Tutoring and Assessment Case Study for Educ.

331
Candidate: Wendy Lemon

Subject: General

Education 331 Instructor: Dr. Brenda Wilson

Date: November 30, 2013
Number of students: 1
Assessing:
Grade Level: 6
th

School: Stonewall Middle School
Coop Teacher: Tara Jones
Date of Pre-Test:
Pre-test score:
Date of Post-test:
Post test score

Decision about Who, What, and How to tutor/teach and How to access:
Ms. Jones and I decided that I would be assigned to work with one student in the 6
th
grade
who is in the hearing impaired room with her part of the day and in the self-contained MI
resource room the remainder of the day. Since being able to recognize facial expression is vital
for hearing impaired students and for social interaction for students with mental impairments it
was determined that this would be an area of focus. The student we decided I would be working
with also struggles with appropriate behaviors and anger outbreaks. It was determined that it
would also be beneficial to work on the connection with facial expression to emotion and their
application to real life situations. We decided that I would give on pretest on a given list of
emotions and a post test on the same list of emotions in order to check for vocabulary in sign and
written language that would be need to achieve our goals.
Tutoring Lesson/Unit and Assessment Description:
I assessed the student with the vocabulary pretest. The pretest is the same as the posttest and
is attached to this report. I gave the pretest on September 23, 2013 and gave the posttest five
weeks later, after tutor the student for 10 hours. The test involved 12 emotion picture cards and
12 emotion word cards. The student was to look at each and sign the appropriate response for
each word. The pre-test was administered one-on-one. When the assessment was completed and
recorded, went over each card and verified the correct answer to each card by signing the correct
response.
Link to Standards:
RLA.O.SP.3.6:
use non-verbal skills effectively (e.g., eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture, body
movement, dress
VA.O.3.5.2:
explore two- or three-dimensional art that reflects emotion
TH.O.LIV.2.1:
create and perform multi-dimensional characters whose needs, wants, actions, objectives,
obstacles, emotions and subtext are rooted in text.
The content I assessed was vocabulary awareness and word connection for facial expression. I
think this is very important content, because it is required for effective communication with the deaf
community, its needed for confident and positive social interaction, and is required to aid in
appropriate behavior in various situations.





Results of Assessments:
Word Pretest Posttest Picture Pretest Posttest
happy X X happy X X
excited X excited X
embarrassed embarrassed X
surprised X surprised X
shy shy
bored bored X
angry X X angry X X
tired X tired X X
afraid X afraid X
sad X X sad X X
confused confused
grouchy grouchy X

percentage
correct

25%


58%

percentage
correct

33%

83%
Test given with written words- Table 1 Test given with facial expression

As the table and graph show, this student initially was able to receive content concerning
facial expressions/emotions sufficiently through written referencing of the word or through the
visual referencing. It is underdetermined if this is due to lack of prior exposure, social
disconnect due to MI diagnosis, or if she simply did not have sign referencing to connect with
the vocabulary and concepts presented. After the tutoring sessions, the student had more than
doubled in both, written and visual referencing of the content presented.
Disaggregated Data
If I disaggregated the data according to referencing of the material presented, this student
advanced more in the area of visual representation. I believe that this is due to the student being
Deaf. It is common that hearing impaired students are strong visual learners, yet struggle with
written language due to the lack of phonetic awareness that is used in typical reading.

Reflection and Data-based Decision Making:
Based on the pre-test scores it is obvious that this student needed to learn the facial
expression/emotion content. This student needed support with both the recognition of the written
vocabulary and its connection with the corresponding facial expression. Since it was unsure if
this student has the signed vocabulary to express understanding of the content it was determined
that the student would also need to learn content vocabulary in American Sign Language also. In
order to aid in the understanding of this content we decided to use a combination of flashcards,
matching games, content related read-a-louds, miming and acting activities, and games that
would combine several of these strategies. The words happy, angry, and sad were kept as
vocabulary during the tutoring although these words had correct responses with both the written
and visual portions of the pretest. It was determined that these words may be used as a
foundation for building new vocabulary on or that if these words were eliminated that it may
cause confusion when the new vocabulary was presented.
The post-test confirmed that the student was able to gain advancement in the area of
recognizing facial expression/emotion content and the related vocabulary. I felt that the tutor
project went well. I feel that it was beneficial at times to include other students in the activity to
main active interest in the content and to be able to apply the new content in real life situations.
Although the student sometimes would want to participate in other activities or projects taking
place in the same room, if a partner or small group would join us she would re-engage in the
activity. She really seemed to enjoy the attention and was able to consistently retain the new
information gained. I felt that if additional time say given to this content that she is more than
capable of further advancement. I feel that it is highly likely that she had some awareness of
facial expression and their connection to emotion, but did not have significant written or signed
language to communicate understanding of the concepts. I am hopeful that she will be
encouraged to use her new vocabulary and that the new knowledge and communication skills
that were acquired during the tutoring process will also aid in avoiding behavioral issues in the
future.
Since there are multiple other emotions connected to similar facial expressions, I would like
to see more vocabulary added to the current list. This student is complex with her hearing
impairment, mental impairment, and social and behavioral struggles; therefore continuance of
these types of activities would aid in each of these area.
I enjoyed working with the students at Stonewall Middle School. I believe that I learned
strategies and observed situations that will help me as a future teacher. I am fond of working
with students that have complex needs and desire to help each of them become successful
individuals in the many different arenas of education and life.
** Please note that the written referencing were the words included in the Assessment Results
graph. The items used for the visual referencing were made available at Stonewall Middle
School and are not available at this time to be attached to this document. Responses of the
student were given in American Sign Language; therefore is not student completed paper to
attach with the pre-test or post-test.**