Benchmark: Case Study of Ana

Benchmark- Case Study of Ana

Grand Canyon University: SPD-550

Benchmark- Case Study of Ana

Your PLAAFP should include:

Student academic strengths

Ana is a 9th grade student who is able to write complete sentences. She can read independently on a 7th grade level. She converses easily with her teachers and has an academic strength in the subject of math. She speaks fluently and has a good vocabulary.

Evaluations

Ana was evaluated using the verbal WISC and non-verbal UNIT IQ test. She fell within the average intelligence range. Ana’s IQ is 105. The Woodcock Johnson III test of Achievement was also administered to Ana that showed her lowest score was in broad reading while her highest score was in math. The complete results are as follows.

(Ana Case Study, 2019)

Performance in classes

Ana has difficulty sounding out words and is currently reading two grade levels below her current grade level. Although she can write in complete sentences, she is unable to write a complete paragraph when given a topic sentence. Ana often misspells words when she writes. She has no behavior problems or referrals

Potential influences of language, culture, and family background

Ana comes from a single parent home and is raised by a mother who had to drop out of high school when she became pregnant. Ana’s mother later obtained her GED. Ana was a model student with very little absenteeism until she reached the eighth grade. Upon entering the eight grade she developed an increasing pattern of tardiness and absences.

Strengths, preferences, and interests in nonacademic areas

Ana wants to do well in school to please her mother but does not believe that she can have any success. She has a desire to play school sports. She converses easily with adults, is polite and has a good vocabulary.

Any other relevant issues

Anna is tiny for her age and thinks of herself as a freak and feels that she is to small to play sports. She does not spend time with friends in school or in the community.

GOALS

Social/Behavioral

After being modeled by an adult, Ana will initiate communicative interactions with peers using conversational turn taking with 3-5 conversational turns 4 out of five days per week.

Ana will choose two adults as mentors and report to them as soon as soon as she enters school to check in. She will communicate with them about her feelings on that day with a goal of attending her full day of classes 4 out of 5 days per week.

Academic

Using a graphic organizer, Ana will write and edit a paragraph of 5 sentences, when provided a topic sentence with 80% accuracy. (Laden, 2019).

Using an eighth-grade level timed text, Ana will increase her reading fluency from 40 WPM to 80 WPM on two out of three consecutive attempts.

Rationale

The Goals for Ana in the area of Social/Behavioral are intended to make her feel more comfortable at school. People do not want to be in a place where they have no friends and feel out of place. Ana does not interreact with her peers and this could be due to shyness or feelings of rejection. (Sanders, 2018). The conversation goal is the help her begin those interactions that might lead her to familiarity and friendship. School can be a crazy hectic place in the morning and if a student is feeling uncomfortable or inadequate it can create anxiety. By helping Ana have short positive interactions and showing her the progress monitoring of this goal Ana will feel like a success in her social interactions. The attendance goal is designed to start her with positive interactions with the people that she feels comfortable with, Adults. They can help her to get in a good place when she arrives at school then ease her into her classes only when she is calm. By creating a comfortable start to Ana’s day, she will associate school with positive uplifting feelings. The adults she trusts can help calm any anxiety or bad feelings Ana might have when she arrives at school. Also, having an assigned place to report to in the morning will keep Ana from wandering around the noisy halls feeling out of place. These feelings will carry over into her communication goal by having her day start in a positive manner any communications with her peers might carry a positive feeling.

The academic goals are designed to help build Ana’s skills in the areas she is behind in. To set a goal where she just writes a paragraph is bound to be difficult. Introducing the training and use of a graphic organizer will help Ana to apply a standard methodical approach to paragraph writing. By teaching Ana to use the graphic organizer every time she writes, Ana will feel comfortable and familiar using it during assessments. The editing part of the goal will also train Ana to go over her work, proofread and correct any errors she has made. This will also increase her word knowledge and fluency by having her look up the correct word or spelling of words she uses in her paragraphs. The Fluency and reading goal will help ANA in all subjects by raising her reading skill and word knowledge to a grade level closer to her own. Although this goal is written to test Ana on cold reading texts, this goal should include teaching Ana how to read and re-read text’s and how to just read for pleasure. Both of these will increase her fluency and comprehension as well as Lexile. By re-reading texts, Ana’s knowledge of and ability to read sight words will increase.

The professional dispositions that I would focus on when dealing with Ana and her family are Compassion and advocacy. Compassion for Ana, her family situation, her feeling of not belonging to either race should be second nature. However, if I assume, I understand how they feel I will come off as judgmental. I need to work on truly believing that there is nothing wrong or different with their family situation and that I truly believe that they are just as important and have as much to offer and have as much potential as anyone else. I also need to understand how the fact that Ana is different and having problems might make the mother fell like she is to blame and I need to support her and lift her up with support and research not just my words.

Advocacy is important due to the fact that Ana does not want to come to school, feels “like a freak”, and does not interact with friends at school. By building a relationship with Ana she will feel that she has someone on her side. By understanding her feelings and rationales for her feelings I can keep from appearing to Ana as if I am judging her.

References

Grand Canyon University. (2019). Ana Case Study

Grand Canyon University. (2019). https://students.gcu.edu/Documents/15GCU0264-COEProDisposition-120115_v1.pdf [Ebook]. Pheonix.

Laden, M. (2019, August 09). A Sample of Objectives and Goals Addressing Learning Disabilities in Reading and Math. Retrieved from https://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-law/116875-reading-and-math-iep-goals/

Sanders, P. (2018, August 23). What to Do When You Have No Friends and Feel Lonely. Retrieved from https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/what-to-do-if-you-have-no-friends.html