Study of Learners in Their Worlds.

Sophomore English Workshop Profile.

EDU 527, profiled by Elena Smith.

October 16, 2009

The focus of this paper is a comprehensive profile of a Portland Deering High School Sophomore English Workshop class. This study presents detailed information about Sophomores on two levels of depth. A broad range of data on all students in the class is gathered to create a general profile of the class as a group, and more specific details are provided to portray the study of learners in their worlds through an example of three chosen students. The choice of more in-depth profiled students was made on the basis of three pre-requisites: one of the students has an Identified Disability, the other is a high achieving student and the third student is an English Language Learner. All these students were chosen due to the presence of certain difficulty in their lives and their personal resilience abilities to withstand those hardships. The student with a disability is in a constant battle with her impairment, the high achieving student has troubled home life, which has practically made him homeless, the ELL student is fighting his English language deficiency to keep up with the English language based school instruction, at the same time trying to preserve his national and linguistic identity while at home. The questions which frame the Focused Profile of the Three Students are: How do extra difficulties affect students’ school performance? Do obstacles on the way decrease or increase students’ chances for success? Do students fail because of challenging circumstances or achieve in spite of them? Is school achievement a significant component of students’ overall satisfaction with their life, and does it help them to cope with problems they are encountering outside of the school walls?

Analysis and synthesis of the gathered information lays a sound foundation for a structure named “Good Teaching”, where a teacher knows her students well , is perfectly aware of the class group dynamics, knows and uses to their best advantage students’ learning styles, is familiar with students’ backgrounds and supports their plans for future( by completing this study I certainly hope to become this particular kind of a teacher).This profile restores a picture of where the students are coming from, estimates where they are going and allows for better strategies to improve the place where they are right now.

Methods

While collecting and analyzing data on the whole class the following methods and tools were used:

· Observations in class while students are working and interacting

· A questionnaire about students’ background information, learning preferences, hobbies, fears and hopes (a copy of this “information sheet” survey is attached at the end of the study)

· A sociogram of the class and its interpretation ( a copy of the questionnaire used to collect the necessary data is attached at the end of the study)

· Four corners Inventory (a copy of the hand out is attached at the end of the study)

· Observations of students in the hallways

· Informal interviews with students

· Conversations with other teachers, educational technicians, special education service providers

· Students’ class journal revisions

· Conversations with the mentor

· Powerschool

· NWEA site

· Attending parent/student conferences

While collecting and analyzing data for the Focused profile of three students the following methods and tools were used:

· Observations in class while students are working and interacting

· A questionnaire about students’ background information, learning preferences, hobbies, fears and hopes (a copy of this “information sheet” survey is attached at the end of the study)

· A sociogram of the class and its interpretation( a copy of the questionnaire used to collect the necessary data is attached at the end of the study)

· Four corners Inventory (a copy of the hand out is attached at the end of the study)

· Observations of students in the hallways

· Shadowing the student with an identified disability for the day

· Observing a student with friends in the Maine mall

· Observing a student after school “hanging out” with friends in the school yard

· Meeting with an ELL student’s father

· Familiarizing myself with students’ parents through their feedback on their children’s progress report cards

· Reading a student’s with an identified disability IEP( the student’s IEP meeting is not until spring, though, so I couldn’t attend it yet)

· Informal interviews with students

· Conversations with other teachers, educational technicians, special education service providers

· Students’ class journal revisions

· Conversations with the mentor

· Powerschool

· NWEA sites

· Revising student’s work, grading it and providing feedback

The information was collected and processed during my internship at Deering HS, which started on September 2, 2009 and is still ongoing. Parent/teacher conferences took place the week of October 13, 2009.

In an effort to maintain confidentiality first names were chosen as students’ pseudonyms. As opposed to the initials, the use of which can pose a significant visual difficulty for a reader, first names are easier to follow and they are generic enough to where no association with real students can be of any certainty, especially, since there are 57 Jacobs, 13 Ahmeds and 8 Morgans at Deering High School. Any similarities are purely circumstantial.

Code words are used to flag students with identified disabilities and those who receive other support services. SED stands for Special Education, LD for learning disability, OHI for Other Health Impairments, BD for Behavioral Disorders and ELL for English Language Learners.

Other abbreviations are used to improve arrangement of information in the table, where limited space is an incentive to comprise material and its wording: M (male), F (female),C(Caucasian), B(Black),Co(Computer at home), UT(unexcused tardy), UA(unexcused absent), R (reading), L (language), M (mathematics).

Analysis and synthesis is provided along the way and accompanies every data presentation. Teaching implications, examples of instructional strategies, ideas on choices of curriculum, relationship building moves are described in detail throughout the whole study. It seemed logical to analyze gathered material as I went on with my research, providing immediate feedback and recording the ideas of how my knowledge and observations can be implemented into my teaching – striking the iron while it’s hot, so to say. A final outline of conclusions and implementation ideas is gathered in the last section of the study and is essentially a comprised version of the above.

I humbly hope that my reader will enjoy the story of my pilgrimage to “Understanding My Students” Mecca , as much as I enjoyed the actual trip itself. I regard the goal of ever attaining it as an everlasting road, and not a particular destination. Indulge!

Introduction

The eve of the first school day can be an emotional experience for a pre-service intern. One way to relieve its pressure is to write a quick note to your mentor. This is what mine said: “Dear Kirsten! I'm looking forward to being a wild beast tamer assistant in your real life jungle of a classroom on Friday!  Beasts - here I come! (equipped with my theoretical teaching strategies and bookish classroom management skills, in other words – almost BAREHANDED!)”.

In this class profile I’d like to show the evolution of my relationship with the “Wild Beast” of a Sophomore English Workshop class. I started with a Wild Dog from the Wet Wild Woods, and ended with a Big Shaggy Friend from the Jungles of Adolescence, the remote land we all had come out of at some point in our lives. This paper describes the transformation, the one and only reason of which, was getting to know my class, learning all there was to find out about every member of it, thus building a platform for our teacher/student relationship. Theoretical knowledge and practical classroom experience came together in this assignment, allowing for a better teaching.

Presenting English Sophomore Workshop class as a Wild Dog, turning into a Big Shaggy Friend allows me to convey the idea that the class is first and foremost a living organism, one body. Every part and organ of it is different and serves its purpose. Teaching a class as a group requires the knowledge of its body as a whole and its parts as individual elements. In order to have a relationship of mutual respect with such a creature it is important to learn the peculiarities of its body language.

General Information about the class

Here is what English Workshop looks like:

Morgan and Garrett are “The Ears”. Seemingly very quiet, these two are simply concentrating on listening. Their strength is auditory perception. They are great listeners and one can count on them if something that was said needs to be retrieved – they are there for you –able to repeat what the others missed!

Lana and Haley are “The Eyes”. They don’t say much, but you can always feel that they are connected – they watch every move of yours. They are visual learners. They are watching everything around them, retaining all they see. If there is an image to be reproduced ask those two what it looked like!

Ali is “The Nose”. He is sensitive, like no other. He can differentiate between mood nuances of his classmates, as easily as he can sniff out a chance to talk the teacher out of homework over the weekend for his class’s sake!

Travis and Ahmed are “The Tongue” and “The Teeth”. Tongue being the strongest muscle of the body is the best to represent Travis, whose stamina is remarkable. He takes care of his mother who has a number of mental problems and behavioral problems. Equally well he takes care of maintaining a balance in the classroom, when his peers veer off the right path. Ahmed helps him in this task, by being “The Teeth”. Ahmed is quite capable of a real “scowl”, which can be just as educational at times, as a smile.

Jacob is “The Backbone’’ of the class. His difficult family life thickened his skin and taught him endurance. He is strong and reliable. No question or task is beyond or above him. He’ll do what it takes. He’ll lead by example.

Deion, Nick, Tim and Mahamud are “The Legs”. These four are all action! They will carry you through any block in no time! Just hold fast!

And, of course, there is Renaldo! Renaldo is “The Tail”. He is the indicator of the mood of the whole class. He is wiggling when in need of something, straight up in the air when ready to defend himself and others and swinging side to side, when happy and in the mood for some “Fetch”!

English Workshop is a friendly” beast”. It is receptive when talked to the way it can understand. It needs to hear things, see them and be allowed to do them! As long as all senses are involved and everybody is engaged it is no trouble whatsoever… The trick is to maintain this delicate equilibrium!

Sophomore Workshop English class is comprised of students who are united in their need and desire to improve their Reading, Writing and Speaking skills with focus on grammar and vocabulary. Teacher recommendations and completion of freshman English are the two prerequisites for this course. Students in this class are expected to keep up with the content standards and conform to the expected learning results.

In reading the students are continuing to improve their skills and strategies in order to comprehend, interpret, and evaluate what they are reading. The students are in pursuit of exploring, experiencing, selecting, and understanding literature and its elements from a variety of perspectives and points of view. The students are trained to develop and use their skills and strategies of personal, creative, expository, research, persuasive, and informational writing, with focus on pre-writing, drafting, editing, and revising their own writing as a habit of mind. Students are expected to continue developing and demonstrating skills and competence in public speaking, cooperative learning, recitation, and listening. By the end of this course students are expected to improve their understanding and use of the English language in both their writing and their speaking by means of reviewing and learning rules of grammar, parts of speech, punctuation, vocabulary, and writing conventions.

“Of Mice and Men”, “Freak the Mighty”, “Macbeth”, “The House on Mango Street”, “Parrot in the Oven”, ”You Don’t Know Me”, “Cut”, ”The Notebook”, ”Wolfrider”, “Joey Pigza Loses Control”, ”Maniac Magee”, “Scorpions” are the novels students are expected to read together as a class and on their own.

Classroom participation is a vital component of success in this class. A quarter of their final grade depends on how well students participate in cooperative learning, pair and share work with another student, class games, class readings, peer editing and commentary. Being respectful, focused and motivated is expected of every student.

Attendance being vitally important in achieving the expected results and learning outcomes the presence of all 13 students is regarded as a key to success. In order to get students interested in attending this class a teacher must know about students’ interests: what drives them to school and what prevents them from attending it. Obtaining information about students is vital when designing instruction for Sophomores, who due to the nature of their age, where parental control and influence is starting to ease off, may choose not to come to a class they are not interested in (despite the repercussions, of which again due to the nature of adolescence ,they are not fully aware, yet).

Detailed Display of data

One way of obtaining information is asking direct questions in a beginning of the class survey. Another way is reading students’ reflective journals. Observing students in the classroom can expose a lot as well. For the sake of Multiple Intelligence Theory I am presenting the information about my class in a number of ways. In addition to pictures and a metaphoric description, I invite my analytical reader to explore the table I have put together:

Name(sex,age,race)

Family info(parents, siblings, languages spoken at home, computer at home

Attendance info, latest NWEA reading, language, math

Support Services

Learning Inventories

Progress report (GPA)

Interests

Things that would make school more exciting

Fears and concerns

Dreams and goals

Ali(M,17,B)

Two parent family, English and Somali, 3 brothers, 3 sisters,Co

15UA

12UT,

R 205

L 192

M192

ELL

Auditory learner, structure

51.84

289 out of 304

Basketball

More people of different races, less homework

Getting killed, getting forever stuck in Maine

Becoming a truck driver, driving from state to state, having a wife and two kids

Garrett

(M,16,C)

Mother, no siblings,

English,Co

52UA

8UT,

R214,

L223

M 216

SED,BD

Auditory learner,

Meaning

58.54

215 out of 268

Skateboard

music

Listening to music, watching educational movies, less homework,

more rules, less punishment

Breaking up with my girlfriend

Becoming a musician

Travis

(M,17,C)

Mother, older brother, who doesn’t live with them,

English,Co

28UA,2 UT

R230,

L228

M221

Auditory learner, caring

65.95

208 out of 244

Music, writing songs, politics, member of MPA

More socialization, more class discussions among peers, not student-teacher

Having to do things I lack mental or physical capabilities to do

Working to get possessions of my own, not something handed to me. Have a wife and kids, touch the lives of millions with my music.

Haley

(F,15,C)

Two parents, a grown up brother and sister,

English

0UA,

0UT

R220,

L215

M223

SED,LD

Auditory and visionary learner,

Caring

83.33

165 out of 244

Friends and dancing

Shorter classes(30 minutes), longer lunch break(to hang out with friends), no homework, exciting event on Fridays(a movie, a party)

Being on my own, having to pay bills

Getting a job, getting a car, getting independence

Lana

(F,17,C)

Two parents, an older brother, English,Co

0UA,

0UT

R200

L192

M187

SED, OHI

Visionary learner, structure

86.04,

165 out 0f 290

Soccer, basketball, softball, friends, family

Watching movies, going to the library more, snacks, moving sidewalks

Not hitting the right notes when playing the piano

Hugging my brother when he comes back home from peace corp. in Honduras

Tim

(M,16,B)

Two parents, a younger brother, 2 sisters, English and Dinka,

21UA,

2UT

R211

L201

M206

ELL

Auditory learner, Meaning

88.77

122 out of 244

Parkour,free running

Playing games, using a laptop, going outside

Not having enough money to help all the extended family member when they are sick or hungry

Finish high school, go to college, start a family, go back to Sudan and make the best of myself

Morgan(F,15,C)

Two parents, no siblings

English

3UA,2UT

R199,

L202

M187

Auditory, visionary, caring

78.00

189 out of 244

Art, drawing, friends, computers

Vending machines with Coke, less kids, more field trips

Messing up people when I spray tan them – they can come out too dark…

Becoming a spray tanner like mom

Renaldo(M,16,B)

Two parents, grown up sister, English,Co

0UA,

0UT

R208,

L212

M210

SED,BD

Auditory, action

80.85

181 out of 244

Skiing, boating, track, football

Less rules, a dance on Fridays, Subway, pizza Hut, Mc Donald’s, raffle money for honor roll kids, start every class with a small game

My grades keeping me back, separating me from my goals and friends

Be a reporter, or a firefighter, have a family of my own

Mahamud

(M,17,B)

Two parents,3 brothers, 1 sister, English and Somali,

Co

5UA,

4UT

R194,

L203

M177

ELL

Visual learner, action

72.96

240 out of 290

basketball

More teachers like Ms Mc Williams, who care about teaching us to read and write

Low grades

Having businesses all over the world, having other people work for me, not having to go to High school, going straight to college

Nick (M,15,C)

Two parents, a stepbrother, English,Co

5UA,4UT,

R213,

L214

M223

SED,OHI

Visual learner,

action

85.66

149 out of 244

hockey

Paintball match of teachers vs. kids, dodge ball and hockey games, moving sidewalks, super cleaners to pick up all the trash

Not having a car

Going to computer game design college and working for Blizzard Entertainment

Deion(M, 15,C)

Two parents, 2 brothers, English,

Co

3UA,0UT,

R194,

L187

M213

SED, OHI

Auditory learner, meaning

77.5

193 out of 244

Baseball, helping sick puppies, cooking

Hands on work, funny teachers, a waterfall in the hall way

What will our country be like? Will there be enough food and water?

Having my own restaurant, where I will feel free cooking and sharing my food with others.

Ahmed

(M,17,B)

Two parents,3 brothers, 3 sisters, English and Somali,Co

28UA, 8 UT

R164

M204

ELL

Auditory learner, action

68.35

250 out of 290

Watching sports, spending time with family, gambling(playing dice)

Breakfast in the morning, so we wouldn’t have headaches and bad mood

Not graduating this year

Becoming an auto Tec, fixing cars or going to college

Jacob(M ,16,C)

A mother, a brother ,English

OUA,1UT

R222,

L217

M225

Auditory learner, structure

65.65

240 out of 290

Football, baseball, basketball, spending time with friends and girlfriend

Have classes relate to students’ interests, have more group activities

Losing my girlfriend or my health

Being a good father, husband, and mostly a good man

The data on each student presented in the table above was gathered with an educational purpose of analyzing its significance. I included the age of the students in order to show their age-related levels of maturity. The students in the profiled class range from 15 to 18 years of age, which puts them into adolescence group with all its peculiarities. We are observing a group of students who are in transition from childhood into adulthood, from a place of their parents’ into a place of their own. This explains why their comments on what would make school a more interesting place are ranging from purely childish (waterfalls in the hallway, paintball matches, moving sidewalks) to more mature , serious ones (subject/life relativity, socialization issues).

Male/Female breakdown and information on special services, students are entitled to, allowed me to observe how the facts we have been discovering in Special Education class play out in a real life classroom situation. According to our Exceptional Lives textbook, there are more males than females among students receiving Special Education services. Profiled by me class is a fine testimony of this statement with its two girls and 4 boys identified for special education services.

Information about students’ families allowed me to see whether one parent households facilitate extra difficulties for students or not. This information came in handy when profiling three students in detail.

Presence of siblings and their number explained why some students are more enthusiastic about group work than others. Students from bigger families like Mahumud, Deion and Ahmed are more engaged when working on tasks which require group effort, while Garrett and Morgan prefer individual work , and require more attention than their peers, who are used to attention being split between their siblings and them.

I chose to limit my inquiry of students’ social class to “a computer at home” category, because adolescents( only one of whom, Garrett, has a job) are still very dependent on their parents, and not being capable of improving anything in their financial situations yet makes them hyper-sensitive to the issues of social hierarchy. Not finding a way to figure out whether students’ parents have high school, college or graduate school diplomas, or whether the families can afford to pay for their children’s lunch without direct questions about it deterred me from obtaining this information. I believe, economic situations in families students come from shouldn’t be an excuse for deficit thinking on teachers’ behalf – there are hard working disciplined students along with the ones whose performance isn’t that great, both sharing the same backgrounds in any class. I did hear during our first block though, that kids desire to have breakfast served in school ,which explains their possibly hunger related headache complaints in the “how can school be a better place” column.

Information on attendance is helpful in understanding students’ overall progress. Some of the students are really behind (Garret, for example) solely because of to the amount of the work that isn’t being turned in due to a large amount of unexcused absences.

Knowing who in the class English language learners are helps the teacher to modify instruction for kids in this category if they encounter language difficulties. A little extra time or a dictionary at hand helps all the students, but ELL learners, of whom we have 4, are particularly in need of these types of support. Knowing that English is not the only language spoken in student’ families helps the teacher to recognize students’ diversity levels and provide learning opportunities, which would best support their achievement. An informed on linguistic and cultural diversity issues teacher knows to seek the help of a Somali or Dinka translator when communicating with 4 of the ELL students, such a teacher possesses the knowledge of both Christian and Muslim celebrations (accounting for some of the students massive absences connected with religious holidays – Eid, for once in the beginning of September), realizes that in other cultures females might be acting shier and quieter than males due to the peculiarities of their upbringing.

Information obtained with the help of learning inventories allows me, as a teacher, to use a variety of instructional strategies in order to reach students with different learning strengths. Knowing that 9 of my students learn better by listening, and 4 need additional visual supports will be essential when designing assignments, working with which will appeal to all students’ strengths. Knowing who in class considers meaning to be important in learning, who prefers action, who can’t do without structure and who enjoys taking care of others will help me to remember to include representatives of each “corner” in every small group when designing group work assignments.

Students’ test scores and GPA figures can be used to fathom their background knowledge levels. Knowing that most of the Sophomores’ reading and language scores are below their grade level might discourage me from choosing texts with elevated degree of difficulty. Holding high expectations for my students, but bearing in mind what their achievement scores and historic grades are, I will remember to challenge them accordingly.

I won’t analyze in detail Math NWEA students’ scores results because due to the nature of high school, students in profiled by me class don’t take math as a group, but rather study it on different levels with different schoolmates. Reading and Language scores, however, I’d like to go over with a “magnifying glass”.

According to NWEA results the median reading score achieved by the English Workshop is 208, which equals the reading level of fifth graders. The language usage median is 203, a figure expected to be achieved in fourth grade, math level is between fourth and fifth grade achievement levels with a median score of 205. This knowledge is useful when evaluating the background knowledge of the students in order to plan appropriate instruction. Knowing that reading and language scores frame a spread, where the two extremes are high scoring Travis and low scoring Ahmed is helpful in designing differentiated instruction. While the bulk of the class is within the same scoring range where students should be able to manage average difficulty tasks, modifications can be assigned for Ahmed and Travis in order to challenge them in accordance with their acquired skill level.

The breakdown of Language usage into Mechanics, Structure of language, Writing habits and Expressive/Informational sub groups allows the teacher to identify specific subject areas to concentrate on. Workshop students in the profiled class display below average for sophomores levels of skills in all these categories, with neither of the analyzed areas standing out as an area, requiring more concern than others.

While planning instruction a teacher should aim at improving students’ skills in all these areas. Knowing that only 2 students excel in most of these areas (Travis and Jacob), and that 2 lag behind (Deion and Ali) prompts the teacher to use differentiated instruction, which would correspond to the levels of students’ skills in the given areas and provide enough support and challenge to help students succeed.

When analyzing the Reading scores using the NWEA site the teacher can use the information from the sub category scores – Literary Texts, Informational Texts, Word identification and comprehension strategies in order to get an idea of who in the profiled class has similar skill levels in these areas. This information helps a teacher to define which might be the logical next step for students to work on.

For sophomore English workshop such a breakdown signals the teacher to pay more attention to Comprehension strategies, literary texts and informational texts, since students’ achievement in this area leaves much to be desired. The level of Word Identification can be regarded as strength for most of the students. Word Identification can be used as an advantageous area, easier to be achieved success in, which can be an encouraging factor when there is a need to cheer up the students frustrated with struggling in other areas. It’s a ‘’pick me up” teacher’s ace in the hole.

Turning scores into meaningful statements, converting figures into an action plan is what collecting data is about. Deep comparative analysis of data provides an educator with a more insightful picture of what students needs are. Analyzing students’ academic achievement scores in terms of their relevance to the Special Services the students are receiving provides teachers with a unique opportunity to see the effectiveness of the latter. Knowing how racial factor is reflected in the special services representation is an insight into school non-discrimination policy. Projecting students’ GPA figures against the degrees of their sports/club involvement draws a picture of whether overloaded with activities schedules impede students’ success or stimulate it. Comparing the achievement results of students, whose parents are able to afford a personal computer to those of their peers whose parents either don’t have the means to do so, or choose not to provide their children with access to a personal computer at home for some other reasons, is therapeutic in terms of deficit thinking prevention.

Below are the graphic examples of the statements declared above. Analysis and synthesis of each graph accompanies every example.

The purpose of collecting the demographics and projecting it against the Special services (Special Education and ELL) data and comparing it is to observe the dynamics of racial representation in special services. According to the U.S Department of Education 2007 data ( which is presented on p.73 of the 6th edition of the Exceptional Lives textbook), African American students are more likely to receive special education for a disability, which leads to a problem of disproportionate representation.

Only Caucasian students in the profiled class being exempt of both ELL and Special Education services and all the students of African American descent being identified either for Special Education or ELL services( which singles them out as a “targeted” group), speaks in favor of disproportionate representation. However, the profiled class simultaneously shows an example of the opposite: 5 out of 6 students, who are receiving special education services, are Caucasian. Proportionally, this instance presents no threat of race-based overrepresentation of students of African- American descent identified for special education services due to their intellectual disabilities or emotional-behavioral disorders.

All the 4 students enrolled in ESL services being of African- American origin does not speak in favor of the disproportionate representation either. These students were identified for ESL solely due to English not being their mother tongue. The fact that neither one of the ELL students, all of them being of the African American descent, is identified for Special Ed services also doesn’t support the idea that overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education placements remains a problem today. It might indicate though, that identification of students for special education requires certain degree of English proficiency, the lack of which might be a stipulation in this process.

According to the first chart the group of students, whose GPA is between 80 and 90 is the largest. When this figure is looked at through the lens of access to Special Education Services and ELL support, an interesting fact arises: all of the students in this category receive extra support and attention. The students, who are academically the most advanced in the profiled class, are the ones receiving Special Education services and ELL help; therefore these services appear to be beneficial and can be accounted for when analyzing reasons for student’s success.

On the other end of the spectrum are the 2 students, who scored between 50 and 60, and represent 15% of the profiled class. One of them receiving ELL help, and the other one Special Education services, they also represent the layer of students who receive special attention.

The students who are “on their own” and receive neither Special Education services, nor ELL support, representing almost a quarter (23%) of the profiled class fall in the middle. They are scoring between 60 and 80 in their GPA. This “middle of the road” might be an alert sign: the lack of special attention might lead to mediocrity.

The chart above measures the amount of students who do and do not have access to a computer at home and how its availability affects students’ scholastic achievement as measured by GPA. According to the projection above, students’ progress is not affected by access to computer at home. Students with or without computers are achieving evenly across all areas.

The chart above measures students’ involvement in extracurricular activities, such as sports, clubs and community help. It is projected against their academic achievement as measured by GPA. According to the findings, the students who are involved in extracurricular activities are achieving higher academic results. This fact speaks in favor of students’ involvement. Despite the fact that sports and clubs are consuming students’ time, which could be spent on academics, the extracurricular activities are reshaping students’ schedules making them use their time in a more productive fashion. Sports, clubs and community work might also motivate students to strive for higher achievements. Overall, extracurricular activities appear to be a beneficial factor in students’ scholastic achievements.

Knowing students’ interests and hobbies allows the teacher to relate to students needs. In order to keep students motivated and engaged in class activities and discussions a good teacher needs to know along which lines to conduct those activities and discussions. Most of the Workshop kids are engaged in sports, love music and enjoy spending time with their peers. Thus, when choosing books to read, a contemporary writer’s book about basketball “Parrot in the Oven” will spark interest in most students and improve their language and reading skills along with it. Allowing students to listen to their i-pods through ear buds while working on their individual journal assignment, which by its very nature plunges a student into his or her world, is a great trick to encourage students’ desire to participate in this learning activity.

Being aware of students’ fears can be a key to facilitating their successes. Workshop kids’ fears range from being afraid of not graduating to being scared of getting shot in their neighborhood. Some kids are concerned with environmental issues, while others have self-esteem problems and uncertainty about their future. Travis, for example, mentioned the fear of having to do things, which are beyond the level of his mental or physical capacity. This comment echoed the contents of Ross Greene’s article “Children do well if they can”, which we had gone over in class.

Last but not least column in the data chart is “Hopes and Dreams”. It’s a great source of inspiration for the teacher. Knowing what students’ aspirations are allows the teacher to help students stay on the track, they have chosen, or, in some cases, expose students to the prospects they might have not been aware of. Talking about college opportunities and vocational options could fill in the gap of information deficiency.

About half of the students in the profiled class intend to go to college, a couple of them dream of pursuing defined trade careers, a few see themselves getting married. Whatever their choices might be they all require students’ desire to work hard to achieve their goals. Reminding students that American Dream, whatever it might mean for them, can only be achieved through hard work, the habits of which are springing out of their school working ethics, is a great way to help kids stay on course.

An example of teacher’s own life story can be a great tool in steering kids in the right direction. Being a role model, a teacher often assumes the position of a group leader in the quest for students’ better future. Knowing group dynamics can either call for teacher’s leadership or deter a teacher from assuming the position of the group leader. Sociogram is a great tool in this inquiry.

Next slide presents a sociogram of Sophomore Workshop English Class.

Sociogram of the English Sophomore Workshop

While planning the procedural aspects of creating a sociogram a few concerns arose: time limitations, willingness of students to participate and subject relevance issue.

In order to facilitate students’ involvement in this activity and keep their attention focused on the subject of our inquiry I chose to use a short provocative hypothetical questionnaire that would be relevant to students’ interests and time-wise correlate to their attention span. As opposed to the more traditional “Who would you like to go to movies with?” and “Who would you like to work with on your group assignments”, I chose to subject the class to a trip across the scorching sands of the Sahara desert and appoint their own “Moses” by asking “Who would you trust to lead the way if you were lost in a desert?”. Students were given an imaginary chance to pull off another “Miracle on the Hudson” by choosing who could help them carry it out being their “co-pilot”. They were given a reason to speculate about the extent of their generosity, while sharing a million dollars they just won in the lottery with a classmate. Saving a classmate’s life by donating one of their kidneys was also on the agenda. A time limit of 20 seconds per question allowed us to keep the activity dynamic and not waste the limited time of a school learning block. Short and sweet was the goal.

The extra work I had done designing “not your average” questions and the risk I took by doing it paid off – the class was more than engaged! All of a sudden a normally quiet first block turned into a “morning on a farm”. Pushing the imagination button transferred the students into a fantasy land of possibilities, where anything is feasible. Their attitude changed from “I’ll do it because I have to “to “I’m doing it, and it is fun!”; from “filling out another questionnaire” to “playing a game”. According to a survey we had taken in the beginning of the semester all the students liked to play. The example of this short experiment proved the point they had made in their earlier self-observations.

The only drawback of this experiment was transitioning into a serious working mode. The students were emotionally stirred and really wound up by the time I was collecting the questionnaires. Getting them to calm down and regroup took a few extra minutes. Ms McWilliams and I did so by acknowledging students’ interest in the activity and promising them to have more of such “games”, provided the students would demonstrate to us that they had mastered switching from playing to working.

Synthesis of the information collected during this experiment produced the sociogram presented above. According to the choices the students made and the frequency of the names being selected, the “stars” of the show are Nick, Renaldo, Jacob and Deion, with Jacob being slightly more popular than the rest of them. There is no “leader”, a person picked by everybody, in the group – all the “stars” were picked by about the same amount of people, with neither one of them being in any significant lead. Not having a definite “leader” makes the group easier to work with in terms of teacher occupying the vacant position when the situation calls for it. The knowledge of the leader’s vacancy also prompts the teacher not to abuse the position of leadership and resort to it only in extreme circumstances, since the dynamics of the group presuppose natural equal participation of all its members. Knowing who the “stars” are also allows the teacher to make extra accommodations “to shine” for those students who are quieter and less popular, thus allowing them to practice expressing their opinions in a safe facilitated by the teacher situation. This approach can bring such students into the spotlight, and gives others an opportunity to hear their classmates speak. Chances like that might expose the quieter students to the rest of the class and present them as more interesting interlocutors, thus bringing them closer to the “center”.

Scanning the outskirts of the target area, it’s easy to notice that Ali and Garret are as close to social isolates as it comes in this group. There is a silver lining in this cloud – these two are not completely isolated, since they were picked at least once by another student. Getting Ali and Garret more involved is a challenge a teacher should be aware of. Finding ways which would help others to accept them as valuable members of the group might take some real soul searching and building on one’s strengths. Involving Ali and Garret into group tasks could be one of the solutions. Assigning them to be partners in learning activities with people whom they picked, but who didn’t pick them, might help everybody to learn more about each other, thus breaching the barriers of biased fears and low opinions based on pure speculations.

Seeing that Ahmed, Mahamud and Travis are on the border of peer acceptance/rejection helps the teacher to promote their participation, in order to help them gain ground. There is an initial platform to work with, as we see it already, a little attention, however, could be a great intervention step towards a higher degree of their socialization.

The experiment showed that a lot of students made mutual choices by picking each other: Lana and Haley, Deion and Morgan, Renaldo and Jacob, for example. Their mutual affection could be used in educational purposes, when a teacher is assigning a difficult task to be performed in groups of two or three. The difficulty of the task could be counterbalanced by a higher degree of psychological comfort in a group. This trick can be used in reverse as well. When a task is academically less complicated and its goal is socialization of the group members, students who didn’t make mutual choices could be grouped together to facilitate their mingling.

According to the sociogram, Lana, Morgan and Haley are closer to each other than to the rest of the group. Knowing this, a teacher should promote interconnectedness, by engaging girls into discussions, where boys act like experts taking the lead, and vice versa. The sociogram, being an indicator of male/female segregation in the group, could help resolve this issue. Choosing appropriate literature to address this topic is one of the ways to connect boys and girls in the class. For example, the book the class is reading right now “The House on Mango Street”, a story of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago, facilitates many healthy discussions about the interaction between men and women in professional and domestic settings, thus helping to resolve the issue of segregation.

Overall, the information obtained with the help of the sociogram was very helpful to me as a future teacher. Knowing the group dynamics helps to facilitate better learning strategies and come up with constructive ideas. The knowledge of student’s interconnectedness patterns will help me designate partners in group work and engage less popular students into class discussions.

Information on the focus group of three students

As mentioned in the beginning of this paper the three focus students were chosen due to the presence of certain difficulties in their lives and their personal resilience abilities to withstand those hardships. Haley is in a constant battle with her learning disability, Jacob, being one of the brightest kids in class, fights his tragic family situation, Mahamud is recovering from changing countries, struggling with English, trying to balance it with Somali spoken at home. The questions which the Focused Profile of the Three Students is designed to answer are: How do extra difficulties affect students’ school performance? Do obstacles on the way decrease or increase students’ chances for success? Do students fail because of challenging circumstances or achieve in spite of them? Is school achievement a significant component of students’ overall satisfaction with their life, and does it help them to cope with problems they are encountering outside of the school walls?

Haley

We’ll start with Haley. Quiet and co-operative in class, this seemingly doing well young lady is identified with a specific learning disability in reading and math. Haley’s case manager, Cheryl Hudson, told me that Haley has to do ten times the work any other student does in order to keep up with the school work load. Haley wants to be successful in school, but can easily feel overwhelmed by homework if she doesn’t fully understand what she is supposed to do, and how to do it. According to Haley’s IEP her strengths are her diligence and devotion to learning. She likes hands-on projects and working with kids. Haley is able to access general curriculum with supports in place. She requires additional processing time for auditory and verbal tasks, and also additional prompts and assistance with task requiring access to long term memory. Haley benefits from supportive adults, who help her gain self confidence in her abilities. .According to her History teacher, Mr. Mc Ginty Haley tends to be more comfortable with concrete ideas and may need support to process abstract concepts.

Classroom accommodations required in Haley’s IEP include providing reference sheets for sequential procedures (providing of which I observed during her Math class), previewing vocabulary and big ideas prior to new learning (which I observed in her history class, when the teacher handed her a topic vocabulary), making sure directions are understood ( which I did do myself by establishing an eye contact followed by an affirmative nod when assigning homework during our English class), encouraging Haley to ask for help when needed ( done by an educational technician in the resource room). Haley is entitled to 50% extra time during tests, which was the case at the NWEA test last week.

While shadowing Haley for a day I learned a lot about this girl firsthand. After our usual English class we moved to the resource room down the hall for Haley’s study hall class. Haley was moving stealthily down the hallway, politely excusing herself to people bumping into her, saying “hello” to her acquaintances, of which there were just a few. Michael Kenned , an educational technician, was available to provide Haley with support, and so were a few other people in the room, but she seemed to do all right on her own. While working on her homework for the next English class she asked me for help with grammar and parts of speech. I noticed that making my statements as clear and understandable as possible and repeating them several times did the trick. Haley understood how adverbs were different from adjectives, and proceeded with the rest of the tasks on her own. Soon she got tired and took a few minutes just to relax and regroup.

Our next class was Math. Haley displayed the same behavioral characteristics as those observed by me during our many English classes. She was diligent and quiet, doing her work slowly but surely, spoke when spoken to, didn’t distract anyone and didn’t seem distracted herself. Her Math teacher, Ms Salisbury described Haley as a quiet, shy, extremely focused, co-operative, concrete learner. Haley’s achievement in Math spoke for itself. A girl with a math disability seems to be resorting to every single one of her inner resources in order not to give in and overcome what others might consider an excuse allowing them to give up.

During lunch Haley sat with her friends in the cafeteria. The four girls were at ease with each other, laughing and sharing their food. Haley seemed in her element surrounded by these giggly hazy darlings.

History class held no surprises either. Haley did her work, stayed focused, trotting right along with the rest of her classmates. At the end of the class she carefully collected her belongings and we parted.

Next time I saw Haley was that week-end. We accidentally ran into each other at the Maine Mall. Haley was surrounded by her friends, the same chatterboxes I had seen her sharing lunch with at school. Haley politely greeted me and we had a small conversation through which I discovered that Haley “loves hanging out with friends, going to the mall, having sleep-overs and dancing together”. According to Haley school would be a much better place if there was a dance club at Deering.

Through conversation with Haley while at school and by reading her reflective journal I found out that her mom and her sister are her role models. They both work really hard for their family. Haley’s sister has a good job and is about to get married. Another influential figure in Haley’s life is her brother, who used to go to Deering. He was always in trouble getting into fights and acting up, but since he graduated he turned his life around and is managing to stay out of trouble.

Family is important for Haley because they are always there when she needs them. Past summer Haley had to stay in the hospital with and appendicitis operation, during which both of her parents, along with her brother and sister took turns attending to her. Haley’s parents seem to have created a nice world for their daughter to grow up in. Haley speaks of her father with affection. When she was little they used to make chocolate chip cookies together every time it snowed. Haley loved the feeling of squeezing dough with her fingers; she also will never forget the smell. Now this is all in the past- she is older and loves doing other stuff.

Being the youngest, Haley gets spoiled with attention, at the same time experiencing the disadvantages of her “advantageous” position, when being “compared” to her older siblings.

In one of her journal entries Haley told a story, which explains how this seemingly shy girl manages to achieve what she is after – success in her studies and peer respect.

“When I was in kindergarten people would always make fun of me because I had glasses. They would call me four eyes. When I was in the first grade this girl named Rashanna would always pick on me. It made me really angry, because it was only me she would pick on. One time when I had my bracelets on my desk, doing my work, she came over and threw them on the floor, telling me to pick them up. The teacher saw it and did nothing. I had enough of Rashanna’s bullying. I finally stood up to her and she never bothered me again.” Haley had the courage to read this story out loud to her Sophomore English workshop class. Not being a great reader, she pushed herself as far as she could to share this story about herself. I find it just as courageous as the story itself.

Haley is dreaming of getting a job, which will allow her financial independence. On the other hand, she is scared of the idea of independence and freedom, being concerned with big and small practical aspects of living on her own. She doesn’t know “how to pay bills or anything”. Haley feels that she is growing up too fast:”It feels like I just came from elementary school running around on the playground, playing tag, and now I am graduating in three years…” Little does she know that it only goes faster from there!

Mahamud

I’d like to start a story of who Mahamud is as a person and a learner with the six things he’d like to do before he dies. This is Mahamud’s bucket list.

· I hope to graduate from High school before I die. One never knows what would happen in life. My little brother Ahmed never though he would die before graduating from high school. As a matter of fact, he never even got to go to any school at all. He was four when he drowned.

· I hope to see my grandsons before I die, even if they end up being granddaughters.

· I hope to get married before I die, so I could spend some time with my wife.

· I hope to go to Mecca before I die, because it is every Muslim man’s dream.

· I hope to go to the NBA before I die. I wish to play for the “Lakers” with Kobe.

· I hope to become a brain surgeon before I die. I hope Ms McWilliams will allow me to do a brain surgery on her.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was Mahamud, a son in a Kenyan refugee family of 6 boys and 3 girls, the 3 boys of which died. Mahamud seems to be especially attached to his late brother Ahmed, whose death Mahamud witnessed as a child. Family is important for this boy. I saw him in a school setting with his father. We needed no interpreter, his dad spoke good English. He came to enquire about his son’s lower than normal achievement grade in English. Having found out that the problem was Homework not being done he glared at Mahamud with indignation, which was enough to turn that boy from a fairly self-assured in class young man into a sheepish youngster. Muhamud’s dad assured Ms McWilliams and me that he would see to his son catching up with his homework. Mahamud had no objections. The fear of losing the privilege of playing basketball did the trick.

Even though English is not Mahamud’s native tongue he manages to overcome its difficulties with flying colors. His achievement scores are on par with those of his English- as- a- native-language speaking classmates. He is active in class, and appears confrontational only when not receiving enough praise. Mahamud loves attention, but can easily blend in with the rest of the class when doing group work.

Mahamud understands the importance of school. Doing well at school makes him content because it pleases his parents. He also knows he needs a high school diploma to go to college, like his older brother Abde, who “is smart and funny and goes to England University”. Older brother’s example seems to be Mahamud’s inspiration. His other source of inspiration is basketball. That’s what makes him “most free and happy”. Playing for Deering against Portland High with his whole school screaming his name is the extent of his present ambition.

Mahamud is a “young 17”. He goes from being an obedient child at home to a rebellious at times teenager in class, one day he imagines himself a brain surgeon, saving peoples’ lives and the next he is dreaming of becoming a “business owner, who doesn’t have to work, because other people work for him.”

Mahamud is a resilient person, who has overcome a lot – moving from Kenya, linguistic challenges, siblings’ deaths. He is still a child, though, very susceptible to any kind of influence. It is up to the teachers to keep developing Mahamud’s best traits, building up on his many strengths while at school. And it is up to Mahamud to make right choices.

Jacob

This always knowing an answer to the trickiest question in grammar or parts of speech section of our English class student doesn’t consider himself to be smart. He says: “I feel much wiser than a lot of adults surrounding me in my life. Unlike them I have common sense. If I lost that or my health, I wouldn’t make it too far, because I am not very book smart. And I am O.K. with that, because I have never really been the smart guy in the room.”

Well, in my book of “smart” Jacob is right at the top of that page. He is the only one in our Sophomore class who really actively looks for answers. He finds them before anybody gets a chance to even think of looking. He is fast and sharp. He processes information instantaneously and draws conclusions on his own, while most of his peers wait for clues and require a little extra time. His achievement in academic areas is significant, but his potential seems even higher.

Jacob is a student with almost perfect attendance. He is polite and doesn’t show off in class. He doesn’t draw any attention to himself, which in the world of teenagers is not nearly as cool as being a class clown or a rebel. Nevertheless the results of the class sociogram showed that this young man is well respected by his peers. He was “chosen” by most of his classmates for the most number of activities, they’d like to share with him, the most number of times. Jacob is a tacit “star”.

Jacob’s home life is as challenging as they come. Being raised by his mother, who according to Jacob’s reflective journal “is lazy, stupid and won’t get a job to pay rent”, he can’t wait for the day when he turns 18 and doesn’t have to live with her any more. In one of the brutal fights with her boyfriend, teenage Jacob defending himself, injured the man to the point where the adult had to be hospitalized with 6 broken ribs, a broken nose, and a shattered jaw. It was Jacob’s little brother, Kobie, who pulled his sbling off their “so-called dad”, thus preventing a possible murder. Jacob’s mother got mad and threw her son out into the streets. This day changed Jacob’s life, because it was the last day Kobie and Jacob ever lived together. Kobie’s real dad took custody of him after he had found out about this incident. As for Jacob, he has been sleeping at his friends’ and wherever he can find a spot ever since that illuminated with police blue and red lights cold December night. He rarely comes “home”. All Jacob has got left of his family now are the reminiscences of that horrible night and memories of a beautiful day, when Jacob’s mother told him as he was getting off the school bus, that she was pregnant and he was going to have a little brother. Those two days Jacob considers being the most important events in his life.

With all the turbulence in his life Jacob seems to keep his attendance and grades straight, maintain a relationship with a girl, and always do his homework. I saw Jacob and his girl, Romeo and Juliet, holding hands, sitting on the bench in the school yard. “She is the single most important human being in the world to me. She is the only one keeping me in school, the only one who cares” says Jacob in his journal. He knows that most teenage relationships don’t last, but he believes their story will be different.

Jacob wants to have kids, but he is not sure how many. He wants to get married, but not too soon. He wants to travel to the other parts of the world, but mostly out of Maine. He thinks skydiving might be fun. After school he would like to go to college. He would like to live a healthy life.

Home life, bringing Jacob down, helped him realize that school is all he can hold on to. He believes getting a diploma will open a lot of doors for him, which will allow him to make it on his own and prove that he is worthy to be called a human being. He wants to prove it to himself and others – the ones, who keep pushing him away.

Conclusions

This class profile ended up being more than just a school assignment. It opened up my eyes on many new aspects of teaching and learning. It gave me a lot of tips on how to teach kids and what to teach them. It also proved to me that there is a lot to be learnt from them. The picture below served me as inspiration in my class profile. It came as a surprise – I was describing to sophomores the scene from “Dead Poets’ Society” as an example of different angles and points of view, both literally and metaphorically, and before I knew it, they were all lined up in front of the teacher’s desk, ready to take a chance to observe their class from a different angle! I used the strategy of looking at my findings from different angles throughout my study.

The ideas of practical implications of my findings permeate my whole study. With each discovery or observation I mentioned a strategic tip or a teaching hook I would consider using in my pedagogic practice. Some of the additional conclusions, though, I’d like to outline in my “final word”.

These are the things I learned: I learned that difficulties can facilitate students’ success, making them want to achieve even more, just because it is against all odds.

I learned that students with disabilities can do well when supports are in place.

I learned that it’s rare that English Language Learners qualify for Special Education Services due to language problems impacting their abilities to be tested.

I learned that combination of visual and auditory supports is necessary to ensure all students’ success in learning in my class, because students with both strengths are present in the group.

I learned who in my class is Action, who is Structure, who is Caring, and who is Meaning. By including students from each category into group activities I will ensure proper balance among them.

I learned that a computer at home doesn’t account for students’ higher achievement levels. Deficit thinking is not for teachers, who believe that all children can learn.

I learned that in order to maintain a positive classroom environment, a teacher doesn’t always have to assume the position of the leader. Facilitating peer interaction and group work appeals to a lot of students and models a democratic society, kids will have to enter on their own soon.

I learned that a little extra attention can go a long way. Students, receiving special education services help and ELL personnel support do better than their peers who are “on their own”. A good teacher provides kids with RTI when seeing them struggle. It can nip the existing problems in the bud and prevent future difficulties.

I learned that teenagers aren’t as scary as psychology books portray them. Teachers just need to relate to what it was like to be a teenager themselves and stay calm. “Staying calm” is a joke, of course. Teachers need to get involved and notify social workers and school psychologists when they notice that their teenage students could use some professional help and advice.( Like Ms McWilliams and I did in Jacob’s case)

I learned that most of my students love movies. Including a fragment from a film based on a book we are covering in class could be a great way to ignite students’ interest.

I learned that NWEA site provides Reading and Language scores breakdowns, which allows teachers to see what subcategories in students’ learning need more attention than others.

I learned that Powerschool is a great tool to use for background information searches.

I learned that allowing students to use their ear buds to listen quietly to the music while working on their personal journals stimulates them to write better because they feel comfortable, being in their element.

I learned that good teachers never stop being good learners!

Attachments

4 Corners Hand-Out

Choose your corner! Tell me who you are!

1) Sensing people pay close attention to data provided by their senses -- immediate experience, literal facts, and close realities.

Action Is What Drives Them

2) Intuitive people need to find associations and connections among things and are interested in theories and imagined possibilities.

Meaning Is What Drives Them

3) Thinking people prefer logic and orderly, analytic, and objective thinking.

Structure Is What Drives Them

4) Feeling people prefer subjective thinking connected with human values and harmony.

Caring Is What Drives Them

score 170-190Expressive/informationalGrammar usageMechanicsstructure of languageWriting habits21212score 191-220Expressive/informationalGrammar usageMechanicsstructure of languageWriting habits91110129score 221-250Expressive/informationalGrammar usageMechanicsstructure of languageWriting habits21102score 170-190comprehension strategiesInformational textsliterary textsword identification2000score 191-220comprehension strategiesInformational textsliterary textsword identification911102.8score 221-250comprehension strategiesInformational textsliterary textsword identification2234demographicscaucasianafrican/american85Special ServicesSp EdELLNeither643caucasianspecial edELLELL+ Sp Edneither5003blackspecial edELLELL+ Sp Edneither1400Series 3special edELLELL+ Sp Edneither00Cumulative Unwieghted GPAunder 5050-6060-7070-8080-9090-100023350

GPA vs Special Services

sp ed50-6060-7070-8080-901014ELL50-6060-7070-8080-901111neither50-6060-7070-8080-900210no access to computer at homeGPA80.84999999999999465.6683.3386.04access to computer at homeGPA88.777851.83999999999999672.95999999999999485.6677.568.34999999999999458.5465.95

Not involved in extracurricular activitiesGPA51.83999999999999658.5465.6665.95Involved in extracurricular activitiesGPA83.3386.0488.777880.84999999999999472.95999999999999485.6677.568.349999999999994