Case Study - Lack of Attention

Introduction

The case study approach of this module has been designed to create an awareness of the general classroom behavioral problems that may be encountered on a day to day basis. The examples here are generalised and may be applied to situations other than the ones given here.

Description of the problem

Rod is very careless on his written assignments. On arithmetic worksheets, he misses basic facts and forgets to borrow or carry. He adds when he should subtract and subtracts when he should add. Rod even forgets to do some of the problems. On reading worksheets, Rod's writing is sloppy, questions are only partially answered, and there are many errors. Some days Rod's handwriting is completely illegible. The quality of Rod's work varies, but it's never a demonstration of this best efforts.

Causes

Many students find that sloppy work is much easier and quicker to produce than high quality work. They are sloppy because it is easier. If a student has never been held accountable for producing quality work in the past, he or she will try to continue producing the same poor quality work.

Another factor is that the student may not have an adequate understanding of the teacher's expectations regarding the quality of work. The student may think that his or her work complies with the teacher's standards.

Goal

Students will meet the teacher's established standards for neatness, accuracy, and quality on all written assignments.

The Plan:

Step 1:
Make certain that students are given work at their appropriate skill levels. What appears to be careless work may, in fact, be work the student is not capable of doing. Look at assignments to determine whether the student can handle specific skills. For example, if you are concerned about a student's arithmetic assignments, examine past arithmetic worksheets. If the student does some of the addition and subtraction problems correctly, and some of the multiplication and division problems correctly, you can assume that the student has the necessary skills. You should also examine errors to make sure that the student is not consistently making the same mistake. If the same type of error occurs again and again, that particular problem should be re-mediated. If the student does well in addition, subtraction, and multiplication but seems to make careless errors in division, assume that the student needs to be taught more about division.

If the student has problems reading worksheet directions or textbook assignments, recheck the student's reading level. If you are concerned about English, social studies, or science assignments, you may need to determine whether the student is able to read and understand the worksheets. Does the student understand the vocabulary used? Does the student understand the concepts involved?

Step 2:
Make sure that students have enough time to complete their assignments. Examine the amount of time students have to complete work. If students often seem to be rushing to finish assignments in the last few minutes of a work period, You may not be allowing them enough time. Increase the amount of time students have to complete assignments or reduce the assignments themselves.

Before increasing work time or reducing the length of assignments, determine whether students are budgeting their time wisely. Some sloppiness may occur because students are wasting time and trying to complete assignments at the last minute. If this is the problem, go on to step 3.

Step 3:
Examine what students do when they complete assignments. If students get to engage in fun activities as soon as work is completed, some students may rush through their work so they can take part in the fun. It may be necessary to change the free time activities to tasks that are moderately enjoyable, but not tremendously fun. Cushion activities sometimes function in the way, if they are carefully designed.

Step 4:
Tell the students specifically what must be done to complete an assignment. If it's an arithmetic assignment, decide what percentage of the problems must be correct. If it's a handwriting assignment, decide what standards are appropriate for the grade level you teach. If the assignment is a composition, decide what specific skills you expect students to exhibit (correct spelling, complete sentences, verb tense agreement, and so on). It is essential that students know exactly what you require of them. And your expectations should be geared to the ability level of the students. You must set realistic, yet challenging, standards of performance.

Step 5:
Offer students some positive reinforcement for having met your expectations. When students have met your expectations, you need to provide them with feedback to let them know that they were successful. This feedback may take many different forms. You may wish to use grades, free time, or bonus points as reinforcements. Bonus points can be saved up and traded in on pencils or other supplies. In addition, provide students with verbal or written feedback to show that you are aware of and are pleased with their efforts. Many students do careless work simply because they have never learned that a teacher cares whether they do quality work. You must show your students that you notice work that's been done well.

Step 6:
Let students know what happens if they don't meet your expectations. The most logical consequence of noncompliance is to have them redo the work until it meets the criteria. Give substandard work back to the student and ask that it be redone. The work should be returned to the student no later than the day after the assignment was handed in.

Step 7:
If the student does not make the necessary corrections during independent work times, you may need to keep the student in after school, during recess, or during some other time that the student values. You need to demonstrate that the student is accountable for meeting the criteria on each assignment.

Requiring the student to redo work until it is acceptable should reduce the amount of careless work that gets handed in. If it does not, you probably need to give students more positive reinforcement when they are successful. Work more on step 5 of this plan.