SWINBUNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Practicum C
Assignment 3: Case Study
Melisa Edwards

Note: The name of the student has been replaced for the purposes of this
assignment.

Practicum C: Case Study

Contents
1.

Context............................................................................................................................. 2

2.

Critical Analysis................................................................................................................3

3.

Action Plan....................................................................................................................... 4
3.1

Action Plan: Social and Behaviour...............................................................................4

3.1.1.

Teaching strategies..............................................................................................4

3.1.2.

Assessment strategies...........................................................................................5

3.1.3.

Resources........................................................................................................... 5

3.2

Action Plan: Comprehension and developing meaning....................................................6

3.2.1.

Teaching strategies..............................................................................................6

3.2.2.

Assessment strategies...........................................................................................7

3.2.3.

Resources........................................................................................................... 7

3.3

Action Plan ILP.......................................................................................................... 8

4.

Critical Reflection............................................................................................................ 10

5.

References...................................................................................................................... 12

Practicum C: Case Study

1. Context
Jessica attends a private catholic school and has recently been diagnosed with high
functioning Autism. She finds it difficult interacting and socializing with her peers and is
unable to give direct eye contact when communicating with her peers, teachers and parents.
Like most students diagnosed with autism, Jessica does not handle change well, and often
finds it difficult to transition between activities that were not planned for (Duchesne, 2013;
Keane, 2013). When transitioning between activities, Jessica finds it difficult to control her
behaviour and mood. She has pushed other students that have spoken to her or have tried to
help her pack away her materials during some of these transitional times. To cater to Jessicas
needs, a visual timetable is displayed at the front of the classroom and is updated each day.
Every morning the sequence of activities for the day are explained to the whole class, to
assist and prepare Jessica for these transitions.

Jessicas behaviour is at its worse when the ambient noise level of the class increases. She
responds poorly during physical education and music sessions, particularly when whistles or
any other high pitch instruments are used. Until recently, Jessica has not been able to
participate in her music session with her peers. She is now attending music with her
education assistant and her stress-ball as a coping mechanism. She is allowed to leave the
music class with permission of her education assistant; when she feels the noise is too much.
At this stage, since returning to the music sessions, Jessica has only had to leave one music
lesson. During this lesson; bells and symbols were being used.

Jessica is within a culturally and academically diverse year 2 class; however her academic
achievement is at a pre-primary level. Jessicas mathematical ability is at the same level as

Practicum C: Case Study

her peers; however her problem-solving, comprehension and written organizational skills are
at a pre-primary level. Jessica is unable to extract inferred meaning and struggles with
listening comprehension and reading comprehension activities. She is supported within the
class by a 0.6 FTE education assistant.

2. Critical Analysis
Jessica has been assessed and diagnosed as having high functioning autism and requires a
0.6FTE education assistant within the classroom to assist with her social, behavioural and
academic learning requirements and to support her development and inclusion within the
classroom. To support Jessicas social interactions she has been placed within a small group
of students near the front of the class (Ferrell, 2009). She has been located near the front of
the class to support her preferred visual learning style and to allow her to have uninterrupted
visual contact with the lesson series planning board and larger central whiteboard (Swabey,
2013). In addition to this, her placement within the classroom has taken into account the
classroom acoustics to cater to her heightened sensorimotor capacity.

Most of the time Jessica plays in solitude however; twice a week during lunch time there
is scheduled play where students are encouraged to take part in organized sport activities.
During scheduled play, Jessica is encouraged to participate within the sporting activities. She
is gradually building up the confidence to complete an entire lunch session of sporting
interactions and understanding acceptable social behaviours with her peers. Jessicas needs
are outlined in her IEP which explains the differentiated learning program which she is
working through (Broderick, Mehta-Parekh, & Reid, 2005; Schumm & Arguelles, 2006).

Practicum C: Case Study

During reading and comprehension sessions, her education assistant withdraws Jessica from
the classroom and works in the library for intense literacy development.

Jessica has a specific behaviour management plan to manage any of her more extreme
outbursts. This includes the education assistant removing her from the classroom and taking
her to one of the cool-down areas to allow her to reflect on the acceptability of her behaviour
and to identify and work through different coping mechanisms to prevent and/or control
future outburst (Balli, 2009). Most of the time, her behaviour and moods can be managed
using the traffic light system which is used to manage all of the students behaviour (Share &
Stanovich, 1995).

3. Action Plan
3.1 Action Plan: Social and Behaviour
3.1.1. Teaching strategies
The incorporation of a visual timetable and stress balls has been used to help Jessica
transition between activities throughout the day. To support her positive response towards
routines; the daily schedule is read aloud prior to commencing the first lesson of the day
(Swabey, 2013). When giving verbal instructions to the class it is important to incorporate as
many visual aids as possible, repeat instructions and use direct language to support her audioprocessing delays. Jessica is unable to comprehend inferred meaning and only understands
information literally (Ferrell, 2009). Hence, when giving directions it is important to break
each task into individual steps and to use direct and literal language to support her learning
needs.

Practicum C: Case Study

To promote social development and to increase her motor co-ordination she has been
placed within a small group at the front of the class where she is encouraged to take part
group interactions and other organised lunch sporting activities (Keefe, 1996). Throughout
the day, peer interactions, partner share and group activities have been incorporated to assist
Jessica and her ability to recognise socially accepted behaviours and improve social
interactions (Keamy, Nicholas, Mahar, & Herrick, 2007). Jessica often finds it difficult taking
part in these group activities during the morning sessions. To support her participation within
group activities during these times; the teacher may assign roles; for example speaker and
listener to promote group discussions. Where this does not work; the teacher may become
involved and model discussions within that desk group, asking direct questions to student's
and explaining the type of questions they could ask their peers (Kluth, 2010).

3.1.2. Assessment strategies

Jessicas behaviours, social interactions and moods are recorded in a working diary.
Jessica will be assessed as socially competent when scaffolded social behaviours are no
longer required. This will be achieved when Jessica can demonstrate that she is able to
converse with her peers during play time and can take part in group discussions without the
assistance of modelled dialogue. She is not at this stage yet, and it is expected to take many
years before she is able to converse with her peers with limited or no teacher support.
Currently, Jessica is spending only 10minutes during lunch taking part in the organized sport.
She will be trying to increase this to 20minutes within the next four weeks.

3.1.3. Resources
To support Jessica in the classroom and her visual learning style, a visual timetable is
located at the front of the classroom and is updated daily. Other visual stimuli including

Practicum C: Case Study

brainstorms, word walls and language convention posters are displayed around the classroom
to assist in her understanding and development of written organisation processes.
To support her behaviour and prevent outbursts she has a variety of stress balls and other
manipulatives that are available to her throughout the day.

3.2 Action Plan: Comprehension and developing meaning

3.2.1. Teaching strategies
To cater to Jessicas needs it is important to recognize that her mathematical cognitive
development is at the expected level for her age; while her reading and listening
comprehension and written organizational skills are at a pre-primary level. To support her
mathematical development she takes part in class work and attempts to work through it semiindependently. Jessica requires a structured systematic approach to literacy and language
learning and to assist with the transition between activities verbal rehearsal, priming and
social stories may be used (Dodd, 2005; Kluth, 2010; Simpson, 2005).

To assist Jessica with her development of written organizational skills, writing

templates are used, scaffolded and modeled by the education assistant (Duchesne, 2013). To
promote Jessicas development of meaning, both the educational assistant and class teacher
take time to brainstorm ideas with her, ask questions about the topic, share personal stories
about the topic, share other books related to the topic and try to make connections between
the topic and her own interests (Colasent & Griffith, 1998). During whole class reading
activities, the think-aloud strategy is used and supported by class brainstorms and word
walls (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). The teacher writes their thoughts down, so all learners can
see and hear the processes to improve comprehension. This is further consolidated through

Practicum C: Case Study

the use of reciprocal teaching. This strategy involves a four step structured dialogue
between the student and teacher from summarizing, questioning and clarifying to predicting
(Palinscar & Brown, 1984).

3.2.2. Assessment strategies

Retelling is another strategy used to assess Jessicas listening and reading
comprehension (Kluth, 2010). When used to assess reading comprehension this strategy
allows her to retell everything that she has remembered about the story. This reinforces the
written organisation of the story; language used and provides a greater level of detail about
her comprehension level compared to other traditional assessments (Duchesne, 2013; Harvey
& Goudvis, 2000). Allowing Jessica to repeat the story in her own words consolidates
language development and facilitates the construction of meaning through authentic learning
and the creation of connections between written language and her interpretation of the words
as she retells the story.

3.2.3. Resources
To support Jessicas listening and reading comprehension within the class a variety of
modelled and scaffolded peer interactions, group discussions, and think aloud techniques
have been used to model the processes of comprehension (ACARA, 2013;Swabey, 2013).
Visual written organizational charts, posters and templates have been displayed around the
classroom and are available to Jessica at her desk to refer to, to appeal to her visual learning
style and to embed a deeper understanding of written organisation skills (Davis, 2008).

Practicum C: Case Study

3.3 Action Plan ILP

Students Full Name: Jessica
Students Strengths:
Jessica is able to complete most mathematic sessions semi-independently. She is beginning
to recognize her own triggers and is able to flag this with her teacher/education assistant
prior to having an outburst.

Students Needs:
Jessica requires support during literacy and language sessions. She requires structured and
systematic support to support her reading and listening comprehension.
She is unable to communicate clearly and appropriately with her peers and requires support
during lunchtimes to prompt positive peer interactions.
Jessica requires a variety of manipulatives to assist her with coping mechanisms to prevent
outbursts and socially unacceptable behaviours (pushing and shoving peers).
Coping mechanisms:
-

Stress balls

Calm down zone

Small bean bags

Stretch rope

Ear plugs

Practicum C: Case Study

Progress Monitoring:
Academic Goals and Objectives: Listening and reading comprehension
Long Term Goals:
-

To take part in all classroom activities with limited or no additional support required.

To comprehend and create meaning from both verbal and non-verbal text formats.

To work at the same proficiency as her peers across all subject areas.

Short Term Goals:

-

To improve peer interactions within group activities and during lunchtime.

To take part in modelled and scaffolded student-teacher and student-student peer dialogue and
take part in think aloud comprehension strategies.

Behavioural Goals and Objectives: Social accepted behaviours, peer interactions and smooth transitions
Long Term Goals:
-

Freely converse with peers and teachers with minimal or no additional support.

Take part in group interactions and organized lunchtime sport for the entire session.

Remove the dependence on the visual timetable.

Reduce the number of times a red level is reached on the traffic light system. Aim to prevent all

behaviours reaching a red level using intervention strategies and calm down techniques (stress ba
etc.)
Short Term Goals:
-

Identify coping strategies to prevent/control behaviour outbursts, using the manipulatives

available.

Increase time spent interacting with others during the organized lunch sport from 10minutes to

20minutes over the next 4 weeks.

Reduce the frequency of behaviour reaching the red level on the traffic light system from twice a
fortnight to only twice a month or less.

Review/Recommendations:
Date of Review: Term 2, Week 5
This plan is to be reviewed, revised and updated every 5 weeks (twice a term).
-

Weekly debrief with parent

Formal fortnightly meeting with parent, teacher, education assistant and deputy principal.

Practicum C: Case Study

4. Critical Reflection
To support my immersion within the classroom and Jessicas transitional requirements a
pre-practicum visit was arranged where I was able to meet Jessica. This assisted Jessica to
understand the transition that occurred when I commenced teaching the class. After numerous
discussions with Jessicas education assistant and the classroom teacher I was able to identify
her needs to assist me with the planning and delivery of my lessons. To cater to Jessicas
needs a variety of visual aids were used throughout the lessons. All direct instructions were
broken down into smaller steps and were repeated multiple times to cater to her processing
requirements (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000; Simpson, 2005).

Initially, Jessica would not converse with me due to her withdrawn social behaviour. After
acknowledging her interests it was easier to engage her and maintain a discussion with her.
Amongst her peers she was still unable to converse freely, so a variety of scaffolded, studentled, partner share and modelled dialogue techniques were used. It was important to recognize
that Jessicas academic ability across all subject areas was not the same. Within the
mathematical strands, she was mostly at the expected level as her peers. It was important to
allow her to attempt this type of work semi-independently while more intense and one-onone, systematic and structured teaching was required to support her development of meaning
and comprehension during literacy and language sessions.
The assessment of Jessicas proficiency across the literacy and language areas focused on
her progress rather than overall outcome (Laing & Kamhi, 2003). This was important as, her
overall proficiency within these strands was at a pre-primary level and giving an overall mark
on an assessment would not truly reflect her progress over-time. During my four week
practicum I was able to explore a variety of assessment strategies to develop a holistic
assessment of Jessicas depth of understanding. These assessments included; informal

Practicum C: Case Study

discussions, retelling of stories, questioning, sequencing of event using templates and the use
of drawings and images to highlight the main ideas within the story (Bennett, 2011; Black &
Wiliam, 1998; McKenna & Stahl, 2003).

5. References
Balli, S. J. (2009). Making a difference in the classroom: Strategies that connect with
students. Plymoth: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: a critical review. Assessment in Education:
Principles Policy and Practice, 18(1), 5-25.
Black, P. J., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in
Education: Principles, Policy and Prac, 5(1), 7-74.

Practicum C: Case Study

Broderick, A., Mehta-Parekh, H., & Reid, K. (2005). Differentiating instruction for disabled
students in inclusive classrooms. Theory into Practice, 44(3), 194-202.
Colasent, R., & Griffith, P. L. (1998). Autism and literacy: Looking into the classroom with
rabbit stories. The Reading Teacher(51), 414-420.
Davis, D. (2008). First we see: The national review of visual education. Science and
Training Department of Education: Australian Government.
Dodd, S. (2005). Understanding autism. Marrickville, Australia: Elsevier.
Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., Bochner, S., & Krause, K. L. (2013). Educational psychology
for learning and teaching (4th edn.). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning
Australia.
Ferrell, L. (2009). Autism in the classroom.
http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/134_AutismintheClassroom.pdf
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance
understanding. York, Maine: Stenhouse.
Keamy, R. K., Nicholas, H., Mahar, S., & Herrick, C. (2007). Personalising Education: from
research to policy and practice. Melbourne: Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development.
Keane, B. (2013). Autism spectrum Australia. The aspect comprehension approach for
education.
https://www.autismspectrum.org.au/sites/default/files/PDFuploads/ACAE_August_20
10_2.pdf
Keefe, C. H. (1996). Label-free learning: Supporting learners with disabilities: York, ME:
Stenhouse.
Kluth, R. (2010). Tell me about the story: Comprehension strategies for students with autism.
Reading Comprehension. http://www.readingrockets.org/article/tell-me-about-storycomprehension-strategies-students-autism
Laing, S. P., & Kamhi, A. (2003). Alternative assessment of language and literacy in
culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Language, Speech, and Hearing
Services in Schools, 34(1), 44-45.
McKenna, M., & Stahl, S. (2003). Assessment for reading instruction: NY: Guilford Press.
Palinscar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and
comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction(1), 117-175.
Schumm, J. S., & Arguelles, M. A. (2006). No two learners are alike: The importance of
assessment and differentiated learning. In J.S.Schumm (Ed.), Reading assessment and
instruction for all learners (pp. 27-58). New York: The Guilford Press.
Share, D. L., & Stanovich, K. E. (1995). Cognitive processes in early reading development:
Accommodating individual differences into a model of acquisition. Issues in
Education: Contributions from Education Psychology, 1, 1-57.
Simpson, R. L. (2005). Autism spectrum disorders: Interventions and treatments for children
and youth. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Swabey, K. (2013). Chapter 1: Child development: approaches to learning. In P. Hudson
(Ed.), Learning to teach in the primary school. Port Melbourne, VIC: Cambridge
University Press.