[Case Study: Sunnyside Elementary School][Field Experience for Professor Sedigh ED-553 Fall 2015]

[by Daniel Palmer]

ABSTRACTMuch has been learned over the course of the semester in Educational Psychology,

especially during the time spent tutoring children at Sunnyside Elementary School. With the permission of the principal, Mrs. Yost, and under the coordination of the academic support director, Mrs. Festa, the tutoring was conducted in Mrs. Centopani’s first grade classroom during their reading block from 10:30 to about noon. During that time tutoring was centered on one child in particular who is not doing as well as his peers in most of his subjects. He has particular trouble retaining sight words, and correctly forming sentences.

Setting

The school is located at 418 River Road in Shelton, Connecticut. The building itself looked to be in good shape. It was all one floor, and the grade levels were separated by wing. The building was clean and organized, and navigating the hallways did not prove to be difficult, as the school’s layout and design seemed to be pretty straightforward. The classrooms were manageable, although at first the classroom had double the amount of students because of a shortage of first grade teachers. That issue was quickly resolved however, and the class was back to its normal size by the second tutoring session. There are at least twenty to thirty students per class. There were plenty of chairs and places to work; no student was left out due to lack of seating or desk space. Most of the classrooms had one SmartBoard accompanied by one or two white boards, and some classrooms had a few desktop computers. The dress code was professional. I did notice that there were only two other male teachers whom I came in contact with; the physical education teacher, and one of the academic support teachers. All of the equipment seemed to be in working order, such as the pencil sharpeners, rulers, calculators, headphones, etc. The classrooms were decorated with many educational and motivational posters, as well as lessons and various student artworks and class works. When the student and I would begin our tutoring session, we would go down the hall to the academic support center and work at a vacant desk. The academic support center was also well equipped with working utensils and tools. There were three main stations where the three academic support teachers were located, each outfitted with three to four chairs, a white board on an easel, handheld white boards, a plethora of writing utensils, and any other tool a student may need to aid in their education. Each student had their own chart in which they would get a sticker for completing their work. After so many stickers they could pick a prize from the prize chest.

The demographic at Sunnyside Elementary School was mainly Caucasian, but the classroom was very diverse. Many ethnicities made up Mrs. Centopani’s class, including African-American, Chinese, Indian, Hispanic, as well as Caucasian. The children were very polite and well spoken for their age, which definitely says something for the teachers of the school, and of course the parents of the children.

Mrs. Centopani managed her classroom very well. She made sure to positively reinforce desired behavior with praise, such as “I like how you’re raising your hand!” or “You’re really paying attention today!”, and undesired behavior with attention in the form of guidance, “Please pay attention” or “Are you doing your work?” Mrs. Centopani kept attention by moving around the room, making eye contact with every student, and if a student was not paying attention

she would sometimes just touch the student on the shoulder or on the work they were supposed to be doing. This way she does not have to stop what she is teaching and bring the attention of the class to the misbehaving student. Mrs. Centopani’s classroom was always accompanied by an aid, Mrs. Parelli, who was there to specifically help a few students, one of which was partially deaf. Technological accommodations for this student were made in the form of a microphone, which was attached to Mrs. Centopani’s lapel, and a hearing aid, which the student wore.

Subject

The child whom received the tutoring was a six-year-old male in first grade, and came from Hispanic decent. For reasons of retaining privacy, the child will be referred to as Nick. He had dark skin, very dark brown wavy hair, and dark brown eyes. He had an average body type for a healthy boy his age, and stood about 3 feet tall. He seemed to have a bunch of friends and gets along well with others. He has one identical twin brother, one older sister, and one younger sister. Nick stated that his twin brother and he decided not to go to the same school because they fight a lot, but he does miss his brother now that they go to separate schools. When he fights with his brother, it is not as physical as verbal, and that does not imply they do not like one another. This is just typical brotherly behavior. His parents are not divorced and seem to be doing well from the brief conversation we had regarding his family. He enjoys school, but does have some difficulty. Nick was a pretty quiet child, however he opened up after the first or second session. He loves all superheroes especially, and everyday he wore some kind of superhero apparel. Nick enjoys cars as well. Nick has a wild imagination and would always come up with hysterical stories randomly. He would often get out of his chair and start dancing, or start staring at other kids in the hallway, or read posters around the classroom. He already goes to the academic support room everyday for about twenty to thirty minutes, so he was used to one-on-one or small group attention. He had low sight word scores, as well as problems with sentence structure and spelling. His math scores are not great either, but sight words and sentence structure are what were worked on in the tutoring sessions. Nick is a very respectful, kind, and obedient child. He never complained when it was time to work, maybe for a brief moment in the middle of working, but it did not take much for him to continue working. He never had to be reprimanded by his teachers for not working or not listening to an adult in the classroom. He was always very kind to the rest of the children in his class, and showed respect to the adults. If something were asked of him, such as to get his book bin or materials of some sort, he would always complete the request with no questions or hindrances. Nick was a pleasure to work with.

Objective Behavior

Upon first working with this child, his teacher reported that he has possible

retention and/or motivational issues. Mrs. Centopani stated that they would go over sight words, and when they went over them again the next day he would not

remember them. After the first session working with the child, it was noted that

he seemed to be over thinking the sounds of the words. Nick would phonetically sound out the word and tap out the syllables, which does not always work with

trick words. For example, the word ‘write’ has a silent ‘w’, but the child would try

to sound out the word and verbalize the ‘w’, making it difficult for him to get right. Even though he had been reminded multiple times that the ‘w’ was silent, he

would still have trouble with the word. He also has consistently had trouble with

the words ‘where’, and ‘were’. He will pronounce ‘where’ like ‘we are’ or ‘we’re’,

and say ‘where’ instead of ‘were’. The teacher stated that sounding out the word

and tapping out the syllables seems to be his only method of solution. It was also observed that he would tap out and sound out a word and then say a completely

different word. When it came to making sentences, he had trouble with the multi-

step process. The child could spell pretty well when the word was isolated, but as soon as he had to use the word in a sentence he would spell the word phonetically, forget to put spaces in between words, forget to capitalize at the

beginning of the sentence, as well as put a period at the end of the sentence.The child is also under examination for possible Dyslexia. He will make

the common mistakes, such as writing an ‘F’ backwards or writing a ‘b’ instead of

‘d’, but he will also make less common mistakes. For example, he will reverse

letters in words such as ‘on’ to ‘no’. Although he does correct himself most of the

time, he consistently reverses those letters.Additionally, though not the main focus of this study, it has come to my

attention that the child may have eyesight issues. He has commented several

times that he cannot read words and sentences written in small font. However, he has also used this as an excuse to not do work, so it is not positive if the issue

exists. Further examination of this issue is recommended.

Interpretation

At first after hearing that the child may have possible retention and/or motivational issues, it was thought that Nick might have some kind of memory or

learning deficit. More specifically, he could have trouble committing short-term

memories to long-term memories. However, at the end of the fourth day working with him, it was deduced that he does not have an issue with transitioning short-

term memories to long-term memories, nor is it an issue of intelligence. It is

believed the child has untreated Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I am keen to the symptoms of this disorder, as I have studied the disorder during my undergraduate studies as a psychology major, and I know first hand the symptoms since I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and my brother has

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). If he does have Attention Deficit Disorder, it is believed that he does possess the hyperactivity aspect of the

disorder. This conclusion has been decided upon based on of some of the things

the child has reported during a couple sessions. On several occasions the child would wiggle or squirm uncontrollably and comment on how his muscles tickled

almost. At first it was thought that it could be a tick, which could indicate Tourette’s Syndrome, but after talking to his teacher about it she explained that

he does not do that in class so it was determined the issue was not Tourette’s. Instead it is believed that his muscles get restless sometimes, which could be an

indicator for the hyperactivity aspect of ADHD. There are many factors that play

into a child’s attention span, especially if this particular disorder is involved. External variables can include the amount of sleep the child gets, if the child is on any other medications, the kinds of pressure placed on the child by his parents

and peers, and the quality of nutrition the child receives. While a comment cannot be made regarding the other variables just listed, during the time spent with the child it was noted that Nick always had a well-balanced lunch packed for him everyday, which is absolutely one of the most integral aspects of building

attentive stamina. After examining the child with possibly having ADHD, it seemed as though the child knows the words and sounds, he may just need

more practice and more repetition than the other children. This may be due to his

reduced attention span in regards to his possible ADHD. Often times the child will be distracted or seemingly “not present”, thinking about other things rather

than the work set out in front of him. He is a relatively quiet child, which leads me

to believe his distraction is internal, meaning he has a wild imagination and often

has other things on his mind. This could explain why he seemingly has retention

issues. Nick could be going through the motions of reading the sight words but is

not committing them to memory since he is thinking about something else. This can also explain why he would tap out and sound out a word and then say a

completely different word. Sometimes people with ADHD will get wound up if

worked too hard and they will shut down. So instead of trying to work through the

problem to get the solution, he will just spurt out a word to get the work over with.

Theme

The theme for Nick would definitely be motivation. Motivation is defined as the reason or reasons someone has for acting or behaving in a particular way;

the general desire or willingness someone has to do something. If he is motivated to work, then he will work hard and produce work to the best of his

ability. However if he is unmotivated to work, then it is very difficult to get him to

do anything. Creating substantial and long-lasting motivation is a difficult

obstacle to overcome, especially for a young child. If a child does not want to do something, they do not yet have any moral, ethical, or insightful motivating

operation that will make them keep working. Thankfully, however, motivation can

be bought. What is meant by that is a child can be bribed to work. So finding the

correct reinforcer and incentive that will sustain the child’s motivation is integral. What is correct, in terms of a reinforcer and incentive, is completely dependent

on the child. One child may simply require praise, another child may find a trip to the zoo a suitable reward, or, in the case of Nick, the child may find a toy an

appropriate reward for his work. One must know the child being taught in order to

come to a fitting reinforcer and incentive.

Theory and Method

After observing the child for a few days, it was decided the best way to increase his motivation was to create a game using a token economy, and

reinforce the desired behavior using Operant Conditioning. Operant Conditioning

was developed by B.F. Skinner in 1938, and is categorized as a Behavioral

Learning theory. With a Behavioral Learning Theory, learning occurs through

observable behavior. More specifically, “Operant conditioning can be described as a process that attempts to modify behavior through the use of positive and

negative reinforcement” (http://www.learning-theories.com). In this case, the positive reinforcer is the star awarded to the child for completing a desired task, the incentive is the prize given to the child for receiving ten stars, and no

negative reinforcement was used. “Through operant conditioning, an individual

makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence.” The way the token economy was utilized was by creating a game, so that way the child could easily associate remembering sight words, correct spelling and

correctly forming sentences with praise and prizes. For every completed task he would get a star, as well as praise in the form of “good job!” or “well done!” The tasks that were laid out were correctly reading an entire line of sight words (kindergarten and first grade sight words), reading an entire book, capitalizing the first letter at the beginning of the sentence, and putting a period at the end of a

sentence. For every ten stars he earned he would receive the chosen incentive,

which was either a toy racecar or a super hero keychain. Exceptions and “deals”

were struck throughout the game however. There were two sheets of sight

words, kindergarten sight words, and first grade sight words. Reading one line of first grade sight words would earn him one star, but reading one line of kindergarten sight words would earn him only half a star since he should know

those already and they are easier. Other deals came when he started being

timed. A deal was struck that if he could read an entire kindergarten sight words

sheet in a certain amount of time (usually 1.5 minutes), he would get three stars. He would also earn three stars for reading the entire first grade sight words sheet

a certain amount of time (usually around 2.5 minutes).

Observations of Method

The first day the game was implemented it worked very well. The child

enjoyed the idea of being rewarded for work. Although his attention was still hard

to keep, when given the incentive he will work. After playing the game a few times, his sight word retention was reassessed and a dramatic increase was

noted. At the beginning of the year he received an eight out of ninety-two, then

after a reassessment he received a twenty-one out of ninety-two. After almost tripling his baseline score in a few weeks, he had a second reassessment at the

beginning of November and received a sixty-five out of ninety-two. Nick can now read all the first grade sight words in a minute or less, as opposed to the three

and a half minutes it took when he first started being timed. A slight decrease in the number of times he needed to tap out and sound out a word was noticed, so

that does show improvement in his retention. His sentence structure still suffers,

but to be fair, we worked on sight words much more than sentence structure . When we did work on sentence structure, he would often remember to capitalize

at the beginning of the sentence, as well as proper nouns, mostly names . He would also often times remember to put a period at the end of a sentence, and

even when he did not all it took was a hint for him to remember. Overall, definite

improvement in the child’s work has been observed.Some behaviors and decisions the child makes leads me to believe he

wants to challenge himself and likes to work hard in the right context. However

other behaviors and decisions he makes contradict this notion. When I asked him to pick out a book he would like to read to me, he picked a book that was

several levels more advanced than what he is used to. Although he did not get far into the book, the fact he was confident enough to pick that book and attempt

it says something about his character and his untapped abilities. On the other hand, if he did not get the whole sight words sheet the first time when I was timing him he would get discouraged, comment how he was bored, and

discontinue working hard. It was only after I reminded him of the end goal would

he continue working. This discouragement is characteristic of ADHD. As previously stated, when a person with the disorder gets overworked or too wound

up mentally, they will shut down. It is just odd to me, because our sessions were

only twenty to thirty minutes long and relatively early in the day, so the child

should not feel overworked by then. But then again, he is still only a young child.

Conclusion

I have learned much from my field experience tutoring at Sunnyside

Elementary School. I learned about classroom management, as well as various

methods of teaching students with certain issues. I believe that the child I tutored

is in fact quite intelligent and picks up on cues quickly. If that intellect and quick learning was put towards retention of sight words as well as sentence structure, I

believe his scores would increase dramatically. The problem however does not lie within his ability to retain the information, it lies within his motivation to stay on

task. He can pay attention when he is motivated to, but if the motivation

languishes so does his attention. Other things are on the child’s mind that steals his attention away, and it is impossible to know for sure what those distracting

thoughts may be. The only way to keep the distractive thoughts at bay is to keep

him motivated to learn. If a powerful incentive were found or formed, not just a toy racecar or keychain, his motivation would be sustained, as would his

attention. That is not to say that the racecar and keychain incentives were pointless, because they proved that given the right motivating factors he will

work. If he were conditioned to find completing his work of intrinsic value, if he

found pride in doing a good job, an extrinsic incentive would be unnecessary. That intrinsic incentive is the kind of powerful incentive needed. However it may take a few more years of maturation to correlate that kind of intrinsic value to

doing a good job on his work. But now would be the time to begin that

conditioning. Possibly giving prizes for good grades on his report card, or for reading a book every week, would be a good place to start to show him how to

work towards a goal. The possibility of the child having untreated Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) definitely would have an effect on the child’s motivation, reduced attention span, retention of the curriculum, distractive

thoughts, and inability to consistently work hard in one sitting. I am not a doctor, so I cannot say for certain the child is suffering from any disorder, however with my extensive knowledge on the subject, I can say that his symptoms are

consistent with the symptoms of this particular disorder. Further examination by

a professional medical doctor or psychiatrist is recommended.Domain 2.4, fostering appropriate standards of behavior that support a

productive learning environment for all students, pertains to this case study since

Nick’s distraction caused the learning environment to be unproductive. Now that he is motivated to learn, the learning environment is much more productive. Domain 3.4, selecting appropriate assessment strategies to monitor ongoing student progress, was fulfilled through timing the student on his sight words, as well as keeping track of how many sight words he knew immediately. Domain 3.7, designing or selecting academic and/or behavioral interventions through differentiated, supplemental, specialized instruction for students who do not respond to primary instruction, was fulfilled through the use of the operant conditioning token economy I designed for Nick. Domain 4.7, provide meaningful, appropriate and specific feedback to students during instruction to improve their performance, was fulfilled every time I went over the student’s work with him.

Works CitedOperant Conditioning (Skinner) | Learning Theories. (2015). Retrieved from

http://www.learning-theories.com/operant-conditioning-skinner.htmlConnecticut State Department of Education. (2010). 2010 Common Core of

Teaching: Foundational Skills, 4-10.