Parents and Students

A letter to the parents and my choice for my case

study

LeeAnna Pekel
EDU 615
Professor
5/14/2013





137-044 #50-3, Banpo4-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul
S.O.T School Tel: 02-594-0584, Fax: 02-594-0586

May 14th, 2013


Dear Parents,


I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, and let you know a little about
my experience as a teacher. My name is LeeAnna Pekel and this year will be my fourth year of
teaching English to children in Korea. I am currently getting a Masters in Education from the
University of New England.

Today I had the chance to meet your children, and I can already see each their enthusiasm
for English and improving their abilities. They have shocked me with their English abilities and I
am looking forward to helping each of them develop their language skills more as well as
continuing to build their confidence in all areas of study. Throughout the year I will have a few
non-academic goals for our children that will help them become, and stay, motivated learners.
Using various methods, including behavior and effort based sticker charts (not academic) and
verbal praise, I want to help our students understand proper classroom behavior. This is
important because students who know how to study and put effort forth are miles ahead of
students who don't know what is expected of them in the classroom. I want to create a stable,
safe environment. Additionally, to help the students become lifelong learners, I hope to pass
along my love of every subject and why these subjects are important. It has been noted by
various researchers that when students understand why something is important, they are much
more likely to study it. Together, let's always try and help our children understand why
everything they are studying is important. Most importantly, your child should, by the end of the
year, be an independent learner who works well in both individual and pair or group work.
Being a motivated person who can work alone or with others is an important life skill that your
child will use forever. I am confident that the curriculum chosen for this year will provide your
children with the opportunity to excel in many areas of study and I will do my best to help each
of them reach all the goals you and I both have in mind for them.

Thank you for entrusting me with your childrens education and safety. I realize how
important this time is for them and for you as parents. Please feel free to contact me at any time
with any questions or ideas you may have for our class. I am looking forward to a wonderful
year with this class.


Sincerely,


LeeAnna Pekel

Introduction
One of my current six year old kindergarteners, Katie, is a very smart and outgoing girl.
She picks up English very quickly when she tries. For example, a month ago she learned the
word shed, and now whenever she wants to take her coat off she asks if she can shed it.
Additionally, she is rather independent when it comes to playing and studying. If I had to
describe Katie in one word, I would say she is free-spirited.
Katie lives in one of the most upscale neighborhoods of Seoul, South Korea. Her father
works for a large company while her mother is a stay at home mom. Katie has a younger sister.
This is currently her second year at our all English private kindergarten. As a result she has spent
a little over a fifteen months speaking and learning in English only for roughly 25 hours a week.
When it comes to learning, Katie enjoys a fast paced speed that often leaves her
classmates behind. In the beginning of the year, Katie would try and do the worksheets without
reading the directions and then get upset when she had to re-do the worksheet correctly. She has
stopped this system and adapted a doodling system. Katie appears to enjoy movement based
learning the most. She has a tendency to dislike rules and enjoys playing, acting and singing.
Observations
When Katie likes something, you know and when Katie doesn't like something, you also
know. When we are studying something Katie likes or finds interesting, she is the most active
student in class. Her hand is always the first one up; she is full of life and energy to learn. Her
favorite class is theater where she is our school's best Evil Queen from Snow White. However,
the exact opposite is, sadly, true as well. When Katie has no interest, her head is on her desk, she
draws in her books, doesn't listen and sometimes talks to her classmates, distracting them. This is
a big sign that Katie has no motivation in my class (Anderman, 28).
She has little to no desire to do group or pair work and prefers to work alone. Whenever
we do pair-based role plays and dialogues, Katie's partners always complain because Katie isn't
speaking. I have even paired her up with her closest friends and she still just stares at the ground.
Whenever I ask her what is wrong or why she won't speak, she just stares at the ground more.
Last month during our field trip, Katie was so hungry that she was crying by 10am, but it took
me thirty minutes to figure out why she was crying. She refuses to talk to me, it seems like she is
scared of talking to teachers. I think this is unhealthy.
However, Katie loves playing with others. She is not a lonely and has many friends in our
class. During recess she is very active with playing with the other students. Katie tends to
approach others and initiates the games. Additionally, she is very popular and other students
always invite her to play with them as well. Katie is a social butterfly who flourishes under
attention. She is very touchy-feely; whenever I walk by Katie often, unless distracted, tries to
grab me hand or arm. She loves giving hugs and sometimes like to climb up my assistant or I like
a monkey.
All of this being said, Katie is a very bright student. She does her homework very well
and it is very easy to see that she studies hard at home. Her test scores are always in the top level
of the class. Each week we have two to three different tests and she always gets 90 or 100% on
the tests. As mentioned above, Katie's retention rate is very high and fast; she only has to hear a
word two or three times before she remembers it.
Effective Theories
In the beginning of the year Katie would start worksheets without reading the directions
while I was giving the instructions and, as a result, do the worksheet incorrectly. However, now,
while she waits for me to finish explain the directions she doesn't listen and takes longer to focus
the work. Thus, I believe that Katie would greatly benefit from self-determination theory
(Anderman, 5). One of the key parts of this theory is the ability, or belief that, one is able to do
the work (Anderman, 5). Katie clearly has this, since she often doesn't listen to me unless she is
interested or doesn't understand. However, I want to install into Katie the value of effort, not the
value of being correct (Ames, 412). Additionally, this theory wants students to feel like they are
part of a bigger group (Anderman, 5). This is an area that I feel Katie needs to work on. She gets
along with her classmates nicely during playtime and enjoys them but she isn't very good at
group work. I want to work on her learning about teamwork, how people can help each other
learn and that she is, as a result, not the smartest student in class. Since Katie seems to be able to
put so little effort into work to get the correct answer, I fear she will develop a habit of not
studying, which will be damaging later in life for her. Most importantly, I want Katie to work on
her autonomy, or the ability to do things correctly alone (Anderman, 5). As mentioned above,
Katie had the preference to do things on her own without listening or reading the directions.
Learning how to read and follow directions is another important life skill I want her to learn.
Since Katie has such a strong drive to work and study, if she learns to follow directions, I think
she will accomplish a lot of things.
Additionally, since Katie needs to have constant motion and stimulus, I want to try and
create a deeper level of thinking for her as part of a goal orientation theory approach (Anderman,
7). I want Katie to work on the performance part of the theory, since she has a deep mastery
already, and if we work with performance based goals Katie will hopefully become a more active
member of class (Anderman, 7). Of course, I have to make sure that she doesn't start doing
avoidance activities, but since Katie loves attention, with all her jokes and acting, I am not overly
worried (Anderman, 7). Instead of giving answers right away, I sometimes give hints and create
riddles for the students to solve. This way that everyone, even Katie, is listening and thinking
critically about what the answer could be (Brophy, 42). Hopefully, this will help Katie have the
feeling of constent motion, so that she will think deeper about the materials (Anderman, 26).




















References

Ames, C. (1990). Motivation: What Teachers Need to Know. Teachers College Record, 91(3),
409-421. Retrieved May 16, 2013, from http://elearn.une.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-653191-
dt-content-rid-4417208_1/xid-4417208_1

Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2014). Classroom motivation. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson. (Original work published 2010)

Brophy, J. (1987). Synthesis of Research on Strategies for Motivating Students to Learn.
Educational Leadership, October. Retrieved May 17, 2013, from
http://elearn.une.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-653191-dt-content-rid-4417206_1/xid-4417206_1