Running head: STUDENT E CASE STUDY 1

Student E Case study

Nikki Adduci, Elizabeth Boruch, Michelle Arguelles, Mary Littlefield

Molloy College

Professor Moroney and Dr. Cerruto

EDU 527 & EDU 572

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Abstract

According to the National Association of Gifted Children gifted or talented individual is

one who gives proven evidence of high achievement or capability in areas such as intellectual,

creative, artistic, leadership or specific academic fields. Students who are considered gifted and

talented are not learning disabled. They do however require different types of curriculum and

activities that are not offered to all members of a schools student body. Student E is a six year

old female, enrolled in private school. Over the summer semester, our group has worked together

to create tutoring lesson plans in order to give student E some more opportunities to tap into her

gifted intelligence. This case study will address some of the students background, her strengths

and weaknesses, strategies which we tried, and assessments used during the time we spent with

the student.

Keywords: gifted or talented, curriculum, higher level thinking

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Student E Case Study

Background

Student E is a six year old, kindergartener attending a private school located in an

affluent neighborhood. She is dropped off for tutoring by her mother or father each week and is

always at least five minutes early for her tutoring sessions. Student E is the second child of four

siblings and her older brother also attends tutoring at Molloy.

Student E has a lexile range of 447-597 which means she is reading at a beginning third

grade reading level. Student E

scored in the 99%ile in reading on

the NWEA which was taken in the

Spring of 2017. She is also scoring

above grade level in math.

Student E is a bright,

charming, sweet and motivated

young lady. Upon meeting her on

her first tutoring session she was

eager and very much looking forward to getting right to work. She learned all her tutors name

with ease and was comfortable talking to us within minutes. Student E expresses her words and

ideas clearly and communicates appropriately for her age. She in fact asked her tutors what her

homework was for next week and requested that we place it in her folder that she had brought.

Student E also let us know that when she graduates from eighth grade she is looking forward to
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attending Sacred Heart Academy and after that she is very excited to one day be a student at

Molloy!

During our first session with student E we learned many of her likes, dislikes and got to

know a little about what type of learner she is. Student E is a visual learner. She loves to read and

enjoys learning about new things. Through the multiple intelligence survey, we also learned that

Student E is also a kinesthetic learner. We made sure to have many activities that will engage her

body as well as her mind. Student E is creative and loves to illustrate and color. Student E shared

that she loves the beach and she participates in gymnastics. She is looking forward to her

kindergarten graduation and has practiced some of her lines with us.

Over the course of the summer session in the area of math we worked with

Student E on her addition and subtraction facts. We practiced them using tangible manipulatives,

technology based quizzes such as Kahoot and Quizzes and we also were able to use a three

dimensional manipulative to help Student E practice her facts. In the area of English and

Language Arts we worked on learning and practicing the parts of the writing process. Each week

we worked on one of the five parts of the writing process and in the end we had a published

writing piece to show for our hard work.

Learning Needs & Goals

After the first session with Student E, we were able to determine what types of learning

needs and goals we wanted to create for her. We quickly realized she needed to work on adding

with double digits. We used many different math games, manipulatives and activities to target

these needs. We also realized that competition was a major key when it came to keeping her

engaged . We downloaded Kahoot on our phones and would verse her in the quizzes which
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created a type of competitive math activity. When we would do anything that involved adding

double digit numbers in her head, she would get bored or frustrated and say i don't know. Once

we used the Kahoot and competed against her, she was doing the same quick double digit math

in her head that she said was too hard before. This displayed the difference in success rate when

visuals are applied.

Despite her advance in academics she's still young and has trouble staying on task and

focused throughout activities. She loved competing against one of us during the quizzes which

helped us spark her motivation. This learning need was easy to grasp because we had many

manipulatives such as balls, dice, bowling pins, frog counters, cards etc. These were helpful to

have handy because when we came across an activity she wasn't too interested in, we would pull

out a different manipulative and alter the lesson to her interests at that time. Because of her

young age, she may love something one day and be disinterested the next. During one of the

sessions we implemented a coloring section to go along with her writing and she loved it. The

next session we had a similar activity and she didn't feel like coloring at all, which is why having

access to different types of manipulatives and materials make it easy to enhance the lesson.

We discovered that Student E completed the most work when she was laying on the floor

and comfortable. She often took her shoes off and laid on her stomach when writing or reading.

Once we realized this is how she performed the best, we made sure every lesson or activity was

on the floor. We found a spot in the corner of a hallway and we would all sit on the floor with

her in a circle and it seemed to be very successful. She moved around a lot on the floor from spot

to spot, especially when we were changing activities. We constantly challenged Student E which

enabled her to build on her learning and thinking skills. One goal we tried to set for her was
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slowing down when completing her work. She tends to blurt out answers in fear that she is taking

too long, always believing every question is too easy. We give her a lot of wait time when

answering questions before we give her some helpful tips such as, reminding her to put the larger

number in her head and count from there etc.

We would often challenge her by asked her higher order of thinking questions throughout

certain lessons. By doing this we were able to see what prior knowledge she had and if she was

able to apply it to our questions. This was interesting to see when we asked her if frogs laid eggs.

She was able to use her prior knowledge of the life cycle of the frog and give an immediate

answer.

Intervention

By definition, gifted individuals have exceptional abilities in a particular domain or

domains (for example, mathematics, music, and athletics). In addition, they typically have high

degrees of self-motivation, curiosity, perseverance, and enjoyment in developing and expressing

their talents. There are five strategies for supporting gifted students. One is Curriculum

Compacting which is streamlining what is taught to students by first assessing their prior

knowledge and then modifying or eliminating work that has been partially or fully mastered.

Second is Flexible Grouping which groups students according to strengths, needs, or interests,

and groups change frequently, sometimes in the course of a single class session. Next is Product

Choices which allows students some choice in what sort of culminating product they will

produce. Another is Tiered Assignments, where the entire class studies the same content, but

individual students choose assignments at different levels of complexity, with the teachers
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assistance. Lastly, Multilevel Learning Stations that provides meaningful independent work that

extends and enriches class discussions.

Student E easily completed most of the tasks given to her in the beginning of our tutoring

sessions. We personalized the lessons to where we think we can challenge her. We created

content acceleration intervention plans for student E during the course of the lessons. After each

of our lessons with her, we would reflect on what she flourished from in the lessons and what she

struggled with. In order for student E to benefit from our lessons, we had to find lessons and

manipulatives that would challenge her. When she was becoming bored and kept asking to do

something else, we knew we had to create new ways to keep her motivated and interested. After

a few lessons and much deliberation, we were able to create lessons and activities where she can

thrive yet be challenged.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Howard Gardner believes every child thinks differently, leading them to process

information in their own unique way. With that being said, he developed a multiple intelligence

test to helps us discover the type of learners we are today. We discovered that Student E is a

visual learner which helped us gear our lesson plans and activity towards BrainPOP. Being a

visual learner, visuals and lessons through videos are more appealing and motivating to her. We

also used many online assessments such as kahoot, which she was always very eager to use.

Student E displays many characteristics of Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. She scored

highest for interpersonal, naturalistic and linguistic. Linguistic students enjoy reading, writing,

storytelling and playing any type of game that involves movement. Throughout the tutoring

sessions, we were sure to implement all of these characteristics when creating the lessons and
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activities for her. She always wanted to play with the large dice, balls and manipulatives. Any

manipulative we used that involved movement immediately engaged her.

Student E is very easy to converse and interact with which brings out her interpersonal

intelligence. She loved telling stories and was very responsive when we initiated conversation,

no matter the topic. Her naturalistic intelligences shined through when we would talk about

animals. We sent her home with many different activities about different animals. She would

come back the next session saying how much she loved looking at the pictures and learning

about where they live. During the first session with Student E, we asked her what she wanted to

write about and she quickly responded with frogs!. She told us the entire life cycle about frogs

from a tadpole to a fully grown frog along with all types of facts.

Despite her many strengths, she has some areas of struggle that are always improving due

to her hard work and determination. Student E knows she is extremely bright for her age, leading

her to rush her answers. When we ask her a question or present her with a math problem her

common response is this is so easy i know it. She quickly tries to come up with an answer,

sometimes getting it wrong due to the rush. Often, when shes wrong it's mostly one digit math

equations, a silly mistake. When she would read long phrases or paragraphs, she often skipped a

line or re-read the same line twice. She doesn't follow the sentences with her finger and tries to

read fast, sometime getting ahead of herself. Being only six years old in kindergarten, Student E

is able to accomplish tasks that are equal to a second grader. She is extremely bright and has

many strengths including reading and problem solving. She can read sentences fluently and

sound out words she doesn't recognize. She is able to use context clues throughout the sentences

to figure out what a hard word may be. She is able to complete math equations in her head
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without manipulatives, although they always help. She also reads on a second grade level and is

always trying her best to sound out every letter of words she doesn't know or recognize. She

succeeded most in activities that involved movement. Student E also scored high for kinesthetic

learning which showed during her success through movement. The last session we used bowling

pins and large dice to add and subtract which had had fully engaged and excited to yell out her

answers.

Assessment of Progress

Tutoring Session 2: Monday June 5, 2017

ELA: Pre-Assessment:
ELA: Post-Assessment: 3/3
Math: Pre-Assessment: 4/4
Math: Post-Assessment: 3/4

In this session, we focused on sequencing for the ELA portion of the tutoring session. For

the pretest, the student answers questions using

the online resources of Kahoot. The student had

to read the questions on the computer and

answer the questions using the app in a phone.

Student E watched a BrainPopJr video on

sequencing and took the hard quiz after the

video. In addition, Student E traced her hand on a piece of paper and labeled each finger with a

transition word that would be used in sequence. Student E chose the type of text she would read
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for the next tutoring sessions activity. As a post assessment, Student E completed the same

Kahoot quiz in order for the tutors to compare the results.

In the math portion of the tutoring session, the tutors wanted to focus on one digit

addition. Student E was pre assessed again using the application Kahoot. There were 4 addition

problems the student had to solve and click the sum on the phone. The student participated in

two activities during the math portion of the tutoring session. The first activity was to complete

task card of addition word problems where the student told the tutors what the number sentence

would be and then the sum. The second

activity that was used was Seven by Seven

where the student rolled a pair of dice and

added the numbers. Then, the student

placed a chip on the sum, which were on

different sheets of construction paper. The

post assessment was the same Kahoot as the pre assessment to see the progress through the

lesson. We attributed Student Es decrease in her post assessment in the use of technology.

Student E was tapping the screen waiting for the next question and her finger hit an answer that

she did not mean to hit.

Tutoring Session 3: Wednesday, June 7, 2017

ELA: Pre-Assessment: 6/8

ELA: Post-Assessment: 7/8
Math: Pre-Assessment: 7/8
Math: Post-Assessment: 8/8
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In this session, our ELA focus was to continue using sequence words in the

brainstorming stage of the writing process. The student took a Quizizz that consisted of 8

questions as her pre assessment. This was different from Kahoot in that the questions and

answers were on the app, instead of the question on the computer and the answers on the phone.

During the activity, Student E

read the passage she picked

during the last session. Student E

read the passage aloud to the

tutors. Then the student filled out a

graphic organizer describing the

sequence of the frogs life style.

The teacher wrote what the student said in the correct sections of the graphic organizer. Next, the

student recorded her voice using ChatterPix. She recorded her voice to the image of a frog. For

the post assessment, the student completed the same question on Kahoot as the pre assessment

for the tutors to see her progress.

In the Math portion of the tutoring session, the student took a pre assessment on Quizizz

of one digit addition problems. The student watched a video on the strategy of counting on.

Student E and the tutors played the

activity game, which was Addition

war. Each person would put out two

cards and the student would add the

two numbers together to get the sum.

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Who ever had the higher number would win the cards. The tutors would change each round by

asking which sum was greater and which sum was the lowest number. The student took the post

assessment, which was Quizizz. The tutors wanted to compare the results from the pre

assessment and post assessment. After the post assessment, Student E played a math addition

game on the computer.

Tutoring Session 4: Monday, June 12, 2017

ELA: Pre-Assessment: 8/8

ELA: Post-Assessment: 8/8
Math: Pre-Assessment: 6/8
Math: Post-Assessment: 7/8

In this portion of ELA for this tutoring session, the tutors focused on the first draft stage

of the writing process. The pre

assessment was a Kahoot quiz on the

computer. The student then watched

a YouTube video on the writing

process. The teacher and student

worked on a shared writing to

introduce the first draft stage. Then,

the student completed her own first draft based on a topic that she chose. The student wrote her

own writing piece on writing paper. The student also recorded her writing piece using

ChatterPix. The post assessment was the same quiz on Kahoot as the pre assessment in order for

the tutors to see the progress made.

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In the math portion of the tutoring session, the focus was addition with two digit

numbers. The pre assessment was a Kahoot quiz using the computer and phone app. The first

activity in the math portion was addition war to review addition. The tutors and Student E played

two rounds to review addition. The second activity was Twister Addition. Teacher will lay out

twister mat with two digit number problems on each colored circle. Student E spun the arrow on

a separate board. Whichever color

the arrow stops on, the student

answered the problem on the

colored circle. If correct, student

will place hand on that circle. The

post assessment was the Kahoot

quiz, which had the same

questions as the pre assessment to see the progress of the students learning.

Tutoring Session 5: Wednesday, June 14, 2017

ELA: Pre-Assessment: 5/8

ELA: Post-Assessment: 6/8
Math: Pre-Assessment: 7/8
Math: Post-Assessment: 8/8

In the ELA portion of the tutoring session, the tutors wanted to focus on the editing stage

of the writing process. First, Student

E took the pre assessment on

Quizizz. Next, the student read a

story aloud and drew the sequence of

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the story in order. Student E read the story aloud for the tutors and the tutors gave strategies for

tricky words. The student then drew pictures in the boxes and referred back to the passage in

order to get the information. Then, Student E and the tutors reviewed the checklist and went back

to her first draft to edit her own writing. Student E went back to the checklist when she was done

to double check that she did everything on the checklist. As a post assessment, Student E took a

quiz on Quizizz.

To start off the math portion of

the lesson, Student E watched a video

on subtraction and the strategy take

away. Then, the student took the pre

assessment on Quizizz. The student

and tutors play three round of addition

war as a warm up to review addition

skills. Next, the tutors and student rolled dice to get two numbers. The student would lay out the

number of counters that were displayed on each die. Then, the student would subtract or add the

two number together, using the counters. The student took the post assessment on Quizizz in

order for the tutors to view the progress.

Tutoring Session 6: Monday, June 19, 2017

ELA: Pre-Assessment: 8/8

ELA: Post-Assessment: 8/8
Math: Pre-Assessment: 4/8
Math: Post-Assessment: 8/8
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During this tutoring session, our ELA focus was the publishing stage of the writing

process. First, the student took a

pre-assessment on Kahoot. This questions

reviewed past skills, as well as, the skills

that would be taught in that tutoring

session. Next, the student reviewed her

edited piece of writing and used it to write

her final draft. Student E went line by line

copying her writing with her corrections. Then, the student was able to illustrated her draft with a

picture. Finally, the student took the post-assessment that reviewed all skills of the writing

process.

During the math portion of the

tutoring session, we focused on addition

and subtraction. Student E would have to

focus on the sign of the problem to use the

correction operation. First, the student

played two rounds of addition war to review her addition skills. Then, the student took the

pre-assessment on Kahoot that had both addition and subtraction problems. Next, the student

watched the Basic Subtraction Brainpop Jr. video. After watching the video, the student played

a computer game that was located on Brainpop Jr. The game incorporated both addition and

subtraction problems. Finally, the student took the post-assessment quiz on Kahoot, which had

both addition and subtraction problems.

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Tutoring Session 7: Wednesday, June 21, 2017

ELA: Pre-Assessment: 8/8

ELA: Post-Assessment: 8/8
Math: Pre-Assessment: 4/8
Math: Post-Assessment: 8/8

During this ELA portion of the tutoring session, the tutors focused on publishing Student

Es writing using Chatter Pix and reviewing the

writing process. First, Student E filmed herself

using Chatter Pix. Then, Student E took the

pre-assessment on Quizizz. Next, the tutors and

Student E watching how to write a paragraph on

BrainPop Jr. After that, the tutors and Student E

threw a ball to each other with different stages of the writing process on the ball. Then, Student E

had to describe the stage of the writing process that her finger was on. Finally, Student E took the

post assessment. We wanted to compare the results from the pre-assessment and the

post-assessment.

During the Math portion of the tutoring

session, the tutors wanted to continue to focus on

addition and subtraction strategies. First, the

student rolled the dice and added/subtracted two

numbers. Next, the student took the

pre-assessment on Quizizz. Then, the tutors and

Student E watched an addition and subtraction video on BrainPop Jr. After that, the tutors and
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student played Addition/Subtraction bowling. When the student rolled the ball and knocked

down the pins, the student had to add/subtract the pins that were standing up and knocked over

together. Finally, the student took the post-assessment on Quizizz. We wanted to compare the

results from the pre-assessment and the post-assessment.

Summary

We are so happy we got to work with Student E throughout the summer session. She is

such a joy and we loved getting to know her and her family. Through the use of various

planning, materials, and approaches, we were able to provide Student E with an unforgettable

educational experience, even though it was such a short session. Student E left tutoring sessions

happy and always wanted to bring the activities home to play with her family and show what she

learned. We wanted Student E to grow and expand on her knowledge through activities designed

for her learning styles and needs based on what we observed during our first session with her.

Student E loved hands on and tactile, kinesthetic activities where she was physically moving

around or using fun manipulatives such as the twister math game and math bowling, especially

games incorporating the big dice.

After observing and reflecting about the sessions, we deliberated on a few

recommendations to help support Student E in her future tutoring sessions. Future lessons should

consist of engaging questions and tasks that use manipulatives to keep her motivated. When she

is unresponsive to the activity or topic, she will not want to do it and begin to move around a lot

to show her frustration or ask to do something else. When reading, it's best if she use her pointer

finger or a pencil to follow the words, which will allow her to keep going and not get lost. Our
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last suggestion we would make for Student E is to create as many kinesthetic and tactile

activities as possible to have her accomplish the lessons we all know she is capable of.

References

Definitions of Giftedness. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2017, from

http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/definitions-giftedness

Landesman, S. Defining giftedness. Pediatr Ann 1985; 14:698.

Varlas, L. (October 17, 2011). ASCD Newsletters & Publications

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