Evan's Grades In Math example essay topic

Adaptive I Project Contents: Student Introduction... 2 Comments of Student Relating to Ability... 3 Comments of Student's Parent Relating to Ability... 4 Pre- Assessment and Interpretation... 5 & 6 Work and Improvement (Case Material)... 8 Post Assessment and Interpretation...

10 & 11 Students Introduction The student under review is Evan. He is in sixth grade and is an active student that is friendly, energetic, and easy to get along with. He is a very well behaved student that is quick to repair any wrong doing he has done. Evan is not on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or is he a Title 1 student. As mentioned before, Evan does very well in his school subjects but gets easily frustrated with math. This is the subject area of improvement for this student.

Evan had gotten all A's in math and show very high competence in the subject until third grade. In third grade Evan took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITS) and scored below average in the area of math. After this test, but not as a result of, Evan's grades in math progressively got worse. In forth grade Evan's grades went from A's to C's by the end of the year. This was also the first year that Evan's teacher made a comment on his report card regarding his performance in math.

In fifth grade scored low on his recall of math concepts and applied concepts. His grades stayed at B's and C's but he failed to meet the Clarkston School District math requirements for fifth grade. As observed this year, Evan's performance has continued on its path of low to no improvement. This year fractions and decimals have been integrated into his schema and have furthered his confusion of math.

As a result of the current confusion, I will try to improve his understanding of decimals and fractions as a pretest determines. Student Relating to Ability When asked if he had liked math before forth grade, Evan responded with a yes. He said that his teacher didn't like the fact that he wasn't listening and stopped giving him directions. When it came to math he didn't know what was going on. He said that the addition and subtraction was easy but the multiplication was difficult. He did not enjoy math any more because it had too much sitting work.

At this point he asked, "Why can't math be more like science. We do a lot of experiments in science and I get to walk around". Student's Parent Relating to Ability Evan's mother has been intensely involved in his education and says that the reason that he has had trouble in math is because many of his teachers have had problems with him listening to instruction. She agrees with this conclusion as she sees it as a problem at home when he is asked for the directions to the homework he brings home for help and his mother is unable to help him due to the lack of instructions that he either forgot or did not hear.

Evan's mother is happy with his performance in other subjects of school. She says that she helps when ever she can. She recognizes that Evan is very active and wishes that he would constructively apply his energy towards his studies. The work that he brings home is always well commented and has been satisfactory.

Pre-assessmentInterpretationOctober 18, 2004 Evan's pretest consisted of multiplication, division, adding and subtracting fractions, and improper fractions. I chose to test him on multiplication because this is where he first began to have problems in fourth grade. As shown on problem one, Evan did not attempt it but did fine on double digit multiplication. The single digit and double digit division was also a problem for him as well but both were completed correctly.

The multiplication is on his test because it is what is currently being done in his sixth grade classroom. He completed the common denominator easily but as seen had trouble with the different denominator. I instructed him to circle the problems that he had trouble with and this was one that he had circled. The subtraction was easily done as the common denominator addition. Changing the fraction to a decimal is the most current of the math work that is done in class. In class they have attempted common fractions so that was what was tested.

He did not complete any of these correctly. When asked why he answered the way he did his explanation was, "To make it (the fraction) a decimal, take the top number and move the decimal over (to the right) one place". This made more sense as he changed the decimal to a fraction and each fraction is over 100. On the last of these he decided to reduce the fraction. Changing his whole number fractions to improper fractions was not hard as he did the first and second one with ease. The third was a new item that I had placed to see if he was able to apply his knowledge correctly.

He placed a one in the front of a partially correct improper fraction because the numbers that are converted in class are all stated as: 1 3/2. So the one in front, according to what he knows and is familiar to him, is the only way to write an improper fraction. On the pre-test Evan scored a 10 of 16. The portion he had the most trouble on was the fraction / decimal conversions. This is the portion that will be attempted to change by applying the same concepts that are applied to the science experiments that he enjoys, movement and a more hands on approach. Work and Modifications October 20, 2004 To help introduce a practical use for his math, I decided to use markings on a football field.

We used the field as the basis of instruction since it was already marked and had large numbers that Evan could move around on. We started with the fifty yard line and moved to each fifteen yard line. The point of the game was to run plays using a percentage, decimal, or fraction of the field. Before each play we figured out how many yards he had to run to get the right fraction and complete the play. This took a while to complete partly because of my instruction and his eagerness to run and have no pattern. We came to a conclusion that he could not complete the play if he was not on the right yard line.

We started at the fifty yard line and ran half the distance between the fifty yard line and the end zone. It took us a while to figure out the point of the game and to get the answer but as soon as he picked up the concept of the game, he started figuring out the answers quicker because it had a purpose. As soon as the single answer plays became easy, we started running more complex plays such as running out 10% of the field and then turn left for ten steps, and then back for two percent of the field. Since the field was set in hundreds he was able to figure out the answers pretty quickly with the percents and decimals so I switched to fractions.

This took a while longer and I'm not sure if he grasps the concept of fractions from it. Work and Modifications October 26, 2004 To help Evan understand the conversions between decimals and percents to fractions I made a worksheet that both of us went over so that I could make sure what he was not understanding and what he did understand. What I found was that when he was presented with the numbers and an order to follow he was quick to solve the work. He made conversions from decimals to percent to fractions so that he could see that all the amounts were the same.

The reason that I think he was not connecting the numbers is that he does not know how to organize the information he is given. As the worksheet shows he was given an organized set of fraction to decimal to percent and he solved these problems fairly easily. I deducted from the work done on the worksheet and the pretest that I would help improve the process he used to solve problems. Remembering that most student today are visual learners, I drew the field out an had him complete the rest of the worksheet.

Post Assessment Reflection Working with Evan I learned the power of hands on activities and applying a practical application to the work that students do. When the students make a connection to the work that they do they complete the work and take more away from the work done. In Evan's case it was simple because I integrated a topic that he enjoyed. By doing this I hoped to connect math with a topic of enjoyment and hopefully make a connection between the two that both could be enjoyable. I certainly hope that I did not do the reverse. From his explanation on the exit interview about whether he thought this helped him with his school work he put no.

His reason was, "It was a side thing and is not as hard". The comment that it was not as hard excited me because he did not see the work that we were doing as hard although it was the same thing that he was having trouble with in class. He made a connection with the material which, with practical application, made the work easy. The work also made him, "feel smarter" and that he would not mind doing it again.

The part that he liked best was the football section. I think this had a bigger impact on his success than I had thought.