Case Study

Sophie Bowie

EDEE-355-004

November 16, 2015

McGill University

Section 1

The child that I have chosen for this case study (whom I shall refer to as Y.H.) is a
quiet and determined Grade 6 student who has some attention difficulties. He is very
sociable with both his peers and his teachers, and is typically eager and excited to be at
school. I chose this child for the case study because he has an IEP with adaptations that
help deal with his attentions difficulties, as well as his hearing issues. Y.H. is hearing
impaired and thus has a hearing aid, however he does not wear it on most days, which
hinders his attention even further.
Section 2
After speaking with one of his former teachers, I have discovered that Y.H.s
learning style and issues have stayed largely the same. Essentially, he has not changed
much as a student, besides growing older and hence having more learning experience as
he moved through the grade levels. He does, however, interact more with his peers now
than he did when he was in the lower grade levels. He is more sociable at recess and sees
his classmates on the weekends.
Y.H.s family situation is somewhat complicated and it ends up having an effect
on his education. Y.H.s brother has ADHD but is not medicated because of religious
reasons. Seeing as Y.H. also has attention issues, his mother wants him to be further
evaluated. However, his father has final say because of religious reasons, and he does not
want Y.H. to be seen by a specialist.
The learning difficulties experienced by Y.H. involve both his attention
difficulties and his hearing impairment. Y.H.s hearing impairment can easily be solved
by his hearing aid, however he frequently forgets it at home or simply does not want to
wear it. Because of this, he sometimes misses out on instructions and explanations, or

does not hear when someone calls his name. Furthermore, Y.H. experiences attention
issues that may or may be linked to ADHD like his brother, however he has not been
diagnosed. He often zones out in class and misses key parts of a lesson. He also
intermittently gets up and wanders about the classroom to talk with a friend, throw
something out, get something out of his bag, drink water, or go to the bathroom. Because
of these attention issues, Y.H. has an IEP to help him succeed.
Y.H. has an IEP with adaptations to help with his attention issues. These
adaptations are to break assignments and tests into chunks, and to provide him with a
timer that counts down until he has to be finished his work. In addition, Y.H.s IEP states
that once instructions for an assignment or task have been told to the class, he must have
individual instructions repeated for him and he must repeat these instructions back to the
teacher in order to make sure that he understands exactly what it is that he has to do.
Lastly, Y.H.s IEP says that he is to be given a quiet space for exams or to do individual
work, so as not to be distracted by the chatter of his peers.
Section 3
Environment plays a huge role in teaching and learning, and so Y.H.s
environmental preferences need to be taken into account when considering ways to
optimize his learning. He prefers to have his desk facing the front of the room, and to sit
alone that is, have his desk completely separated from that of his peers. Y.H. tends to be
more focused in the morning, which is most likely because he gets tired as the day goes
on. Hence, it is important to provide him with more challenging tasks in the morning
rather than at the end of the day. Additionally, he prefers to work in silence, because when
he wears his hearing aid any background noise is amplified and can thus be very

distracting. Because of this, it is important to provide Y.H. with a quiet and secluded
environment to do assignments and tests whenever possible.
Y.H. has a lot of positive interaction with his peers. During recess, he frequently
plays soccer or football with a large group of students from his grade level. He also
appears to see a few friends from class on the weekends, seeing as he has written about
these interactions in his journal. During class time, Y.H. frequently talks to his peers,
which sometimes distracts him from his work. Other times, their discussions are about
the subject at hand and they are helping each other out. Y.H. does not get along too well
with a boy from the other class who shares his desk space. He believes that this other boy
is the cause of their desk always being so messy which is true to a certain extent,
however Y.H. fails to organize his papers so they are always loose in his desk.
Y.H.s always has a very respectful response to authority. He very clearly
recognizes that the teacher is in charge, and that he must therefore follow the teachers
lead. If Y.H. is told to do something such as putting his lunchbox outside, he does so
immediately without any fuss. However he may get distracted by his peers on his way to
his locker, so he sometimes has to be redirected a few times. Y.H. also responds
positively to teacher cues. Auditory cues are not as well received as non-auditory ones
because of his hearing impairment he will not respond to the cue because he simply
does not hear the cue being given out. On the other hand, he responds immediately visual
cues if I can see that he is fooling around with his peers when he is supposed to be
working, I make sure to catch his eye and give him a look. Once given this visual cue, he
will return to the task or assignment that he is supposed to be doing. Similarly, if he is not
paying attention during a lesson, I make sure to walk over to his desk and use proximity

to get him to focus on what I am saying. In this situation, he typically looks up and starts
to participate in note-taking and class discussions.
Organization is somewhat difficult for Y.H. because as previously stated, he does
not file away any of his papers so they are always loose in his desk. He tends to loose
assignments and spends a lot of time trying to find them in desk. Y.H. also frequently
forgets to write his homework in his agenda, and is thus surprised to come to class and
find out that something is due, or that there is a test. As for time management, Y.H. will
get distracted during an assignment or test and therefore end up running out of time very
quickly. His IEP states that he is to have these tasks broken down into chunks for him,
and that he is to use a timer in order to keep track of time.
Y.H. always has a good response when he is assigned a task or assignment he
is eager to get started. He is always ready and excited to learn new things. However his
persistence with assignments and tasks could definitely be improved. Seeing as Y.H.
has attention difficulties, he easily gets distracted by his peers while doing an assignment,
or begins to daydream. He therefore has to frequently be reminded to focus on the task at
hand. Be that as it may, once he is reminded he will typically be able to complete the task
or assignment on time.
There have been numerous instances where Y.H.s peers who sit on either side of
him were absent, and he was thus somewhat isolated whilst doing his classwork. After
these instances, Y.H. has specifically said that he noticed that his work preference is that
when he is not surrounded by his peers. Y.H.s concentration and quality of work are
indeed both improved upon when he works individually. Although he likes working with

a partner or in a group, it is far easier for him to get off track in these situations. Y.H.
recognizes this, and usually accepts offers to work quietly, away from his peers.
As for his response to texts, Y.H. usually begins to read whatever text he is given,
although after a minute or two he will begin to look around the room or play with
something on his desk. He needs to be reminded to finish the text, as well as to read it
over a second time. This second reading helps Y.H., particularly during reading
comprehension assignments, because he does not always pay attention to what he is
reading the first time around. Therefore by reading it a second time, Y.H. ends up
displaying a greater understanding of the material within the text.
Y.H.s use of oral language is good he is fluent and even sometimes uses some
more complex vocabulary words. He is always very willing to speak during partner work,
group discussions, and class discussions. In other words, he is the type of student who
frequently raises his hand to give his answer or share his opinion. He is also quite
loquacious when it comes to conversing with his teachers. Y.H. is keen on asking my CT
and I what we did on the weekend, or sharing how his soccer tournament went. All in all,
he is a sociable and well-spoken student.
Section 4
Artifact #1: Superhero story
Y.H.s superhero story is a story about a superhero that he created in class. In fact,
the superhero theme has been ongoing for over a month. This artifact displays how Y.H.
works when he has distractions around him as he was writing his story on the
Chromebook, there was a steady hum in the class because the students were talking
Y.H. included. He has multiple grammar and spelling mistakes, a number of his sentences

do not make sense, and he did not include any conversation in his story despite having
just had a lesson on it. Furthermore, his story ends in the middle of a sentence he did
not end up finishing it, even though he had extra time to work on his story. He was thus
assessed on his story with the use of a rubric (see below) that contains the elements
needed to write a successful superhero story, because this will help him write stories in
the future. Y.H. and the rest of the class were not given this rubric ahead of time, and
were only briefly told about how their superhero stories were going to be assessed. Y.H.
may have done better on his superhero story if he had been aware of how he was going to
be assessed on it, seeing as it would not have been a surprise (Guskey, 2003).

Artifact #2: Oral reading comprehension questionnaire

This questionnaire was given out right before an oral reading of a short mystery
story. Students can easily answer questions 1-4 if they listen closely to the reading of the
text, whereas question 5 is a bit more complicated because they actually have to solve the
mystery. There was complete silence during the reading of this story and while the class
was finishing up their questionnaires, so Y.H. was very focused and did quite well on this
assignment he got the first four questions right, for a total mark of 80%. The purpose of
assessment for this task is to determine whether or not the students have good oral
listening skills. Y.H.s mark goes to show that he works very well in a quiet environment
because it is easier for him to focus, so Y.H. thus needs to be provided with this
environment for future oral listening tasks. As we discussed in class, this exemplifies the
important role that the classroom environment plays in student learning and assessment.

Artifact #3: Journal

Assessment for journals is done on a term basis, and it depends on grammar and
spelling, flow and organization, and variety of topics throughout the journal entries in
order to improve the students language arts skills. Y.H. got 3/5 for the first two
categories, and 4/5 for his variety of topics. The journal entry shown here is a typical one
for Y.H. the first half of it is relatively well written, whilst there is some repetition and a
few misspelled words in the second half of the journal entry. Journal time is always
silent, so Y.H. did not have any auditory distractions. He did, however, lose focus towards
the end of his journal entry and was hence more careless with his writing. He was playing
with things in his pencil case and did not maximize the time he was given for the journal
entry a full 30 minutes and he only ended up writing a page. In this situation, it would
have been beneficial for Y.H. to have used a timer and cleared everything off of his desk.
Additionally, Y.H. and the rest of the class were not informed about how they would be
graded on their journal entries, and therefore could have benefitted from having that
knowledge (Guskey, 2003).

Artifact #4: Math workbook

Y.H. did a wonderful job in his workbook, and this was largely due to the quiet
environment that he was in while he was working on it. The student who sits next to him
was absent, so Y.H. was sitting alone and was thus focused solely on his work in fact,
once he had completed this section of the workbook he remarked that he works much
better individually than when he is in a group or with a partner. Assessment for the
workbook is used to determine whether or not the students need more help in that

department before the term exam. If so, they can go over a few problems with the teacher
and have a bit more practice which, for this section at least, was not necessary for Y.H.

Artifact #5: Math exam

Y.H did not complete his math exam to the best of his ability. During his exam, he
was frequently fidgeting with things on his desk and trying to pass time. He even voiced
his concern that he was not able to do what was on the test and did not feel ready.
Towards the end of the exam, he was not concentrating on what he was doing because
most of his classmates had already were finished and had moved on to another
assignment, and were hence somewhat talkative. Y.H. could have benefitted from doing
the test in a quieter environment, seeing as this exam plays a huge part in his math grade.
The assessment of this exam displays what Y.H. has learned in math since the beginning
of the year it is a way to determine whether or not he is prepared to move on to more
complicated mathematical concepts.
Section 5
Overall, Y.H. performs well when being assessed under the right circumstances.
In other words, he typically gets a good grade if he is working individually in a quiet
environment and aware of how much time he has to do whichever task, assignment, or
exam that he is working on. Y.H.s assignments should be modified by always making a
rubric or the like available to him so that he is aware of precisely what he is being
evaluated on. Y.H. should not be surprised by any assessments they should reflect what
was made to be important during class time, and be clear as to what they are assessing.
This way, Y.H. will know exactly where it is that he needs to improve for his ongoing

assessment (Guskey, 2003). Y.H. should also set learning goals, as described by the
Understanding by Design approach. By setting learning goals, analyzing his current
work, and using strategies (stated on his IEP) that help him to be successful, Y.H. can
significantly improve the work that he is assessed on (McTighe & Thomas, 2003).
Section 6
Based on the five artifacts of Y.H.s that he was assessed on, there should
definitely be further modification for his ongoing instruction. Y.H.s IEP states that he
should be given a quiet environment and be given a timer when doing a test or
completing an assignment. These strategies need to implemented more frequently and
consistently, because as these five artifacts show, those strategies are indeed successful.
Furthermore, Y.H. should have everything on his desk, including his pencil case, put
away whenever he is doing work. By having his desk free of clutter, he will not be
tempted to play with those items and will thus be less likely to get distracted by
something when he should be focusing on whatever task it is that he is doing. Lastly, Y.H.
will have to make sure to wear his hearing aid every single day, because without it he will
undoubtedly miss out on crucial information in class.
For my professional portfolio, I will use these artifacts to show how much of a
difference environment can make to a students learning. This will show that I plan on
manipulating the classroom environment as much as I can to cater to students needs,
such as Y.H.s. Whether is be a different configuration of desks, a quieter environment,
working with a partner, or providing information both audibly and visually, I plan on
doing whatever it takes to make sure that each and every students optimal learning
environment is available to them.

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References
Guskey, T. (2003). How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning. Using Data to
Improve Student Achievement, 60(5), 6-11. Retrieved November 15, 2015, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb03/vol60/
num05/How-Classroom-Assessments-Improve-Learning.aspx
McTighe, J., & Thomas, R. (2003). Backward Design for Forward Action. Using Data to
Improve Student Achievement, 60(5), 52-55. Retrieved November 15, 2015, from
http://jaymctighe.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Backward-Designfor-Forward-Action.pdf

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