UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO HUMACAO ENGLISH DEPARTMENT PRACTICE TEACHING

CASE STUDY: PHASE III JUAN PONCE DE LEON BILINGUAL SCHOOL - HUMACAO COOPERATING TEACHER: SARA TROCHE APRIL 20, 2012

ANGELIQUE M. COLON 842-05-1566

Final Reaction After working for a couple of months with my case study (Pablo Rodriguez), I have come to a series of conclusions which can better explain his current situation. His father, as I have mentioned before, is a teacher at the Juan Ponce de Leon. Because of this, many teachers feel intimidated and do not address Pablos needs accordingly. They treat him specially and he is used to this. He falls asleep in other classes, hes constantly interrupting without even noticing and he hands in every single assignment late. In class, unless I am sitting next to him, he does not work. Furthermore, he is constantly absent because of his medical appointments and mostly because he is a star athlete at school. Although I do not think this is in its entirety a negative thing, I do believe that there should be a balance. Apart from these obvious behaviors, what other teachers might not notice and what I admire the most of him, is that he is a gentleman and very courteous. Every morning he receives me with a kiss and he says good-bye with another. Hes even told other students that I am his aunt. This is quite an improvement because at the beginning of the semester he barely talked to me. Thanks to Pablos new attitude towards me, I was able to approach him and work directly with him. In class, I cannot stop to help him, but some students have volunteered to serve as peer tutors. I never assigned them, they just did. When I do have a chance, I work on helping him compose. His level of composition is below the average. He cannot compose in Spanish and the fact that he barely understands English doesnt help his case. The fact of the matter is that in the school there are mostly talented students. When it comes to taking classes, he is behind. What I decided to do to help him improve and reach general expectations was create thematic packages. According to the current thematic unit and themes being discussed in class, I created a series of packages that would help him practice at home. I have included the Writing

and Reading packages as an appendix. In these packages he could find material of all three phases (exploration, conceptualization and application) and the fact that they were together would help him revise the material. He hasnt improved much. Most of the material in the packages he hasnt handed in. In class, he still doesnt pay attention and mostly because he doesnt understand so he gets bored. I try to sit him next to me but there isnt much improvement. There arent many breaks I can take. I have really come to realize that individualizing the educational experience is much more difficult than what I ever imagined. For there to be improvement I believe that teachers have to stand up to Pablos father and treat Pablo as an equal. They have to address his particular necessities and stop covering for the lack of responsibility. Ive also heard from teachers that what might help greatly is for Pablo to have a T-1. At this moment, I dont think his father fully grasps Pablos necessities and how his absences are affecting him. Teachers cannot continue to pass him from grade to grade because in tenth grade there wont be any more excuses and what is going to happen is that he will flunk most of his classes. I also believe that material should be personalized. Lastly, although there is a Special Education teacher at the school, she is not at school full time. This is a great disadvantage for Pablo considering how he greatly needs the help. Pablo is misplaced. He is in a school where students are selected because of their grades and an admission test, therefore, special education is not a priority. Special treatment is what is affecting greatly his learning experience. Priorities should be set straight for the student to improve. Sports arent all, and without a basic set of skills, he will not be able to achieve his goals.