Case study tahanie

Hypothesis Testing Model

Student: Tahanie ( 5th grade)Teacher: Nawal AlmasmariDate: January 10,2010

Observation Inferences Hypothesis Curricular Decision

• She doesn't want to learn. She just wants to play.

• Maybe it is because she reads below grade level and struggles with comprehension, phonics and vocabulary.

• Maybe she is not confident in herself.

• Perhaps she needs encouragement from her teacher and classmates.

• She needs to read more and to be given reading strategies.

• I will focus more on Tahanie and encourage her to read more in class.

• I will also place her with a good reader to help her in class.


Student: Tahanie ( 5th grade)Teacher: Nawal AlmasmariDate: January 20, 2010


• Tahanie's major weakness is being stressed out and confused when she doesn't understand what is going on in the classroom.

• Maybe it is because she is fooling around and doesn't listen to the instructions.

• Perhaps fooling around is a way to cover up the fact that she doesn't comprehend what is going on.

• Would explaining the instructions individually to Tahanie help her understand the lesson?

• I will have Tahanie repeat the instructions to me. This way, I will definitely know that she knows what is going on.


Student: Tahanie ( 5th grade)Teacher: Nawal AlmasmariDate: January 27, 2010


• Tahanie is constantly disrupting class with her silliness.

• Perhaps it is a way to cover the fact that she does not know what we are discussing in class.

• If I explain to her the lesson in terms that she understands and in a way that interests her, she will stop playing around.

• I will make sure to make the lesson innovative and fun and make sure her interaction with classmates is about the lesson of the day.


Student: Tahanie ( 5th grade)Teacher: Nawal AlmasmariDate: February 5, 2010


• Tahanie has low self esteem.

• She gives up easily.

• She believes that she will never learn and it is hopeless.

• She says she is like that with all her classes.

• She says that she is a hopeless case.

• If Tahanie feels that she is actually learning something and good at it, she will try to excel in class.

• I will make sure to focus on all her positive aspects and positive achievements, thus raising her self esteem and encouraging her to work hard.


Student: Tahanie ( 5th grade)Teacher: Nawal AlmasmariDate: February 25, 2010


• Today, Tahanie is overly disruptive and talking constantly to her cousin, Hajer.

• Maybe they are trying to defer us from the lesson.

• Perhaps they are trying to get my attention.

• If I separate them and put them at the front of the classroom, they will be forced to focus on the lesson on hand.

• I will constantly call on them and keep them on task.

• I will give them a chance to tell us of any news or special event that they may want to discuss with the class.

Case Study: Tahanie

In my Arabic Language Arts class, I have chosen to do a case study on a student named

Tahanie. Tahanie is a student who stands out from her peers. She always has something to say. There

are many issues that need to be attended to. In class, she displays strengths and weaknesses. She has

good self esteem except when it comes to reading, whether it's Arabic and English. I believe that

through differentiating teaching, I could help eliminate a few of her weaknesses and sharpen her

strengths allowing her to become a much better student and show her that she can read and she can

understand. Tahanie is in the Fifth grade and she just goes to school basically to have fun. Getting an

education and all that come with it are just part of the package that she has to accept. She forgets to do

her homework and doesn't even try to read. She reads below grade level and struggles with

comprehension, phonics and vocabulary. Feelings of defeat have turned off her desire to read and she

exhibits inappropriate behaviors to hide her inability to read and comprehend. She reads very little and

does not like to read. She lacks effective word attack skills and exhibits poor comprehension skills and

has limited vocabulary. She immediately says, “ I don't know how to read, so why should I even try?”

She has to be encouraged by me and her classmates to try to read.

Physically, she looks normal for her age and a little overweight and pale skinned. She is so fun

and really lights up a room. She can come into the classroom and her classmates are quietly working

and make one funny remark and you can see the whole class smile and can hear some giggling. She is

a Yemeni-American Muslim and she proudly where her Islamic clothes. She wears a colorful hijab

( covering for the head completely covering all hair) and a black jilbab (a long loose fitting garmet) and

gym shoes. She also always wears dark colored hoodies. I have till yet to see her without one and the

hood is on her head of course. She will only take it off when I tell her. She says that she feel

comfortable wearing it. It is also a way for her to try to get away when we practice choral and repeated

readings, but I always catch her and then she reads with the class.

What stands out most in Tahanie is her great personality and her truthfulness. She always tells

the truth even if she knows she will be in deep trouble. She is also easily distracted and needs to be

redirected back to the lesson a few times. She always seems confused when she is distracted and you

could tell in her eyes. I could see through her eyes that she is lost and confused and I have to put her

back on the right track. Her eyes widen with anticipation when I am reading a story or if we are doing

art. She wants to learn and become a better student but she needs more motivation. She is a

hardworking student when she wants to. I believe that every student has the power to succeed, we just

need to figure out what motivates them and help figure out the obstacles that stand in their way. I need

to find out Tahanie's weakness. She has the willpower to be a better student.

The class is a cooperative learning classroom, desks are arranged in groups of four. I let the

students sit where they wanted for the first week and then I assigned seats based on what I noticed and

their levels. I specifically made sure to separate Tahanie from her cousin, Hajer. When they sit

together, they can't focus on the lesson at hand and they play around. I also made sure to put Tahanie

in the group at the front of the classroom so that I can always see what she is doing even when I am at

my desk. I believe that Tahanie has a short attention span. She has the same interests as her classmates

and she is a very caring person. I know she loves music and Hanna Montana. She also loves shopping

and playing with her friends. She still acts like a little child and just wants attention, not caring for the

type of attention she is getting. So, I try to give her as much positive attention as I can. This, in turn,

shows her that she doesn't have to be disruptive to get attention.

She is interested in team activities if the group does everything for her. To remedy that, I make

sure that each team member has a job and the group gets two grades, individually and cooperatively.

That helps her focus more, especially when her classmates encourage her to do her job for the good of

the team. She doesn't like to do individual work because she is a struggling reader who needs help with

comprehension and vocabulary. I am always guiding her through her work. What I do at the beginning

of the year with every class is that I test them on the basics. Tahanie and a couple of other students

have problems with word sounds and comprehension and vocabulary. I try not to treat them differently

from her classmates. I always review with the class the basics and focus on the struggling students.

Tahanie's parents try to help her at home,but she really tries their patience and always manages

not to finish her work. She is the middle child and her older sister tries to take advantage of her and

her younger siblings look up to her. I have met her family and they are very nice people who want their

children to have what they couldn't get, an education. Her cousin, Hajer, lives next door and when they

get together to study, they just goof around. Her social weakness is never taking anything seriously.

Everything to her is a joke. If she is struggling with something, she will joke about it and try to change

the subject. She never wants to try anything hard. She just gives up before even trying. I just keep on

encouraging her and telling her to just try and I won't grade her on the first try.

Tahanie's major weakness is being stressed out and confused when she doesn't understand what

is going on in the classroom. Add on top of that, she laughs it off instead of trying to understand it.

She gets really stressed out when it is time to do a quiz, but doesn't even try to study for it. She says

that she will never get a good grade and so she doesn't even try. On her midterm, she was really

stressed out about it, but didn't even try to study for it or ask for help. I told her that she can do it if she

tried. I think that it is great that a student frets about their grade, but they also have to work hard to

achieve a good grade and know that they won't get it any other way. Instead of trying to improve her

grade, she is stressing out about getting the bad grade. She gets easily confused and easily distracted. I

always ask questions throughout the lesson to make sure that students are paying attention and

understanding what is being taught. I tried out a new technique with her, hoping that something good

will come out of it. I took her aside during gym(she wasn't happy about that) and reviewed with her the

letters combinations and sounds. I worked with her on a practice exam and went through it with her

one by one and she got it. She couldn't believe that it was that simple. I explained to her that she just

had to try and that I was always there to help her. Her eyes twinkled and her face lighted up. She had

finally gotten it! She really felt good about herself and separating her from Hajer helped a great deal.

When they were together, everything was a joke. When I separated them, Hajer did better on her own,

but Tahanie still needed one on one help. She needs attention and I will make sure that most of the

attention is positive. I always make sure to catch at every good thing she does, no matter how small or

minute. She loves when I say, “Tahanie, I am so proud of you today. You were well behaved and you

helped your group with the work.” After that, she really tries to be good and focuses more on the task

at had than when I tell her to stop misbehaving. It is hard to do sometimes, but I try to focus on the

positive. She is always worried about not doing good on the spelling tests and failing the exams so she

doesn't even try.

Although Tahanie does have weaknesses, she has some strengths that accompany them and they

are what will help her excel as a student. After setting her in the front of the class, she complained and

then said, “I guess that is the only way I will learn. Okay, I 'll stay and see.” Now, she loves where she

is sitting. She has never been late or absent for school. That is not a student who doesn't like school.

Even if she was feeling sick, she still came to school and wouldn't go home. Her handwriting is so

beautiful. You wouldn't believe that this is the same student who is struggling in her studies. I have her

write on the board and her group has her do most of the writing because it is so great. In handwriting,

she gets the best grades and is always the first to finish it. She has a great memory. She remembers the

story that we read the previous week and can retell it. She is always asking questions when she is

paying attention. She loves role-playing and reader's theater. She loves acting out a short story. She

has a way about her that makes everything she does interesting. She loves capturing the class's

attention. Tahanie is a great student with great manners and is always polite when I speak with her.

Tahanie's greatest strength is her truthfulness. One day, she was running outside after school with her

friends and they really pushed hard on a side window of the school. It had been hit throughout the year

and had gotten weaker and weaker. Tahanie's push finally put a crack in it. Instead of blaming her

classmates or at least taking partial blame. She admitted responsibility and her parents paid for the

window and they were a low income family. She didn't try to lie her way out of it because no one

actually saw what happened. She could of gotten away with it, but chose not to. That is a great

attribute in a student. Instead of punishing her gravely, I lightened her punishment because she told the

truth. Truthfulness to me is the most important thing. Accidents happens and people make mistakes,

but the people who own up to their mistakes are the ones who learn from their mistakes. That is what I

tell my students. Honesty is the best policy. I tell them that if they constantly lie, people will start to

mistrust them. I always use Tahanie as an example when talking about honesty.

I believe that by removing Tahanie from her cousin, placing her in the front of the classroom,

focusing on the positive and working one on one with her that I could improve her strengths and

weaknesses. I would begin by writing the unfamiliar words of the story on the board and explaining

them in familiar words and using them in sentences. Then I will have each group give one sentence for

the words. This helps them with their vocabulary and comprehension and they will be more confident

when reading the story and will be more familiar with the words. I will also do choral reading and give

each group a specific passage to review and then read together. This way students with different

reading levels will help each other with reading. Peer teaching is a great strategy. This way students

strengthen each other's reading and comprehension skills. If this doesn't work, I will also write the

letters of each word separately on the board and have the students connect the letters to make syllables

and the syllables to make words. This way they understand that no matter how big and unfamiliar the

word is, they can separate it into syllables and sounds. I will also work one on one with Tahanie to help

her in comprehension and vocabulary. These strategies will help Tahanie in different ways. She will

be able to keep up with her fellow peers and won't have to cover with inappropriate behaviors. She

won't be so reluctant to read and will be confident when reading. She will also not feel like the only

one who needs extra help because the whole class is working with phonemic sounds and we are

learning at her level without her feeling intimated. We will also do reader's theater. It is an integrated

approach for involving students in reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. Through reader's

theater, students can share literature, read aloud, write scripts, and working collaboratively. It is readers

reading a script adapted from literature , and the audience picturing the action from hearing the script

being read aloud and from the student's facial expressions. It is a way for the students to express

themselves with literature and put their own personality into it. I find that when we haven't done

reader's theater for a while, Tahanie asks for it by name.

Another aspect of one on one teaching and constantly reviewing the reading basics and

activities would be to clearly outline what is needed from the class that day. I must make sure that all

students know what needs to be done. This makes what is expected of the students crystal clear. I also

keep folders of the students' work from different times through out the school. I can use the folder to

show the student how much they have improved or to try to figure out why they haven't improved as

mush as I would of liked them to. This way students can keep themselves in check before their parents

see their work. This way they can clearly see their growth ans see their achievements . They will also

understand why they got the grade that they got. Tahanie gets a chance to see her performance and see

her highs and lows and I also give her a chance to correct her mistakes and I give her extra credit work

to help improve her grade. The folders also give me a chance to evaluate myself as a teacher and to see

what I should review with the students and what they have actually learned in the classroom. I will

also see the pace of the classroom as a whole and focus on the students who needs extra help.

Tahanie is a wonderful student and through one on one teaching and focusing more on her

positives and paying more attention to her and raising her self esteem, I believe that she will pass this

Arabic language arts class this year. She will have a hard time because she usually doesn't work hard,

but the results will help her get enthusiastic about getting better. Shew ill finally put an effort into

learning and trying in class. The fact that she has a small attention span and gets easily frustrated is

what makes her lose focus in the classroom. Tahanie is a hardworking student when she is motivated

and her motivation rubs off on the other students. It is contagious,even her cousin, Hajer is working

harder to get better grades. I believe that all students, if given a chance will excel in their studies. I

believe that we should give all students the opportunity to excel and never tell them that they can't do

it. That is the worst thing you could do to a child. We need to build their self-confidence and their self-

esteem and show them the basics and we will see them flourish. It may be tough for the teacher, but it

is worth it in the end when you see the spark in their eyes when they finally understand something.

Case study tahanie

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