Angela Calderon

EDUC 271
Dr. Johnson
Case Study Profile

Name:​ Ana Romero DOB:​ 10/11/2002 C.A:​15-6

School: ​San Leandro High School Grade:​ 10 Program:​ SD

BACKGROUND INFORMATION​: ​Ana is a 10th grader at San Leandro High School. She
lives in San Leandro, California with her biological mother, Luisa, and her two older siblings.
Ana’s father left when she was young, and but he recently started building a relationship with his
children. Ana has expressed numerous times that she spent the weekend with her father and his
girlfriend.

Current Family Status​: Ana’s parents are divorced, and her biological father recently became
involved in her life. Ana and her two older siblings all receive special education support. Her
older brother, now a San Leandro High graduate, was in Resource Classes (RSP). While her
older sister, a current SDC 12th grader at San Leandro High, is receiving special education
services under the Intellectually Disorder (ID) category. Spanish is the primary language spoken
at home.

Educational History​: Ana initially transferred to San Leandro Unified from Oakland Unified.
At three years old she was identified as having low cognitive ability and limited language skills.
A review of records indicates that Ana’s language development appeared to stop after the age of
1, she showed limited speech patterns, and primarily used babbling and pointing. Her behaviors
and limited language use led to her qualifying for special education services under the eligibility
category of Autistic-Like. When Ana began school in San Leandro, she attended an SDC
preschool at Jefferson Elementary. In March 2007, she transferred to Madison Elementary and
attended a SDC moderate to severe class. Although Ana’s skills during that time remained
delayed, she showed great improvement. At the time of her triennial evaluation in March 2010
her eligibility was changed from Autistic-Like to Intellectual Disability. Assessment results
indicated significantly delayed overall cognitive skills, low visual motor integration skills and
significantly delayed auditory memory abilities. Ana’s program switched from a Special Day
Class for student with Moderate to Severe disabilities to the SDC program for students with Mild
to Moderate Disabilities at Monroe Elementary to which she remains to this day.

Ana has also been taking Speech and Language services since elementary school. During her
2013 triennial assessment, Ana reportedly proved to be dominant in English but showed some
ability to understand and speak some Spanish. The speech and language evaluation test results
indicated that she continues to experience significant deficits in her language skills. Ana
continued to show significant cognitive and overall delays. In addition, her language scores
continue to be consistent with her cognitive level. It was recommended that her speech services
transition to a consultation model at the end of her eighth grade year, and have remained as such
till now. The Speech Therapist at San Leandro High, has given her communication goals that
have been implemented in her IEP.

In her 2016 triennial, Ana remains eligible for special education services as a student with an
Intellectual Disability. She receives academic instruction through the Special Day Class program
for students with Mild to Moderate disabilities. She also receives Speech and Language services
(Consultation Model only) as well as Adaptive Physical Education. Her Speech and Language
goal is to communicate with her teachers in complete sentences.

MY OBSERVATION
I have known Ana’s older sister, Victoria, since she was in 10th grade. I had the chance
to meet their mom briefly while interpreting for Victoria’s IEP a few year back, I must have
made a good impression because she has asked for my assistance for IEPs ever since. So, it came
to no surprise when I was asked to interpret for Ana’s IEP last year. Last year I met Ana as a 9th
grader and I could automatically tell that she was academically “lower” than her sister, Victoria.
While Victoria is also receiving special education services under Intellectual Disorder (ID), Ana
needs a lot more one-on-one support. Last year Ana was in the SDC English class I was assigned
to; I quickly realized that I needed to read the material to her, repeat instruction, and assist her
when she needed to do a writing assignment. I also noticed that while she lacked many skills, her
forte is drawing. Ana learns better when she is drawing her responses, and when visual aid
support is added to the lesson. Last year I would read the story/article/assignment to her and
would stop and check for understanding while making drawings representing that story/article.
For example, we read an article about ​Inky​, an octopus that escaped from an aquarium, while we
read the story together I would draw what was happening. It’s a story that she remembers until
this day.
This year when Ms. Nguyen and I saw that Ana was not only in our Science 2 class, but
in our caseload we decided to implement art (drawing) into our class curriculum. While some of
our students are doing writing assignments, I work with Ana one-on-one and add some kind of
artistic activity. Some of the activities that I have done with Ana include comic strips,
powerpoints, photoshop, graphs, diagrams and mapping (i.e. mind maps, idea maps, etc.). I
noticed that visual aids are really helpful in assessing Ana. While Ana is unable to express
herself in writing, she is able to show her understanding of the material through drawings.
However, I do worry that she is not developing her writing skills. Recently, I’ve had her write
one sentence describing her drawings, but is that enough? Am I depriving her of a chance to
better her writing by having her draw her understanding of the material instead?
This year, Ana’s IEP did not go well. Her mother was upset that she was not participating
(verbally) in class. The speech therapist came to the meeting and told the mother that she was
disappointed that Ana was not meeting her goal. Her goal was to communicate with her teachers
in complete sentences with 3-4 reminders from her teachers, after talking to her teachers, the
speech therapist reported that she was either answering with short answers or not answering at
all. So, this year her goal is to communicate with her teachers in complete sentences with only
one reminder from her teachers. If Ana fails to meet this goal, she will be placed in regular group
speech therapy sessions. Her mother claimed that she is able to communicate in both languages
(Spanish and English) and that she was just being “lazy.” It was hard for Ms. Romero to
understand that Ana is not outgoing in class, she is aware of her disability, and she is
embarrassed. This is evident when she has repeatedly told me that she is “not smart” like her
friends. From our constant communication, and IEP meetings I have come to the conclusion that
Ms. Romero is in denial of her daughter's disability. She claims that Ana is able to express
herself well, write, read, and advocate for herself, yet, we have not seen any evidence of this.
While talking to Ms. Romero I learned that school personnel have tried to persuade her to allow
Ana to be placed in Moderate/Severe classes, but she has refused. Her mother is obviously in
denial, but since we have to respect parents wishes, we have to come up with ways to help Ana
in our school setting.
To give a better example on how much Ana struggles in class and test taking, I want to
share what happened when she took the ELPAC. The English Language Proficiency
Assessments for California (ELPAC) was given to all 10th graders a few weeks ago, and Ana
could not follow along with the proctor. Instead of following the instructions she was filling out
random answers (answer bubbles), when she was reprimanded she shut down. I was asked to get
her test, and administer it one-on-one. While doing her test, it was obvious she did not
understood the material. In the reading section, I read the text out loud for her, but she only got
half of the information. Obviously I could not demonstrate text with drawings or check for
understanding, so it was really hard for her to keep up. When she started repeating information
back to me as the “answer” I knew that she did not understood. In addition, when it came to
writing sentences and paragraphs, she was unable to do it. Ana ended up drawing her answers,
which, again, it makes me wonder, am I doing more harm than good by allowing her to express
herself through art? I think that what I will try to do, is to incorporate writing into her drawings.

Based on my observations I have come up with the following plan to assist Ana, not only on
science, but in all her classes.

Struggle Alternative Work

Because Ana struggle with….. She can do [this] instead….
Keeping focus Incorporate visual aids, and kinesthetic
activities to keep her “busy.”
High Tech:
● Power Points
● Prezi
● You Tube
● Present.me
● Podcast/Vodcast
Low Tech:
● Hands-on activities
● Fidgets

Writing in complete sentences Have her express her ideas/understanding

with drawings (tap into her artistic side).
These drawings can be comics, word maps,
etc. Since writing is not her forte, have her try
to write one-two sentences explaining her
comic (or have her do dialogues).
High Tech:
● Story Buddy
● Animoto
● Padlet
● Bubbl.us
● Gliffy
● Photo Story
● Digital Story
● Google Docs
Low Tech:
● Sentence Starters
 ● Guided Writing Charts/Templates
● Graphic Organizers
○ http://www2.eit.ac.nz/library/ls
_guides_sentencestarters.html

Reading out loud She is intimidated sharing her ideas in front of

multiple people, so smaller groups or
one-on-one presentations will work better.
No Tech:
● Preferential Seating
Low Tech:
● Wait Time
○ Lower anxiety
○ Needs time to process and
formulate a response

Following teacher’s notes and/or fail to write Low Tech:

them down ● Use fill in the blank notes
● Provide Ana with a copy of the notes
and have her draw her understanding
on the side.
● Use Google Docs to take notes
○ Can write faster
○ Spell Check

Reading, and will make up the story instead Reading along with her, and pausing to check
for understanding.
High Tech:
 ● Audiobooks
○ Assist in comprehension
○ Can follow along with paper
book
● Speech to text
No Tech:
● One-on-One support
● Check for understanding
● Highlighting Tape

There are various Visual Learning Tools that can be apply to any curriculum, especially
English. In English, Ana’s goal is to write a paragraph (with at least 3 sentences) by her
next IEP (March 2019), so using online tools such as Bubbl.us, Gliffy, Photo Story, or
even create a Digital Story will greatly help her. Ana is a student who tries really hard
despite her struggles, and becomes really excited about her artistic creations, so let’s
use this for our advantage. Furthermore, these are websites that can be used in any
curriculum, and will benefit all students.