Understanding Sam

I teach at a brand new elementary school in King Charles County, a suburban county of Washington, D.C. The school, Eagle Crest Elementary, is located in a middle class neighborhood about thirty miles south of Washington. It was built to relieve overcrowding at three other elementary schools: Williamstown, Lake Falls, and Robert E. Lee Elementary School. Most of the students at Eagle Crest in grades 1-5 attended one of those schools last year. Approximately 14% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch, which is not a high enough percentage to qualify Eagle Crest for Title I reading services. Currently the school does not house a program for English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), but because of the high percentage of students that live in our community and qualify for services, our school will have an ESOL program next year. The principal of the school where I taught last year was selected to open this new school. The job of principal in a new school in our county is a coveted position. My principal, Mr. Robinson, was allowed to hire six staff members from his former school to teach at the new school, and I was one of the six. I was first hired by Mr. Robinson in 1996 to teach kindergarten at our former school, Apollo Elementary. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching in that grade level and working for Mr. Robinson. After two years as a kindergarten teacher I took two years of parental leave. When I was ready to return to work, the only opening at Apollo was in fourth grade. Because I liked the school, the staff, and the Principal, I accepted Mr. Robinson’s offer and taught fourth grade for one year (last year). When Mr. Robinson discussed a kindergarten position with me at Eagle Crest, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to move back to kindergarten. I transferred to the new school with five of my colleagues from Apollo. Most of the other staff members at Eagle Crest transferred from other local schools, but some are new to our county. Of 23 classroom teachers in grades K-5, seven are first year teachers.

In faculty meetings this year, many staff members have commented on their surprise that we are experiencing so many behavior problems this year. It seems that many of our student are aggressive. There have been numerous incidents involving hitting and other physical violence. A fourth grade teacher spoke about the fact that the children came from three different places. The teacher wondered if maybe the students were accustomed to three different sets of expectations for behavior and now, we were trying to introduce another set of expectations. I was very interested in this hypothesis because I was noticing some of the same behaviors in my kindergarten classes.

Kindergarten in our county is a half-day program. I have a morning class of 22 students that comes to school from 9:10-12:25 and an afternoon class of 22 students that comes to school from 12:25-3:40. Because of transportation arrangements, the determination of whether or not a child will be a morning or afternoon kindergartner is based on where he or she lives. In King Charles County, children must be five years old on or before September 30^th to enroll in kindergarten.

I have a full time assistant in my classroom. She handles many of the managerial tasks as well as tasks that involve working with the children. In each of my classes, I have 11 girls and 11 boys. I did not start the year with a behavior system. I never had a need for one at Apollo, and my goal was to keep the children so engaged and busy that their behavior would not be an issue. After about a week, I realized that this was not going to work, at least not at first. Many of the students behaved as if they had never had experience in a classroom setting, even though most had attended pre-school. They could not sit still for even a short amount of time, they consistently called out and interrupted, and they were more physical than any kindergarten students I had encountered at Apollo. One child in particular seemed to be experiencing severe difficulty in adapting his behavior.

Sam

Sam is an African-American boy who was six years old. Sam attended Lake Falls last year for kindergarten, and he was retained. His scholastic record showed that he earned a “Needs Improvement” (N) in work habits and a “Steady Growth” (S) in conduct for the year from his previous kindergarten teacher.

This year in my classroom, Sam was displaying many aggressive behaviors. He was very physical with other students. He was sent to the principal on numerous occasions for hitting, kicking, pushing, and punching. Sam had several different seats in our kindergarten class. Each time I assigned him to a new seat, I received a phone call from one of the parents of the students by which he was sitting. The parents reported that Sam was bothering their children. One of these parents even reported that Sam had tried to take her daughter’s snack and told the girl that he would “get her” if she told me or my assistant.

As the year progressed, I noticed that Sam’s behavior did not improve. In fact, on many days he would come into the classroom angry. (Sam went to a day care center before and after school.) His anger seemed to worsen when he was not selected for one of the various classroom jobs. For example, if I called on someone else to circle a particular letter on our morning message, Sam would groan and say, “You always call on girls. You never pick me. I hate my teacher. I hate this school.” I understood that Sam was only six, and that he probably didn’t mean what he was saying, but I must admit that I began to feel hurt and discouraged. Sam made these types of comments almost everyday.

I tried for several weeks at the beginning of the school year to contact Sam’s parents. They did not sign Sam’s nightly communication folder on a regular basis, and they did not return several phone calls that I made to their places of employment and their home. They also did not come to a scheduled conference. The first time I spoke with one of them was after Sam received his first referral. His mother learned of the referral when she picked Sam up at day care, sometime that evening. It was a Friday night, and she called me at home saying that she was concerned about his behavior and didn’t want to wait until Monday to discuss it. Sam’s mother and I had a productive conversation and we agreed to start a daily behavior calendar for Sam. On the days that he was "good” he would earn a sticker. On other days, I would write a brief note regarding his behavior. His mother wondered if the fact that Sam was a year older than the other students could have something to do with his behavior. She did not mention anything about his behavior last year in kindergarten, but she did say that he had experienced some behavior difficulties at day care as well. I knew that if I wanted Sam to be successful in kindergarten, I would need to take a closer look at the situation.

Puzzlement

These behaviors and my concern for Sam’s potential for success in kindergarten led me to the following puzzlement: What was contributing to Sam’s behavior in kindergarten?

Exploring Cultural Questions

Initial Thoughts

After knowing Sam for about six weeks, I became aware of the Cultural Inquiry Process (CIP) (Jacob, 1999). Through the CIP, I came up with some ideas about cultural influences that could be affecting Sam’s behavior. Could a mismatch in Sam’s home culture and his school culture have been contributing to his difficulties? Could his trouble have been related to the culture in my kindergarten classroom? Could a power imbalance have been partly to blame? Could it have been possible that the experience of being retained was influencing Sam’s behavior?

CIP step 3.5.2 addresses the possibility that a student’s negotiations of his or her cultural identity could be contributing to the puzzlement. I wondered if this were the study with Sam. In the article, “Black students’ school success: Coping with the burden of 'Acting White'” the authors (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986) discuss the fact that many black students do not perform up to their potential. "Because of ambivalence, affective dissonance, and social pressures, many black students who are academically able do not put forth the necessary effort and perseverance in their schoolwork and, consequently, do poorly in school” (p.177). I wondered if Sam had already begun to sell himself short. I knew that he was a bright boy. Could it have been possible that Sam used negative behaviors to mask his intelligence and capability?

It was possible that the difference in Sam’s home culture and the culture that he experiences at school could have been contributing to the puzzling situation. CIP step 3.3 addresses the possibility that cultural mismatches could affect puzzling situations. Since the beginning of the school year I had tried to contact Sam’s parents on numerous occasions. I had left voice mail messages at their jobs, written notes in his homework folder, and attempted to schedule parent-teacher conferences. The phone calls were not returned, the initial conference was not attended, and the notes were answered with brief statements saying that they would be in touch, but they still did not contact me. When Sam’s mother called me at home after his first discipline referral, I was a bit put off by being called at home on a Friday night by a parent that I had been trying to reach for weeks, but our conversation was enlightening. Mrs. Williams told me that Sam was the youngest of three children and although they tried, their busy work schedules often kept Mr. and Mrs. Williams from being as involved in their children’s school lives was they would have liked. We discussed a daily behavior chart for Sam and agreed to meet to go over it the following week. The behavior chart seemed to help a little bit, but Mr. and Mrs. Williams did not initial it or provide any indication that they had seen it. I wondered if Sam was confused by the lack of consistency between his parents’ expectations of his behavior and my expectations.

In CIP step 3.2, the practitioner examines the possibility that the school or classroom culture is contributing to the puzzlement. Because Sam earned a satisfactory grade for conduct last year in kindergarten, I had to wonder if the culture that I had established in my classroom might have been affecting his behavior. I honestly try to be positive in every interaction that I have with my students, but I must admit to having felt some frustration when I dealt with Sam. Because his outbursts often interrupted instruction, my response to them was probably sometimes not as positive and constructive as I would have liked. I wondered if Sam felt that I didn’t like him. If he felt disliked by his kindergarten teacher, he may have given up on trying to correct his behavior to please me. He may have felt that there was no hope for his success in my classroom. I began to wonder if by reprimanding Sam so frequently in front of other children I had created a negative environment for him. When there was a special job to be done, I almost always used the privilege of doing the job as a reward for good behavior. Under this arrangement, Sam almost never got an opportunity to do things like run errands in the school building or wash the chalkboard. I began to wonder if he was right about his accusations that I never picked him.

Because CIP step 3.4 examines the role that a student’s experiences have in the puzzlement, I was also curious about what effect the experience of being retained was having on Sam’s behavior. Patterson (1996) discussed the effects of retention in the paper, “The Impact of grade retention on K-5 elementary students: Perceptions of educators in states served by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.” She stated that many students who are retained develop a negative attitude about school. Sam might have understood more about his situation of repeating kindergarten than I thought he did. Maybe the retention was something that he felt ashamed of, and his behavior was a manifestation of that shame. It was also possible that Sam had already participated in many of the kindergarten activities that I planned for my class, and he may have been bored. If he was often bored at school, it could have definitely had something to do with his behavior.

Focus

I hypothesized that there were probably many influences that were contributing to this puzzling situation. I decided to focus on CIP step 3.2. This step has to do with whether or not the classroom culture could be influencing the puzzlement. I chose this influence as the focus for my research because I felt that of all the possible influences, this was the one that I could most easily affect. I also was beginning to feel very bothered by Sam’s comments, and I certainly wanted to remedy any negative situation to which I could be contributing. I also thought that because other teachers in the school had commented about similar problems with their students, I might have more students who displayed these behaviors in the coming years. Most important, I wanted to help Sam. I knew that he was a bright boy with the potential for great success, and it was my responsibility to ensure that success.

Data Collection and Analysis

Once I decided to focus on whether or not the culture in my classroom was contributing to Sam’s behavior, I was able to implement several forms of data collection. I wanted to take a close look at my practice and interactions with Sam and see if there was anything that I could be unintentionally doing to influence his behavior.

First, I was finally able to meet with Mr. Williams at a parent-teacher conference. I was very honest with Mr. Williams when I reported the behaviors that I had been witnessing. Mr. Williams told me basically the same information that Mrs. Williams had reported: that both parents had very demanding jobs and that they admitted to not always being as involved with their children’s school lives as they would like. I asked Mr. Williams about the decision to retain Sam in kindergarten. Mr. Williams said that Sam’s former kindergarten teacher had suggested retention but had left the final decision up to Sam’s parents. Mr. Williams reported that although Sam had not had behavior problems in his first kindergarten class, they felt that he was not socially mature enough to move on to first grade. When I thought about the conference after Mr. Williams had left, I hypothesized that Sam may have been feeling slightly neglected. Maybe he thought that by acting out in school, he would get his parents’ and teacher’s attention.

I was also able to talk to Sam’s former kindergarten teacher at Lake Falls. Our conversation was brief, but enlightening. She said that Sam was a low achiever academically in her class, but not much of a behavior problem. Certainly, she reported, he did not have the severe problems that he seemed to be having this year. The part of our conversation that I found most interesting was that the teacher told me that last year Mrs. Williams came into the classroom occasionally. When I asked the teacher if she knew whether or not Mrs. Williams was working at that time, she said that she did not know, but she thought that she couldn’t have been working regular full time hours because of the amount of time she spent at the school.

I began taking notes on Sam’s daily behavior. I noticed that he almost always became angry when he raised his hand and another child was called on. I also noticed that when I did call on him, he often did not know the answer to the question I was asking. In fact, his hand would often shoot up even before the question was out of my mouth. When I looked over a month’s worth of notes I discovered something interesting that I’m sure I would have otherwise missed. Everyday when I called the class to the carpet area, Sam would sit directly in front of me. Even though he would regularly say that he disliked me and our school, he always sat closer to me than any other child. In fact, one day when another child got to Sam’s spot first, Sam became very angry with the boy and said, “Move out of my spot!” I also noted that this “carpet time” was the most difficult time of the day for Sam. He seemed to be unable to sit still and maintain his composure for the 20-minute block of instructional time. After establishing his place in front of me, he would get up regularly to go to the bathroom or to ask my assistant a question. He would almost always return to the carpet and reclaim his spot very disruptively.

In my notes, I wrote about a particular incident that I found interesting. After three days of good behavior, I treated Sam to lunch in the cafeteria. This was a real treat for him because kindergarten children ordinarily do not eat lunch at school. We ate together in the main office, and we read books together in the library when we had finished our lunch. When we left the library to go back to the classroom, Sam hugged me and said, “Thank you, Mrs. Rapee.” His smile was so sweet and genuine that I almost cried. We talked about having lunch together again sometime and, Sam agreed that he would try harder to behave himself in class. When we returned to the class, I reached for another child’s folder who also had a behavior chart. I was about to put a sticker on that child’s chart when Sam had an outburst. He ran under a table and cried. When I asked him what was wrong he yelled, “You never give me stickers! You always give them to other kids.” I said, “Sam, I just had lunch with you.” He said, “I hated that lunch. I hate you.”

I also analyzed Sam’s behavior charts, discipline referrals, and scholastic records. I found that Sam did not earn his sticker more often than he did earn it. I noticed that Mr. and Mrs. Williams did not sign Sam’s chart regularly as we had discussed at the conference. In the fall, his discipline referrals were mostly for physical behaviors such as hitting, pinching. As the school year progressed, his referrals were given for disrespectful behavior such as speaking inappropriately to the teacher.

Finally I asked our assistant principal to come into the classroom and observe my interactions with Sam. She came in during the carpet time, which was a difficult portion of the day for Sam. The assistant principal was hired recently, so I was confident that Sam wouldn’t view her as a disciplinarian. During her observation, she noticed many of the same behaviors that I had witnessed. When I discussed the observation with her later, I asked if she thought of anything that I had said or done that she might have said or done differently. She said that she could not think of anything.

Through out my analysis of the data, one theme seemed to emerge. It appeared that Sam was in need of attention. It seemed not to matter whether the attention was positive (like when we had lunch together) or negative (like when he said that he didn’t like me during the carpet time). If Sam’s former teacher was right about his mother’s work schedule last year, it could have been possible that having more attention from his mother had helped his behavior that year. Sam’s parents had both been candid about their busy work schedules and their regret about not being involved with their children’s school lives. I realized that Sam had my attention a lot during the school day. Unfortunately, it was generally negative attention.

Interventions

Although I had been saddened by my lack of success so far with Sam, I felt that I had some hope for reaching him after I analyzed the data. I may not have had much control over his parents work schedules, but if it was my attention that Sam was after, I could definitely do something about that. I tried several interventions to remedy the situation.

Since Sam generally became angry at the beginning of the day when I didn’t call on him during the carpet time, I started to purposefully call on him first everyday. I had hoped that Sam would see that I did want him to participate as much as I wanted the other children to participate. I thought that if he were called on first, it would make him feel more positive about his contributions to our class.

In the book Positive Discipline in the Classroom: Developing Mutual Respect, Cooperation, and Responsibility in Your Classroom, Nelson, Lott, and Glenn (2002) discuss the importance of classroom jobs as “one of the best methods of helping students feel belonging and significance” (p. 191). I had hypothesized that lack of attention could be part of the problem, so I definitely wanted Sam to feel that he was a valued member of our learning community. I decided to implement a more democratic way of assigning classroom jobs and calling on students. We called it the “grab bag.” I put all of the students’ names on cards and put the cards into a gift bag. When there was an errand to run, a job to do, or a question to be answered, instead of saying, “I’m looking for a good listener to…” I reached into the bag and pulled out a name. I also let Sam reach in and pull out the name a couple of times.

Sam’s parents and I had agreed on a behavior chart for Sam previously. Under this arrangement, Sam could earn a sticker if he had a good day. On the days that he earned the sticker, he left school very happy, and he seemed proud of himself. I thought that if I changed his behavior chart so that he would receive some feedback about his behavior more frequently, he would be more encouraged to strive for more appropriate behavior. I made a new chart for Sam, one that divided the day into thirty-minute segments. It would be possible for Sam to receive a sticker up to six times a day. I was very hopeful about this intervention. I really believed that Sam needed more positive attention from me.

Another intervention that I tried was allowing Sam to spend some time with a more “neutral” adult in the building. I thought that Sam would benefit from a positive time out. Everybody has moments when they do not feel like cooperating with what is being required, and this feeling can lead to some sort of acting out (Nelsen, Lott, &, Glenn, 2000). A positive time out is a way of giving a child a cooling off period. The guidance counselor was happy to come to the classroom and pick Sam up for some “quiet time.” Mr. Douglas would stop by the room and get Sam whenever he could, usually about once every other day. They would go to Mr. Douglas’s office, and he would let Sam feed his fish.

Overall, I just tried to be more positive with Sam. I must admit that before I started implementing my interventions, I would feel a bit of dread before the school day began. I had created a type of mind set for myself that could have been affecting Sam’s behavior. I started to force myself to think positively about Sam everyday before he came in the classroom. I decided that Sam deserved a clean slate every day.

Monitoring and Results

After trying my strategy of calling on Sam first everyday and using the “grab bag” for a few weeks, I noticed some change in Sam’s behavior. He generally came to the carpet more willingly, and he was thrilled to be the first person to be called on each morning. For the fist five or, even sometimes, ten minutes of this twenty-minute block of instructional time, Sam was generally cooperative. After ten minutes, however, he slipped back into his old behaviors, such as saying audibly that I never picked him and that he didn’t like his school or teacher. The grab bag had similar results. He loved the idea of me reaching into the bag to pull out a name, and he especially enjoyed being the person who got to do the name drawing, but when it wasn’t his name that was chosen, he became angry and uncooperative. Once he even left the carpet area and hid under our computer table. There was another glitch with this intervention: other children began to ask when they would get a turn to pick a name from the grab bag. I decided to keep the grab bag and to do all of the name picking myself. I plan to further monitor the results of this intervention. It is possible that Sam just needs a little more time to adjust to this new classroom routine.

Sam’s new behavior chart worked well sometimes and not so well at other times. Earning stickers frequently did seem to make a difference to Sam. He would feel very proud of himself and sort of “get on a roll.” I think that the positive attention and praise from me encouraged him to keep up his good behavior, and he was starting to have a few more good days than he had before. Unfortunately, the behavior chart also worked in reverse. If Sam did not earn his sticker for a segment of the day (particularly at the beginning of the day), he did not seem to try to correct his behavior for the rest of the day. In fact, he would often become angry, and his behavior would deteriorate to a level worse than it was when he didn’t earn the sticker. I am planning to keep using this new chart in the future. I think that if I can find a way to convince Sam that the whole day is not lost if he makes a mistake at the beginning, he will learn to choose more appropriate actions.

The most effective intervention was having Sam spend time with Mr. Douglas. My data had led me to the conclusion that Sam needed more positive attention at school, and it seemed that it did not necessarily have to be my attention. He loved to visit with Mr. Douglas. I found that this intervention was especially helpful if I knew ahead of time that Mr. Douglas would be coming for Sam. I would tell Sam about the upcoming visit, and he would have something to look forward to. I think another thing that made this intervention effective was that I did not use it a reward for good behavior. Sam was allowed to go with Mr. Douglas regardless of his classroom behavior. Mr. Douglas was often able to help Sam turn a bad day around. This is most definitely a strategy that I will continue with Sam in the future.

I also found that monitoring my own attitudes and conceptions about Sam helped the situation. By taking a few moments before the school day began to think positively about Sam and how I planned to help him that day, I was able to make the day go by a little bit more smoothly (at least for me). I realized that my own moods had a great deal to do with the culture of my classroom and how I dealt with students.

Conclusions and Implications

After closing examining the many possible influences on Sam’s behavior, I have come to the conclusion that the culture in the classroom was, in fact, contributing to the puzzling situation. My opinion of Sam and his situation is that he needed more personal attention, both at home and at school. I didn’t have any control over Sam’s life at home or his relationship with his parents, but I was grateful that I could control my actions and reactions to Sam and his behavior at school. Although most of the interventions that I tried were only marginally successful in the short run, I think that Sam needs to continue to experience them. It is possible that Sam has felt neglected in our classroom since September. It is reasonable to conclude that continuing to expose him to the interventions that I tried will become more beneficial as the year progresses. Most importantly, I am so glad that I did not immediately blame Sam’s family for his behavior troubles, something that I might have done prior to learning about the CIP. In Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Jensen (1998) says, “Some students will be out of control but the cause may… not [be] poor parenting”(p.49). Teachers should avoid labels such as “behavior problem” and focus on dealing with the behavior (Jensen, 1998). By taking some responsibility for the puzzlement, I was able to make changes that benefited Sam and me. Taking action instead of assigning blame was empowering and effective.

In a broader context, I know that as a teacher I will meet and be responsible for teaching many children whose family situations are not what I would choose for my own children. I consider myself to be an open-minded and non-judgmental person, but I do have to admit that in the past I have blamed children’s families for their troubles at school. While I never gave up on a child or intentionally insulted a family by communicating my opinions, I have looked at children’s family lives as roadblocks to their success in my classroom. Participating in this project convinced me of the importance of not doing that. I am so glad that I chose to focus on the culture of my classroom in regard to what might have been influencing Sam’s behavior. There are so many things in my students’ lives over which I have no control; knowing that I do have control over the culture of my classroom is something that I will remember in the future. I hope that Sam, this project, and the CIP will serve as reminders to me of the influence I have over difficult situations in my classroom. There is always something else I can change or do to help a child become more successful.

References

Fordam, S. & Ogbu, J. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the burden of “acting white.” The Urban Review, 18, 176-206.

Jacob, E. (1999). Cultural Inquiry Process Web Site. [Online]. http://classweb.gmu.edu/classweb/cip/. [1999, April 30].

Jensen, E. (1998). Teaching with the brain in mind. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Nelson, J., Lott, L., & Glenn, H. (2000). Positive discipline in the classroom: Developing mutual respect, cooperation, and responsibility in your classroom. Roseville, CA: Prima.

Patterson, D. (1996). The impact of grade retention on K-5 elementary students: Perceptions of educators in states served by the southern association of colleges and schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 405 327).