Child+Case+Study


 * The student chosen to perform the Case Study on was from one of the two classes involved with our Tech Club at Cypress Springs Elementary (10401 Cypress Springs Pkwy Orlando, FL 32825-8802 PHONE:(407) 249-6950). Gracejoy Hauser (Ms. Grace) and myself (Mr. Marty) were the individuals running the lessons and interacting with the students.**


 * Name:** Andrew (Drew)
 * Age:** 10-years-old
 * Grade:** 5
 * Class:** Ms. Setright ESE**Favorite Subject:** Science
 * Race:** Jamaican and Spanish


 * Student Interview**
 * What do you think of your reading and writing skills?**He thinks that he is better at reading than at writing, and is good at spelling tests (when he studies, that is).

He believes that his technology skills are not very good compared to our expectations. He said that he knows how to delete, use the backspace key, use the space bar, and basically how to type (just very slowly because he picks at the keyboard).
 * What do you think of your technology abilities?**

Yeah! He likes us coming in to teach them more about technology and how to use different programs to make cool stuff.
 * Do you like the Tech Club?**

He said that he has learned how to search for an image on the internet, create a presentation in PowerPoint by adding new slides, choose a slide design, choose a slideshow format, add/insert pictures into a PowerPoint presentation or Word Document, add sound clips to a presentation, and how to locate various programs installed on the computer (Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, etc.).
 * What are some technology tidbits that you have learned so far?**


 * Do you like working with a group or by yourself?**He likes working with a group instead of by himself because with a group he might have someone “smarter” to ask questions if he needs help.

Math. He loves Science because there is a lot of action in doing experiments (hands-on activities).
 * Is there a topic that you find boring?**

He wants to be able to type faster and learn computer animation.
 * What do you want to take away from the Tech Club lessons?**

Tech Club’s goal was to adapt to the needs in Ms. Setright's class, Mr. Quarles’ Class, as well as Cypress Springs Elementary in general. We wanted to serve as a scaffolding to enhance whatever the students were learning for in a particular week. We assessed the classroom to find out what forms of technology they were using. It was rather disappointing to discover that the school had limited resources and many were out of date such as the original Mac computers. We decided to stay in Ms. Setright’s room to use the couple of moderately “up-to-date” computers that all had Windows 2003 installed. The Computer lab at the school is used for “specials” like P.E., Art, and Music, so we didn’t want to cause trouble scheduling a time to work in the lab. Ms. Setright was glad to have us work in her room because she does not use technology regularly, if at all, in accordance with her lessons. In fact, she seems scared of it but she is very open to having us show her kids some new stuff. She doesn't even use an Overhead Projector, Doc Cam, or anything like that, but would much rather simply write on her front board if she needs to. After both Grace and I trying to connect to the wireless internet at the school, we figured out that the connection is too weak to use our own computers for internet lessons.
 * Observations and Reflections**

After we assessed the equipment and technology available to us, we assessed the level of student knowledge with computers. Our first session included the very basics from opening a file, saving a file, and basic World Wide Web awareness (how to search for images and for topics). The week after, we asked Ms. Setright what she will be teaching the next week. When she told us they are learning about garbage and recycling, we decided to teach and introduce kids to PowerPoint by creating a presentation on “Where Does Garbage Go and Recycling Tips” (see the Student Work Samples under the Lesson Plans page). Grace and I brought 'trash bags' and we had the kids 'sort' the trash whether they were plastic, paper, metal, glass, etc. using gloves that I provided. The kids really enjoyed that activity as it provided them with 'hands on' experience especially for kinesthetic learners. My group created a list of everything found in the bag and then I helped them categorize each item into a certain category. The students had fun creating the PowerPoint while learning the essentials in making a great presentation (appropriate amount of text, add sound clips, etc.)

After getting a feel for the students, their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses we decided to observe Andrew for the Case Study. Ms. Setright has a hard time handling Drew because he is one of her most challenging students. He is very hyper active and does not like to participate. We always heard Drew’s name being called because he either wasn’t paying attention or was causing a distraction for the other students. He was included in Grace’s group for the first PowerPoint activity on recycling and I would look over to see how he was participating. I noticed that many times he would just sit back and watch his group mates work on the presentation, but he would still put in his thoughts and ideas verbally. He just did not want to work on the computer himself possibly because on his low computer skills (typing, etc).

The next week of the same lesson I noticed that he appeared to be participating more. It also seemed like his group members got impatient because it took him longer to perform basic functions like deleting a word. I saw Grace explain to him how to double click the mouse and watched as his peers harassed him because he didn’t understand the concept of click the button on the mouse two times repeatedly; this seemingly simple skill had not been acquired and showed how Drew rarely uses a computer. I hope that he keeps participating in our activities. I know Ms. Setright has a hard time keeping him focused on one thing because he acts up and will argue with his peers over things that does need to worry about such as borrowing a pencil when the activity does not even involve writing. We just need to maintain focus on Drew to make sure that he is participating calmly in the activities while acquiring useful strategies to help him become comfortable with using technology.This is the PowerPoint presentation on recycling that Drew’s group created:

Grace and I are excited that the Tech Club turned out very productive and successful today. I didn’t like working in the small groups especially since I couldn’t quite get a full feel for all of the students in the class. I wanted to be able to see each of the 9 students grow through our time with them. I decided to take steps towards launching a set of whole group lessons. I discovered that Mr. Quarles had a doc-cam in his classroom that was set up with a projector on a cart. I also found out that each grade level is assigned a projector/doc-cam to use, but Mr. Quarles had been loaned one for the ESE grades classes and no one ever asked for it back. I decided to use this great resource for Tech Club’s purposes. While Grace conducted a whole class discussion with the kids to supplement their learning of Sunken Treasures, we decided that the class would make a brochure. I was behind the laptop that projected onto the board and the kids were very excited to see the desktop projected onto their own front board! We conducted a discussion with the class while simultaneously doing it on the computer that I operated. We brainstormed different titles for the front of our brochures and also explored Mel Fisher's website (the man who initiated the quest to find Atocha's treasures). The kids were ecstatic to see a real photo of Mel Fisher, his divers, and the artifacts he discovered. They were really hooked when they find out that he has an actual museum in the Florida Keys! Very powerful real-life connection! We started our plans on how to layout the rest of our brochures and our plans to include their actual drawings that we will scan and paste into our brochure!

Drew participated in our whole class discussion today and though I noticed that he was playing with erasers and pencils, (we need to set aside anything in front of him that can distract him from focusing). I know he was listening because he raised his hand to answer questions, and gave his input/opinions during our brainstorming. I just have to keep an eye on him because he can quickly disrupt the learning flow in the class with a comment or off-topic distraction.

Last week I noticed that Drew was distracted playing with the erasers and pencils in front of him (making bridges out of them) during the lesson. Before we started, we told Ms. Setright about the distractions and asked her to help move away the pencils, erasers, books, and anything else around Drew to help him concentrate more on the lesson. Ms. Setright understood and gladly helped. Drew was a bit more focused than last week having fewer distractions but still was off task a few times during our time. He also seems to be in confrontation a lot with a classmate about something whether it's to be quiet, or insisting that something belongs to him. I also noticed him zoning out or sort of talking to himself during the lesson. His attention seems to be in and out of the lesson. I remember him giving his opinion to the discussion at one point stating that he did not like the title that the class had been working on. He seems to be more likely to dislike something than to provide constructive or creative input.

Having observed Drew and his behavior in the classroom, I have come to some conclusions about his needs. I drew these conclusions about the student based on indirect questioning of the concepts focused on in the Personal Choices Student Survey. Drew is most definitely a kinesthetic learner as he himself understands and demonstrates that he like activities that let him participate in a “hands-on” manner. Drew favors the basic approach to many things as well, including the basic yellow highlighter, black ink pen, etc. He does not have any handicap that requires him to use certain technology or tools to help him communicate or interact with others. Drew likes basic writing utensils and does not seem to ever use special grips or anything that does not typically come with a regular writing utensil. Drew also took to the arrangement of the projector lessons interestingly; he liked being able to see what all was going on, but at the same time he seemed more distracted because we were working in a whole group setting where there wasn’t as much hands-on opportunities. He is an average reader and did not appear to have difficulty reading what was on the board or copying information in a written form from a variety of sources (e.g. front board onto personal paper). Drew wrote on regular wide-ruled notebook paper and seemed to keep his writing a work organized for the most part. I provided the students, specifically Drew, with techniques to help them stay organized and focused on the computer; for example, I showed them how to create favorites on the internet to make it easy to find particular websites recently visited, how to save a file on the computer, store files in folders, etc.

I believe that Drew would directly benefit from having one-on-one interaction in a learning environment to keep him focused on his task since his main issue is staying concentrated or motivated in class discussions and assignments. I hope to work with this group, and Drew, in the future to see how I can show Ms. Setright how to further incorporate technology into her classroom since all of her students were eager to learn and use the technology to supplement her own lessons. Drew seemed to enjoy working on the computer even though his technology skills were at a very low level when the Tech Club started. I think that through our lessons he now understands he can learn to use technology to help his own learning even if it’s something basic such as visiting a website that includes games or additional information about a topic discussed in a class lesson!