6.

4 Case Study
My Learning Problems Won’t Quit

By Cheryl Carlson
 Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher
• Know your students’ strengths and weaknesses
• Knowing how your students learn best can help you to create opportunities for these students to learn and present their
knowledge.

• I feel that Marcy Wong should have had a better idea about Daniel’s prior learning. She didn’t ask his parents what he meant
when he said, “My learning problem’s just won’t quit.” The parents also said that the previous school could deal with his
disability, so she should have checked with Daniel’s teacher at the other school.

• Use digital materials when possible

• These materials can easily be enhanced (i.e. enlarged font, easily look up definitions, etc.). Keep in mind
some students will learn better with hard copy

• If he had a learning disability in reading, it could have given Daniel another option for being a successful
student.
Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher Con’t…
• Set and follow classroom routines
• Creating classroom routines can help students feel comfortable and safe. Unfortunately, when Daniel came into the classroom, she
allowed him to break the rules by eating whenever he wanted while others weren’t aloud to. Instead, she could create a class rule that
allows all students to eat healthy snack (ie fruits and veggies). Otherwise, this could make the other students start to question why he
gets special treatment. Rules must be consistent for all students, otherwise classroom management can start to become an issue.

• Having students feel safe is essential to a productive and motivated classroom. At the beginning of the year, there should have been
provisions made to have tables placed in the classroom instead of desks, so that Daniel could comfortably get around in his classroom
and all students would have access to come in and out of the classroom freely.

• Include prompts for students to ask questions

• Helping students know when to ask for help is important. When Daniel was getting tired, or needed
extra help, he should have felt comfortable enough to ask for it. Marcy needed to make it clear that it is
ok to ask for help at any time.

• Not all students recognize when it’s time to ask for help, so giving them prompts can help students
avoid unnecessary frustration later on.
Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher Cont’d…

• Flexible Assessment
• Allow students different options for showing what they know! When Marcy gave a pop quiz, he could not
answer any of the questions. This could have been caused from have test anxiety. Marcy should have
given him more than one opportunity to answer the questions, or assessed him in a different manner.

• Frequent Feedback
• Giving students frequent feedback, making sure to include positive
feedback, will encourage students to grow and persist. Marcy needs to
be giving feedback consistently to Daniel and others.
Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher Cont’d…
• Authentic and Relevant Examples
• Making the content relevant to students is important. If students aren’t interested in the content,
they will not have much motivation to learn and understand it.

• Daniel rarely volunteers information or comments in class discussions. I feel that most likely, he
did not understand what was expected of him and the assignments were not clearly laid out.

• Resources and Supports

• Make sure students are able to do what you are asking of them. If the assignment requires them to
have support, make sure they have access to that support.

• Allowing Daniel to use speech to text when his hands became sore, would give him the
opportunity to continue doing the work, and completing it.
Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher Cont’d…
• Collaboration
• Allowing students to work together can enable them to bounce ideas off each other, help each other understand
concepts, and offer opportunities to foster positive relationships.

• I truly believe that if the students worked in a group with people they felt comfortable with, they could have all had roles
that used each students strengths. It stated in the case study that there were some very strong students as well as some
with LD. If these students were put in proper groups and collaborated, they could have all worked together and had a
successful project.

• Example and Non-Examples

• Give students clear examples of what you are expecting and what you are NOT expecting. Having these
clearly defined can help students understand what is being asked.

• Daniel did projects with others and became complacent not wanting to do the work, but instead would let
his partners complete everything. Rules should have been set out in the beginning, so that all students
knew what was expected of them.
Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher Cont’d…
• Reflection
• Give students time to reflect on different resources and strategies that help them achieve the intended goal.
• If Daniel had a reflection sheet that she could review on a regular basis, she could see what is working for
him and use it in future assignments.

• Support Risk Taking

• Create an environment where students feel comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. Allow students the
opportunities to do so.

• I feel that Daniel wouldn’t answer the questions he was given and didn’t want to comment in class because he
was scared of getting the incorrect answers. He needed to know that it is ok to make mistakes.
Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher Cont’d…
• Share content in a variety of ways
• Using text, video, audio, etc. can help appeal to more learners. Most students do not learn simply from
reading a textbook.

• Giving all the students the opportunity to use a variety of ways to present their research would benefit all the
students in Marcy’s class.

• Flexible work spaces

• Allowing students to work in different areas with options for working quietly on independent work, small and large group
work, and group instruction.

• In the case of Daniel, I believe round tables for all students would be much more appropriate so he can maneuver his wheel
chair easily and ensure there is enough room for all students. The case study mentioned several times that the school and the
district were committed to inclusive education for the needs of exceptional students.
 Strategies to Support the Student & Teacher
• Create clear and specific goals
• Make sure the goals are posted in specific, clear language.
• Once students understand the goal, they are able to set a path on which they can learn the concept
(with guidance from the teacher).

• Marcy needs to make sure the goal is right in front of Daiel so he knows exactly what he is working on.

• Minimize distractions
• While something may engage one learner, this can be seen as a huge distraction to another learner.
• Making sure to include options is important. What works for one student, will not necessarily work for another.
• Marcy needs to make sure that Daniel isn’t allowed to speak loudly while others are working diligently. What
ended up happening is that other students started to misbehave and be loud as well.
 References
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The UDL Guidelines. (2018, August 31). Retrieved February 03, 2021 from http://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Top 10 UDL Tips for Engagement. (n.d.). Retrieved, February 03, 2021from http://castprofessionallearning.org/project/top-10-udl-tips-for-engagement

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