Student Case

Study
EDI 310

Emily E. Glaser
November 13th 2018
 Glaser 1

The students I chose to do my case study on are two sixth graders at River City Scholars

Charter Academy in Grand Rapids, MI. Both of these students are in special education but are in

the general education setting for a majority of their day. I chose these two students because I

have two very different relationships with them. These students are able to provide the same

level of work, so I thought it was best to compare them knowing that they are expected to give

the same work.

My first student is a 12-year-old girl whose name is Tamia, who is diagnosed with a

speech and language disability. She lives on the south east side of Grand Rapids with both of her

parents and her two siblings, she is the middle child. Tamia loves to cheer, and does it for a local

competition team, she also just made the River City Scholars “A” cheer team but had to turn it

down because it conflicts with her other travel team. She is pulled out from her classroom once a

week for speech, and three times a week for resource room support in reading fluency. She also

is in my intervention group every day that meets for 50 minutes where we work on reading and

writing. She does not need this level of intervention, but they did not have anywhere else to put

her so she was lumped into this group. Tamia does really well in the general education setting,

she loves to do math and she does really well in that subject, she tends to help me relearn 6th

grade math all over again. Tamia is a welcoming young lady who is always willing to go above

and beyond what is expected of her. She is a very dedicated student, always wants to answer the

questions provided by myself or my CT and she has never had behavior issues.

My other student is a 12-year-old young man whose name is Mekhi, he is classified under

Other Health Impairments for ADHD. He is an only child living with both of his parents who are

very dedicated to his education and keeping Mekhi true to himself. Mekhi is really into video

games, that is the only thing he talks about and what he does when he is not in school. He is very
 Glaser 2

into social status and making sure that he is liked, so he has gotten into some trouble this year.

Due to this disability, he struggles in Math and English, but he struggles most with paying

attention in class. Mekhi gets pulled out for math twice a week, and English twice a week. Mekhi

is also in my intervention group that meets for 50 minutes a day. My relationship with Mekhi is

much different from Tamia’s, he struggles with listening to directions, does not respect me, and

does not give us work that we know he can do. I get on Mekhi and tend to sit next to him to

make sure he is paying attention, and that tends to get him frustrated with me. I decided from the

beginning of the year I was not going to let him just sit in the room and not participate, he is

there to learn, and I am determined to help him succeed.

The setting in which I chose to do my study is an intervention period that has two males

and four females, the students are in 6th and 7th grade. Three of the students are classified with a

Cognitive Impairment, two of them have Speech and Language Impairment, and the last one is

classified with Other Health Impairments (ADHD). The classroom we are in is split between the

K-4 Resource Room teacher and the 5-8 Resource Room teacher. On our side of the room we

have a book shelf of games, books, and grade level appropriate activities. We also have five

chrome books for the students to use, and a projector and white board for us to do our lessons on.

The students sit at two bean shaped tables that are pushed together in front of the white board.

The students are expected to stay seated, participate in classroom discussion with peers and the

teachers, and do their independent work quietly. The classroom environment is positive,

welcoming, and an easy place to be able to express yourself and share your feelings. My students

always like to share their good news, and some days bad, at the beginning of each day. We have

found that sharing this news about our lives has made this period feel like a family, and not just

another class throughout their day. My CT and I both agree that we expect our students to give
 Glaser 3

us their best effort, each student gives us different levels of work, but as long as it is their best,

we are happy with the progress they are making.

After looking back at my observations, it is obvious to me that Mekhi has attention

deficits. After speaking with my teacher and looking over Mekhi’s folder I realized that there

was a drop in Mekhi’s test scores, overall grades, and the ability to focus his attention on his

classwork. Last year his mother took him off of his meds because he was “no longer like

himself”. My teacher said she experienced first-hand watching Mekhi excel in the classroom to

falling below average due to his meds no longer being present. It is frustrating knowing that

when Mekhi is on his meds, he is bridging the gap between grade level and his current academic

performance. But when his is off of his meds, he is making that gap bigger because he is unable

to focus and pay attention in class.

When my CT and I realized that the lack of attention was a large factor in Mekhi’s grades

we tried to implement various strategies in order for him to be more successful in our classroom.

We no longer allowed him to sit near the board, we would have him sit near either myself or my

CT. We also make sure that he has either a fidget pencil or putty to play with during the lesson or

independent work. I have found that sitting next to him is beneficial because I am able to ask him

if he is paying attention, give me some things he is learning, ask him if he needs help, and make

sure he is not getting up from his seat. If my CT or I are not constantly checking in, we see

Mekhi not focusing, doing work, and constantly distracted.

The first intervention I decided to use was a wiggle seat, Mekhi was given an assigned

seat that had a wiggle attachment to it, so he was able to move around without getting out of his

seat. I also implemented sitting him next to my CT or I so we could monitor his work and keep

him on task (William & Mary). The next intervention I researched was to give directions one at a
 Glaser 4

time. The William and Mary article discussed the importance of giving simple two step

directions to children with ADHD to keep them on task, focused, and not give them anything to

struggle over. I found that this worked fantastically, once giving one step instructions to Mekhi

he was willing, and able to listen, engage and work at the same level of his peers. These

instructions would be short and simple such as, ‘Mekhi can you grab a pencil’, ‘okay now Mekhi

can you write your name, date, and hour on the paper’. Then I would slowly ask him to rewrite

the question I had just given to him. Once he did that, I would ask him to give me evidence on

his opinion and support it. Each time he was done with a sentence I would give him the next

thing to do. This kept him on task, giving quality sentences, and he was motivated to keep going

since he was no longer frustrated due to the lack of ability to remember what to do.

The last intervention I put into place was always allowing Mekhi to play with something

in his hands. The LD OnLine suggested giving students fidget toys to play with, I tried to switch

up what we gave him, so he would not become used to the tool quickly. One fidget he would use

is ball that were placed on the bottom of his pencil. He could spin these around without having

them fly off and distract the other students. Another fidget we would give him is putty, he loved

to play with it, squish it, mold it, and it kept his hands constantly moving. The last thing that he

likes to play with is your typical fidget cube that you can push, pull, slide different objects on the

different sides of the cube. All of these were able to be done without distracting the students, and

we saw improvement in Mekhi’s ability to focus once these were implemented.

Doing this case study, I have found things that work for Mekhi and help him able to

focus. I enjoyed being able to focus in on him and compare him to his other same aged peers and

see how my interventions affected him in a positive way. I think that this was beneficial because
 Glaser 5

I will be able to use some of these same strategies in my future classroom and help students who

have the same attention deficit disorder that Mekhi does.

 Glaser 6

References

Training & Technical Assistance Center. (2017). Classroom interventions for attention deficit/

hyperactivity disorder considerations packet. 2-11.

“Helping the Student with ADHD in the Classroom: Strategies for Teachers.” College or

Training Programs: How to Decide, LD OnLine, www.ldonline.org/article/5911/.