Moe 3a Jim Colbert Case Study

Abby Micheel
PSY 3020
R. Klindworth
10/15/2021
Jim Colbert is a third-grade teacher within a school with an urban setting. Within the
school, there are three classes of third grade taught by Jim and two other teachers. Jim teaches
the third-grade students who have the highest intelligence level within their grade. Jim is eager
to instruct these students as he has five learning centers within his classroom equipped with task
cards to keep the students on track with the lesson. He also brings in peer teamwork-based
instruction so that the students can learn with each other. With this teamwork mindset, Jim also
separated his class into two groups based on their scores on the basal test. Despite having
prepared his classroom to produce effective instruction, this particular classroom setting is not
able to work at effectively teaching all of his students. An example of one of these students is
Carlos. Jim cannot find a way to help Carlos with his English setbacks, such as reading, spelling,
and phonics. Jim seeks help from the retired teacher who tutors at the school, Mrs. Rush.
However, due to budget cuts, Mrs. Rush is unable to help Carlos after a few weeks. Everything
that is happening leaves Jim feeling hopeless in finding a way to help Carlos to succeed.
As for Carlos, Carlos is a bright student who earned high math scores, which made him
able to be in Jim’s class. Despite excelling in math, Carlos has setbacks in reading, phonics, and
spelling in English. Jim is concerned for Carlos and has been using strategies such as reviewing
words as they are spelled correctly with Carlos to help him succeed. Even with the help, Jim
notices slight improvement for Carlos. The little progress is probably happening because the
strategy Jim uses for Carlos is rote learning which is more focused on rote learning and does not
give Carlos meaning behind the words he uses (Omrod, p. 37). To make learning meaningful, the
educator should find ways to relate the concepts to the student’s life to make those connections.
That is when one should also consider Carlos’s background when assessing him. This technique
can bring meaning to learning and help the teacher see possible learning setbacks that need to
be faced. Carlos is the surprise child of his significantly older parents and his adult sister in his
situation. Not only are his parents noticeably more aged than his peers’ parents, but they also
come from a Spanish-speaking background. His parents’ mindset on his education is that the
school should be the one to hold responsibility and show little interest in helping their son to
succeed as they do not feel that is something for them to do. This background does not even
mention their little concern for how Carlos grows in English as they are not fluent in the
language (Colbert, p. 52-53).
Knowing the background of his student, Jim would see that Carlos is an English
language learner (ELL) rather than being a student raised being fluent in English which is the
same language that he needs to use for reading, speaking, and writing within the school. With all
of this and his parents leaving more responsibility for Carlos onto his school, Carlos is going
through culture shock or were his “behaviors expected at school differ from those allowed or
expected at home” (Omrod, p. 124). Keeping in mind the difference in discipline and language
barrier between the two main settings he is in should encourage Jim to incorporate Carlos’s
home culture and language into Carlos’s lessons to find more connections to his homework and
everyday life rather than believe there are no connections.
Not only should the background of Carlos’s home be checked, but there should also be
checkups on how his school environment could affect his learning. As mentioned in the story,
the school is set in not the safest area to the point where children easily mistook the sound of
firecrackers for the sound of gunshots and ducked away for protection (Colbert, p. 51-52). If
Carlos has the same fear about the school atmosphere as some of his classmates, Carlos could be
distracted from learning because of is more concerned for his safety. This worry can also be seen
as more critical on a scale based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Omrod, p. 159-162). According
to Maslow, there are deficiency needs that must be cared for the child to feel comfortable
learning. These are survival, safety, belonging, and self-esteem. From Maslow’s perspective, the
students need to feel safe in their learning environment over learning the material. Carlos is
among one those students that the teacher should check to see if he feels safe.
One issue that is not in this situation is the student’s lack of motivation. One can notice
this when reading how Carlos agrees to do his homework and when he must also look up his
words in the American dictionary (Colbert, p. 50-51). Omrod highlights the importance of
motivation for a student as he considers the cycle of academic motivation to lead to educational
outcomes (Omrod, p. 155). Since Carlos already has the motivation, Jim does not have to worry
about needing Carlos to feel encouraged to learn and work on his assessments. This motivation
can be helpful to Jim in exploring accommodations. Now, the accommodations are for Carlos to
end up focusing more on the effectiveness of the learning approach than there is the factor that
Carlos believes he cannot learn, which would cause him not to try to work hard in school.
From everything I have learned about this case and connecting it to what we have
discussed in class already, I have some possible solutions to resolving the setback from Carlos’s
educational success. First of all, as mentioned before, when talking about culture shock, I believe
that Jim should implement more of Carlos’s home background into his school life. Adding
culture can lead Carlos to relate similarities from what he has learned to his everyday life rather
than only seeing the differences, especially expectations. Implementing culture into academic
learning would also help as culture permeates thinking processes as he thinks in various ways
(Omrod, p. 121). The other idea that could help is if Carlos were to have a peer who shares a
similar cultural background (considering they are at an urban school, the variety of backgrounds
should have at least a few students with similar backgrounds to Carlos’s). The peers can
encourage Carlos to relate to someone who knows what it’s like to live in that type of setting and
still succeed academically. Peer tutoring can also help Carlos transition smoothly from Spanish
to English rather than forcing him to use just English that he may not understand in his
homework, such as using the dictionary. Whatever strategies are used, they must be along the
lines of a respectful transition from one culture to another. Carlos can then understand what is
happening because he is learning in a meaningful way.

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Abby Micheel

language (Colbert, p. 52-53).

everyday life rather than believe there are no connections.

happening because he is learning in a meaningful way.

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