George
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George is a 9th grade student in Brooklyn, New York, who lives in East New York and takes the train to Park Slope for school. He immigrated from Santo Domingo with his mother, an older sister and two brothers in November 2010, in the middle of his 5th grade year. He tested at the 77th percentile in Spanish when he first entered the NYC school system.
He has been left back two times, once in 3rd grade in Dominican Republic, and again in 7th grade at Francis E. Carter Middle School in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He is classified as SIFE (Student with Interrupted Formal Education), which was determined when he first entered the school system. According to George, he has never stopped attending school; however, if he started at 5 years old and was only held back twice, then there are two years missing somewhere.
There are many states who have mandatory grade retention policies if a child doesn’t pass a state assessment in certain grades. I taught in FL for many years as an elementary teacher and literacy coach. We once had a 5th grade student who had been retained 3 times in elementary school, once in Kindergarten and twice in 3rd grade. That means he took 3rd grade 3 times and still didn’t pass the state test. When he was in 5th grade, he was old enough to get his learner’s permit for driving and was developmentally well beyond his peers leading to many inappropriate situations. I agree that school members, school board members, and politicians need to be mindful of the consequences of mandatory policies like this.
This is George’s first year in high school, so his guidance counselors and administration have not specified a plan of action for his age and grade level and graduation. George’s plan is to change schools next year and complete high school at a transfer school, Manhattan Comprehensive Day and Night.
first year but what were they doing to get information or assist him in the little things? Did they just left him to fend on his own because they were unprepared on his arrival?
He says struggles with concentration and likes to “look around, and that wastes time.” His comprehension of English is Advanced, and his productive language skills slightly lower.
I also came from the Dominican Republic. When I came to this country, I was in my last year of high school, and it was very hard because I did not know the language. I struggled a lot taking and passing the English regent. It was the only thing holding me back from graduation. “look around, and that wastes time.” I can say I did that a lot because I did not understand what was happing in the classroom. I was not engaged in the lessons. Unfortunately, some teachers did not care if I was understanding their lessons or if the instructions were meeting my needs.
His favorite part of the school day is art, drawing in particular, but he is happy with any medium. His work is meticulous and detailed. He often represents information visually in his notes. The most challenging subject for George is science because there is “too many ideas to remember.”
Based on the information presented in this reading, George seems to be a visual learner. He often represents ideas in his notebook through various visual representations and his preferred subject is art. His least favorite subject is science because he has difficulty remembering all of the various ideas. Perhaps the science teacher could differentiate his/her instruction to meet the learning needs of George through the use of various visual representations including images of these scientific ideas, a diagram with missing information that George could fill in, having George create his own visual representation of these ideas, or through the presentation of a physical model. He also exhibits signs of academic withdrawal as a result of his prior educational experiences of getting left back twice and transferring from one school to another. The death of his father is an emotional burden on him as well that has negatively affected his academic performance.
This makes me think of sketchnotes and how that could be a good tool for him. https://www.verbaltovisual.com/what-is-sketchnoting/
He is able to complete tasks on a computer, but says he is not comfortable using one because he types slowly. He enjoys video games like Black Ops and Need for Speed. He is comfortable sending emails for communication and when he misses class. The largest struggle for George is attendance - he misses 1-2 days a week on average. Sometimes he says he is helping his mother, and other times he just doesn’t feel like coming to school.
I think this is an essential aspect to this student’s success. I believe it will help to have the school or teachers that are working with the student show that they are involved and care about the academic success and completion of this student.
George does not have an IEP but he does have difficulties controlling his emotions. When discussing the death of his father over 8 years ago, he is overcome with grief. Some days he is focussed in class and able to keep up with all tasks, and other days he is like a completely different person, unfocused and playful, completing almost no work.
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This doesn’t follow the template of the descriptive review process and I think it really suffers as a result. It feels a little like someone is describing a file rather than a person. I’m not clear on why he doesn’t have an IEP. I’m also not clear why he’s already planned to go to a transfer school and whether there’s been full exploration of potential transfer schools. He’s a younger student for a transfer student and there are many places that are smaller and I imagine could provide more support. I’m thinking of places like Urban Academy, Arturo Schomburg Satellite, or City-as-School. All seem like a more appropriate option for a kid who shows strong interest in learning but needs more hands-on support – both academic and social-emotional. It’s hard not to read this and feel like the system has just kind of given up on him.
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