Allison-What Would You Do (Eddie)

            The description of Eddie reminds me of the description of Marcus in the Kostelnick et al. article.  Marcus was considered a gifted child, but his academic capabilities were greatly affected by his attention, and he was diagnosed with a mild form of ADHD.  On the one hand, Eddie seems to be having attention problems, similarly to Marcus.  It seems as if he needs to be moving to be able to pay attention to what the teacher is saying because he frequently needs to be moving around.  If he is constantly tapping a pencil, moving his legs, or getting out of his seat, then he must have a challenging time sitting still.  These are red flags that he may have some form of ADHD.

On the other hand, Eddie is displaying some signs of being gifted, similarly to Marcus.  The description of Eddie mentioned that he is well-liked by his peers.  One reason for this may be that he has a strong sense of humor, which is also a sign that a child is gifted.  While the description does not necessarily say this, it could be one explanation as to why his peers like him.  Also, Eddie has an imagination and was daydreaming during Mrs. Potter’s science lesson about frogs.  Another sign that a child is gifted is that he/she daydreams.  When Eddie saw the female frogs, Eddie displayed excitement about the topic.  Children who are gifted are persistent in tasks that they find interesting.  Therefore, one can assume Eddie was interested in learning about frogs.  This may also explain why he does not finish his other work; he is simply not interested in the work.  Similarly, Marcus did not like completing tasks that he was uninterested in.  A student may be gifted, but not excel academically because he/she is not interested in what is being discussed in his/her classroom.  Thus, Eddie might be gifted, but it is masked because he does not want to complete work he finds boring.

            Therefore, Mrs. Potter could take several steps to better deal with Eddie.  In the article, one of Marcus’s teachers struggled with not wanting to accommodate Marcus’s different attention needs.  However, Mrs. Potter should accommodate Eddie’s different attention needs so he can be a successful student.  First, she could provide him with materials to help him focus during her lessons.  For example, if he likes tapping his pencil, then Mrs. Potter could find a soft object that Eddie could tap to satisfy this need of his, without disturbing his peers.  Also, if Eddie likes to move his legs, she could provide Eddie with an exercise ball to sit on in the back of the classroom when she is teaching, instead of sitting in his chair and moving his legs.  Sitting on the exercise ball would give Eddie the opportunity to be moving, yet still staying in one place, which would keep his attention and not disturb the other students.  In addition, she could give the students stretch breaks during her lessons so they are not sitting still for so long.

           Second, Mrs. Potter could make her lessons more hands-on for all of her students.  Eddie may not be the only student who gets bored during Mrs. Potter’s lessons.  It can become tiring listening to a teacher talk for a long period of time.  Therefore, if the children are able to be engaged in the lesson, Mrs. Potter will help all of her students attend to the lessons.  She could do this by providing materials with each student or table group, so the students can physically explore the topic they are learning about.  For example, the Breitfelder article discussed giving students smaller versions of the materials the teacher is using at the front of the classroom, as a way to keep the students interested.  Or, she could provide each student with a miniature white board, and have them respond to questions on the white board, so they are all engaged in thinking about every question.  Finally, she could try having the students work in small groups, so they are talking with each other more than having to listen to a lecture by the teacher.  The Gibbons textbook chapters we read a couple of weeks ago mentioned having students work in small groups on activities so they remain interested, and so the students can scaffold each others’ learning.

          Third, Mrs. Potter could post a schedule of the day on the front board, so the students know where the day is going.  The Breitfelder article suggested doing this, especially for children who have difficulty with attention.  However, the schedule posted on the board should only be for the major transitions of the day, such as math, science, specials, and so on.  In addition to this, Breitfelder suggests including a miniature schedule for each major transition, that is separate from the large schedule posted at the front of the classroom.  For example, Mrs. Potter could create and post a schedule for what the students will be doing during each major transition of the day.  Then, she could share these schedules with the students at the beginning of each activity.  This way, the students know what they will be doing in each activity, and in what order they will be doing it.

             Finally, Mrs. Potter could incorporate lessons that involve topics that interest Eddie.  If she does not know about Eddie’s interests, then she could contact his family to help her discover what he is interested in.  The Maples article talked about a teacher who utilized her students’ families are valuable resources to learning about the students in her classroom.  This helped the teacher learn about her students, as well as develop a respectful relationship with the parents of her students.  Mrs. Potter could have Eddie’s family write her a letter, which would describe to her what Eddie likes.  While the teacher in the article did this at the beginning of the school year, it is never too late to learn about your students.  In fact, Mrs. Potter should do this with all of her students.  Then, once she knows what the students are interested in, she could incorporate the students’ interests into the classroom through books in her classroom library, centers, and so on.  If Mrs. Potter learns about what her students are like outside of the classroom, she will be able to tailor her lessons to best meet their needs, which is important to do for all students.