Klevens -- Jumpstart 102 Fall 2009
Case Study: Weak-Performance Student – “English and I don’t get along.”
“Sam” – Beginning reader; has trouble looking beyond summary.
Accuplacer
Reading
Accuplacer
Writing
Paper 1
Hmk
Attendance as of 10/8/09
43
72
none
7/9
6 absences -- Withdrew
Describing himself and his past schooling experience and experience with English:
“My name is …. I love basketball and ps3 [unclear] descrbing myself is easy openminded
and welling to learn. Yes this is my first english calls. My high school english was hard
see now its my worst subject. I never took any ESL courses because I didn’t no what it
was.”
Describing his work, life, school experience that he believes will help him succeed in this
course:
“My well to win and not giveing up will bring me success in this course. My strengths
are leadership and learning fast.”
Describing his concerns regarding his ability to do well in this course:
“English and I don’t get along.”
Describing his current academic goals:
“Manetaine a 3.0 and learn more. Yes I am hoping to transfer. Yes medical field.”
Asked to spend 15 minutes answering the prompt “What do you think is expected of you
in a college English course? Where have you gotten your ideas about this?”
Sam did not answer this question. It was the only question on the handout that he left
blank.
Sam spoke to me outside of class regarding his concerns about English and his history
with English in high school. He was concerned about his ability to do well and wanted
me to know he had a hard time in his previous English courses. Likewise, he said the
basketball coach was encouraging him to speak with me about this and Sam said that he
liked our class and wanted to do his best to be successful. In addition, he wanted me to
know why he wasn’t going to turn in the first writing assignment on our reading. Sam
believed he was going to receive financial aid and was waiting for this money to purchase
our class text. In the interim, he bought a copy card and was going to make copies of the
text so that he wouldn’t fall behind. Sam subsequently informed me that he was
ineligible for financial aid and he was now sharing a text with a student in class.
Attendance: Sam has missed 3 class periods, including the day we peer-reviewed our
rough drafts. He subsequently missed his conference. I have not seen a rough draft for
him and the 1st paper is due on Tues.
Homework Completion: Sam has completed 7/9 homework assignments; although, he
did not do the most significant of these assignments (the rough draft of his 1st paper).
Likewise, Sam spoke to me regarding his inability to type his homework. He described
not having access to a computer (although this may be related to his financial
circumstances). I told him I would accept handwritten homework, but that he would need
to type his papers. I also gave him some feedback/guidelines about handwriting his work
(ie. appropriate page length and proofreading for errors). Sam has a significant number
of spelling errors which reflect his writing words out how they sound, but not being
familiar with how they look. I told him that if he typed his work, the computer would
help him catch these errors and how proofreading is more difficult on handwritten work.
MARSI REFLECTION
Sam’s overall score for the MARSI survey was a 3. He scored himself highest (5’s) on
questions asking him about understanding and not understanding, which require a
baseline type of engagement. For instance, “I think about what I know to help me
understand what I read.” “I try and get back on track when I lose concentration.” He
scored himself lowest (1’s/2’s) on questions that ask him what he does to understand;
things that require more effort and reflection. “I underline or circle information in the
text to help me remember it.” “I summarize what I read to reflect on important
information in the text.” “I ask myself questions I like to have answered in the text.” “I
critically analyze and evaluate the information presented in the text.”
CAT – Week 5
What are you doing/thinking about as you read?
“I am try to read and understand what the writer is talking about.”
Is this at all different from the start of class? How?
“My habbits have changed for the better I can read and understand what I am reading.”
Name 2 things that work for you about going over the reading in small groups?
Name 2 things that work for you about going over the reading as a whole class?
List what’s difficult for each of these reading tasks?
“When we all go over the work together as a class. Hearing everyones ideas.”
Sam didn’t fully complete the CAT on reading. It may have been because it was at the
end of class and I only gave them 5 minutes to fill out the answers. However, the
questions he did respond do don’t show much change from the MARSI survey taken the
1st week of class. Sam still describes his strength as a reader as a general understanding
of the reading, but does not describe any new strategies he uses to understand. From my
observations, Sam is engaged with the reading, but is probably unable to practice his
reading outside of class time. In class, he’s always actively sharing a book with a fellow
student and his body pours over the text. His body leans forward, he often uses his finger
to follow the text and he takes notes on a separate sheet of paper.
Teaching Unit
The 1st 6 weeks of class we’ve been reading, Surviving Justice, which is an anthology of
oral histories of people who have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated. We read 4
of the narratives along with 13 addendums on various topics related to the justice
system. To review our reading, we mix up whole class and small group discussion. In
small groups, students take charge of portions of the reading that they then teach out to
another group. We also review these sections by generating arguments related to our
texts 4 themes. These arguments help us see similarities and differences between the
narratives, which will help students in writing their papers.
For writing, we started out writing summary and analysis paragraphs and then moved on
to writing structured body paragraphs, incorporating text, and using transitions. By the
time students received their first essay assignment, they had produced 6 homework
assignments related to the text’s themes. For the essay, we reviewed each part of the
essay (intro/thesis, body, and conclusion) and I instructed them on MLA citation (in-text
and works cited page).
Sam’s writing has been progressing since the start of the semester. He started off turning
in very incomplete work (handwritten appx. ½ page). Likewise, most of his writing was
opinion, commenting on the reading rather than interpretation of the reading. For
example, “How can the police tell Ochoa that he can’t get a attorney thats a right I guess
when you don’t no the laws and your rights. Is it possible that the police can get in
trouble for haveing him talk without one and he asked for one.”
Since then, we discussed developing his ideas and using argument. “He was raised
without a father and loved his mother she tried to teach and guide him but she had to
work a lot. He was poor and had to use what we had and he didn’t have much.
But his life seems to change by being convicted of a crime that he didn’t commit.
Newsom had lost more than a decaid of his life in prison. He turns his anger to positive
motovation, his owe wits gets him out. Academics was a big positive to help he get
through prison.”
Sam did not complete the 1st paper assignment and has stopped showing up to class.