S. Fernando Navarro

Case Study: “EG,” 8th Grade Music Class

TIRP II

May 5, 2014

I. Introduction

My case study is “EG”. I picked this student because he is bright, but he struggles

with discipline in almost in every class. Not only did he tell me that he does not like my

class and does not like music, he also told me he is not happy at our school, Pikes Peak

Prep.

EG is currently in 8th grade and used to play the clarinet two years ago, but then

stopped in favor of wanting to try the Trombone. His attempt at trombone was

unsuccessful. He was unable to be successful in the trombone due to his poor attitude.

EJ is Hispanic but does not speak Spanish. His Father resides in Mexico and the father

does not speak English, so there is no communication between them.

I have noticed that EG behaves well with female teachers. He does not get many

referrals from his female teachers. I think the problem is more about his necessity of

male leadership in his life. His mother is strict. Sometimes she scolds him in front of me

about his behavior in my class or even when he gets in trouble in other classes.

At the beginning of the school year, EG had some great classes with me and he

was participating well. He was by no means a stellar student, but he had an acceptable

level of participation. For some reason, his scores in my class suddenly began dropping.

He refused to work and was disruptive. Since he is a natural leader, he caused even

greater distractions by his behavior. He also seems to like getting attention from his

peers. EG was my student last year as well. The 7th grade group in which he was was

notoriously difficult for all the teachers at Pikes Peak Prep. At that time he behaved

more as a follower and tried to be one of the “bad guys.” He got in trouble several times

in all of his classes, and ended up at the office frequently. An interesting fact about him is

that his mom works at the school as administrator. Mom is always open to help and

supports the teachers. She does not ignore the recommendations that the teachers give

her in regards to working with her son. She is a single mom with three male teenagers.

I have had several one on one conversation with EG. We sometimes talk about

his behavior and how we can improve his behavior. He is always telling me that he does

not want to be at Pikes Peak Prep. He constantly states that he hates the school. He gave

me several reasons why he has these feelings towards our school. I talked to mom and

the last conversation that we had, she told me that she does not know what to do with

EG. Last month, EG kept telling me that he thinks I hate him. I talked to him about that,

asking him what it is that makes him feel that way. His response was that I always got

him in trouble. However, I rarely send him to the office. Instead of that, I talk directly to

his mother and he gets in trouble with her.

By the second week of March, EG was doing better in my music class. He turned

in his work and I told him that I was excited about him turning in his work. He kind of

showed me a smile when I said that to him.

Last year, he got a D/60% in my class. This year he has averaged an F/55% in my

class. The reason has been that he has not turned in any work and also he has not been

practicing his instrument as he should be. In his first two quarters he got B’s and C’s in

different classes. Pikes Peak Prep implemented a new curriculum this school year called

blended learning. Instruction is combined with an online program during the school day.

Students start their day being instructed by a teacher and then go on to spend time on

the computers doing reinforcement activities and assessments. The computers do not

replace teachers in the classroom; instead, students are responsible for their progress

and they are free to go at their own pace.

In my research of EG, I found some interesting facts about him. First, his TCAP

scores having been going down or rather stagnant:

Secondly, MAPS test scores:

2012-2013

Reading Lang. Arts Math203 204 199

2013-2014 Fall

Reading Math Lang. Usage220 217 222

2013-2014 Winter

Reading Math Lang. Usage218 213 214

This is the Normative Data Overview

II Assumptions

During my meetings with EG, and also in all the information that I found from his

family and teachers, I found that EG is described as a helpful person, and a smart

student. From testing in 2011 to testing in 2012, EG’s scores dropped. Pikes Peak Prep

had a big change in the 2012-2013 school year, when EG was in 7th grade. In the

transition from the ’11-’12 and ’12-’13 school year, more the half of the staff left the

school. The mass exodus of teachers and the instability altered the environment of the

school. In addition, there were other changes happening at the school. The school

grounds were expanded and under construction during the fall of 2012. There used to

only be one building, but the school acquired several modular classroom units. Because

the modular units were not ready at the start of the school year, there were lots of

transitional classroom and changes from week to week. At one time the school rented a

building close to the school that was really disgusting, smelly, uncomfortable and

unclean. The environment of this building really impacted the students. The school also

accepted several new students who had a history of negative behavior or had been

expelled. According to staff who had worked in the school for years, the school used to

have a reputation of being very strict with order in the classrooms.

It appears that EG has a dysfunctional family. When I say dysfunctional I do not

say it in a pejorative way. His mother is single with three kids. She works a lot every day,

with an average of sixty hours per week. EG’s brothers are both older than he is. The

brothers have a good reputation in school. EG has a good relationship with them and I

can see that they are the only male representation at home. EG also does not get much

quality time with his mother since she works a lot.

These factors can affect a person. I can see that EG was struggling with structure

and he is thirsty for attention. In addition, the difficult job of being teenager, combined

with the earlier points, I come to the assumption that these were affecting his entire

environment. His search for attention, and his role as a leader in his class ended up

shaping his personality.

Last year four of his peers were threatening to usurp his position of “bad boy”

and consequently he began to prove that he was still the “bad boy” leader by acting out

even more. At that time, EG started having problems in all his classes, including his

favorite ones. The fight for his role lasted the whole last year, and EG did not stop

competing with the other bad boys all year long. The consequences were almost fatal for

his school career, because he almost got expelled. His grades were down and he started

having a bad reputation in our school.

In the beginning of this school year, the eighth grade class had fewer students

than last year, and this became a good ingredient for the eighth grade class as a whole.

Also, these students have a great homeroom teacher who provides stability and structure

in her classroom. This entire situation has helped EG improve his academic grades. The

only problem was that he kept refusing to work in some classes, including mine.

As far as music class, EG did not change his behavior, I tried to figure it out and I

came to the conclusion that, besides his struggles in his family life, his age, and all the

facts that affected him as a student, EG bucked against male authority. His biological

father is Mexican, and the image of Mexican males conjures up bitter feelings. Therefore,

his struggle with male leadership is also greater because I am Mexican and he told me

that I remind him of his dad.

III Literature Review

Robert J. MacKenzie, Ed. D. (2009) Setting Limits in the Classroom: How to Move

Beyond the Dance of Discipline in Todays Classroom. Inspiring with Positive Motivation.

“Limits define the path we want students to stay on, but limits alone may not motivate them to head in the intended direction. Cooperation is still a voluntary act. Short of using consequences, what can we do to inspire their cooperation? How can tip the scales in our Favor?”

Having an unhealthy relationship with students affects the efficiency of teachers’

classes. Of course, these relationships have to be professional and respectful. Teachers

cannot go to the place where the limits of professionalism and friendship are joined. A

teacher’s job is that of education, not of friendship. Teachers can be mentors but not go-

betweens. A teacher’s first duty is educate, and part of education is motivation.

Motivation does not naturally come to all teachers. However, motivation is an

essential ingredient of teaching. Therefore, in order to motivate students, teachers need

to have the knowledge of our students. If teachers do not know their students, teachers

will not be able to recognize students’ strength, and as a result, students will not be

sufficiently motivated.

“When it comes to motivating students, most teachers head in one of two directions.

They take a positive approach and use generous helpings of encouragement and rewards

to inspire the behavior they want. Or they take a negative approach and rely primarily on

threats, punishment, and coercion to force children into cooperating. There is not much

in between.”

Negative messages inspire resistance, and disconnect the successful teacher-

student relationship. The author clarifies that teachers should use more positive talking

to students in order to get their attention and get their commitment to their class.

Humans tend to use more negative vocabulary to subordinates because that makes one

feel that he or she has control of everything. Or maybe, a person is afraid of losing a

position of respect, and consequently act in that degrading way. Therefore, a teacher’s

job is motivating students by knowing their weaknesses and their strength. A teacher

must always use a positive vocabulary in order to build up a healthy relationship with

students.

Susand L. Haugland Crowd control: Crowd Management and Effective Teaching for

Chorus, Band, and Orchestra (Second Edition) “Creating a Team.”

An ensemble that feels like a team and works together performs better than one that doesn’t. When you see or listen to a group that has this team spirit, you immediately recognize it in the energy of the performance. Sometimes, in schools with many socioeconomic levels or culturally diverse populations of students, getting students to come together and work as a team is one of the most difficult parts of managing a classroom that you can tackle

One of the problems for teenagers consists of the stressful assumption of putting

on a certain façade. Their appearance is important and they try to fit in, they think it is

the ultimate tool for making them happy and accepted. Teenagers tend to look for a

group that shares the same needs. Sometimes, they will do anything to fit in. They crave

to be accepted, they thirst for acceptance, and they fight to have a role in their society,

even if it is an unhealthy role.

Haugland points to team-building as tool for better behavior in music class:

“either we play instruments or sing, it does not matter, we need to be part of a team.”

Building a group breaks the ice in the different little societies that are prevalent within a

classroom. This also helps to construct better relationships with students, accepting and

celebrating the differences that the classroom community has. Creating an association

between students ignites respect and tolerance to diversity.

Fay, J., & Funk, D. (Jim Fay –David Funk Teaching with Love and Logic: Taking Control of

the Classroom

Self-concept has become a key factor in today’s education because so many kids have a poor one. There have been innumerable teacher-training programs and student curricula developed in the recent past to deal with this educational malady. They were developed in response to a need—a severe need. An understanding of how we arrived at this point may give us, as parents and educators, insight into effectively dealing with the problems. Society had expectations of the extended family. Kids were to watch adults and learn from them how to solve problems. Adults were expected to give good advice and be examples for kids to follow. Most certainly there were exceptions, but, for the most part, a kid’s self-concept was not an issue, because kids were developing their own self-concepts through struggle. To know what to do for a kid without a knowledge of that kid’s intimate variables is often little more than a hopeful shot in the dark.

We need to address self-concept in school because of its importance to student

performance. However, we also want to be effective in the long haul. Within the Love

and Logic approach, self-concept is developed, not from a workbook, but from the

influence of people who matter in a kid’s life—the “magic” people who model

appropriate behavior and, by the very way they think, speak, and act, affect who that

child turns out to be.

III. INTERVENTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERVENTION

My intervention with EG started on February 10th, we were meeting once per

week. I already had a meeting with his mother, I explained to her my goals for EG and she

was totally open to work with me.

In our first meeting we just talked about different topics of life. I wanted to know

his environment and his ideas about life. Then, we started to talk about music class, I

asked him to be honest with me about my class. He did not say too much but he told me

the same thing as he told me before. His rejection of music class was not ad hominem,

his reason was that he does not think that music class was helpful for him in his future.

He told me that he despises playing an instrument and that he does not how to read

music and does not really understand rhythm and musical notation. I told him that I

wanted to help him on those areas where he is lacking knowledge.

As a reward I told EG that I would talk to his mother about his improvement so

that he could have more privileges from his mom, and also having a chart with his

improvements would give him accountability for his work. He agreed with me and in this

second meeting we started to talk about fundamental musical elements.

We started with rhythm notes such as quarter notes and quarter rests. These exercises

were easy for EG and he told me that he already understood all that information. I told

him that I just needed to see if he understood each element of music, even basic musical

components.

In the third week, we studied a little more complicated rhythm. We worked with

eighth notes and eighth rest combining them with quarter notes. He really got it, and he

told me that he had not worked on this kind of rhythm. He mentioned that he thought

this work was going to be more difficult but he found it easy and fun.

In the fourth week, we worked on rhythm dictation. I clapped different rhythms

and he had to write with rhythm notes what he heard from my clapping. At the beginning

it was a little bit difficult for him, but he caught on quickly and was doing a great job. I

thought maybe the fact of being one on one was really helping him to feel free and more

confident in my class.

The problem of his behavior at this moment was due to his fear of failure. Since

he did not have the knowledge, he could not really feel confident to participate in my

class. And since he wanted to feel accepted, he did not want to show to his peers that we

were going to fail.

In the fifth week, we started working with musical notation. We reviewed clefs

and we talked about why we need clefs in music. He was curious about it; he told me that

he never thought about that question. He took for granted that clefs were something

that it was there in he needed to learn. What I notice at this moment is that EG is

intuitive in different areas. He was asking more during our meetings. In normal class, EG

was participating more, he even was giving me the correct definitions of different musical

terms.

We also started to apply everything learned during our meetings with his

instrument. He plays percussion. Clapping rhythms are much different than playing a

percussion instrument. He tried and he achieved it, he felt more confident playing his

instrument.

In the sixth week, we kept working with the same kind of rhythms, but now we

applied some abstract elements. Some of these elements which I call are dynamic signs

(volume), for EG was a little bit different because he was always playing flat, without any

change of volume. EG noticed music sounds different when we apply dynamic signs.

In the seventh week, we worked again with some musical notation. Even though most of

the percussion instruments do not have musical notation (solfège), this is part of the

state standards for music class. EG worked with two worksheets, one was treble clef

notes and the other one was bass clef. He did not really enjoy this work but he finished

and I noticed that EG was paying attention when I was explaining treble clef notes and

bass clef notes.

V. CONCLUSION

Self-monitoring for academic improvement appears effective with EG. I found that he

was more confident with my company and also, I think the most important, playing his

instrument. Getting to know students is a great tool for education. Teachers cannot

succeed if they view students as numbers or machines of test takers. Students are

looking for acceptance in the classroom, and teachers are one of the people that can give

this to students, all the while being respectful, professional, and smart in developing

relationships with students. Communicating with parents is always a great tool. Teachers

need to find the way to keep in touch with them so as to be able to work in cooperation

with parents to be more successful and to get to know students more with the help of

the family. It is also beneficial to understand the community, the society of a school, and

the cultures and subcultures in order to understand the context of each family more

deeply.

This intervention helped me to identify weaknesses and strengths of my students. I was

able to stop taking things for granted, and start to look for better ideas of how to engage

my students in my class. It was so easy to blame students if they had a bad behavior,

because I always thought that students had to like music class just for the fact of being a

special class. How I was going to embrace changes if I did not even know my community?

I did not know my families and the most important things for my students. My school,

Pikes Peak Prep, has the privilege of having different ethno groups such as Hispanic,

American, and African-American that bring richness and diversity to our community.

EG took advantage of having these private music class sessions with me. He improved a

lot in my class; my relationship has improved because we spent time working together. I

hope EG can bring all his smartness to his classes. I could see that he is a smart student

and when he finds comfort in a good environment he is able to success.

“Malpractice involves lack of skill in performing professional duties, no matter what the

profession” (Fay & Funk)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert J. MacKenzie, Ed. D. (2009) Setting Limits in the Classroom: How to Move

Beyond the Dance of Discipline in Todays Classroom. Inspiring with Positive

Motivation.

Susand L. Haugland Crowd control: Crowd Management and Effective Teaching for

Chorus, Band, and Orchestra (Second Edition) “Creating a Team”

Jim Fay –David Funk Ed (1995) Teaching with Love and Logic: Taking Control of the

Classroom