School Case Study Another Typical Day Mrs. Arling

In order to have effective instruction, teachers need an understanding of child development. Children experience changes socially, emotionally, and behaviorally throughout their years in school. Teachers can implement research-based strategies to help promote a positive and accepting environment where these changes can take place. In the case study “Another Typical Day,” Mrs. Arling must meet the social and emotional demands and needs of her students, while ensuring that they are making necessary progress in their academic development. Studies show that when teachers design activities that incorporate collaborative learning with teacher assistance and lessons that present mathematical concepts in both visual and tangible ways, students are …show more content…
Arling’s students need a healthy balance in their social and emotional development in order to achieve their full potential as learners. Mrs. Arling could benefit from the FOL strategies in making her classroom conducive to all students. Her administration could lead professional development opportunities specifically to train teachers how to encourage positive emotional and social development. In the classroom, Luke and Margo showed signs of aggressive behavior as they verbally fought over a crayon. Luke had the crayon first, but Margo wanted to use it. In this situation, Mrs. Arling offered the solution of giving Margo a different crayon to use. While this settled the immediate argument, teachers may want to consider other ways to handle the behavior, especially if the behavior was more aggressive or even violent. If this behavior continued in other situations, Mrs. Arling could implement the third FOL strategy: she could meet individually with Luke and Margo to discuss why they reacted aggressively and make a plan for more positive social interaction. In the meeting, Mrs. Arling could guide students in creating their own ideas about how to interact appropriately with peers. Students could develop personal goals, such as to share toys with peers or to avoid responding in anger to a peer. By meeting one-on-one with the students, Mrs. Arling could defuse problems that could potentially develop into more negative behavior. These …show more content…
Arling implements a strategy of dividing the students so that each teacher can work more closely with a smaller number of students. This classroom management approach is supported by a study conducted by Oliver, Wehby, and Reschly (2009). They found that when students are given individualized help, their academic performance increases. When students are not given the individualized attention they need, they can become overwhelmed and overly stressed. Once in this negative emotional state, students cannot process new information or make connections with prior knowledge (Oliver et al., 2009, p. 10). Mrs. Arling could implement this strategy further by breaking the class into two groups; she could lead one group, and the aid could lead the other. Students could have time to ask questions and brainstorm answers together. Time for further discussion could follow a period of individual work time. If the class is broken down so that students receive more individual help, the students would strongly benefit (Oliver et al., 2009, p. 11). Mrs. Arling would also be able to assess individual students more accurately. When working closely with a fewer number of students, teachers can have more time to spend attending to individual needs. Once these needs met, students can proceed in the learning