Students

= = = Desert Blossom = is a school located in a medium sized town that is part of a large urban metropolis in the southwestern United States. This second grade class is one of three in the school. The three classes are heterogeneously grouped based on benchmark scores in literacy from the previous year. In this class, among the 25 students, 5 are excelling, 15 are meeting standards, and 3 are approaching standards, and 2 fall far below. Three students in particular are the focus of Mrs. Jones efforts. She wants to make sure that her plans allow success for all of her students, and that they also accommodate these three learners.

== = = =Learner 1= Jeff is a bright young boy who loved preschool and kindergarten, but hated first grade because he was made to sit still. Now, his creativity comes out in movement, music, and soccer, swimming, but not his school work. He reads at grade level, but a bit slowly. The school days are very long for him—his favorite part of the day is recess. Like many of his second grade friends, (and he has many friends) he loves all things gross—bugs and barfs and funny noises. It is hard for him to concentrate, to pay attention, to keep from fidgeting, and to start a task. He describes his school career thus far in this manner: //You know that shade tent we have at swim meets? And you know what it is like when a storm comes up? You run to one corner and you tighten the ropes. Then, you run to the opposite corner and fix that side from flapping. Then, the corner where you just were needs fixing. That’s what school is like. You never get it fixed—at least not until the storm goes away.// == = = =Learner 2= Adam reads with difficulty. His latest benchmark scores indicate he falls far below in reading. Progress monitoring data kept by Mrs. Jones indicates that he knows his alphabet letters and most sounds, and can blend word segments, although slowly. He can instantly recognize 50 of the Dolch 220 words, but struggles with the rest. He enjoys stories with a repetitive line and will ask to have them repeated or read to him often. His physical development is a bit delayed and he gets confused when using the keyboard in his classroom. The teacher has given him a special log-in at one station. There, the control panel settings have allowed a slower acceptance rate on the keyboard—because his fingers linger on the keys too long. That station also has an alternate keyboard attached. Adam loves it when the teacher uses the SmartBoard because he likes to come to the front of the room and touch the screen to activate the buttons. Adams’ parents are delighted at the academic and physical progress he is making. He is a happy child, and participating in class with his friends takes his mind off the next round of treatments for childhood Leukemia that he will be going through next month. Technology fascinates him. He is bored whenever he is asked to practice his manuscript. == =Learner 3: = Valerie began reading prior to kindergarten. She tolerates the second grade curriculum, but is mainly bored. She has a quick, almost instant memory and has difficulty tolerating much repetition. She enjoys writing and illustrating her own stories and is an avid reader of material that most 4th and 5th graders struggle with. Valerie loves technology. She has her own facebook page (monitored by her mother) and has an avatar in second life. She is from a family that, although not wealthy, puts a premium on travel. At the age of 8, Valerie has already traveled to South America to meet her mother’s old Peace Corps friends and has been to Poland to meet her second and third cousins, stopping along the way in Germany and Prague to see the castles. She is a good citizen in the class, always willing to help, but Mrs. Jones knows better than to burden a gifted student with too heavy a peer tutoring load. The teacher is always looking for creative ways to extend Valerie’s learning. She also knows that if she just gives her more work, Valerie will hide her knowledge, and become embarrassed that she already knows how to do the work, telling her friends that she does not know how to help them. The teacher’s challenge is to give Valerie the kinds of assignments that will support her creativity.