matter. He has
informed me about his ADHD during one of his conversations, and during a conversation with
his dad.
He is polite to me, with Hello Ms. Houle comments almost daily, and he responds well
to me, most of the time, when I give him an order, such as telling him to put his cell phone
away. He is easily distracted in class and gets consumed with his electronics. His biggest
behavioral problem is his cell phone. I have to constantly tell him to put away his phone and his
ear buds. In the beginning of the year, he used to make comments under his breath when asked to
put his phone away, but now he responds decently to me. He does not respond well to my mentor
teacher, though. If it were 100% up to me, I would allow him to listen to music during warm-ups
and other appropriate times, but my mentor teacher will absolutely not allow it. He works better
when he has music in his ears. Often when I tell him to take his ear buds out, while he is
working, he stops working completely. I have had discussions with my mentor teacher about
this, but she is very adamant that he does not wear headphones.
This is a new semester and a new quarter with a new grading system. He is a different
hour with different students, so I will see if those things affect his behavior and if his priorities
change. So far, I have had seven classes with him this new semester, and he has started off doing
some work, which is more than before. I look forward to analyzing this student some more.
Analysis:
The male student that is the focus for my case study has the ability to complete his work,
but rarely ever does. I began questioning myself as a teacher. Am I holding him accountable for
his work/missing work? Everything that is completed in class is worth points. For instance, when
I assign a journal I announce that I will come around for a teacher check in 7 minutes. My
students are aware that a teacher check means that I will only glance at each notebook as I
circulate around the room with my checklist in hand. They also know that a teacher check is
worth five points, like most in-class assignments. Last week students were given a guided notetaking handout. It had a summarized version of what was on the PowerPoint, but they were
required to fill it in themselves. I announced before I handed it out that it would be worth 10

points once it was completed. I only worked on a small portion of the handout each day, but I
reminded students daily about the point values. I announce similar situations like this to the
whole class, I write the assignments on the board, and I have students repeat back to me what I
said. Do I need to directly tell this one student what assignment is due, how many points it is
worth, and how it can affect his grade more often or in different ways? This student may need
more individualized attention than some of his classmates to feel more engaged in the classroom.
Some ways to make him feel engaged would be to ask him what he feels is missing from the
class, offer better structure, and be more involved with him (Skinner & Belmont, 1993).
I make an effort to be sure that everyone hears my instructions; I want everyone to
succeed. The student that my focus is on often makes excuses about where his work is. He will
come up to me and tell me that he will be turning in his assignment tomorrow, but never
follows up. This tells me that he is staying current with what is due, but does not do it. Why is he
still not completing work in-class or turning in his supposed essay when he claims that he will?
Is his guarantee a statement that will appease me for the time being, and lead me to become
unfocused on his role in the class? His ADHD may be affecting him to the point of not being
able to complete the tasks at hand. According to ADD/ADHD in the classroom, it is important
to praise students with this disorder, and even supply them with a reward system. Since this
student does so well on exams, I could put bonus questions on the exams so he has the
opportunity to raise his grade. Also, if he does not do a journal or bell work during class, I could
talk to him after class about coming after school and orally telling me his responses. The school
rule is not to accept late work, but since this student has a disorder I could make arrangements to
take late/missing work (ADD/ADHD in the classroom).
His excessive use of his cell phone could also be categorized under the ADHD behavioral
problem. When a person has ADHD, they are unable to focus on one thing for an extended
period of time. Him resorting to putting one ear bud in his ear may be the result of his ADHD.
When I tell him to put his cell phone away, he does. This is new though. He never used to
respond quickly to me when asking him to put it away. His cell phone adds a distraction on top
of his medical disorder. Every day I tell him to put his cell phone away, yet the following class
day he will still have it out. Does this mean I need to be sterner with him, and should I send him
with his cell phone down to the office? I feel as if this would help the cell phone situation, but
not the inability to do his work problem. I have seen the results of this situation in the beginning
of the year with my mentor teacher, and it resulted in less work being completed. One way to
eliminate a cell phone as being a distraction is to incorporate it into daily/weekly instruction
(Fang, 2009).
This is where his I dont care attitude falls into place. He has expressed his
nonconformity beliefs to me before, and does not like to fit in with his classmates, yet he is not a
loner. He talks about his girlfriend with me, and even tells me that she tries to get him to do
work, that I am not the only one encouraging his success. He has expressed his opinions on not
wanting to go to college, and how he would rather go to trade school. He told me he doesnt see

a point in anything. Even though this student hasnt expressed any problems at home, maybe his
attention is focused on outside of school issues and he doesnt have time to deal with
meaningless work. Building relationships; creating hope; respecting power, which means to
let kids know that they have some meaningful influence within the school; emphasizing effort;
and expressing enthusiasm, (Mendler, 2009) as stated in Motivating Students Who Dont
Care is an important factor for reaching unmotivated students. This student needs a persuasion
push rather than the use of leverage. He needs to see that the end goal will help improve his life,
unlike the phone calls home, which are not helping his case because he is not motivated by his
parents (Mendler, 2009).
It is my job to put some belief in his eyes, to show him that there is a point to all of this,
and to make him accountable for turning in his assignments and doing in class work. I need to
eliminate as many small distractions as I can so he can conquer completing his work. Reviewing
his test scores, he scored high on every assessment and quiz, which resulted with him passing the
class by a percentage last semester. This also reconfirms that his intelligence is not the issue, but
rather his lack of motivation to feel connected to the class, his cell phone being an exit outlet,
and his medical disorder.
Action Plan:
To respond to this student I could implement in-class assignments where students are
allowed to listen to music. The assignments that he does complete are nearly all completed when
this student is listening to music. My mentor teacher always requests me to have him take out his
ear buds, even though I have expressed to her my beliefs on the situation- that he should be able
to wear headphones if he is doing his work. We have a difference in opinions, and at the end of
the day I am the guest in her classroom. However, she has instilled more professional behavior in
me with her requirements. Even the things we disagree on are guiding me to be a stronger
teacher. I end up having to take a different approach to get to the same end point; It is a good
lesson to learn. Implementing the lesson will be a challenge due to the strict rules that my mentor
teacher enforces, but I plan on expressing my beliefs along with the assignment criteria. She
should understand, which will make it feasible for me to have at least one lesson that I can
permit students to wear headphones. She does encourage me to try my approach at things, so as
long as I am serious about it, she should be too. A positive aspect of this student, or other
students, wearing headphones will hopefully be them completing their work since it has been a
previous pattern. However, there are some drawbacks. Will this student use an excuse similar to
we were allowed to wear headphones yesterday, why cant we wear them today? I will have to
be careful with setting up the guidelines of headphone use. When implementing this plan, I will
allow all students to wear headphones. Hopefully I will be able to do this lesson plan at least
once a week and hopefully the results will be positive. If that is the case, which I expect it to be,
my mentor teacher may change her mind on her rules.

Another alternative that could fit to this students needs could be writing down reminders
of his work and when it is due. Since the student always succeeds on his multiple choice,
matching, short answer, essay, and true and false assessments, the focus needs to be on in-class
assignments like journaling, group activities, projects, handouts, and discussions, and also
homework assignments. If him, or other students like him, do not complete the task that they
were assigned to do in class, I will give them the opportunity to do it for homework, or to come
after school. I do not want students to take a lackadaisical attitude on future assignments because
I am not mandating them to get done in class, but I do want students to pass. Students are people
too. They might be having a rough day because of personal (medical or otherwise) conditions
that may be affecting them, they may not have eaten breakfast, or any other multitude of
possibilities could be effecting their achievement in my class. I want to give more options to
succeed with completing their assignments.
I could also plan on having more mini discussions with him, and with students that also
suffer from similar situations, like not doing in-class work or homework. During journal writing,
or similar assignments when he or other students are not doing their work, would be a good time
to discuss their routine and what is preventing them from doing their work. He lacks motivation
to succeed. The other day I learned that his parents went through a brutal divorce two years ago,
where they negatively battled for him. The court was heavily involved, resulting with his father
winning the custody battle. However, whenever I talk about his at home life with him, he always
talks about his mother and in a positive way. He has a deeper connection with her than his father,
I have learned just from the few conversations I have had with him about them. Being able to
have more conversations with him may lead up to him feeling more comfortable talking to me
about a situation that may be happening outside of school that prevented him from doing his
work the night before. This could result with the student making up lies if I become too trustful,
but hopefully it would lead to a stronger teacher-student bond where feels he can express his
problems without being penalized.
I will begin setting goals for myself, so I am sure to accomplish all of my plans. I will not
attempt to do all the above in one class period because I think too much change is not a good
thing. I will start out writing down his assignments, and missing assignments. I will then practice
on having more conversations with him at appropriate times. In my opinion, building a greater
bond with him will be the biggest outcome. If he respects me more as a teacher, ideally he would
respect my lessons and assignments more, which would lead to him completing more of his
work. I will figure out when the best time is to listen to music, and I will try to incorporate it at
least once a week. Preferably I would like to do it during all journal entry writing, which is at
least 2-3 times a week.
Evaluation:

My most successful plan was when I permitted students to listen to music during in-class
assignments. I gave students the privilege to listen to music during a journal entry prompt that
usually lasted between five and ten minutes of consistent writing. Even though my focus was on
one student, I did not single him out; I allowed for all students in the class to listen to music. Not
only did the student that I was focusing on do more assignments in class, but so did other
students. There was not one time that he failed participating and working when I gave students
the permission to listen to music. I did not permit students to listen to music while they were
reading The Metamorphosis aloud as a class, in small groups, or by oneself. Overcoming the
strict rules of my mentor was a challenge. Therefore, I was only able to give the option to
students to listen to music two times, besides the journal writing activities. Both times were
individual activities surrounding the text The Metamorphosis. The handouts connected personal
life to the literature, incorporated drawing a picture, had students ask questions, predictions, and
write a summary on the text. My focus student, and other students, accomplished their task while
listening to music. I anticipated some students to get distracted by an electronic device, but
everyone was able to work diligently which was one goal that I set out for.
During my case study, my focus student listened to music at inappropriate times, like
during reading and when I was talking. However, he had a faster response and less of a negative
attitude when I asked him to remove his headphones. I can also connect this to my second plan
of action, which was forming a better bond with my student. This student often arrived to class
early, which made it more feasible for me to have a conversation with him since it did not cut
into his learning time. I refrain from small talk with him while he is doing his in-class
assignments since that is the main struggle I have with him. Improving on the amount of
personal conversations we had together increased the positive bond we formed. The
conversations were never in-depth philosophical discussions, but simple things like making a
connection on television shows, what we like to eat, and something funny that we heard on the
radio are some examples. I am unable to determine if this affected his motivation to complete
work besides assessments because he still does not do all of them. However, he has completed
more work this semester than he did all of last semester.
My last action plan did not increase the amount of homework he completed. I wrote
down on a sticky note every day what assignment there was for homework or what activity he
did not finish in class, but he never did work at home. I incorporated some of our discussions
into why he does not do work at home. His only response on the subject was that he didnt like
to. I even had follow up conversations with him about if he still had the homework written down,
and he told me he still had it in his pocket. I do not assign homework frequently. I have
wondered if I increased the amount of homework I gave, if students would begin to complete it
due to habit of having it daily. This will be left for another case study.
Throughout this evaluation process, and a failed attempt with the second action plan, I
decided alter it. I encouraged my student to write down his assignments on his hand, since this
was a place I noticed he wrote personal notes and reminders. I also e-mailed his dad frequently.

Both of which were not an original action plan. Not once did he come to school with his
homework completed or his class assignment finished if he did not finish it in class. Since this
student does lack motivation, he worked at a slower pace in class. Therefore I began to give him
extensions on in-class assignments for him to complete at home. Whenever something became
homework he did not work do it at home. His dad talking to him and daily written and oral
reminders did not encourage his work ethic, and the plan failed.
After failed attempts, I started logging better notes. My goal was to find my way in
through conversation to help my student want to complete his work since just doing well on tests
was not going to get him the grade he could easily earn. One constant throughout our
conversations, and often when he approached me, was that he wasnt having a good a day. I
decided to talk with his counselor and she informed me that he was having family problems, and
was not stable. She led on to tell me how he has high mood swing feelings, like he can do
everything, to low mood swings of feeling like he is a failure. The times that he is working in my
class vary; my guess is listening to music and doing work is a high time for him. There are times
that he does not do anything in my class, and I would consider that a low time.
There are many factors that go into why this student is achieving more at this point in
time. Music stimulates him and helps give him motivation to stay on task and helps him focus. It
also makes him feel respected and accepted as someone who can be responsible and someone
who can do their work. Music helps, but is not the solution to all things. It is a driving source for
him to do work, which is better than doing nothing. I have yet to determine a plan of action that
will help him complete work while I am not in the room with him encouraging him to be
successful in school. I came to the conclusion that writing down his homework on notes, his
hand, or to his dad made him feel less like an adult, which is what he wants to be treated like. His
health and his family problems are definitely something that increases his lack of care on
schoolwork. Overall, my focus student has completed more work, stayed on task more often, has
had better conversations with me, and responds faster to me when I ask him to do something. I
would consider this entire plan a success even if one of plans of action did not succeed.

Resources

ADHD/ADD in the classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved from Harmon Science Academy North Austin
website:
http://hsana.org/education/ADD-ADHD%20in%20the%20Classroom.pdf

Fang, B. (2009, December 22). From distraction to engagement: Wireless devices in the
classroom.
Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/
distraction-engagement-wireless-devices-classroom

Mendler, A. (2009). Motivating students who don't care. Retrieved from

http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol1/101-mendler.aspx

Skinner, E. A., & Belmont, M. J. (1993). Motivation in the classroom: Reciprocal effects on
teacher
behavior and student engagement across the school year. Retrieved February 7, 2015, from
http://www.pdx.edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.psy/files/
Assessment-11-Motivation-in-the-classroom--reciprocal-effects-of-teacher-behavior-Skinner-Belmont--1
993.pdf