Wednesday, April 1, 2009
I ain't doin that
What we have here is a case study. Does Apryl remind you in some ways of students you know? To me the most interesting part of a cases study are the hypotheses. When you really look closely at a student's words and actions, it is tempting to explain them in simplistic ways - "she's lazy" or "he doesn't care about school." But it is rarely that simple. How does this teacher develop a deeper and more complex hypothesis? Have you found yourself conducting case studies of a sort in your head? What did you learn from this case study that might help you improve your own case studies?
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A teacher must really get to know their student on a deeper level and understand them in order to make an intelligent hypothesis about why they are not doing well. I have done a case study in my head about two students in particular, one at Georgia College Early College and one at John Milledge Academy.
ReplyDeleteAfter working with the first student, I realized that there were underlying issues about why she did not want to participate in class and she would not look a man in the eye. This made me think that she was possibly abused by a man. It took little steps to get to know her as a person, but she did not open up easily. I had to provide a level of comfort with her that enabled her to talk to me.
The second student, I'm still working with. I do not understand why he has so much trouble in school and such a lack of motivation. Most teachers tried numerous attempts to help him, but they typically say he's a lost cause. I don't believe that. I know he can succeed because I have seen him do it in the past. I spoke to him and he does not know why he doesn't answer questions. He does the work the rest of the class does, but he does not revisit the material. I'm just going to have to keep trying over the next couple of weeks that I'm there to figure him out.
There are so many Apryls in the world, and there are even more Mr. Roths! This case study made me a little mad, because I can image how incredibly common it is. Everyone has had a teacher (probably even a foreign language teacher) that was either overwhelmed or just didn't care enough to give the students any real teaching. We watched Finding Nemo in my Spanish class. It was understood that it was a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteAs Christine has pointed out -and my own experiences have taught me -what these 'Apryls' are going through is not limited to poor urban schools. I've seen it happen at my former high school and 5 years later it I still see it happening at GMC. The main difference is that the middle and upper class students have a more complex support system to catch them when a teacher fails to do his or her job -something Apryl probably doesn't have.
The author of this did a very good job of differentiating between what she wanted to be the problem and what the actual problem was. The main difference between a case study and the simple observation of a student is the employment of the scientific method to determine the results instead of the observer. Hopefully in my case studies in the future I will be able to be this objective.
I really liked how this author gathered research. It's never as simple as "she doesn't care" or "she's lazy". Her hypothesis' made since because they were connected to her research.
ReplyDeleteI've seen so many students like Apryl and like Lee said, so many more teacher's like Mr. Roth. Mr Roth made me very made and when I see teacher's like that in the classroom, it makes me even more made that the school's administration lets it happen. I know that they can't be in the class room all the time and I also understand that when they are in the classroom, the teacher being evaluated is at the top of their game. I think all teachers should be evaluated by the students. It would help the teachers care more and also give the teachers feedback on how affective their teaching is. It will also help the administrators see what's going on when they're not in the classes.
The entire time I was reading this chapter I kept thinking about a girl I teach in my second block class. Apryl reminds me so much of my student and even gave me insights as to why she was reacting a certain way in class. Often times teachers, like Mr.Roth, just simply shrug off students behaviors as a generalization that they "don't care" and are "lazy" when really the issues that student is trying to deal with go much deeper than not liking the class.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading the "Meet Apryl and her..." sections. I truly believe that if teachers put forth effort to get to know their students, understand where they are coming from, and EXPLAIN why it is you have certain rules in the classroom they will have a much higher respect for you and be more compliant in the classroom.
I think that as teachers, we are teaching a subject that should spark some kind of passion in us. All we really want for our students is for them to, yes learn the basics, but also to understand where we are coming from, why people enjoy it, and how it's beneficial in a student's life. If we want a student to learn to be tolerable to our subject then we need to practice being tolerable to them. Talk to them and find out whats going on. Why the class isn't working for them so that you can make adjustments. Doing that teaches them more then just the subject being taught!! All the Apryl's in the world need to know that other people believe in their worth. It will help them to live up to their own expectations.
ReplyDeleteThis story is such a reality. I see Apryl in so many of my students. It was hard to read about some of Mr. Roth's methods and beliefs. It makes me sick that this is so often the case. This study made me more aware of some of my thoughts about students motivations or lack there of. Nothing is ever so cut and dry as to just say that they are lazy or uninterested. I hope that I never stop looking into students behaviors. It has unfortunately been my experience during student teaching to be witness to remarks similar to Mr. Roth's by my host teacher. That sentiment makes it really hard to stay positive and to stay in it for the students. Hopefully I won't become so detached, as so many teachers have, from the real needs of my students.
ReplyDeleteI think that we have all seen the "Apryl's" in our teaching so far. Like Claire, I have also seen my fair share of "Mr. Roth's". These teachers can be very dis-heartning, but they are out there. It is funny, I catch myself wondering about why certain students behave the way they do. Although I have not conducted an actual case study on any of my students, I hope that I will be able to in the future. If we are not interested in why students act out and are not constantly trying to fix those problems, then we are in the wrong profession. Our profession is not just about teaching a subject, but learning about those who we teach.
ReplyDeleteApryl definitely reminded me of many of the students that I have seen in my classroom. Many teachers label these students as lazy and I have seen a few teachers who label their students without trying to see the true problem. Many of the students that I have seen like Apryl, pride is very big for them. I do not like to get made fun of especially if front of peers. These students take pride in their personal image and what others think. For us to reach these students I think we need to be able to understand why they think the way they do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have not been able to conduct a case like this one but I am truly interested in doing some in the future.
I agree with Jenn in her statement about being prideful! I would have to say that is one of the biggest concerns for most of my students at Baldwin. At times their pride gets the best of them, but there are several cases where teachers will push students like Apryl into acting "lazy" because of their actions/statements. I can't imagine being in a class where a teacher constantly thought the worst of me and put me down to my face...or tried to be sly about it and say it in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteIt truly makes me wonder why Mr. Roth is the way that he is with Apryl. Why isn't he that way with other students? It is very unfortunate that we have observed teachers like this in our classes.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Jenn as well. Pride is huge factor in the way these students present themselves. It tends to come off as "I don't care," but I think some of the students really do care. It hurts their feelings and they begin to slip away. Erin makes a good point, most of the cases are a result of the teachers' actions and more importantly their words. I had a teacher slam his hands on my desk and yell "are you illiterate?" It was because I was reading quickly and read the word schism incorrectly. I stopped trying in that class as a result. It still sticks with me today when I think about history, and I think that's why I dislike the subject now. *Sorry social studies people!*
I thought the hypotheses that the author created came more from her observations of the teacher and Apryl's reacctions to the teacher, rather than just Apyrl's behavior alone. The fact that the author focused on a possible cause/effect situation made the study more valid because it is clear that Apryl's behavior wasn't created in a vaccuum, that there were reasons for her actions, especially in Spanish class! I thought the author did a good job piecing together a multitude of reasons that influence how Apryl behaves, things from the past and present, situations inside and outside of school, and people at school and at home. The only thing I would have added is some information from the guidance counselor about his/her theories about Apryl's behavior. It sounds as if she is sent to her counselor regularly, despite each counselor being responsible for 500 students, so I would be curious to hear his/her opinion about Apryl's behavior.
ReplyDeleteReading these blog posts have reminded me that everyone is guilty of this every now and again, and I am no different. What Apryl did made me think of my own students.
ReplyDeleteI think that my shining example of this came from my time at Early College when I had a student that was, as well as I could tell, completely lazy. This student never did his homework, he frequently slept in class, and seemed very separated from reality in general. However, he was doing surprisingly well in the class. He frequently made A's on all of the quizzes, he knew most of the answers that I or the other teachers asked him, and despite sleeping a lot of the time, he seemed to like to volunteer to do things that I asked of him. I could have just remained there, and just assumed that he was a lazy student, and ridden it off as the normal middle grades mentality of doing as little school as possible and just using the school as a social circle, but I investigated his case. I came to find out that when he went home he was alone with his grandmother, whom he had to take care of, and was forced to do a lot at home, and usually didn't have time to do his homework, and, for that matter, his homework. I could have never known what was happening in his home life, and just continued to think that he was a lazy student, but looking into it, I was able to find out why he put off that vibe, and I was able to work with him, and he seemed like a better student for it.
^ Oh, this is Simon if you can't tell by the name. :-P
ReplyDeleteI have never conducted my own case study, formally. I have done investigation work about students backgrounds to see what the correlations are between their actions and their worlds. I liked what Christy said about the validity of this study. Everything that I have looked into in the past was missing that part of the case work. I gained a lot of insight into writing or working a case study by reading these last few chapters of our text. I hope to bring the context that the authors use in their studies to make my studies more complete and more useful.
ReplyDeleteApryl’s story kind of reminds me of one situation I have with a girl in my student teaching. There is this one girl in my fourth period class who I struggle with daily. She refuses to do her work, and could care less about what her grade is in an “art” class. She makes me so mad, and some days I just give up trying to get her to be responsive to what is going on in class. I want to blame it all on her and just accept the fact that she has an attitude, is spoiled, and sort of scary. But today, I heard from another teacher how well she does in her class and how she never has a problem with her. She also said that she has noticed she is starved for attention. We got to talking about the girls home situation and about how she probably does not get very much attention from her parents. It made me more sympathetic for the way that she acts in my class (though it still isn’t an excuse for blatantly not doing any work for days in a row).
ReplyDeleteI constantly find myself trying to figure out why kids act the way that they do (especially that one student). I find that my host teacher is a great resource in figuring about the kids’ backgrounds. I know that my hypothesis for why this one student acts the way that she does has changes a lot through out my student teaching. I loved reading the case study in the book and seeing how to look at a situation to figure out what the root cause is.
Conducting these studies on students within in our classroom, seems like such a wonderful idea. But the teacher who did this was a student teacher, and he had the time and opportunities to do this. When we have our own classroom, what is a way that we can conduct a study like this to figure out our students when we will not have the time and opportunity to follow them around.
ReplyDeleteI think I am constantly doing my own "case studies" about certain students, in my head at least. I am very interested in why they behave they way they do, even kids who don't have behavior problems because I want to know what the differences are between a "problem" student and a "model" student. It's interesting because I've found that my idea of a "model" student has definitely changed since I started the M.A.T. program.
ReplyDeleteI used to think that kids should behave "just because they were supposed to", but I see that most often, student behavior is almost always directly related to the teacher's behavior. Students either mimic what they see or challenge what they see, which makes teaching a lot more complicated. Bascially, most of Apryl's problems stem from her fear of losing face, so she is already very insecure because she is waiting for someone to make fun of her so she can beat them up. Her Spanish teacher makes her insecurity worse because his classroom is unstructured and uninteresting. He is also inconsistent with his discipline, which creates a lot of instability in the classroom because anyone could get in trouble at any time or not, depending on how the teacher feels at that moment. Two insecurities don't make for a pleasant classroom experience. It is so unfortunate that it is easier to label a student negatively (or positively) without even having a real conversation with him/her. Because if all the people involved in Mr. Roth/Apryl's situation sat down and honestly discussed how things were going, the key word being honestly, I think things could improve. But, I doubt that was the case with Apryl or many other students like her.
I like what Christy had to say about the environment of your classroom in relation to how the kids act. I used to also think that kids should just behave because that is what they are supposed to do. No matter what a kid is coming into the classroom with, you can affect how they act by how you make them feel. How do you interact with your students? Do they feel safe? Important? All of these things will affect their participation and whether they listen to you or not.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to know about little Apryl's grades in her other classes. In the world of Spanish I, Mr. Roth may have indeed been the problem.
ReplyDeleteMy two classes of ninth grade repeaters are chock full of kids like this. Some will just sit there, no matter how much I expect them to do their stuff, and then when I give some pushing, they entrench themselves even further. The nature of Jones Co. schools (with its 9th Academy) waves these students' pasts at them whenever they walk into their 9th grade classes at the high school. It's a room of failure, and that can only get them down even more. What's frustrating is, though, that these kids entrench themselves against work, no matter how interesting or success-filled a lesson may be.
Katey's story above reminds me of one of my juniors who basically asks his teachers to care more about his own grade than he does. This boy told me (and basically the rest of the room) on a couple of occasions before a "did-you-read-it" quiz that he did not read the story I assigned. I've made it a point to push this boy a little bit because I know he can do it; despite his consistently low grades in my class, he is fairly good in his sciences. Thus, in response to Christine's wonderings above, Mr. Roth may well believe that Apryl can swing it in his class and is ignorant of how to act out his expectations. His frustrations have, in short, boiled over.
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