Middle School Case Studies
Read the characteristics of middle school students before you complete case studies.
Directions: As an intern or a first year teacher, you will confront innumerable
challenges. Finding successful strategies to cope with these difficulties can
positively shape your teaching experiences. After you have been assigned a
situation that you might face as a teacher, discuss with your group ways in
which the problem can be rectified. The solutions offered should not only
benefit you as a teacher, but also should be in the best interest of your
students.
Case Study 1:
1. You have taken
over for a teacher who has quit mid-semester. The departed teacher,
disgruntled with his job, failed to maintain classroom discipline for weeks.
You learn that he was in the habit of sending
students out of the room, assigning detention left and right, and yelling at
them. In one class, the students greet your arrival with complete unruliness,
and your end of grade test is in six weeks. Two students in particular have
extreme behavior problems, like back-talking, profanity, and hyperactivity.
What strategies (suggest at least 2 or 3) can you employ to regain control over this class? Case Study 2:
2. Your students in
one class are generally apathetic. When you ask questions, maybe two students
give responses to fill the nervous silence. Homework is submitted by no more
than 25% of the class. Tests designed for an hour are submitted by some
students after 10 minutes. Some simply refuse to read during class. In
general, the class seems resentful, bored, and hostile. What strategies
(suggest at least 2 or 3) could
you use to motivate and energize the students to engage themselves seriously
in the material and lessons? How can you get the students to submit homework
regularly? You know that many of your colleagues have simply given up on
homework. Case Study 3: 3. Middle school students are often a cornucopia of
hormones and emotions. One of your students who has been very diligent and
polite has suddenly become impudent and disrespectful. She has formed
close friendships with some of the more disruptive students and seems to be
proving to them that she's "one of them." Her grades have
fallen and when you try to talk to her, she is sullen and gives you no
response. She lives with her mother and several younger brothers and
sisters. When you called her mother to discuss the problem, she told
you that she's having the same problem at home and really doesn't know what
to do. How would you address this student's problems? Explain
your reasons for your decisions.
Case Study 4: 4. You believe in using groups in your classroom when
it is appropriate for instruction. The groups are usually teacher
generated. There is one student in your class who is disliked by all
the students. Her has been identified as ADHD and often fails to
complete her part of the group work. In addition, she has very quick
temper and becomes vocally disruptive when the slightest thing doesn't go
his way in the group. You think it's important to include all of your
students in the grouping, but you and the whole class are quickly getting
exasperated with the student. What strategies would you use to help
him learn to cooperate with others better and become a productive member of
the groups? Explain your reasons for your decisions.