Case Study Interview #1

Student name: Dianne (pseudonym)
Grade: 9th

Dianne is a student in our 5th block collaboration class, and as I've observed Dianne over the past couple of weeks, she seems like a naturally cooperative and quiet student trying to fit into a classroom that is not.  She cuts up with her friends, but she is one of the very few that finishes her work way before the bell rings.

When she finished her work, I explained to her my assignment and she was more than willing to help me out. I started by asking her what kind of reading she has done in the last couple of weeks. She responded that she reads for every class, but she couldn't think of any examples besides the short story we read in class, "On the Bridge"by Todd Strasser. She went on to say she didn't really like the things she had to read in school, especially not Math. When I asked her why, she said because she just didn't like the stories the teachers picked out and she just didn't like Math. I sympathized with her opinion on Math. Word problems were my enemy.  Just as I was about to move on to another question, she jumped in and said that she also didn't like reading aloud. I definitely made a mental note on that.

I went on to ask if she had read anything outside of school in the past couple of days, and she said she liked to read "non-fiction stuff and history things." I asked what she had been reading, and she said nothing now but one time she read a book about Harriet Tubman. I asked her about other things such as blogs, magazines, Facebook, etc, and she looked at me like she had no idea those were possible answers. She continued on to say she doesn't get on Facebook (maybe once or twice this week), she sometimes reads magazines but only the ones about celebrities, and that she doesn't really understand blogs. She added that she likes to read the Athens-Banner Herald online sometimes and she remembered doing that a few days ago.

When I asked if she's done any writing in the past few weeks in or out of school, she shook her head and said just stuff in school and that she didn't like to write any other time. I asked if she texted and she said yea but not that much. I asked her about her writings in school and she said she kind of liked the stuff in Mr. Ginsberg's class like the essay we wrote for a college application. We didn't have much time to expand after that because the bell rang, but I told her to start thinking about the stuff she reads and writes and that it doesn't necessarily have to be "typical" reading and writing. She said okay, and away she went!