FINAL CASE STUDY

Yvonne Boeskool

Spring 2016

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my learner, Malachi, and his school, a local

charter academy. I’ve learned a lot from working on this case study and I’ve formed many

tentative conclusions about Malachi as a Kindergarten student. There are many variables that

shape his ways of learning. In this report, I will cover the context variables evident in his school

and classroom environment, the neurodevelopment variables of attention, memory, and spatial

ordering, and the sociocultural variables of race and of social interactions/cognition/behavior.

The school mission statement reads, “[This school] will educate, equip, and empower

every child.” The fact that they list “educate” as the first of the three goals is appropriate since

that is the primary purpose of school. I believe it’s important, though, that they have added the

other two goals of “equip” and “empower.” The word “equip” shows that they want to provide

their students with the resources they need to succeed. The word “empower” shows that they

want to motivate their students and inspire them to succeed. An additional statement found on

their website claims,

“Founded on academic excellence, moral focus, parental partnership, and student

responsibility, [this school] is a school like no other –one that can lead to a lifetime of

success. We provide a safe learning environment and our exceptional teachers

individualize instruction based on your child’s needs. In addition, we focus on real-world

skills and how to be a good person. Our students also draft a social contract that

reinforces their commitment to their school, their teacher, and each other” (the school’s

website).

This emphasis on moral focus is sure to influence the students I believe I can see evidence of this

already developing in Malachi and his fellow Kindergarteners.

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The location of this school is in a predominantly African American neighborhood and is

across from a Hispanic Methodist church. The neighborhood seems not very well kept up. The

roads surrounding the school are not in good shape. There are worn down speed bumps and

potholes. The school building seems old, but looks newly renovated. The playground consists of

one main piece and a few little play structures and there are children playing on them. There is

also a community garden with raised garden beds on the block. The playground and the garden

seems well kept up and relatively new. There are colored awnings decorating the building and a

digital sign out front. The front door locks are controlled by the ladies in the office where visitors

must sign in electronically. Kindergarten and first grade are on Floor 1, 2nd-4th are on Floor 2,

and 5th-8th are on Floor 3. In the hallways, there are various posters and bulletin boards

displaying rules, expectations, etc. Students’ artwork is on display as well as a few murals of

animals and children and such painted by adult artists. I notice some posters made by students

about safe schools. There is also a bulletin board for reading competitions as well as a star

student board. There are pictures of students from past years. Cultural diversity is apparent in

these photos. The hallways seem welcoming. They clearly care about their students and find

importance in displaying their work and achievements. They use hallway displays as motivation

for student with the various academic goals and competitions. I noticed that there are flags for

colleges along the top of the walls. Also, at every classroom door, there is a picture and name of

each teacher with an emphasis on where they attended college. It seems significant that they

place so much emphasis on college at that young of an age. It seems encouraging to me to know

that they embolden students to attend college and get them thinking about it at a young age

maybe in a possible attempt to change statistics.

Affirming Diversity states that, “Certain school policies and practices exacerbate the

inequality that exist in society” (Nieto and Bode, page 108). I believe this school does a pretty

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great job of promoting equality. For example, there are 49 out of 501 students with an

Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) which is, according to google, a program “developed to

ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the law and is attending an elementary

or secondary educational institution receives specialized instruction and related services.” This

could be looked at as example of both equality and inequality but the fact that they are doing

what needs to be done to catch these students up, shows that they value equal opportunity. They

want to equip students with the skills and knowledge that make it possible to succeed.

This school does, however, show signs of tracking, or placing students in groups of perceived

similar ability (Nieto and Bode, page 110). Even the IEPs required by law are examples of this.

They separate students who have fallen behind so that they can get extra help. There are staff

members whose jobs are specifically to work with these students. Within the classroom, I can

see tracking. A few of the kids who do really well sit together and are workshop partners. The

ones who struggle get paired together so that they can be helped at the same time.

These policies of exacerbating inequality are evident in the classroom context as well.

Retention, or holding students back a grade, is shown at this school. Malachi’s teacher told me of

a student who will definitely be retaking Kindergarten next year. She cannot do addition and can

barely write her name correctly. The concern though, is that because teachers know that this is

the plan for her, is she getting overlooked now? Standardized testing, particularly to sort

students is already evident at the Kindergarten level. Students are accustomed to testing. That

being said, Kindergarteners don’t have very deep reading skills, so often test are given orally or

with teacher guidance. Stress already builds in Kindergarten over testing. One day I was there,

the students were given a minute timed math test and three students burst into tears because

they were so overwhelmed.

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A section in Schools for All Kinds of Minds suggests that schools should find ways to

empower all learners by emphasizing and building on strengths (Barringer, 2010, page 28-29).

In Mrs. Green’s classroom, there are bulletin boards and posters featuring all the students. Many

elementary teachers do this to make students feel like an important part of the class. Often, they

will even do “Star student” like in Mrs. Green’s classroom. Every week, a new student is picked

to show off all their unique talents and passions so that the other students can admire and be

inspired by their strengths. There are also friendly competitions that go on at this school that

promote building on the strengths of each learner. The reading board in the hallway features

students who have gone above and beyond the reading goals. Mrs. Green does a similar thing

with math and an ice cream incentive. The students have goals set out for them that when they

achieve them, they get a paper scoop of ice cream added to their paper cone in the hallway and

when they get three scoops, they get to have “their own personal ice cream party.” The only

problem with these two examples is that they don’t always display ALL learners. The students

that don’t meet the goal are often forgotten and they are not as motivated or equipped to build

on their existing skills just because they didn’t exceed at the activities the others did.

Malachi’s ability to learn is influenced by those contextual variables of school and

classroom, but a large part of his academic habits stem from neurodevelopment variables such as

attention, memory, and spatial ordering among others. I have a sample artifact and a story of a

learning event to support this.

The artifact (see Appendix A) is an example of a writing workbook activity where the

instructions were to name each picture and spell the picture name on the line, then color the /u/

pictures. Analyzing attention required for this activity, I will consider the three constructs of

attention: mental energy controls, processing controls, and production controls (class handouts

for each construct). My not being present for this activity didn’t allow me to observe mental

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energy controls much, but from what I can see, it appears that my learner was fairly alert, with

consistent performance and mental effort. Knowing my learner’s personality and habits in the

classroom leads me to be impressed with this work sample. I know he struggles with attention

and often specifically this mental energy function. I can’t be sure about sleep/arousal balance for

this activity. Because I wasn’t present, I was not able to observe whether he was leaning on his

arm, yawning, etc. during this activity. As far as processing controls (intake), I don’t think my

learner has any major issues with cognitive activation. I think when he is able to pay attention,

incoming information triggers probably just the right amount of further relevant thinking. I

doubt his satisfaction level was high for this activity. He might have been proud when he was

done but I’m sure he wasn’t at all interested in this activity. I’ve found that he doesn’t really have

interest in much that takes effort. Again, I can’t be sure about the depth detail of processing,

focal maintenance, or saliency determination, but I’m assuming they were pretty active

throughout this activity based on what he actually produced. For production controls (output),

previewing and reinforceability were used here to draw from previous knowledge of what the

teacher expects from him and to anticipate likely reactions to his work. Because I can see bits on

the first two lines that have been erased, it appears that my learner took more time on those

getting started. This shows that he was pacing himself more quickly as he got more confident in

what he was doing. This ties into facilitation and inhibition because he was perceiving multiple

options to stay on track and he was also self-monitoring by watching his output and making

modifications as shown in what he erased and changed.

For the learning event, I was assigned to work with Malachi and another boy. They started at

a station with cards with addition problems on them and they had to put the card over the

correct answer on the mat. Malachi used a dry-erase marker to write out each problem on the

table and draw the corresponding number of dots underneath each addend and then count up

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the total. He finished two problems correctly, then reached 4 + 6. He had issues with his dot

method because they were getting too close and he was losing count. He then began counting on

his fingers. He’d count out four and then continue counting to make it six rather than adding six.

I told him to flip the problem around and start with six. He tried that, but has trouble counting

out six on his fingers. I tried doing it with him and he’d start but quickly give up and claim he

couldn’t count to six. I tried more ways of helping him but he just got frustrated and made

excuses. For mental energy controls, his alertness was on target and sleep/arousal balance

didn’t seem to be a problem, but performance consistency and mental effort did. He had many

issues staying focused and was easily distracted by objects on the table, people in the classroom,

my hair, etc. As far as processing controls, my learner used cognitive activation to trigger further

thinking and processing of each problem and what it means. I don’t think his satisfaction level

was high for this activity. I could tell he wasn’t at all interested. I’ve found that he doesn’t really

have interest in much that takes effort. The depth detail of processing, focal maintenance, or

saliency determination were pretty active throughout this activity based on what the problems

that he did complete and the effort he put in on the one he didn’t. For production controls

previewing and reinforceability were used here to draw from previous knowledge of what the

teacher expects from him and to anticipate my likely reactions to his work. Pacing wasn’t super

active because I was probably pacing him more than he was pacing himself just by encouraging

him to continue. Facilitation and inhibition were active because he was perceiving multiple

options to stay on track and he was also self-monitoring by watching his output and changing his

mind when necessary.

The second neurodevelopment variable I considered is memory. Memory is made up of short

term, long term, and active working memory. Malachi was using his short term memory to put

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the word he had just thought of by looking at the picture onto the paper. It’s likely that he was

also using the alphabet poster in the classroom to look at letters in which case he would be using

his short term memory to take the letter from the poster and put it on the paper. Malachi was

using his long term memory to recognize each picture stored in long term memory consolidation

and come up with the word for it through long term memory access (Memory module). He was

also drawing on his memories of learning the different sounds represented by each letter to form

each word and how to draw the letter with his pencil. Malachi was using active working memory

to formulate the words he was writing. Using material from long term and short term, he juggled

multiple pieces to create those words. For the math activity, Malachi was using his short term

memory to copy the problem onto the table and to put up the right amount of fingers looking

back and forth at the problem. He was using his long term memory by exercising his addition

skills that he had learned earlier in the year. Malachi was using active working memory by using

material from long term and short term, he juggled multiple pieces to add two numbers together

using different methods.

The third neurodevelopment variable I examined was spatial ordering which consists of

perceiving, remembering, creating, organizing, and thinking on a higher plane (Spatial Sequential

ppt). Spatial ordering is particularly evident in the math activity although this activity didn’t

require perceiving or remembering a spatial sequence. Creating, organizing, and thinking,

though, it did. My learner created a spatial sequence with the dots he drew on the table. He

organized a spatial sequence with the dots he drew on the table. Lastly, Malachi thought on a

higher plane by using his dot sequence to formulate and answer to each problem. Schools for All

Kinds of Minds lists positive signs and trouble signs of spatial ordering. My learner seems to

exceed at “readily makes sense of… symbols,” and “draws or copies well” and he does not show

the trouble signs such as “misinterprets visual information or needs support to understand it,” or

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“struggles with drawing, copying with appropriate accuracy…” (Barringer, page 52). Does this

mean he exceeds at spatial ordering? Because he did great with creating, organizing, and using

the dots to find the answers? How does counting on fingers relate to this? Why does there seem

to be a disconnect? Why was he unable to add 6 and 4 on his fingers if he is strong in spatial

ordering skills?

Aside from contextual variables and neurodevelopment variables, Malachi’s academic

performance is also affected by sociocultural variables such as race. Malachi is African American.

The student population is 52% male and 72% African American, 15% Hispanic, and 8% white.

Eighty-eight percent of students are eligible for a free lunch (Elementaryschools.org, n.d). So,

the majority of the students in the class as well as in the entire school are also African American,

but even being in the majority, I’m sure race it affects my learner. There are some students in the

class who are Hispanic and some who are white. Those students (or even the other African

Americans because of the racial makeup of Grand Rapids) could express stereotypes that effect

his identity as a student. His teacher (as well as the majority of the staff and volunteers) are

white. Their/our stereotypes could affect him as well. The racial makeup of Grand Rapids in

contrast with the school could generate stereotypes that could not only affect my learner, but

also become something he believes as well (Group discussion, April 14, 2016). Something I

noticed was that there was a poster on President Obama that emphasized his being the first

black president. The school, being a predominantly African American student population, must

find this particularly important for students to know. I think this shows that they want to

encourage equal opportunity among race not only in school, but in our nation. They strive to

show students that our world is changing and that racial diversity is being embraced more and

more.

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Malachi is also affected by the sociocultural variable of social interactions, cognition,

and/or behavior. Social cognition is defined as knowing what to talk about, when, with whom,

and for how long. To prevent behavioral problems, a teacher can inspire optimism, discover and

treasure unique learning profiles, leverage strengths and affinities, eliminate

humiliation/blaming/labeling, and empower students therefore preventing problems at

classroom level and at building level (Class discussion, April 19, 2016). Malachi often has these

issues as he is not considerate of other people’s space and gets sent to the hall once in a while for

being a bother to other students. It seems that one of his strongest social skills is trust. He trust

adults easily. He seemed to latch on to me soon after I became a regular in the classroom.

In conclusion, it seems Malachi is most definitely affected by the context variables evident

in his school and classroom environment, the neurodevelopment variables of attention, memory,

and spatial ordering, and the sociocultural variables of race and of social

interactions/cognition/behavior. How could the school possibly guide this learner to grow

deeper in his strengths as well as his weaknesses? Possible solutions might include meeting with

the school psychologist to work on attention, working with a math tutor, or being moved around

the classroom near different peers (Child study team meeting, May 3). Calvin’s third

commitment to equity, justice, and the belief that all students can learn is “Candidates commit to

learning enough about learners, effective pedagogical strategies, and school contexts to make

instructional decisions that support the learning of all their students” (Statement of commitment

to professionalism). In this light, ultimately, Malachi is a bright student who has unique

strengths and weaknesses like all students that need to be acknowledged by educators.

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REFERENCES

*This citation has been shortened to keep the school’s name out of this paper.* In

ElementarySchools.org. Retrieved May 10, 2016.

Barringer, M., Pohlman, C., & Robinson, M. (2010). Schools for all kinds of minds. San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass.

Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2012). Affirming Diversity. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Mental energy controls, processing controls, and production controls (2016). Education 202 The

learner: Development & diversity. Class handouts. March 24, 2016.

Spatial sequential power point (2016). Education 202 The learner: Development & diversity. Class

presentation. April 5, 2016.

Discussion on race/ethnicity (2016). Education 202 The learner: Development & diversity. Class

group discussions. April 14, 2016.

Discussion on social interactions/cognition/behavior (2016). Education 202 The learner:

Development & diversity. Class discussion. April 19, 2016.

Child study team meeting: Yvonne (2016). Education 202 The learner: Development &

diversity. Child study team meeting. May 3, 2016.

Commitment to equity, justice, and the belief that all students can learn. Calvin College. Class

handout, May 5, 2016.

Memory module (2016). All Kinds of Minds. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from

http://www.allkindsofminds.org/memory-module

*This citation has been shortened to keep the school’s name out of this paper.* [The school’s]

website. Retrieved May 9, 2016.

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APPENDIX A

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