CASE STUDY

Introduction

In order to implement an effective case study for a student this semester, I chose
a student that had struggled for so much of his high school career and into fall semester
as well. This was a student that had little desire to do well in school. Sam had failed 13
classes over his high school career and even in my acting class had earned the lowest
grade in the class during first semester. However I felt as though Sam had great
potential and excellent character traits that needed to be worked on and then I believed
that we could see him thrive in ways that he had previously struggled with.
Sam is a student that I have had the privilege of working with on a consistent basis
in multiple classes. He is a student that has gravitated towards me since day one of the
school year but has also been a student in which I have had difficulty motivating, staying
on task, and keeping up with his grades. Sam informed me at the end of the first
semester this year that he was going to have a difficult time graduating. A couple of the
other counselors, teachers and myself encouraged that we place Sam in an alternative
program that may help to motivate him and get him on the right track for graduation.
The program is called options in the Lewis Palmer School District. It is essentially an
alternative option for students that dont fit super well in traditional school structure. Sam
still takes 4 classes during the day that are normal, including two of mine, and then uses
the other half of the day with other options students that are able to pass classes at an
expedited rate because of the ability to take classes on a quarter system instead of on a
semester system. As mentioned above, Sam struggled in his two classes with me first

semester as well as in many of his other classes. My goal was to increase his
classroom production, motivation, and discipline as we met throughout the semester.
My secondary goal was to allow him to search for and discover post-secondary options
as he graduates and see what employment options may be available to him.
Metrics used
Number of meetings (3 times per week)
Self-assessment questions that included, but not limited to goals for post high school
life? Where do you see your great desires meeting a world need?
Grade Checks in progress reports
Teacher Comments
Assignments including creating a lighting plot, creating two lessons that he would be
able to teach to the class, and leading a team of younger students in basic lighting
design.
Assumptions
Sam is a student that doesnt thrive in typical academia but is very smart and has
higher than average leadership skills. He scored only a 16 on his ACT, which is well
below the state average of 20. At almost any four year institution according to the
Princeton Review, a score of 16 would be low at any college or university. This type of
score can be overcome with a solid transcript but with 13 failing grades over the first
three years of high school, it is safe to say that Sam has not set himself up to be
successful at a typical four year university. This is a sentiment that Sam has expressed
to me as well.
All that being said, Sam is a hands on guy that possesses many skills to be
successful after high school. I see it, as well as other teachers. I spoke to his two other
teachers this semester. In his film experiential class, his teacher expressed to me that
Sam, is a natural leader. His peers listen to him and follow his directionIm planning
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on giving him the director role for our end of the year film assignment. I encouraged
this teacher that this would be a great fit for Sam and would seek to develop his
leadership skills. Throughout the year I have seen similar traits in Sam and have sought
to put him in leadership roles in which he can build confidence in his abilities as a leader
and director. I have been able to develop several assumptions over the past few months
based on our many hours spent together.
Sam is not pursuing a post-secondary pursuit of college
Sam has a difficult family life at home in which he is given little direction or supervision.
He is free to do whatever he wants from what I have been told by himself and his peers.
Because of this little direction at home, he has not had a lot of older individuals speak
into his life and give him the tools necessary to succeed after high school.
Sam has expressed a large level of interest in theatrical lighting and possible electrician
work.
Sam has a leader quality within the area of lighting and lighting design and just needs to
cultivate his leadership skills in order to have them translate into a post-secondary
setting.
Sam and I have an equal passion for theatre that can be used to build trust equity with
one another.
Sam and I both have a passion for the theatre. I personally have been able to work
in the realm of theatre in various capacities over the past ten years including L.A.,
professional theatre, and starting my own acting company that has allowed me to travel
and perform in sixteen different states. These experiences have given me a lot of
connections and witness the pros and cons that happen within theatre behind the
scenes and also given me insight into what it takes to make it professionally.

Since Sam has such a heavy interest in the theatrical world I hoped to use some of
my experiences to help us in our weekly meetings discuss options and plans for the
future. Sam has continually asked questions about my previous experiences and
desires to know what it takes to be successful. Since in all likelihood it appears as
though Sam will not get many of the leadership training and skills that come with
working in an undergrad program at a university for four years, I sought to find avenues
in which he could begin much of that development over the few months that we would
be meeting regularly.
Review of Literature
There are many skills that need to be developed when a student or late teenager
moves out of the house to begin a self-sufficient life on his own. Meg Butlers article on
Basic Life Skills to Teach Teens before They Move Out addressed many of the needs
that Sam will have to have as he leaves the nest to make it on his own quicker than the
average student attending a four year college.
According to Butler, Many schools no longer teach skill-based classes, but theyre
exactly what kids need to transfer academic prowess into real world successinstead
of a minimum wage mall job. Two of the best life skills that Butler mentioned that I saw
to being helpful for Sam and me to work on included setting level goals and networking.
A level goal is a term that refers to short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals.
Setting short-term goals (an A on the next test), mid-term goals (an A for the
year) and long-term goals (get into your top choice college). Each week, map out
concrete steps toward each goal and make revisions. This road map will help turn
his dreams into destinations. When it comes to teaching a student networking,
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teach him how to network. Let him schedule dental appointments and push for one
that works around soccer practice or challenge him to find an internship even if the
company he loves doesnt publicly offer one. By showing him how to look for the
inside track now, hell have no trouble pushing his way to the head of the applicant
pile for an internship after he graduates. (Butler 2013).
While the goals we attempted to set were different than what Butler mentioned for
her examples, the premise was still the same. Sam and I sought out to have short-term,
mid-term, and long-term goals that were successfully met over the semester. These
included an increase in attendance (cutting absences in half), showing up on time
(limiting tardiness), and creating a lesson plan on lighting that would be taught to the
class as well as teaching three students how to take over Sams position as lighting
designer for school plays. All of these goals were met over the past three months in
ways that have made me incredibly proud. Sam cut his absences by about sixty percent
from 27 to 10. He cut his tardies from 8 to 0. He trained a team of five underclassmen
how to create a lighting plot, point lights, run a light board, and has recruited two
students to commit to becoming the lighting designer and technical operations for
productions. His goals have been met in ways that have far exceeded my expectations.
Additionally, in terms of networking, Sam has been in contact with options of an
internship at the Colorado Springs Dance Academy and with becoming a tech director
assistant for a local school. Whether these options actually pan out is still to be
discovered, but the direction that Sam is heading is a positive one.
Another article that proved helpful in Sam and Is time together this spring was an
article called Answering the Questions That Count by Julie Metzer and David Ronka.
The article deals highly with analyzing data that is collected for implementing into

student achievement. The article asks that educators have a handful of essential
questions that are asked including

How do student outcomes differ by demographics, programs, and schools?

To what extent have specific programs, interventions, and services

improved outcomes?

What is the longitudinal progress of a specific cohort of students?

What are the characteristics of students who achieve proficiency and of

those who do not?

Where are we making the most progress in closing achievement gaps?

How do absence and mobility affect assessment results?

How do student grades correlate with state assessment results and other
measures? (Metzer 2015).

These Essential questions helped to guide my approach to Sam when it came to

attendance, tardies, and setting up a program for him. The results can be attested to by
Sams progress that was stated above. These types of questions allowed me to remain
focused on the most important things for improving Sams performance during his last
semester of High School but even more important, helping guide me in the type of
assignments and goals that I could implement in a program to help Sam succeed after
High School.
Intervention and Implementation
I have always sought to build trust equity with students and parents as I have
developed relationships as a coach, teacher, and mentor. With Sam I saw us being able
to develop this trust equity through consistent before school meetings and after school

productions. I realized that this would take some time to develop but the outcomes by
the end of the semester have been incredibly encouraging to me as well as with Sam.
I sought to use our time together to dive into conversations about school, future, life,
and to implement assignments that could be used to help him in his pursuit of lighting
design or electrical work.

Some of the tangible assignments that I gave Sam this semester

Create two lesson plans
Create a lighting plot to be used for lighting any basic production stage
Give Sam a team in Theatre Technology class that he can help apprentice in taking over

elements of lighting design for our school.

Allow Sam to lead a team of 5 students for the spring play after school in teaching them
all of the elements of basic lighting design for high school.
Lastly, I was able to tap into the support from other teachers including D. Moore
and B. Barkey to help Sam in his development and leadership skills. One of Sams art
teachers, D. Moore agreed to allow Sam the ability to lead a class project that included
the development of color and lighting and how that affects design. This was a really cool
cross curricular activity that was able to use the similarities of technical theatre lighting
design and lighting color within drawing/painting. Sam was able to articulate to the class
how light colors differ from drawing colors in what colors they make when blended
together. He showed this through the lighting tools that are available in our auditorium
and then through drawn colors on a board. This type of experience was really helpful for
Sam and just one deposit in setting him up to see how much he enjoys leading and
teaching others.
As mentioned above, working with one of Sams other teachers, B. Barkey, we
encouraged Sam to be the director for their big end of the year film experience project
that further developed Sams leadership capabilities. Through experiences like these,
Sam has expressed to me how much he enjoys teaching and leading others. This is
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especially cool considering how poorly Sam has done academically over the past few
years. Perhaps he has just needed an area to let himself have ownership of certain
tasks. My hope is that through the extra assignments that I have given him and the
leadership roles that his other teachers have given him that Sam will continue to build
upon these skills for his future.
Pre/Post Survey
One of the best tools that I was able to use to assess progress over the semester
included analyzing first semester grades compared with second semester grades,
attendance, and discussing future plans for after high school.

End Of First Semester

End Of Second Semester as of May 1st

GPA

1.88

3.0

Future Plans

unsure

Electrical Trade School

Attendance

27 Absences

10 Absences

Tardies

8 Tardies

0 Tardies

Through some of our basic assessments of Sam, it is clear that there has been a
vast difference in his ability to take his job more seriously this semester. I was able to
express to Sam over our time together, that even though he doesnt love school, right
now it is his job. This was a concept that must have taken to Sams thought process.
Sam wants to be employed and he wants to be successful. By helping Sam see that
employers dont like it when youre late or when you dont show up, or when you dont
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turn in reports, he was able to translate some of these thoughts into his abilities this last
semester of High School. At a time when many seniors actually slack off and perform
worse, Sam has impressively had his best semester ever in High school in terms of
academic achievement, attendance, and confidence. His future seems much brighter
and I see a spring in his step that I did not see first semester.
Conclusions
While I realize that not every case study that I will have with a student will be
successful, Sam has had incredible success and improvement this semester. Perhaps
the largest reasons to our success has had to do with building trust equity and
implementing clear tangible assignments for Sam that could develop his skills as a
leader and a teacher.
There was a clear improvement in grades from first semester to second semester.
His attendance and ability to show up on time, drastically improved. By January 20 th,
just two weeks into the semester I had 5 emails asking about Sams attendance and
verification of Sams whereabouts. Shortly after these emails, Sam and I began to
meet and I received no more questions or concerns about his attendance for the rest of
the semester. Additionally, Sams ability to articulate a direction for his future seems to
be on much more solid ground. There is a drive and a passion present in Sam that has
had him articulate a desire for a future in lighting or electrical design.
Sam has used his brief experience in a leadership/apprentice role to find multiple
areas in which lighting design could be used to not only complement theatre but
complement a variety of organizations and industries that rely on lighting for their
businesses to operate. This was the best implementation tool used.

Sam has a huge passion for lighting and electrical design and there is a definite use
to this in many businesses and professions. The concept of seeking a profession in
which Sams great desire meets a great need for the world is resonating with him and
setting him on a trajectory that is much more promising than it was even a few months
prior.

Suggestions for improvement for future case studies

Have an increase number of correspondence with other teachers. Emphasizing

what I was trying to accomplish and seeing how we can best implement similar

goals across all classes in order to get maximum accountability for the student.
Have clearer survey that can assess change and improvement beyond GPA,
attendance, and test scores. Especially for the students in which the goal of the

case study goes beyond academic achievement.

Clear boundaries set up and agreed upon before the study begins in order to
create balance and allow for multiple studies at once.

All in all, my experience with Sam ended up being wildly beneficial for both sides.
We developed a deep level of trust. We saw increased achievement academically,
increased attendance across all classes, and an increase in direction for future plans
and goals. Perhaps the most rewarding part of our time together came last weekend
after the closing of the spring play in which Sam came up to me, pulled me aside, and
told me that I have had the greatest impact on his life of any teacher that he had ever
had. This made all of the extra time and energy spent worth it. To see actual change
happen with a student over the course of the year is perhaps the greatest joy to this
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profession. To see Sam develop in a way in which he is a step closer to being

successful after High School has made our time invaluable.

Bibliography Reference List

Barkey, B. bbarkey@lewispalmer.org (2015, April 17). Lewis Palmer High School

[personal email]. (2015, April 17).
Butler M (2014). Basic Life Skills to Teach Teens Before They Move Out. Retrieved
March 15, 2015, http://www.education.com/magazine/article/basic-life-skillsMeltzer J (2009). Answering The Questions That Count. Retrieved March 22, 2015,
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educationalleadership/dec08/vol66/num04/Answering-the-Questions-That-Count.aspx
Monfre, D. dmonfre@lewispalmer.org (2015, January 20). Lewis Palmer High School
[personal email] (2015, January 20).

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