Focal Paper

Edgewood College ED
652
Jeffrey Hayward
I have noticed that when I get into my practicum classrooms, once I have gotten
comfortable and learned the names of my students, I need some way to connect with the
students. When the students see their teachers not just as authority figures (though that is
important too) but as human beings with interests that transcend their subject of instruction,
then the students seem to strive to do better. It reinforces the bonds between the students and
the teachers if we as teachers show our students that we enjoy or at least understand the
things that they like. I have observed both of my cooperating teachers use this strategy on a
daily basis. From music to movies to sports, pop culture can be a way to find common ground.
This strategy work for me when I first spoke with the subject of this paper, a 7
th
grade African-
American student I will call D. D was wearing a Chicago Bears shirt on the day I first got to work
in his group and I inquired if he was a fan. He immediately lit up and we had an animated
conversation about their prospects for the current season and about the prospects of my
favorite team, The Green Bay Packers. We both admitted that our second favorite teams were
Green Bay and Chicago respectively. When we got to work, D seemed really bright and capable
but his focus wandered within 10 minutes. I asked my cooperating teacher (who I will call Mr.
W from here on) about D and he said that D was indeed very bright but went through periods
of doing all his homework and periods of doing none of his homework and the quality of his
work fluctuated in the same way. Since I went to the same middle school at which Im doing my
practicum and Im quite sure that my teachers said the same thing about me in 7
th
grade, I
decided that day that I would focus my study on D.
7
th
graders are a funny bunch. Some of them seem like they should already be in high
school while others seem like they should still be in elementary school. They long for
independence while still needing a lot of guidance and oversight. Given those extremes, I would
place D squarely in the middle. He is a handsome African-American 13-year-old of average
height for his age and an athletic build. The first few weeks I was in class, D wore studs in his
ears but I have noticed that he has not been wearing them of late. His clothes are always clean
and in good repair though not flashy. For the first part of the semester, D was required to fill
out a daily academic report due to his participation in youth football in a local club team. Now
that football season is finished, D plays basketball on three separate teams. He seems to really
enjoy sports and, as I described before, he lights up when talking about sports. Because he is a
reserved kid, it sometimes takes engaging directly him to get him to speak up. That is not to say
that he is shy. He is quick to smile and talks with his classmates but would not be the first
person to speak up in class. I have noticed some apprehension in speaking with the girls in the
class though I remember feeling the same thing in middle school. For boys, middle school is
when you realize that girls are, well, girls. D occasionally tries to physically insinuate himself
into groups where there are girls he likes only to retreat to a more comfortable group with
boys. I do not get the impression that any of the students in the class are his close friends.
Ds seems more comfortable with students who are also African-American but he works
well with students of other races. I get the impression though it was not explicitly stated that
Ds identity as an African-American is important to him and is reinforced at home. The class in
which I work with D is a Geography class and D created a cover page in his notebook that had a
map of the United States and a map of Africa. I have noticed that in his doodles, he uses the
map of Africa frequently. His cover page also included the word Chicago, which is also
important to D. He was born in Chicago though he has been in Madison since he was three
years old. He roots for Chicago teams and maintains part of his self-identity as a Chicagoan. In
looking at his online school district profile with Mr. W, Ds mother maintains a Chicago area
code telephone thus I think that Ds family ties continue in Chicago. His record did indicate that
both parents lived together with D and he said that he has one younger brother in third grade.
Their address was in an apartment complex very near to the school that is generally for lower
income families. Formally, this complex had a reputation of violence and drug use but over the
last two decades, it has become much more of a safe place for lower income families with a
strong sense of community. When I spoke with Mr. W about Ds parents, he said he had not yet
met them but he did say that Ds teachers from last year said that when D was doing poorly last
year, his father was responsive and involve in D doing his homework and getting his grades up.
Looking at Ds grades from the last two years and the first quarter of this year, it seems
like D goes through periods where he does not do his homework and subsequently his grades
suffer. Last year, he had strong first and second quarters but did not do well third quarter. He
recovered fourth quarter to end the year strong. This year, D is hit and miss with his work. I
have noticed that sometimes he does not seem engaged with what he is doing and is lost in
daydreams. I asked him about his experience in school and which classes he enjoys and which
he does not. He said that his favorite class is social studies. When I asked him why, he said it
was because he is able to do his work in class. Due to all of his afterschool sports activities, he
finds that it is difficult to complete his homework. For instance, by the time he gets home from
three basketball practices, he is ready to sleep. I noticed in his notebook that D is a gifted artist
so I inquired if he liked art class. He responded, with a good measure of pride, that he did and
that he received an A but he was done with art for now because he had moved on to computer
class, about which he was not enthused. The school apparently changes enrichment classes by
quarter. I also asked D what his least favorite class was and he paused and looked around and
said Math in a whisper. I asked why and he said that it was because the teacher does not do a
very good job explaining things or at least, not as much explanation as he needs. In my
observation, D has not been disruptive behaviorally. He does need to get out of his seat after a
while and does so to sharpen his pencil or throw something away but he always does so subtly.
His record indicates that he received eight behavioral referrals over the last year for play-
fighting with another student in the classroom but none of his infractions seemed serious.
The middle school at which D attends is an ethnically diverse school for the city. The
student population is 44% white, 24% African-American, 20% Asian/ Pacific Islanders, and 11%
Hispanic. This is in a city of about 250,000 which is about 79% white. Almost 40% of the
students are economically disadvantaged, 14% are limited English proficiency and nearly 15%
are classified as disabled. These three factors are readily apparent if one spends any time in a
classroom in the school. The school devotes a lot of resources to special education and to ESL to
combat the disparity in skill levels in every class. Privately, I was shocked by how many students
had IEPs and how many tests and homework had to be modified in the classes I am a part of. D
does not have an IEP nor does he need one but one of the students, who I will call M, sits with
D on a regular basis and is significantly learning disabled. Because the special education teacher
or a special education aide is often working with M, D gets some help on his work from adults. I
suspect that this is by design as his assigned seat is with M though I do not know how much D
really gets from this. Nonetheless, D does do a good job staying on task when the special
education teacher is present and it does seem to give him confidence to be able to ask
questions as he goes along. I am confident that he could do that in any group that he works in
but I think he is more comfortable if he can ask questions discreetly. Mr. W believes strongly in
collaborative learning and virtually every lesson contains some aspect of gradual release of
responsibility. I think that D would benefit in working with students who are higher achievers
because he is definitely capable of higher levels of achievement.
I am surprised that D has received so many behavioral referrals in this school. The
school has a PBIS coordinator and I can see that there are posters everywhere of positive
behavior models but I have not seen positive behavior rewarded. The one time I saw rewards
tokens being handed out was by the special education aide and he was only, seemingly
indiscriminately, handing them out to the special education students. Ds demerits were all for
play-fighting with his best friend and always at the end of class. Clearly D should be learning not
to make the same mistake twice but I hope that the school is looking at the pattern that is
apparent to me. He is an athletic kid and requires a physical component to his class time.
If I were one of Ds teachers rather than simply a practicum student I think I would have
a couple of strategies to help D achieve at a higher level. If Ds level of engagement by quarter
is indicative of a pattern, then I think we need to look at what is underlying his achievement.
Clearly he enjoys playing his sports and I suspect that basketball ends in the third quarter. If his
achievement is going down in the third quarter then we can perhaps correlate that to the
oversight of the sports teams. I would like to coordinate with his parents and continue the
academic oversight only with his accountability being to his parents. I recognize that it is
difficult for many lower income parents to have the full-press involvement that other parents
have so we would have to tailor it to their specific needs. A pen-and-paper report would likely
be the best solution because that is what he already has completed for sports. While in contact
with Ds parents, I would bring up Ds point about not having enough time for completing
homework. If basketball is really important to D, then we need to figure out when to schedule
time for D to complete his homework. While it is good that he can complete his social studies
homework in class, it is not reasonable to expect every teacher to provide work time in every
class. I am struggling with this aspect of D. In high school, D will need to take advantage of
study hall but there is no study hall in middle school. I think he could perhaps give up some of
his lunch time to work on homework but I am concerned that D would miss out on some really
important aspects of learning in middle school. One of the most important lessons that
students are learning, and it is hidden curriculum, is their interpersonal discourse. One of the
reasons that middle school students are considered so difficult is that they are engaging in
experimentation in what is effective and appropriate in communication with peers and with
members of the opposite gender. I think that it is imperative that students get at least some
aspect of that social experimentation without adult oversight because they need to see how
people react to their actions without a moderator. In any case, I think it important to
coordinate with Ds parents to make sure that he is completing his homework because it is
directly correlated with his performance on exams.
Ds concern with a lack of explanation in math class could be overcome with more
collaboration in class. I make no secret of my belief in group work. I think that it creates a sense
of community and listening to other peoples interpretation of materials helps group members
to make connections that they might not independently make. If D had classmates to
collaborate with, I think that he could make the mathematic connections that he indicated that
he is struggling with because his classmates would naturally explain things differently than the
teacher can because they are his peers. Similarly, I think it would benefit D to work with
different students in social studies. I recognize and appreciate that D likes to bounce questions
off of the special education teacher but I truly believe that he would benefit from a more
diverse group. There is a sports adage that says dont play down to the competition and I
think that applies here. D is content to work with M because he is comfortable. If I were Mr. W,
I would put him a more diverse group that included at least one high achieving student and at
least one student of color, preferably the same student if feasible. It would be important that
Mr. W check in with D on a regular basis to allow for D to ask the questions that he needs to ask
but eventually D would not have that need.
Finally, Ds behavior needs to be addressed. Mr. W indicated that while 8 referrals are
not terrible, it is not very good either. I think one of the reasons Ive never seen any behavior
problems with D and neither has Mr. W is that the classroom is so dynamic and D is getting up
regularly and moving about, interacting with other students. It strikes me as stereotyping to
assume that all African-American students need to move as part of their style of learning but,
that said, it fits for Ds style of learning. I give Mr. W a lot of credit for not only creating a
dynamic atmosphere in his classroom on a regular basis but also allowing students who need to
get up and move during quiet periods to do so, provided that they are not being disruptive. I
suspect that other teachers acknowledge Ds need to get up would find that he is no longer
disruptive.
I have gotten frustrated a number of times during my two practicum experiences due to
what seems like lowered expectation for certain students due to their underperformance. We
are in a difficult position because are in a subservient position to our cooperating teachers who,
in my case, are masters of their craft but perhaps they cannot see the minutiae of the struggling
students in their classroom. That said, I think that Mr. W sees Ds potential and is trying to do
what is best for him. I would like to see D accommodated but I think that the school has too
much of a culture of accommodation. D is smart and able and should be empowered to achieve
at the level at which capable. It falls to us as teachers to facilitate his achievement.