Description of the Sample
The sample of students for this study represented a cross-section of the classroom regarding age, gender, and ability and consisted of 5 students, 2 male and 3 female, with varying levels of ability in language arts. Since the class was mostly homogeneous regarding ethnicity and language spoken, the sample was diverse in gender and academic ability only. Subject A, a 10.5 year-old male, was chosen for this study because of the teacher’s concern for his performance in the ELA classroom. This student had exhibited low performances on previous writing samples and struggled with sentence fluency, word choice, voice, and overall quality of written expression. This student’s mother was concerned with there being extra work as part of this study, which would indicate that this student perhaps struggles with getting his homework done. He appeared to not be as engaged as most of the other children, was easily distracted, and joked around with his friends in the class. He was called out for special services on several occasions during my time working with him. Subject B, a 9.7 year-old female, was chosen for this study, as she had exhibited a need for improvement in her reading comprehension. Fairly common words were unfamiliar to her, which affected her comprehension during reading. Her teacher felt that her participation in this study would reveal areas requiring intervention and explicit instruction. This student described herself as a creative person who likes math. She seemed immature, did not socialize with the other members of the class, but she was content in doing her work and was eager to do well. Subject C, a 9.8 year-old female, was chosen for this study as representative of a higher performing student with regard to English language arts and specifically writing. Her reading comprehension and vocabulary were satisfactory, although her spelling needed improvement. This study incorporated spelling rules and word analysis that potentially helped this student with her spelling performance. Subject D, a 10.7 year-old female, was chosen for this study as her performance in English language arts was representative of a student who was in the middle of the class with great potential for improvement. It was felt by the teacher that this student would benefit from discussion of various topics with regard to mentor texts as she had been observed struggling with certain concepts. Her reading comprehension had suffered as a result. Subject E, a 9.10 year-old male, was chosen for this study because he was on the younger spectrum in age and had exhibited a need for more explicit instruction in constructing writing and improving his vocabulary. His writing showed that he had great potential for idea development, and this teacher felt that he would benefit from the assessments that would show this student’s areas of need with regard to writing. These subjects were all Caucasian and enrolled in this 4th-grade classroom since September. |
