Case Study

Kenzie McDonald
March 14th, 2019
Shelley Beleznay

Why did you choose this student as your “wonder” child?

I chose this student because she makes me curious. I wonder about her academic level. She is
very keen to learn and advocates for herself and asks questions when she needs to.

What do you know about this student as a learner?

She is at about a grade 1 level for literacy, yet her comprehension is very strong as long as someone
has read to her. I know that she knows basic sounds for letters, but has difficult time putting the
sounds together to make words. I know that she knows basic addition and subtraction. She can
understand math if there is no written part to the question. She enjoys drawing and colouring and
PE. She is very cooperative and sweet. As I said before she advocates for herself if she has a question
and will not just sit in her desk helpless. She will contribute to class discussions and isn’t afraid of
being wrong. I know that she likes to read books about animals.

What else do you need to find out about this student as a learner?
I need to find out what she enjoys at school. I have observed her in the classroom, but have
never asked what she likes about school. I need to find out what her interests are in general to
build that rapport with her. I need to find out what work she is proud of at school. I need to ask
how she learns best at school.

What strengths, capacities, and/or “passions” do you see in this student?

She is very friendly and very affectionate. She always gives hugs to the teachers and seems to
want to be loved. She is fairly quiet and keeps to herself, she is independent and on task. She
seems to understand math and is passionate about her learning. She is always trying. She is
really enjoying the recorder in fine arts. Owls are her favourite animal.

What questions do you have about this student’s strengths and capacities? What do you need to
learn more about in order to offer powerful support (e.g. social-emotional learning, engagement,
interests, relationships, previous experiences)?
What kind of home life does she have? Does she practice reading at home, or get read to. Does she
get attention at home? Who cares for her and her sister at home? What does she do for fun? What
interests does she have outside of school?

What does the student think about his/her learning? Include direct quotes if you can (e.g. What
do you think you are good at as a learner? What helps you to learn?)
She is proud of her work, especially math, she says “she’s proud because she might get it right.”
She says “my learning is good and amazing.” She finds that partner work is helpful, and if
something is read to her she better understands it. She often will ask questions if she does not
understand (mostly when she cannot read the instructions) as soon as she gets the instructions,
she has no problem with the work. She enjoys social studies, math, and spellings. She likes
spelling because she likes to learn new words. She likes math because she has learned how to
tell time on an analog clock.

What else did you learn after observing? How did your thinking about the student
change/deepen? What surprised you?
After observing this student, I am even more curious about her brain. I know she knows the
sounds of the letters. She will sound out each letter individually and if I ask her to put the word
together and sound it out faster, she will change some of the letters sounds as soon as she
speeds it up. She will pick up on the word if I say it slow and sound it out her. Somehow there is
a gap and I find it very interesting. She wears glasses, yet she still squints a bit while looking at
the board and overhead. She sits about at the middle of the class. She sometimes does not
make eye contact if I ask her a question and her work, or if she is sounding out a word. She
looks for affection from the adults in the school. She loves to tell the teachers about something
she is excited about. She tries very hard, and always gets her work done. Her written output is
hard to understand because the reading piece is not fully there yet. She tries to make words. I
admire her motivation to learn. I found out she loves bowling and swimming. I was surprised to
find out that she thinks her strengths are “sounding out words and learning to read”. It
surprised me that when I asked her what her stretches are she couldn’t think of anything. I
learned from my sponsor teacher that her father is fairly old (in his 80’s) and when she had a
parent teacher interview with him he didn’t seem interested in her work when she was showing
him. I wonder if she gets attention at home and gets the practice to improve her reading. I also
wonder if she gets attention at home, or if that is why she seeks affection at school from the
adults. (just thoughts and curiosities I have).

If you were planning for this students learning, what could you do to support his/her? Why? What
can you include in your unit/lesson planning to support this student? What theories and
information from the course connect to your decisions?
In planning for her learning, I would incorporate partner work and speech to text programs to
ensure that she is getting access to the curriculum. She has reading strategies to use when she is
learning and gets 30 minutes, 3 days a week with learning support to improve her reading. They
use games to learn and manipulatives. It is important for me as a teacher to read instructions
aloud and captions, so that she and all students can listen and benefit from this. I think that
having a learning environment that gives choice, gives room for movement and exploration is
very important (the third teacher). In general, I think that it is very important to build a safe
friendly environment so that all students feel welcome. When the students feel comfortable,
they are more likely to be motivated to learn. It is important to teach students emotional skills
in able to build this community. We also need to teach the students how to be independent.
The students need to feel loved and like they belong. It is important for us to let the student
show us their approach first and then give supporting suggestions and tools to help them. A few
UDL tools that are helpful for all students are brain/ body breaks, time timers, fidgets, visuals,
curtains, break cards and quiet places in the room. My next steps for this student are to keep
pushing her reading ability and build the vocabulary. She is starting to build her sight words and
uses pictures and clues to help her read. I want to keep her confidence levels high and
encourage her to keep asking questions and advocate for herself.
How does this experience inform your thinking about teaching and learning for inclusive
education?
It is important to realize that every student is different. There are three students that are
significantly below grade level in my class, yet they are all very different people. It is important
to know that every student is going to learn differently and use different strategies. Multimodal
resources benefit all students. Visuals are a huge tool, they can be used for lessons, transitions,
and they can help students explain what they mean, sometimes better than words. Visuals can
be a mode of communication. When we start with the what we want ALL students to know,
then MOST students, then SOME students then we will be getting to everyone and pushing the
students abilities. Every student is going to have a different access point to the curriculum. It is
important to never give up and try different ways to help students udnerstand, and how we can
better understand them. It is also important to prevent outbreaks before they happen and be
observant of the students.