Course Description: This course introduces content area literacy instruction in the middle and secondary classroom. Students will acquire the skills necessary to select strategies and plan content specific literacy instruction to improve comprehension of subject-specific content for middle school and high school students.

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ED 228 Case Study

Setting the School and Community Context:

My name is John and my family and I are moving to the northwest side of Indianapolis.  I am in 7^th grade and am very nervous about moving into my new community and attending my new school.  My parents told me that I will be attending Guion Creek Middle School, which is part of the Pike Township school district.  Before I start school there, they are allowing me to shadow a student to let me get a feel for what Guion Creek Middle School is like.  When I arrived at Guion Creek, I was amazed at how many students attended this school.  In fact, I found out that there are 874 students that come from all types of different demographic backgrounds.  I found this by reading something in the main office while waiting for the student I shadowed for the day.   As I read more in depth, I found out that there were 83 white students, 561 African American Students, 161 Hispanics, 13 Asians, and 56 did not specify what race they were.  This is very interesting to me because I come from a very small country town, which has a small population of students and little diversity.  Just sitting here in the office, I can already tell how many more students there are and how much more diverse it is. After about five minutes of waiting for the student I was to shadow, he finally arrived.  His name was Antwann, and he seemed like a really nice kid.  I could not wait to see the rest of the school to find out more about Guion Creek, however I was concerned about how well I would fit in with everyone else.  As the school day went on, everything was going great and it was finally time for lunch.  I had brought my own lunch from home and Antwann bought his lunch.  As I watched him near the end of the food line, I noticed that he did not pay. I was curious why that was, so I asked him if lunch was free at Guion. He said no, but most of the students get free or reduced lunch based off their financial situations at home.  In fact he told me that 66% of the students here at Guion Creek receive free or reduced lunches.  After lunch, we were off to a few more classes.  After the last class, he invited me to watch football practice after school because I mentioned how much I enjoy football.  When told me that there was a football team I was extremely excited, and I asked him if there were anymore extra curricular activities or sports.  At my old school, there were not a lot of opportunities to participate in activities like these so I was hoping Guion would have the same opportunities. Luckily for me, Antwann told me there were about 23 extra curricular activities, which range from student council and “readers are winners club” to football and basketball.  There are so many opportunities for me to participate at Guion, and that makes me so much more excited to attend Guion Creek Middle School.  As I sat and watched Antwann participate in football practice, it made me want to get my school career going at Guion Creek.  After practice, I said goodbye to Antwann and was ready to get into my mothers car when Antwann told me I should come to the S.T.A.R program on Saturday.  I asked him what that was and he told me it stands for “Saturday Tutoring and Recreation.”  Antwann told me that he goes there on Saturdays for extra help in his classes and to socialize with his friends.  He said that it is tons of fun and I quickly accepted the invitation.

As I got into the car with my Mother to go home, she asked me how my day was and I told her it was awesome and I cannot wait to start school at Guion Creek.  My mother was so excited that I loved it because when she was waiting for football practice to end she was talking to another mother and she heard nothing but good things about Guion.  In fact, she even told my mother that the “per student expenditure” of the Pike Township school district is $9,408, which is a lot more than my old school!  We were both extremely excited about Guion that I could not help but ask my mother more questions about the surrounding area.  Because I have only been on the northwest side of Indianapolis for a few days, I wanted to know about where I was living.  I wanted to know what type of people live around us and what there is to do for fun.  Luckily for me, my mother had all the answers because those were all the questions she asked before they moved here.  She told me that the total population of the area is 34,845 and there were many different types of demographic backgrounds all around us, similar to Guion Creek Middle School.  There were about 17,177 white people, 13,569 African Americans, 2,686 Hispanics, 1,359 Asians, 11 Hawaiians and 90 Indians.  My mother said that one of the reasons they chose to move here was the diverse populations and the price of homes.  In fact, Indianapolis is known for having good prices on homes in comparisons to the rest of the country, and the average price of homes in my new neighborhood is about $108,900!  My mother also loves the city-like environment and how there are so many great stores, such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, a great shopping mall, and many restaurants in the area! It seems like the perfect area to live in!

As I sat in silent for the rest of the car ride home, I could not help but think about the great day I had.  I started to realize that I will be receiving a great education that offers me the opportunities to succeed, and that I just need to be motivated enough to want to succeed.  I noticed that a lot of the students in the classes I saw were not motivated to exceed in school, which contributes to some of the poor test scores the school receives. But I did realize that the teachers really do want their students to succeed and they will give everyone an opportunity to succeed in their education. It all comes down to how badly I want to succeed.  Luckily for me, my parents are great motivators to make me succeed, and I know that some students at Guion Creek do not have that same support.  I could tell that Guion Creek Middle School was trying very hard to get their test scores up by having the S.T.A.R program, and how the teachers will come in on Saturdays to help the students out.  Also, there are many extra curricular activities that help students get more out of their education.  I cannot wait to get started here at Guion!

Student Buddy Background:

At Guion Creek Middle School, I had the privilege to have my student buddy be Mike Davis.  At the beginning of my visits, where I had to find a buddy to shadow every visit, I asked the teacher, Mr. Bullington, who would be the most interesting to watch.  He set me up with Mike Davis, who he considered to be the least well-behaved and most disruptive student.  I thought it would be a great idea to shadow him because I would be able to see what teachers go through when it comes to dealing with the most disruptive students.  Because I was in a physical education and health class, I never had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Mike to find out more about him.  However, I was able to find out about his school life by just watching and helping him in a classroom setting.  I could tell that he did not put forth his best effort toward school.  He would constantly talk to another student and together they would not get any work done.  In physical education class, he was a little better, but only if they were doing activities that he enjoyed.  For example, when they had to run a lap around the track, he refused to participate in this activity. After the instructor constantly told him to run around the track, he simply just walked around the track as slow as possible.  Because of this, the teacher was forced to give him the least amount of points possible for that activity.  I do not know why he acts the way he does. In fact, on the syllabus that the instructor passed out at the beginning of the year, it states every single disciplinary scenario that could happen and he even had everyone’s parents sign it.  That is why I am confused as to why he acts inappropriately.  It could be something going on at home or that he just does not care about school, but that is something that I wish I had the opportunity to ask him.  I see the potential in Mike because whenever he does activities that he enjoys, he puts forth his best effort.  He just needs to transfer that effort into actual schoolwork, which includes the health portion of the class that he was in.

Assessment of Needs Analysis and Plan of Action
During my visits with Mike, the whole time I was working with him on how to become a better student.  I could not pin-point what his worst subject was, if he was a bad writer, bad at math, etc., all I knew was that he was missing the motivation factor that comes with going to school.  Mr. Bullington told me this prior to me meeting him.  He also has a problem with being disrupted during class, especially with his best friend, Julio.  When the two of them are together, they are very disrupted and get no work accomplished.  Because of this it is important for me to put together a plan of action.  Because motivation is a factor, especially in health class, I would put a system together that makes students responsible for their in class work and homework.  It is a simple check system that requires their parents to sign a box stating that their student has completed their homework.  This way, the students will be responsible for their own work.  Parents tend to make the students do their work, so this would be a great tool.  Another action that I can take is to make sure there is more work group in the class.  However, the tricky part of this is making sure Mike is with the “right” group.  Mike cannot be with Julio because there would be zero work completed.  Therefore, I will make the groups at the beginning of the year and make sure Mike is with hard working and motivated students.  There will also be a check system that will make sure everyone in the group is participating.  This way, Mike is forced to complete his work and the motivation from the other students in his group could rub off on him and make him a better student in the long run. The main thing is to make sure that Mike and Julio are separated in whatever group work we might do.  Working in groups is also a great way to use literacy strategies, especially “think-pair-share”.  The worksheets were designed so that the students would read the chapter then answer the questions on the worksheets, which are based off the chapters.  I could tell that Mike was not the best reader, therefore, if they were in groups together, they could bounce ideas off each other.  Mike is a very troubling student, therefore, these actions must be taken seriously in order to put his educational career back on track.

Assessment of Impact:
When I first met Mike, I knew that he needed some help in school.  He had a hard time paying attention in class and a hard time motivating himself.  While we were in health class, I noticed that Mike would “goof” around with Julio, his best friend.  Therefore I had to make sure that they were separated every time I would come in and help Mike with his health worksheets.  I could tell once I separated the two, Mike would actually sit down and focus on his work.  Because I never had the one-on-one time with Mike, it was very difficult to find out why he was having such a hard time with his schoolwork.  I do not know if it is because of the lack of motivation, or because he just grew up with his family not putting an emphasis on school.  That is why I was focusing every session on having Mike focus only on the work.  I believed that if he could sit down and finish his worksheet and receive a good grade on them, he would start to realize that he can exceed in school.  In fact, that is exactly what happened.  As I stated in my journal, Mike completed all the worksheets in class and received great grades on them, and then he got a “B” on his unit test.  He told me he was extremely happy that he received that grade.  Because Mike told me this, I knew that he was trying very hard and he wants to excel in school.  He was just making excuses in the past and hopefully now that he sees he can get good grades, he will put forth the same effort in his other classes.  I found it amazing that when he put his best effort into his work he was a bright young man.  I am really proud of myself that I was able to help Mike find that he can get good grades in school and hopefully he will continue that great habit.  I wish there was more that I could have done, but the way Mr. Bullington’s class was set up, all they did were worksheets, so that is all I had to help Mike focus on.

Conclusion
Overall, I felt that all my visits to Guion Creek Middle School were a success.  I learned that it takes a lot to plan for student learning.  After watching Mike Davis throughout the visit, I was able to get a unique perspective that I have never seen before.  I was able to see teaching through the student’s eyes.  I was able to see what the students see and what the teachers do not.  I thought that a teacher can give a lesson and pretty much everyone will be able to succeed based off that lesson.  However, that is far from what really happens.  A teacher needs to get to know each student and their needs.  Especially at Guion Creek Middle School, where some students do not come from the greatest home life, it is important for teachers to establish that connection.  When I start to teach and have my own classroom, I will know that I have to get to know the students.  A perfect example of this is what I did with Mike and how I made a connection with him and because of that, he was able to succeed. In order to get students to put forth their best effort, especially in urban schools where test scores and motivation might not be up to par, it is important to find ways to connect with your students.  If a teacher cannot find ways to get students motivated in those schools, they should not be teaching.

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