Erin O’Brian

TE 801

Project Two

PART I: Purpose
1. My first proposed student is a student with an IEP who currently has a 34% in my
English 11A class. This student has been diagnosed with anxiety and ADHD. Under their
IEP, they are offered accommodations (extra time of assignments, breaks when needed)
that are always available to them in our class. In the beginning of the year, this student
was consistently not coming to Google Meets or turning any work in. Halfway through
the first unit of the year, our district began allowing us to mark absences as ‘Unexcused’
rather than ‘School Related Activity.” My mentor teacher and I also switched our class
format to be more small-group based around that time in an attempt to alleviate some of
the engagement issues we had been having. Since then, this student has been in every
single Google Meet. They usually have their camera on and are fairly engaged in class
activities, although they often come to class unprepared. This student is missing a huge
number of assignments, namely from our previous unit, and it is severely impacting their
grade. The student mentioned several times in personal writing assignments that they
deliberately choose not to do assignments that they find pointless, although it appears that
this means all schoolwork (understandable). This student also often turns completely
blank assignments into Google Classroom, and even when I return them and explicitly
remind them that I need to see actual work on their assignments, they will resubmit
another blank assignment. I have reached out to this student and this student’s mother via
email on several occasions, but have never received any word back. When I contacted
this student’s case manager, they said that they have reached out, but I have not heard
back on whether they got ahold of anyone or not. I have not been able to connect with
this student via Parent-Teacher conferences or Student-Teacher conferences, both of
which they were explicitly invited to.

This case would be important and relevant to my future teaching because I will probably
have many students in my career with cases similar to this. Struggling to turn in work on
time or feeling like any work you do in a class is pointless are not new concepts. I do
think that if we were doing in-person school, this student in particular would likely be
doing much better than they are currently. According to their IEP, this student thrives
when they are connected to their teacher and doing meaningful work, which are both
things that are increasingly difficult in our current moment. However, I know that I will
always have students who experience similar problems to this one. By focusing on this
case in particular, I hope that I can really practice implementing UDL standards into my
teaching practices, forming deeper connections with struggling students, and making
 what I teach (even if I have no say in curriculum) as relevant and meaningful as possible.
These are all things that I can carry into all of my future teaching.

PART II: Hypotheses

Analysis
1. I think that returning to chapter two of We Got This has been helpful to me as I am
attempting to form an action plan for this particular student (from here on out, I will be
referring to them as Ali). This chapter focuses on disrupting the status quo in our
classrooms, and though the literature has a key focus on breaking traditional classroom
norms that are damaging to our students of color, I still found it particularly helpful for
this student, who is white. Even before all of our learning went remote, this student has
shared with me in their writing that school has never been of interest to them. The classic
transmission models of teaching and much of the “busy” work that teachers tend to lean
into do not work for most students, especially students like this one. While I already stay
away from those models of teaching anyways, Minor reminds me to really listen to my
students and examine what other, perhaps unexpected, methods of teaching could be
causing harm to students without me even realizing it. I do not want to realize too late as
the author did with their student.

2. The most revealing piece of Ali’s work thus far has been the welcome letter that they
wrote to me at the beginning of the semester. All students were asked to write letters to
me where they explained who they are, the ways they learn best, and how I can better
help them in the future. These letters were supposed to aid me in understanding students
better during this remote learning where forming relationships feels like it is happening at
half speed, but they have been easy to push to the back of my mind with ten thousand
other things going on. I revisited this letter once I identified this student for my project
and reminded myself of the things that they wrote to me. Ali reminded me of many things
about themselves that are easily forgotten when I cannot see them face to face. Ali has
moved a lot, and they only moved to Michigan this school year, so they know absolutely
nobody in our school, much less English class. Ali does not plan to attend a post-
secondary school, and is actually pursing professional boxing as a career. Ali views
themself as outwardly cold, stubborn, and hard to get to know, even though they know
that they are warm and empathetic in reality. Ali works best when they can quietly listen
to music while they work. Ali is stubborn, and often refuses to do work that they view as
pointless. And while I knew Ali has an IEP and lives with ADHD, depression, and
asthma, it was good to be firmly reminded of the things that Ali needs from me to
accommodate those identities.
So what was even more interesting was, having now reread Ali’s letter, returning back to
all of the other classwork that this student has turned in. They almost always turn work in
 late, and it is rarely done to completion. There are often large chunks of assignments
missing when work is turned in. And when Ali turns in work, the portions that are done
are usually done very half-heartedly and with little effort involved. The only assignment
which demonstrated very clear and concerted effort was a large creative project in which
students wrote narratives, short stories, and poetry about themselves. Ali completed this
entire project (with the exception of the poetry which they did not attempt) and it was
done very well. Looking back over all of this work has lead me to a few places. It seems
like Ali is inclined not to do any work that seems uninteresting or particularly
challenging, they are most willing to work hardest of creative projects, and they seem to
struggle with self-motivating to turn things in on time (which Ali has spoken with me
about), whether that directly affects their grade or not.
3. I think that in this particular moment of online learning, the biggest thing Ali gains from
their behavior is more free time. Things are different than if a student had to come to
school every day. That is already time that they feel like they are wasting. But when you
are learning at home, every moment not working on classwork can be spent gaming,
hanging out with friends, or doing literally anything else. The biggest struggles I have
seen with Ali seem to be the work that is assigned outside of class, which leads me to
believe that finding the motivation to work on school when they could be doing
something they actually enjoy is difficult. So when they don’t do their work and they
don’t seem to care very much about grades, spending time on other hobbies and
neglecting English class is a win win. I haven’t been given any indication that Ali’s
behavior is for attention (in fact they seem to greatly prefer the spotlight not being on
them at all) or that they are in an unsafe situation that I should be paying attention to.
School just really kind of sucks right now (for everybody) and it really sucks when you
weren’t interested or were struggling in some capacity beforehand.
The only other thing that Ali might be gaining is the extra protection against letting
anyone in. Ali doesn’t know anybody at school right now, and they have already
mentioned that people often find them hard or intimidating at first, which they don’t
mind. I think that by refusing to engage in our classwork, it is much easier to blend in and
not be noticed by anyone. Although Ali has shown a lot of improvement as far as turning
on their camera and offering to speak in class, which has been awesome.
4. Right now, I think the most concerning environment is the fact that we are learning
online. Based on Ali IEP and letters from past teachers, this student was really starting to
grow and hit their stride in school right before they moved to Michigan and everything
went online. So now all of the progress that they were making has had a giant wrench
thrown in it. Ali had just gotten normal school kind of figured out, and now we are all
digital. So the fact that Ali does not know anyone in their classes and they are being
forced to navigate that online, in addition to whatever academic struggles they
experience, is likely incredibly difficult.
 Further, I think that the environment of our actual English 11 classroom has only just
started to find a comfortable rhythm. Ali is largely motived by their teacher-student
relationships and feeling like they are doing work that is meaningful. I think that for the
first few months of this internship, I have been following a prescription formula for what
all the other English 11 teachers have been doing at my school, and it hasn’t really felt
like me. I have been assigning work that I don’t care about, and it has been hard to ask
students to feel like they should care either in that environment. However, I have really
been able to start teaching in a way that is more my style, and I think I have noticed some
small improvements in Ali. The more time we spend together, the more they turn on their
camera, unmute themselves, talk in the chat, etc. If a teacher doesn’t like the content they
are teaching, students can feel that. I worry that Ali was maybe feeling that, as much as I
tried to hide it. In addition to just having to do work that has felt largely meaningless
anyways.
Hypotheses

Hypothesis Gains Losses

 Ali is gaining free time at  Ali is losing the opportunity to
home spent doing things push themselves in an academic
Ali is refusing to turn in work that they find actually context by developing critical
because they feel that the work we meaningful to them, such as thinking, writing, and reading
are doing has no meaning to them, playing games, spending skills (all involved in the work
is not important, and does not time with their friends, and that we do). Even though Ali is
impact them in the real world. boxing (which is the career not interested in post-secondary
path they wish to follow. schooling, these skills will still
be helpful to them in life after
high school
 Ali feels safe and  Both Ali’s classmates and I are
Ali is not engaging in classwork comfortable not engaging in missing out on valuable
and activities because they have classroom activities that opportunities to get to know Ali
just moved here and are not they possibly think may and hear their important
comfortable/do not feel safe with embarrass them or put a perspective in our class.
me or the other students in our spotlight on them.  Ali is potentially missing out on
classroom. Further, Ali feels much a chance to meet new people
safer putting up walls than being and make new friends, which
vulnerable with me or their could be very difficult entering
classmates. into their senior year next year.
 Ali may feel like they are  Ali is missing out on valuable
Ali is struggling in some way with avoiding myself or others learning experiences and
the content of English class and thinking of them as less engaging with content that they
feels more comfortable turning in intelligent if it looks like may find interesting or
blank or unfinished assignments they are neglecting to turn engaging
than asking for help or reaching in work rather than that they  I am missing out on the
out to me. are confused in some way. opportunity to form a
relationship with Ali and help
them where they are struggling.
 PART III: Action Plans
Action Plan I
Hypothesis Action Plan Steps
1. Schedule a one-on-one meeting with Ali to really talk to them about where they feel like
they are struggling and what they need from me. During this meeting, focus on asking
Ali the types of things that they enjoy most in English class, where they think their
strengths are, and where they think they can grow.
2. Schedule a time every week (probably Wednesdays) to meet with Ali and check on
progress.
3. When I go to lesson plan for the upcoming weeks and units, ask myself the following
Ali is refusing to questions every time I work:
turn in work - In what ways does this lesson speak to the lives my students live outside of my
classroom?
because they feel
- In what ways does this lesson activate all interests of students, including creative and
that the work we analytical work?
are doing has no - If this lesson does not activate all interests of students, do surrounding lessons make up
meaning to them, where this one is lacking in one area?
is not important, - Does this lesson have the potential to mean something to students? Is there an
and does not opportunity for students to explore some aspect of self, text, or world for deeper
meaning?
impact them in the
4. Do more to actively seek feedback from students about how the class can be more
real world. beneficial to them. Include more specific feedback options in weekly check-ins, include
feedback opportunities after assignments, etc. Then use that feedback to modify lessons
to better cater to students.
5. Provide more choice in what students read, write, and create so that they can choose what
is important enough to them to spend time on.

Merits Risks Drawbacks Stakes

 Allowing student  Even if I think that the  Because most of the  Ali’s interest in
choice provides work my class is doing curriculum that I am English class appears
opportunity for is important, there is a teaching isn’t mine to be directly related
students to have huge risk that Ali right now, I will likely to how well they do,
ownership over their won’t find it as have to make a lot of so their success is at
learning. meaningful and still compromises for the stake here.
 Ali might be more not be inclined to do desires of my mentor,  The other students in
inclined to do English any more work. department, etc. So my class also have
work if they feel like this is all easier said stakes in the ways that
what they are doing than done. curriculum changes, as
matters to them it affects them equally.
outside of school.
 Action Plan II
Hypothesis Action Plan Steps
1. Schedule a one-on-one meeting with Ali to really talk to them about where
they feel like they are struggling and what they need from me. During this
Ali is not engaging in meeting, focus on asking Ali how they have been adjusting after the move
classwork and and share my own experience moving during secondary school.
activities because
2. Schedule a time every week (probably Wednesdays) to meet with Ali and
they have just moved
here and are not check on progress.
comfortable/do not 3. Change up the small groups (formerly organized alphabetically) so that
feel safe with me or there may be more people Ali could make connections with. Find ways to
the other students in incorporate more small group time into class periods.
our classroom. 4. Work to include more opportunities for community building in class. Try
Further, Ali feels
activities that are low stakes, not for a grade, and are as fun as possible.
much safer putting up
walls than being Incorporate fun warm-ups, opportunities to create things in groups, and
vulnerable with me or more unstructured time for talking than we already have.
their classmates. 5. Work on designing lessons that will provide opportunities for Ali and other
students to write freely and uninhibited by feedback or grades about what
they are going through. Letter writing perhaps? Journaling?

Merits Risks Drawbacks Stakes

 Creating more  As with most of the  A potential  Ali’s interest in
opportunities for community building drawback to English class appears
community building that I have done modifying my to be directly related
in our classroom during online curriculum will to how well they do,
so their success is at
might make it easier learning, there is always be having to
stake here.
for Ali to feel safe always the risk that potentially omit
 The other students in
and comfortable my attempts to do other content. This
my class also have
contributing to our activities like this. could be risky stakes in the ways that
work together. When we are not in especially when we curriculum changes, as
person to feel each are already cutting it affects them equally.
other’s energy and so much curriculum
really be with one already. However,
another, Ali may just the potential benefits
feel safer staying far outweigh the
quiet and to risks to me.
themselves.
 Action Plan III
Hypothesis Action Plan Steps
1. Schedule a one-on-one meeting with Ali to really talk to them about where
they feel like they are struggling and what they need from me. During this
meeting, focus on asking Ali how they feel English class has been going and
Ali is struggling in what areas they think that they have been struggling in, if any.
some way with the 2. Schedule a time every week (probably Wednesdays) to meet with Ali and
content of English check on progress.
class and feels more 3. Formulate an individualized action plan based on Ali’s response to our
comfortable turning conference. Action plan could involve things like extra time to complete
in blank or unfinished
assignments, after school office hours w/ Ms. OB to safely ask questions
assignments than
asking for help or one-on-one, etc.
reaching out to me. 4. Work harder to ensure that assignments all involve some element of choice
and extra scaffolding for any students who need it. This includes audio
versions of all texts, choice between texts of higher and lower reading
levels, differentiation in assignment types to cater to student strengths and
weaknesses, and the inclusion of more modern, real world texts and
assignments.
5. Work one-on-one with Ali on skills such as advocating for oneself, how to
identify where you are struggling, and when to ask for help.

Merits Risks Drawbacks Stakes

 This plan feels most  This plan runs the  This plan is the most  Ali’s interest in
specific to Ali, as risk of even further time intensive, both English class appears
opposed to the other frustrating or for myself and Ali. to be directly related
two. In this action alienating Ali. I This will require a to how well they do,
so their success is at
plan, I am working want to provide all lot of time, effort,
stake here.
directly with Ali of the extra support and collaboration
 The other students in
every step of the that I can without between Ali and I in
my class also have
way, which helps us making Ali feel order to be stakes in the ways that
form a relationship small, discouraged, successful. curriculum changes, as
and work better embarrassed, or it affects them equally.
together in the singled out.
future.
 PART IV: Evaluate

My two biggest strategies for better supporting Ali were to work hard to make a better
connection with them and to adjust my lesson planning as a whole to make my classes more
engaging, interactive, and differentiated for all of my students. The final action plan that I ended
up using for this case study was some sort of combination of both Action Plans I and II (Image
#1). These focused mostly on student-teacher relationships and differentiation. The hope was that
by really stepping backwards to re-examine my teaching as a whole, I would be able to not only
support Ali, but all of my students who have not been getting everything they needed from
English 11A.

Making Student-Teacher Connections

So, the first step was to work harder at my connection building with students. This is
already something that is incredibly important to me as an educator, but I realized that I might
not have been prioritizing it as much as I could. It was specifically mentioned in Ali’s IEP that
they were much more successful in classes where they had a relationship with a teacher, so I
knew that this project would be my opportunity to really center student-teacher relationships in
the ways I want and my students need.

The process of making student-teacher connections is not as easy as it would be in an in-

person classroom. Everything feels just generally more artificial and disconnected than ever
when we learn together (but separately) in a virtual space. Further, Ali is a generally quiet
student, so I knew that reaching out to them in front of other students (which often feels like the
only way during remote learning) would not yield the results that I wanted. So instead, I tried to
incorporate more community building activities right within our curriculum. I wanted this
process to be just a natural part of our classroom environment, rather than me harping on Ali to
talk to me, be open with me, etc. So, I set about this process by doing two different things.

1. Firstly, I did my best to include more unstructured time at the beginning of the hour for
my students and I to just be humans with one another. I had always kind of done this, but
I wanted to really prioritize it in a way that I hadn’t been previously. This has meant
starting class with daily Questions of the Day, being sure to ask for any good
 things/celebrations from students, and trying to get as much of a temperature for the ways
kids were feeling coming into class as possible. This process has not really given me
much of a measurement of success with Ali (or the rest of my class), with the exception
of their active/not-so active participation in these rituals. I have noticed that, since the
very first day that I started for asking for good things, Ali is one of 4-5 students who
almost always contributes in the chat in some way. This has always been very surprising
to me, considering how generally reserved Ali has been otherwise, so I have tried to view
it as a win. I believe that the opportunity to express positivity happening in their life, and
being able to do that in the chat (which is probably most comfortable) has given Ali more
choice in the level of participation they are comfortable with, which is awesome.
2. The second way that I wanted to improve connection building was the incorporate more
activities that were low (or no) stakes in my lessons. The two biggest ones that we have
done were:
A. Writing Rose and Thorn letters. We did this activity on the last day before Fall
Break. I had each student write a Rose and Thorn letter (roses = good things going
on in your life, thorns = bad things going on in your life) over the weekend before
our last day. Then during class time on that last Tuesday, I took all of their names
off of their letters, put them in groups of four, and had them anonymously write
back to each other’s letters. Everything was completely ungraded, and students
were able to leave class once they finished their responses. This felt like a
potentially risky, but important activity. I wanted students to really be able to
connect with each other in more vulnerable ways that they had been able to thus
far, and I also thought it was important that they provided comfort and support to
each other during these very weird times.

Ali actually came to class having not yet written their letter, but I asked if they
would take the first 15/20 minutes of class to write one, and they did. You can
find their letter below. (Image #2) I am obviously not inside Ali’s brain, so it is
not up to me to decide if this activity benefited them in any way. However, I had
also written an open letter to my students, and told them that they were welcome
to read it, but I was in no-way asking for them to write responses to me, only their
 classmates. Ali wrote a letter response to me anyways (Image #3), and I have
attached it below. This, to me, felt like the smallest bit of validation that my
attempts to form those student-teacher connections have been at least somewhat
successful with Ali. The biggest step was then to see if these tentative connections
we were forming would lead to improved work performance or not.

B. Playing Among Us during our unit over The Crucible. I won’t go to in detail
about the educational merits of playing a video game with students or how it
related to our curriculum, however I do want to discuss this in relation to my
relationship building with Ali. Among Us unfortunately only allows ten players at
once to play, and Ali volunteered to sit out and just listen to our discussions of the
game in relationship to our in-class text. This made me a little nervous, as I, on
some level, was expecting Ali to just leave the computer open and disappear
somewhere. However, I had a small win with participation here as at the very end
of the class, after all other students had logged off, Ali stayed behind just to tell
me that she appreciated the activity and she hoped I had a really great weekend.
Knowing that Ali had sat and observed the lesson, when they had every
opportunity to leave and do something else, felt successful to me.

So in all, the student-teacher connection portion of my action plan felt successful to me. Ali and I
are on our way to tentatively having a connection that I am hopeful will impact the second part
of my action plan, which was adjusting my unit/lesson plans.

Modifying Curriculum

The second step of my action plan was going to be a lot more work on my part than the
first part. In an attempt to increase Ali’s participation and engagement in their work, I decided
that instead of trying to persuade them into doing work they felt was meaningless, I would try to
make the work actually meaningful. This attempt was met with varied results, both in the case of
Ali and in the rest of my focus hour students. However, this is obviously still a work in progress,
as it will be for the rest of my teaching career. So, I really focused on a few things here, which
were finding ways to bring student-chosen texts into our classroom and differentiating the
activities we do to fit the needs of more students. This has been challenging with the constraints
of mentor teacher desires, mandated curriculum, remote learning restrictions, etc. but there have
been some successes, as well as failures.

1. My first step was to find ways to incorporate more student-chosen, modern day texts into
our learning. I felt that in order to make our curriculum more engaging and applicable to
my students, I should try to work supplementary texts that were as relevant and
interesting as possible into conversation with our canonized texts, which was Edgar Allan
Poe (Dark Romantics) in this case. So, students worked on identifying mood and themes
in dark romantic writings for most of our unit, then for their final project, students did an
in-class text analysis for mood/theme over a choice text (text meaning anything from
movies to songs to art, whatever). The problem is that, in order to do this activity,
students had to actually pick a text. Anyone who did not fill out their Google Form letting
me know what text they wanted to do before their in-class assessment would have to do
an analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven. And unfortunately, Ali did not fill out the
Google Form. Which meant that this opportunity to do some more meaningful work
never actually transpired for them. This in-class assessment occurred on a day that I had
an MSU class, so if I had been there, perhaps they and I could have picked a text and
worked on the assessment during class. However, my mentor teacher was subbing for me.
So, Ali did not pick a text. In fact, Ali did not even complete their assessment (now of
The Raven) during class. They turned it in about two weeks late, and their work is
attached below (Image #4). This was a bit discouraging to me, and I am trying to figure
out where I could have done better. I am trying to find a balance between trusting
students to do work but still pushing them to meet deadlines. I think Ali may need more
support with motivation and time management than I understood originally. Having a
relationship with Ali is not enough. I need to now use my relationship with them to
encourage and push them to work harder for me and for themselves. We are doing this
again for their final papers on The Crucible. Students will be analyzing power structures
in The Crucible vs a modern-day text of their choice, and the writing process will last all
of this week. I have implemented more mandatory check-ins, will be providing feedback
on every step of the writing process before moving on, and will be giving lots of in-class
time to complete their final essays. I am hoping that by really scaffolding this entire
 process and making sure that there is a lot more communication between students and I,
so that we do not get to Friday and nobody has anything done. Hopefully these steps will
help in getting Ali on track of where I would like them to be.
2. Secondly, I have tried to include more differentiation in the way my classes work. Ali is
one of my students with an IEP, so things they really needed were extra time on
assignments, options to have texts read to them, and different types of assignments added
to the mix that we were doing to help heighten engagement and interest. I hoped that I
would see more a difference here by including all of these things, but changes have
unfortunately been pretty minimal. Ali’s IEP specifies that one of their caseworker’s
biggest goals are to encourage them to advocate for themselves and their needs. This is
not something I have seen very much, even though I have tried to include as much
assistance as I can. I think part of this comes from the fact that we have had no late work
policy this semester. With the pandemic and the transition to online learning, I have been
pretty much taking assignments whenever students can get them to me. I think that has
been helpful in some regards, but has caused a lot of issues with late work, half-finished
assignments, and near constant grading on my end. Ali rarely turns assignments in on
time, and they are still often half-finished. I think that moving forward, we may institute
some sort of late-work policy in the spring semester. I am wondering if Ali would benefit
from structure like this and if I might see them turning more work in if there are actual
repercussions for late work… I really believe that Ali understands the content, and I think
many of these issue system from motivation issues more than anything.

In Conclusion

This case study has rendered both positive and underwhelming results. On the side of
forming a deeper student-teacher connection with Ali, I think that they and I have made good
progress. However, we still need to put in a lot of work on the more academic side. Now that I
think we trust each other, I hope to find ways of pushing Ali to work harder not for me, but for
themselves. If anything, this case study felt like a jumping off point for me rather than something
with a clear resolution.
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