Teacher / Student Expectations

Title: Reflections of William

Area: Teacher/Student Expectancies

Skills demonstrated (summary from focus groups activities): Knowledge of skills to solve problems involving: barriers to comprehension, assisting students with content and skill mastery, the effect of expectancies (including assessment expectancies), adapting pedagogy.

Vignette

Please read the following scenarios and answer the questions as completely as possible. We are looking for depth in your responses so please "Show what you know."

Reflections of William

William is an elementary school teacher in a suburban school. He is making out report cards for students in what this year he calls his "zoo crew." To support his comments, he reflects on past interactions he has had with each student. The first report card is for Sarah. Before he writes any comments, he remembers back to a typical interaction with Sarah, the class leader:

William (standing by Sarah’s desk): Sarah, I just wanted to let you know before I announce it to the class that I have chosen you to be the group leader for the Newscast project. Since you always have your work in on time and have done such a great job in the past leading small groups, I thought you would be a natural for the group leader. You might want to read over this handout before I introduce the newscast project to the class...

Breaking from his thoughts, William writes "Sarah is a pleasure to have in class. Her leadership skills are outstanding..."

William continues to the next report card, Tim, a Special Ed student who always requires extra help. He remembers a time when he was circulating around the room helping students. Tim had his hand up for awhile before William finally stopped to help him:

William: Yes, Tim. Are you still having trouble with question number one?

Tim: I can't find...

William (impatiently interrupting him): You know, it would really help if you would READ the information first. Have you tried that? Would you like to go down to the resource room and have them read it to you? Maybe then you would understand the questions and be able to find the answers instead of expecting me to give them all to you.

William writes: "Because of Tim's learning disability, he often struggles with written assignments. I suggest that he..."

The next report card is for Bradley, a behavior problem student. William remembers a time when he put his students into groups for an "Explorer Game." He had given the instructions to the students, ending with an admonishment that if the students can't be quiet while he reads the information to the students, he will stop the game and they will have to go back to their seats:

William: All of the other classes today have managed to get to play the entire game. However, if this class acts like it usually does and doesn't cooperate, I'll just stop the game and you can do an assignment from the book. Does everyone understand?

Bradley reads the first piece of information; the class reacts noisily... Bradley takes his game piece and throws it across the room.

William: Bradley, what are you doing? I knew you would be the one to mess it up for the rest of the class. Okay, class back to your seats. Since you aren't mature enough to handle a fun activity, I guess you'll have to do the assignment....

He writes as he remembers this horrible day: "Bradley needs to use his class time more wisely..." The next report card William fills out is for Juana, a student with limited English proficiency and in an ESL program. He remembered a time when he finished giving an assignment to the class. He walked over to Juana’s desk. Juana was with a paraprofessional who had been assigned to her.

William (to the para): I don't expect Juana to understand this assignment. So why don't you just have her do half the assignment...

William writes as he remembers this experience involving Juana: "I feel like Juana has trouble understanding what is going on in class..."

1. List the problem(s) you see in the above scenario in as much detail as possible.

2. How would you respond to Tim differently than did William when Tim said "I can’t...?" Please write a verbatim response to Tim’s statement. Your response should focus on content mastery and comprehension issues.

Tim: "I can’t find..."

You: "

3. How would you adapt your instructional strategy(ies) for Juana to convey the idea that you have high expectations for her success? Please describe your strategy(ies) in as much detail as possible so that a colleague could implement it.

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Please feel free to email Dr. Anthony Ambrosio, if you have any concern about the grant. Thank you.

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Last revision: Oct. 2006