Basic Information:

*For privacy purposes, the student will be referred to as Jake.

The student is a 17 year old junior at Bensalem High School. He is
currently

taking

Concert

Band,

Literature

Concepts,

Physics,

American

Government, American Literature, Graphing Arts and he is in my College Prep

Geometry Course. He has As in Graphic Arts and American Government, and
he is failing Physics.

I chose this student because he has made multiple

comments on how easy the class is and how he understands everything

perfectly. However, he does poorly on tests by making very careless mistakes. I
have been getting to know him more and I realize that his focus is almost
always on his art. He makes a point to show me his drawings every day and
explain them to me. My relationship with the student has gradually progressed
over the course of the semester. He became more open to me about his life
outside of school and about his artwork. I feel as though he wants all the focus
to be on his art and by doing this study, I will try to bring some of that attention
to math in order to bring his grades up.
The student is very laid back and he never gets into any trouble with the
other students. He will participate in class on some days when we are doing
work as a class. However, when given practice problems or time to start on
homework, he puts on his headphones and draws. He is always very respectful
and personable. He usually keeps to himself because hes so focused on his
drawings, but has no problems socializing with the students near him when we
work on group assignments. I could tell from our daily conversations that he had
different priorities than his classmates because while other students were
discussing the junior prom, he was working on his portfolio that he could submit
to the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
Interaction 1
From the first week of student teaching I noticed that Jake would come in
to class with his headphones on and draw pictures in his sketchbook. Each time I
would come up to him, before I even got a chance to ask him if he understands
what were doing in class, he would start explaining his drawings to me. On one

particular occasion, he was showing me a sketch of a tattoo he was drawing for

his friend. I asked him if his friend was old enough to have a tattoo, since the
student is only a junior. He told me his friends are all older than him and he
doesnt really get along with people his age because he thinks they are all
immature. This interaction gave me a little more insight on why the student is
so reserved in class and I understood that he wasnt quiet because he was shy,
but because he just didnt relate to his peers. Because of this interaction, I
wanted to give the student an opportunity to work with his classmates. The
classroom was set up in rows so that it was accessible for me and my
cooperating teacher to walk to each student whenever they needed assistance,
however, it didnt allow much opportunity for students to collaborate with their
peers. The following day, I set up the desks in groups of four. The lesson of the
day was based on scale factors and I planned to give students a guided notes
sheet, go over a few examples of how to find and apply a scale factor, and then
allow students to work on a group activity. The activity was tailored for visual
learners because it required them to choose an image of a cartoon and create
an enlargement or reduction of that image by a certain scale factor. Once I set
each group up with materials and gave them a few minutes to get started, I
started to take note of Jakes group. In their group of four students, Jake was
measuring out the picture and drawing an enlarged outline to scale, while his
group mates huddled around him and watched him work. It was interesting to
see the transformation in student motivation that this simple assignment made.
When I asked the group if they all knew how to recreate the image based on the
scale factor, Jakes partners were a little confused since he was doing all the
work but as soon as he saw they couldnt answer my questions, he intervened
and started explaining everything to them. This interaction helped me better
understand what motivates Jake. His motivation in class correlates with how
relevant to his interests the lessons are.
Interaction 2
The moment of increased participation was short-lived as he went back to
drawing in his sketchbook the following week when I assigned a few
independent problems. When I went up to him and asked where his work was,

he said he did it in his head because it was really easy. When I asked what the
answers were, he walked me through each problem and even though his
method of solving the problem was correct, his answers were wrong because he
was attempting to calculate too many math steps in his head. I took this
opportunity to go over a previous nights homework assignment with him. I had
assigned a 6 problem worksheet for homework that I made sure to tell the
students I will be grading for correctness. When I graded his homework (see
attached worksheet) he completed only 2 of the 6 problems correctly. The issue
was clearly that he wrote out the steps in the first 2 problems and tried to rush
through the remaining 4 problems and do them in his head. I told him that Im
sure he knows the material but if he keeps attempting to complete all the
answers in his head he will continue to get wrong answers. I encouraged him to
write everything down just to organize all the information, especially when he is
taking a test or a quiz because I didnt want his lack of effort be reflected on his
grade. He told me he knew he should be putting more effort into it but he just
isnt interested in math. However, he agreed he would try harder.
Interaction 3
After our talk, we continued studying triangles and Jakes participation
slightly increased. We were applying trigonometric ratios to right triangles so his
increase in participation could have been a result of a topic that was a little
more challenging to him. He would pay attention while I taught but he would be
drawing also. I knew he was paying attention because he still answered all my
questions and took initiative to ask questions when he didnt understand a
certain concept. One day, when I assigned independent seatwork, I gave
students about 3 minutes to start the problems before I started walking around
and assisting anyone who was struggling. By the time I reached Jake, he was
drawing in his sketchbook again. I asked to see his work and he took out piece
of paper from underneath the sketchbook with all the problems worked out. He
completed all of them correctly even the more advanced problems I assigned so
I created a more complex problem for him to complete and told him once he
finished it he is allowed him to continue drawing. It took him a longer amount of
time to complete the problem but, he was still able to solve it. A couple of days

later I gave a quiz on the trigonometric ratios with 5 questions, which he got all
correct (see attached quiz). I praised him for getting a good grade and made
sure to comment on his work written out on the side of the quiz. This interaction
led me to believe that Jakes lack of participation was also a result of not being
challenged enough. He was able to complete all the problems assigned to him,
he just needed a little push to slow down and work each problem out step-bystep.
Interaction 4
Some time later, we were working on finding the angle two secants make
by using the measure of the arcs they form. I showed the students the formula
which is shown below.

Once the students seemed to have understood how to solve for angle 1 using
the measures of arcs AB and CD, I pushed forward and asked them to find angle
2 using the measures of those same arcs. This question seemed to have thrown
many of the students off, even when I asked them what all the angles on a
straight line always add up to. Eventually they realized that angles 1 and 2 have
to add up to 180 degrees, so if they know the measure of angle 1, they can just
subtract it from 180 to get angle 2. When I finished this explanation and asked if
there are any questions, Jake raised his hand and asked whether it would be
more reasonable to just add up arcs AB and CD, subtract it from 360 and divide
that by 2 to get angle 2. This alternate way of solving the problem took me by
surprise since it seemed like a more difficult approach to finding the solution.
Nonetheless, it was an accurate approach and I pretended I didnt understand
and asked him to come up to the board and explain it to the class. I knew there
was a better chance he would more willing to come up if I said I didnt
understand so that he would feel more empowered in finding that alternate

solution. He came up and showed the class his solution with no hesitation and I
noticed he seemed more confident in his work once I praised him sharing with
the class. This interaction exemplified how Jake approaches math problems.
Instead of using information that we already found, it seems to make more
sense to him to analyze the whole picture and find which arcs can be used to
find angle 2, and work backwards to find the measure of those arcs. This further
shows how he uses visual representations to solve different problems.
Interaction 5
Following the lesson on finding angles using arcs formed by secant lines,
we continued to find the angle that two tangent lines formed. Since we were
learning properties of circles and applying different formulas to them, it was
easy for me to create visual representations to model the situations for the
students. Once I presented the new information and did a few examples with
the class, I put four problems on the board for students to work out on their
own. As soon as I finished writing, Jakes hand shot up and he asked if he could
do it on the board. I was excited that he voluntarily wanted to go up so I told
him to choose a problem to do, and I asked for other volunteers to come up and
complete the other problems. To my surprise, multiple students volunteered to
go up. I learned that day that a large number of my students were visual
learners, and by creating those visual representations, I made it clearer for more
than one student. Because so many of the students understood concepts better
by making those connections visually, they were comfortable enough with the
material to go up in front of the class and complete problems.
Conclusion
Through by observations and interactions with Jake I feel as if a learned a
lot about not only how he learns, but how students his age learn. From the very
beginning I took note of his interest in art and soon learned that his participation
increased when he found relevance to art and visuals in the lessons. Knowing
this I attempted to incorporate visual representation in each of my lessons to
model the concept I was presenting. Along the way I learned more about that
way we perceives and responds to information. Jake likes to look at the problem

as a whole and visually analyze it to break it down to what he knows. Once he

figures that out, he works backwards to try and solve the problem. In addition,
he attempts to do all math mentally which leads to common errors. Once I
encouraged him to write down and organize all of his information, his work
became work accurate and his grades reflected it. One aspect of Jakes learning
that I didnt expect to find was that he craved positive attention from his peers
and teachers. It was a surprise to me because he seemed very reserved and
seemed to like his space to work on his drawings. I think that by praising him in
front of the class gave him the affirmation he craved and it inadvertently
influenced him to become more involved in class.
Furthermore, I learned that persistence of learning and acknowledging a
students specific needs will go a long way in helping them learn. Every student
learns differently and I believe it is the teachers role to become familiar with
those differences in learning technique in order to effectively make necessary
accommodations to their lessons. I believe this should be done in the beginning
of the school year. If teachers take the initiative of having students take a
survey of their interests and how they like to learn, it will serve to be effective
when they plan lessons all throughout the year. They could use that information
to tailor lessons that are specific to the learning needs of their students and,
consequently, theyre students will all greatly benefit from this.

Graded Homework Assignment

Graded Quiz