THIRD

GRADE CASE STUDY 1

Third Grade Case Study
Teaching 2130-01
Human Growth and Development
Instructor: Dr. Florence Omachonu
By: Danielle Vetesnik




Plot and Context:
I observed a third grade classroom at Doudna Elementary; the school is located in
Richland Center, Wisconsin. Richland Center is a town of about 5,000 people that
offers families a safe and scenic environment to raise children. There are a lot of
neighborhoods, parks, lakes, and community events. Doudna Elementary is a public
school serving 415 students in grades K-5, 90% of the school is White, or not
Hispanic and was one of the Blue Ribbon schools in 2012. A Blue Ribbon school
means they have achieved high levels of performance or made significant
improvements in closing the achievement gap in schools where at least 40% of the
student population is classified as disadvantaged. There are 20 students 12 girls and
8 boys in this third grade class that I observed; four students leave for special help
because they are slightly behind in reading. But there are no children with learning
disabilities in the class and no teachers aide because of that.
(Real names are not used)

Physical Development:
Overall there are differences in size of the children, most of them are short, and the
tallest person is in the class is a girl. The different sizes affect what physical
activities they do. When I was observing them in gym class there were three larger
children two girls and one boy that struggled with running laps and pushups, and
had to stop a lot during tag. Generally the students had high energy, listened well in

THIRD GRADE CASE STUDY 3

gym class, and enjoyed testing muscle strength, showing maturity in gross motor
skills throwing and catching the ball during ball tag. Back in the classroom I
observed the children writing cursive letters using fine motor skills very smoothly,
and some children wrote with tiny letters, I noticed their work was more detailed.
One boy, named Tom, kept losing focus during classroom work, but in gym class he
listened very well, and was focused the whole time.

Cognitive Development:
I observed the children doing math corrections; first of all they were able to
comprehend multiple aspects of a problem while solving it. Being able to know the
difference between addition and subtraction. The things they had to correct were
just simple mistakes from working to fast. I looked through the papers when they
were handed back in, and before the correction everyone had an 80% or above. The
children corrected the problems correctly and that showed me that they were able
to reverse their thinking, trace the mental steps that drew them to a conclusion and
then check it over again for mistakes. They are in Piagets concrete operational
stage and I noticed that because, the students are demonstrating the ability to
perform reversible mental actions. In this classroom the teacher listened to her
students, expressed warmth and nurturance, encouraged independence, place
limits, consequences and expectations on the students behavior, also she allowed
the children to express opinions I would describe this as an authoritative classroom
style. The children had to raise their hand in-group discussion and if they did not
follow directions they received a warning and had to sit at their desk, all but one of
the students in the class had a large enough attention span to sit through the group

discussion. Tom kept losing focus the first day I observed, he had to sit back at his
desk during group discussion. This made him more restless, but he always knew the
answer when the teacher called on him.


Emotional Development:
I am going to focus on Tom during this development, when given the option to read
alone or with a partner he chose alone. Toms friend said, no Tom read with me,
he was able to use more sophisticated emotions and politely said, no thank you I
want to read alone. This shows me Tom likes to be independent and is proud of the
fact he is able to accomplish things on his own. He did rely on his teacher when he
did not know what a word meant, and asked her for the meaning. Typical for a boy,
I hear Tom say to his girl classmate, only girls wear pink! Not typical for a boy,
Tom is very aware at what he was not the best at, and wasnt afraid to tell his
classmates. Tom really took pride and felt industrious that he finished his book
before anyone else in his class during silent reading time, but he did not brag. When
a girl classmate saw that he had finished she said, Tom you are not done already,
you are lying. this showed me that she had felt she failed and is now inferior to Tom
because she did not finish before him.

Social Development:
The children in this classroom are less dependent on the teacher and more
dependent on their peers. This relates to Vygotskys theory, because the teacher
would give directions, and give guidance to the students who needed it, I observed
this during the math corrections. The children interact during recess with the

THIRD GRADE CASE STUDY 5

teachers only when telling on someone, or if they were hurt. I noticed that the
whole class liked to test their limits during recess; it was like they were questioning
authority. On the playground the girls played more with girls, and boys with boys.
The girls were involved in more organized play, playing four squares and if they did
not perform well they had a strong desire to do it right the next time. The boys were
involved in more rough play, playing soccer in the field. I noticed that girls seemed
to have a that one best friend, and got mad easily if the best friend went and
played with someone else and this caused disagreements. However, the girl feeling
mad about her best friend, being asked to join the group, settled them.

Commentary:
The main ideas of the case study were to explain real life situations and relate them
to theories. I was surprised to see the industry vs. inferior theory being played out
right in front of me. I personally related to the girl who was jealous of her best
friend playing with someone else, because that happened to me a lot in grade school,
my best friend thought I had to do everything with her. What I learned from this
experience is that following these theories is a good Idea because, they explain to
you where the children are at, and what to expect. Of course there will be
adjustments after you get to know your class but it is a nice guide to start with.







Work Cited:

Berger, Kathleen Stassen. The Developing Person through Childhood and Adolescence.
New York: Worth, 2009. Print.
"Doudna Elementary School." GreatSchools. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.