Level III Blog Inquiry Checkpoint #3

Jessica Garcia
Oct 28, 2015
3 min read

This past couple of weeks I have collected academic data and behavioral data on my focus student. The academic data includes several math and science tests. I collected a writing sample, however it was not graded, and for reading, I have an SAT score and PLS AP3 score. On the subject interest survey that I gave to him, he listed as liking reading and writing more than math and science. He excelled on the SAT, but for math and science, he received a C and a B, respectively. This shows me a correlation between liking a certain subject and performance. I looked at various math and science scores, and although he listed science as 2 and math as 3, he did better on all the science tests compared to math. Interestingly enough, when he was filling out the survey he initially put science as 3 and math as 2 but then he switched them. I asked him why and he said because he liked what we were learning in math at the moment. I do believe though that he might like science more than math.

When looking at my checklist of how often he gets off task, there are many things that need to be taken into consideration. For example, as mentioned above, he likes reading and writing more than math and science, but math and science are in the morning while reading and writing are in the afternoon. His medication seems to wear off throughout the day and although he likes reading and writing, he is very off task at the end of the day. I have to constantly remind him to get back to work. Another factor to take into consideration is how much he sleep he gets the night before. I ask him in the morning if he slept well the night before and the days he responds no, are the days he is most off task, regardless of the subject. On days he is very awake, I notice the difference because he actually tries to get his work done. This morning I asked him if he slept well and he said "No, I had trouble sleeping last night." As a result, he did not do most of his work today and when he did do work, he had to be constantly pushed to do it.

My student is a good writer, is a good speller, and has a good vocabulary. One thing he struggles with though is his handwriting. It is larger than most handwriting, which can sometimes be an issue when there is a lack of space and although it is legible, it can definitely be improved. Whenever he is writing, he will erase a letter if it does not look good in his opinion. He might erase it three or four times before he leaves it. I have tried to tell him that he does not have to redo it as long as it's legible, but he still does it. This causes him to take much longer to write stuff down. For example, when writing an essay, the majority of the class might be on their second paragraph and he is usually only on his second sentence. His handwriting is an even bigger issue whenever he is writing on a paper with no lines, such as a foldable. One modification that has really seemed to help with this is drawing lines on the paper for him.