Anna Williamson

Case Study Paper

I am currently fulfilling my practicum requirement in a Kindergarten classroom at

Jefferson Elementary School. The classroom I was placed in has a total of 23 students at all
different levels of education as well as behavioral and maturity levels. The student I picked to do
my case study on is a young 5-year-old boy named Iker. He is from Hispanic descent and is an
ELL student meaning he speaks little to no English. His English is so poor because his family
solely speaks Spanish in the household and therefore he gets little to no English language
exposure. I selected Iker to do my case study on because he is different from me in all ways
possible, he is Hispanic, he is a male, he speaks little to no English, and he is from a low class
financial state.

As for the interviewing and observing stages that took place, in one phrase, it was short
and sweet. My teacher typically has me pull kids out in the hallway during class to do small math
assessments and this is when I conducted my interview with Iker. I pulled him out of class and
into the hallway to do a simple counting assessment my teacher asked me to do. I had him do the
math assessment and then told him I was doing something for my Math class and had a few
simple questions to ask him if he was okay with me doing so. I asked him about his family, how
he enjoyed math, what he thought about going to school etc. With Iker being an ELL student and
speaking a small amount of English I didn’t get very detailed responses to my questions,
therefore why I said the interview was short and sweet. The duration of the interview was only a
few short minutes out in the hallway and then I let him go so that he didn’t feel like I was grilling
him or keeping him out of the classroom for too long. As for his family, I have never met them
or seen them in person. Iker takes the bus home every day after school and therefore I’ve never
seen his family and their dynamic, although I will be sitting in on parent-teacher conferences in
the next couple of weeks and am hopeful I can meet them then.

The interview portion of this case study I conducted out in the hallway during class time,
I am lucky although because I get to do playground duty every Wednesday afternoon for 15
minutes while I am at the school and therefore get to observe him. When I observe Iker on the
playground he tends to follow others around and plays football with the other boys in the
Kindergarten classrooms. He never seems to initiate games or take charge and I believe this is
again due to the language barrier. Iker always comes in after recess sweating hard as he plays
and runs his heart out during recess. When I’ve had the chance to observe him in the classroom
setting, he is extremely attentive and quiet when he needs to be. He listens to directions and
follows them like a perfect student would, although I sometimes wonder if this is because he
doesn’t know enough English or the culture to act out and do anything he shouldn’t be.

I mentioned the questions I asked Iker above when I interviewed him but now I’m going
to discuss the responses I got from the interview questions. When I asked Iker about his family
he seemed very puzzled and confused on how to answer that question, I’m not sure if he
understood what siblings were or anything of that nature but I do know he has siblings and he
lives with his mother and father. When asking him if he enjoyed math his immediate answer was
No, I then asked him why he didn’t enjoy math and his response was along the lines that he
didn’t understand it and he isn’t very strong at counting. As for the last question about his
thoughts on school he didn’t have a strong response to either liking or disliking it. It seems to be
and by his response that he does enjoy school for the social aspect and the friends he has but I
believe school is really challenging for him as most of the time it is hard for him to follow
English. These were the simple and short questions I asked Iker and I feel like they were enough
for me to get to know his soft and sweet personality. If I were to ask any other questions it would
be to his parents because I am interested in knowing if he is as well behaved at school as he is at
home. I mentioned the observation aspect of the case study above but Iker is a follower and
typically just wants to play with his friends but understands when it’s time to be quiet and learn.

The two problems I gave Iker to solve were two dot talks, as you suggested, because with
a student in Kindergarten I don’t believe they would be able to solve anything more advanced.
The one problem I found extremely interesting was my first dot talk, I arranged 6 block cubes on
the table out in the hallway and asked Iker to tell me how many there were without simply
counting them. I choose this dot talk and this number of cubes because we did something similar
in our class and I was interested in seeing how a young student’s brain would begin to think
about figuring out the answer without counting. I arranged the cubes like how we did in our class
in the almost stair like pattern with 3 blocks on the base, then 2, then 1. When I asked Iker to tell
me how many there were without just counting them, he began to just count them. He began
counting each block by putting his finger on each and counting to 6. I let him do this so that he
could understand the dot talk and then I again asked him to solve the sum without just counting,
but this seemed to be too advanced for him. This is what I found extremely interesting was that
even after I told him how the activity worked two times over it was too much for him to
understand so instead he just counted them. I am wondering if this is because he isn’t very
advanced with math and counting and so he didn’t feel confident doing it any other way.

When asked to analyze Iker’s thinking and understanding I learned that for him thinking
about math in an abstract way without specifically counting is something that is challenging for
him. Especially at such a young age and to add on that he isn’t a strong English speaker, having
to then think about numbers and counting in an abstract way and to use patterns may be
something he isn’t comfortable with and that is the main thing I learned from this dot talk. He
couldn’t use many strategies other than just simply counting the blocks to find the sum of the
blocks and watching him think and try to understand it in a different way like I asked of him was
something he simply isn’t capable of at this age. I am aware and know that Iker was trying his
best to understand my directions when I asked him to solve it without simply counting, he tried
his best to fully understand what that means and apply his knowledge but he wasn’t able too at
this point in his education. Iker also didn’t ask any questions about what I asked of him or if I
had any other way of explaining it to him so I believe he is very timid and was not willing to ask
questions on how to solve this dot talk. When connecting Iker and his dot talk results to our
classroom I could draw many conclusions. We have discussed that often, number talks will not
go as you expected or students may be left confused, and this is exactly the result of mine. We
have discussed in the class the fact that students may need a different set of directions to
understand what is being asked of them and after that they still may be confused. All of this is
true with my dot talk and the results I got or lack thereof.

To make a teaching plan or connection to the struggle Iker had with this dot talk there are
many things I would do during his class time to help him improve in math. The main issue I
believe he had with the dot talk and the instructions asked of him were that he hasn’t been
exposed to using patterns and using math strategies other than simply just counting. Most of
Kindergarten math is just counting numbers 1-20 and memorizing them in order so they have
knowledge and practice with anything that is different from this. The two instructional paths I
would have for Iker would be doing more abstract and pattern based activities in the classroom.
This could look like series of dot talks on a worksheet and asking him to see how many dots
there are without counting them. This could also look like having a pattern of shapes on the page
and asking him to figure out what shape would come next in the sequence. Kindergarteners are
learning shapes and counting so these two activities would build off what they already have
knowledge of. With these instructional plans, I would hope my students, like Iker, to have a
better understanding of patterns and more abstract thinking than just counting.

When reflecting on myself and the teaching instruction I had throughout this case study I
learned more than I ever thought possible from one student. I was extremely attentive to Iker
during the interview and dot talk to ensure he felt comfortable with me and that he was being
heard. I believe I expressed his ideas and reactions well in this paper with the hopes that anyone
reading this can learn from my experience with Iker and hopefully brainstorm ideas to help our
students think more effectively. As for the comments, during my time with Iker, I made sure they
were always positive and uplifting so that even if he didn’t get the correct answer, he still felt
comfortable and didn’t become discouraged. The questions you told us to use during the “Get to
know” part of this case study was extremely helpful in getting to know the student I was working
with. I now feel like I understand the way his brain works much better and how he functions
inside and outside of the classroom. This case study helped me in numerous ways to understand
how young students think not only when it comes to math but in general with school and daily
routines. I am more aware of how to help students struggling in math and understanding why
they may be stuck and frustrated.

In Anna’s Case Study paper, she had some writing mechanics issues, but for the most part,
she communicated her experience with Iker clearly in ways that addressed all the
requirements for the paper and demonstrated her thoughtful response to talking with a student
with a language, cultural, and socioeconomic background very different from her own. I rank
the content of her paper as Exceptional and her writing mechanics as Acceptable.

Sincerely,

Janet Hart Frost, Ph.D.

Clinical Associate Professor, Mathematics Education
Department of Teaching & Learning
WSU Spokane College of Education SCRS 221
P.O. Box 1495
Spokane WA 99210-1495
frost@wsu.edu, 509-358-7595