Drew Sturgeon

TE 803
Case Study
803 Case Study
Step 1: Objective and Description of Student
Objective: The student I have chosen for this case study is Joe Smith (alias used); he is in my
4th hour ELA class, which is also my focus class. Joe is a good candidate for this study
because he is a student who has displayed that he is capable of achieving success in the
classroom, but his behavior in class often limits this success. Joe is a Hispanic student who has
told me that his relatives do not encourage him to take his education seriously. While this is
likely not the truth, it may affect his behavior in class. Despite this potential academic obstacle,
Joe has shown he can be an excellent student. My objective for this case study is to motivate
Joe to continue giving his best effort in the classroom and disrupt the class with his behavior
less often. I believe that changing my approach to teaching him will help me accomplish this
goal.
Description: Joe is a student who is capable of engaging in class in class every day and
receiving good grades. However, Joe often behaves in such a manner that hinders this
potential. His attention to me, the teacher, varies greatly by the day. On some occasions, Joe
pays full attention to lessons and completes tasks efficiently. This is especially the case when
he is not surrounded too closely by his classmates. Joe is quite frequently the first student to
raise his hand and participate in class discussions as well. On the other hand, Joe also has
days when he pays little or no attention to my lessons. On these days, Joe leaves his seat and
wanders around the room while students are engaged in teacher-centered instruction. He will
go to the sink to wash his hands or the garbage can to throw trash away. These behaviors are
not allowed in the classroom while instruction is taking place. Joe also adds off-topic comments
while I am giving the class instructions frequently. When he is exhibiting these behaviors, I will
often need to repeat directions for Joe because he does not understand what he is supposed to
be doing after instructions are given. These behaviors are distracting for me while I am
teaching, and I notice that other students split attention between Joe and I while he is making
comments.
Joes interactions with other students also vary depending on the day. On certain days,
Joe engages in the lessons, and he does not talk much with other students (unless students are
discussing with each other as part of the class). Joe is an outgoing person, and he is never shy
in class, but on these days, he limits his conversation with others and engages what is being
taught. On other days, Joe talks frequently with those sitting around him, and it is distracting for
everyone involved. He will wander the room, stop at other kids desks, and hold off-topic
conversations with them. This will occur while I am directly instructing students and giving
directions for an activity. When this is the case, I need to explain directions again, as several
students near Joe were not able to pay attention. I have also noticed that this type of behavior
can have a ripple effect on the class, and other students will join in or leave their seats as well.

Joes interactions with the subject matter are more consistent. He often grasps the
subject matter rather easily, and he only needs more prompting when he was not paying
attention the first time. During independent work or tests, Joe is usually among the first
students to complete the activity or test. When he has finished with his work, he will look for
other students to talk with, or he will start playing with different objects around the room. At
times during direct instruction, group work, or independent work, Joe will say this is really
easy, or this is boring. Some of these behaviors cause other students to lose focus while
working or listening in class.
IS1: Observations:
I observed Joe Smith in two of his other classes: Math and Social Studies. My goal for
these observations was to discover if a different learning environment, teacher, classmates, etc.
would influence his behavior in class. However, I observed a number of similarities between
Joes behavior in my class and his other classes.
The first similarity is that he was tardy for his Math class on the day I observed him.
Tardiness has been an issue for Joe in my class; he often shows up for class tardy more often
than not during a week. When he arrives tardy, it usually takes him a minute or two to quiet
down and find his seat, even after I have prompted him to do so. This was also the case in his
math class, as he entered class late and wandered around the room for the first minute or two.
Another similarity between Joes behavior in my class and his other classes is his
reaction to direct instruction from the teacher. As noted in step one of my case study, Joe often
talks with others around him, adds off-topic comments, or works on other activities while I am
explaining an assignment or teaching directly. Joe displayed behaviors in both of the other
classes I observed him in; while his teachers were explaining a concept or activity, he looked
around the room and talked with classmates. In his Math class, Joe played with a sticker and
placed it on the leg of his table while his teacher was explaining the assignment for the day.
In my classroom, Joe has days when he is an active participant in class, gets his work
done quickly, and follows all of the classroom expectations. When I spoke with his Math and
Social Studies teachers, both of them told me that this is the case in their classrooms as well.
They told me that sometimes Joe has great days, and other times he has a difficult time
focusing on his work, often opting to talk with his classmates or focus on other activities instead.
Both teachers told me that he is capable of getting all of his work done, but it is a matter of Joe
deciding to put the effort in. In both of his classes, I noticed that as soon as the students were
given time to work on their assignments individually or with a partner, Joe got right to work and
finished the work he was given. This is often the case in my class as well.
Despite all of these similarities, I did observe one difference that surprised me. In my
class, when Joe attempts to talk to his classmates during instruction, they respond to his
comments more often than when he tries to talk to his classmates in other classes. After talking
with Joe, I have discovered that he sits near people he considers friends in my class, and this is
not the case in his other classes. In his Math class, when Joe was given the option to work with
a partner, he chose to work with a student who he also sits near in my class. This may explain
why he finds more success interacting with other students in my class as opposed to his other
classes.

Step 2: Hypothesis
Here are some ways I might explain what has been happening. My first hypothesis is
that I believe Joe grows bored of direct instruction from the teacher. Because Joe has shown
that he can quickly get his work done and participate actively in class, he may feel that he does
not necessarily benefit from more instruction from the teacher. If this is the case, it makes
sense that he would look for other things to hold his attention when he feels he does not need
the instruction the teacher is providing. My second hypothesis is that Joe may have A.D.D.
This would help explain his behavior during direct instruction from his teacher; in this scenario, it
would be a challenge for him to focus for a length of time on one person speaking from the front
of class. My final hypothesis is that he does not value the content being taught in his classes.
He may not see the value in what he is learning, so he looks to other activities to stimulate his
interest in the classroom.
The hypothesis I believe is most workable for helping engage Joe in class is that he is
bored with my lessons; he is disengaging because he believes what I am teaching is either not
necessary or not beneficial for his learning. When analyzing Joes behavior in class, It occurs to
me that he may not be engaged in class because he does not see himself in the curriculum
and in my lessons. In Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Gloria Ladson-Billings refers to Jordan,
who asserts that educational practices must match with the childrens cultures in ways which
ensure the generation of academically important behaviors (Ladson-Billings, 467). LadsonBillings, then, agrees with Jordan that perhaps Joe appears bored and disinterested in my
lessons because they do no match with his culture outside of school. Indeed, this is most
noticeable when I am teaching vocabulary via direct instruction. It is during these lessons that
Joe often exhibits the most disruptive behavior, such as talking to his classmates about sports,
what hes doing after school, etc. Sometimes he will also start reading a book during
vocabulary lessons. With this in mind, my goal for my lessons is to connect with Joe in ways
that resonate with his culture. As a Hispanic student, I could teach vocabulary using example
sentences or contexts that incorporate the use of more Spanish. Joe has also told me that his
family is obsessed with soccer. With this in mind, I could attempt to incorporate this interest into
more of my examples while teaching vocabulary. Ladson-Billings suggests that a students
culture should be used as a guide in the selection of educational program elements so that
academically desired behaviors are produced and undesired behaviors are avoided (467). If I
am witnessing undesired academic behaviors in Joe, it is my responsibility to tap into his
cultural background in order to engage him in my lessons.
Although it is important to teach lessons that resonate with a students cultural
background, I believe there are other manners in which to engage Joe more fully in my
classroom. My most workable hypothesis after observing Joe is that he is simply bored with my
lessons. Aside from a cultural disconnect, it could also be the case the my lessons do not
match his learning style in a beneficial fashion. This would explain his tendency to talk to other
students, wander around the room, or work on other activities. In Engaging Students in Your
Lessons, Doug Lemov discusses the benefit of implementing cold-calling in the classroom as a
means of engaging students. I have observed in Joe that pair-shares and class discussions
seem to engage him more fully in class. However, there are times in my classroom where direct
instruction is necessary. During these times, when Joe typically struggles to stay engaged, I
could implement more cold-calling to increase engagement. Lemov states that if students see

you frequently and reliably calling on classmates who dont have their hands raised, they will
come to expect it and prepare for it (Lemov, 112). During my direct instruction, I observe many
times when Joe is not expecting me to ask him questions, and he is likely not prepared to
answer questions. However, if he comes to expect that I will check his comprehension
frequently during a lesson, Joe will engage in my lessons in order to prepare for this possibility.
Not only is this strategy simple to add to my teaching, it does not benefit only Joe at the cost of
disadvantaging another student; it is a strategy I can use with any student. Lemov also
suggests that cold-calling signals to students not only that they are likely to be called on to
participate, but that...you want to know what they have to say (Lemov, 113). Perhaps if Joe, as
well as other students, know that I am interested in what they have to say, he will be more likely
to engage in my lessons as well.
By incorporating more of Joes culture and interests into my lessons, and using
strategies that hold him accountable during direct instruction, I believe Joe will show undesirable
behavior in the classroom less often. If this is the case, he will have good days more
consistently. However, these strategies will not disrupt the learning of any of my other students.
Incorporating culture and strategies that hold students accountable will be beneficial for the
learning of all of my students. Also, if Joe is talking to students around him less during direct
instruction, this will also be helpful for the learning of those students.
Step 3: Make a Plan
In order to engage Joe in class more effectively, I could implement a number of different
teaching strategies. First, I could allow students to do more learning through group or partner
work; in order to achieve this, I could cut down on my time directly instructing students and allow
students more opportunity to teach each other. Second, I could allow Joe to take on greater
responsibility in the classroom to minimize down time when he finishes an activity or grows
bored of direct instruction. Finally, I could create activities that allow students to incorporate
their personal interests into the classroom more often.
The first strategy I have considered to engage Joe in class more effectively and
consistently is to allow students the opportunity to work in groups to teach each other a new
concept. Through my observations of Joe in my class and other classes, he appears to grow
bored quickly when he is asked to listen to a teacher talk for long periods of time. When this
happens, he tends to find other ways to spend his time, such as talking to others or working on
different assignments. Allowing Joe the opportunity to work as part of a group will eliminate the
expectation that he should be listening to one person for extended periods of time. In Student
Motivation, R.J. Marzano suggests that it is crucial for teachers to provide opportunities for
students to construct and work on long-term projects of their own design in order to increase
motivation (Marzano, 150). Because my classroom has mostly been teacher-centered, certain
students, like Joe, may be frustrated that they are not working on something of their own design.
In order to increase student motivation for all students, including Joe, it makes sense to
implement more group projects and choice with assignments. For example, students could be
placed in groups to learn and present a new vocabulary word to the class in a manner of their
choosing, or students could each be assigned to a group to analyze different aspects of an
essay. Marzano believes that these types of activities might elicit a type of motivation superior
to any other for students (150). The small group setting would allow Joe to display his

knowledge and work toward something that he feels he has ownership over. It will feel less like
he is being talked at about something he doesnt necessarily have a connection with. A possible
risk for this strategy is that students are asked to do more of the work and take charge of their
own learning. Students may not always arrive at the answer that the teacher has envisioned.
While this is not necessarily a problem, it could be unfamiliar or uncomfortable for certain
students. Such a strategy requires scaffolding and practice for both the teacher and the
students.
The second strategy I considered is to give Joe more responsibility during class.
Because Joe has shown the ability to understand concepts quickly without added help from his
teachers, he appears to check out when he feels the teachers instruction is no longer
beneficial for him completing a task. In order to keep Joe more engaged, I could assign him
tasks throughout my lessons. For example, in my class, I utilize pair-shares and charting of
student responses often. One way to get Joe more involved is to assign him the role of scribe,
and he could write student responses on chart paper during our discussions. He could also
thrive in the role of discussion director with guidance from the teacher. This way, Joe is
engaged because he feels that he is an active participant in the lesson as opposed to a passive
recipient of knowledge. One possible tradeoff of this strategy is that during discussions, Joe
might miss out on being a part of a discussion if he is also acting as a scribe during that
discussion; he may become more focused on keeping track of what students are saying than
engaging in the discussion itself. However, if he is a discussion director, it is likely that he would
be even more engaged in the discussion.
A third strategy I could employ is to allow students more opportunity to incorporate their
personal interests into the classroom. While I aim to do this in all of the lessons I create, I could
be more intentional about truly allowing students to make connections to their world. In The
Moral North Star, William Damon states that only when students discover personal meaning in
their work do they apply their efforts with focus and imagination (Damon, 10). It is likely that
Joe is not focusing on his work because he does not feel it is meaningful to him personally. My
goal is to keep Joes personal interests and values in mind while designing lessons. This would
be beneficial because he displays behaviors of a disengaged student when he does not feel like
the lessons matter to him. This strategy would be particularly helpful when teaching vocabulary
or grammar. For example, instead of just simply giving students definitions of words or asking
them to draw pictures, I could incorporate real world examples more meaningfully. In Joes
case, I could work sports into my lessons more often. Joe has told me that he is interested in
football. Perhaps when I teach a grammar lesson, I could use an article about football as a
mentor text in order to teach grammar in a real world context. The content is still being taught,
but it is taught in a manner that is more interesting for Joe. Going beyond interests, I will stress
more often why the work he is doing now matters for Joe in the long run. Damon suggests that
students could benefit from more discussion in school about the vocational implications of the
coursework that they are doing (11). Joe may be disengaging because he does not think that
his work matters beyond this week or this year. I could stress to him and all of my students that
we are learning skills that will be important later in life, not only this school year. If they believe
that their work is important to their life, they will be more willing to focus and spend effort on it.
One of the drawbacks of incorporating student interests into lessons is that what is engaging for
one group of students may be uninteresting for another group of students. In the example that I

gave to interest Joe, other students may not be interested in football or sports. However, this
drawback is not inherently bad. It is difficult to incorporate every students interests into every
lesson, but if I make a habit of using a wide variety of real world examples and interests into
my lessons on a regular basis, overall, students will be more engaged.
Step 4: Evaluation
For the purposes of my case study, I decided to implement more group/partner work as
well as allowing Joe to assume a more active role in my classroom. Because Joe often seemed
to grow bored during teacher-centered instruction, I turned more of the responsibility for learning
over to my students. For example, when learning new vocabulary, I utilized an activity in which
students work in groups, use technology such as phones or laptops, and create a poster that
shows definition, synonyms, and example illustrations for an assigned word. During this activity,
Joe did not have to sit still and wait for me to give him a definition and synonyms for a given
word. Instead, Joe was able to work with a group of his choosing, discover the definition and
synonyms for himself, and he got to choose how he displays this new knowledge in an
illustration of his own creation. I believe this strategy caused Joe to become more engaged in
his learning. During such activities, I noticed that he got out of his seat less often; he made
fewer inappropriate outbursts, and he even mentioned on one occasion that he was having fun
in class. Through observation during group work, it seems that Joe was motivated by the
challenge of completing an activity with less direct instruction.
Another strategy I put into action was giving Joe more responsibility in the classroom.
The goal for this strategy was to give Joe more tasks in class to reduce time where he is sitting
around with nothing to do. I implemented this strategy in a number of ways. First, in the
beginning of class, I made Joe our class book distributor. My classes read for the first 10
minutes of every class; if a student does not have a book with them, that student will borrow a
book from our class library. In 4th hour, Joe was in charge of getting to class on time and giving
out books from our class library to students who forgot to bring a book. Not only did this give
Joe a reason to be to class on time and ready to go, but it also gave him the opportunity to get
out of his seat and briefly interact with classmates. This strategy returned mixed results. On
most days, Joe would get to class just in time, and he would give out the books as expected.
However, Joe still came to class tardy once or twice a week, and on some days, he would
simply refuse to hand out the books. Overall, though, I believe this strategy helped Joe feel
more valuable in the classroom.
Another responsibility I gave Joe was to be a class scribe. Our class does a good deal
of charting during class discussions, and I offered Joe the opportunity to chart student
responses during these discussions. This strategy was only minimally effective. Most of the
time, Joe did not want to get in front of class and write things down; he preferred to stay in his
seat and be a regular member of the discussion. When Joe did get up in front of the class to do
charting, he did not take it seriously. He would make jokes with classmates and he slowed
down the class by writing slowly or writing the wrong things down. One interesting development
did begin happening over the course of my case study, though. When I began giving Joe more
of these types of opportunities, he started to volunteer to do more things. For example, Joe
asked me about being a student assistant in the future. The student assistant in each class is
the student who is responsible for answering the class phone, sharpening students pencils, and

helping me out with miscellaneous organizational tasks. By asking about this position, I believe
Joe is seeking to become a more active member of the class.
Through reflection on my case study, I believe I made small steps towards helping one
of my students become more engaged in my classroom. I did not eradicate all of the behavior
that I was hoping to change, but small progress was made. For example, while Joe made fewer
inappropriate outbursts and came to class on time more often, he still got out of his seat at the
wrong times occasionally and he still chatted quite often with classmates while I was teaching.
However, I consider my strategies a success because it seems I have increased Joes
engagement in my classroom. He knows I am looking out for him as a person as well as a
student, and this may help his academic success later in his school career. Through the course
of this case study I learned that students are more capable of taking charge of their own
learning than I originally believed. I learned that the best way to deal with problem behavior is
not necessarily more discipline and holding on with a tighter fist. Instead, the best way to
approach the issue is to work with your students as individuals and figure out a plan that works
best for all parties involved. This case study has given me the confidence to try new strategies
in my classroom in order to help increase student engagement.