Lydia Sheldon 22 February 2013 EDUC 515 Penn Mentor: Sandi Richards Fieldwork Notebook Entry 4 Wenlong: The

Power of Parent Teacher Conferences Artifact: Student Grade Report Wenlong is a student in 8B who my CM and I have, unfortunately, brushed off as a slacker since the beginning of the year. In our defense, Wenlong has been a slacker. During the first marking period, Wenlong received a C in literacy, due to failing grades on major projects and accumulated missing assignment grades. During the second marking period (my first lead teaching), Wenlong continued his habits in the classroom. He received a C for that marking period, too. As for his other classes, his grades were only a little better in math and science, but dismal in music and art. During the two marking periods, he went from a D to an F in music, and a B to a C in art. My perception of Wenlong as an unwilling, unengaged student only deepened as I continued teaching during the semester. (Note: this case could provide an interesting study of consistencies and discrepancies between data and a teachers own interactions with her students in the day-to-day of the classroom). While no longer an official ESOL student, Wenlong is an English Language Learner. He is one of the four Chinese American boys who began the year by isolating themselves in side conversations and never handed in exemplary work. Baowei, who Ive written about previously, was one of these boys. His ESOL teacher, Dr. Marshall, and I all independently concluded that Wenlong and the other two boys were bad influences on Baowei in terms of work. Once Bao-weis seat was changed to be away from the rest, his performance and engagement improved dramatically. (Note: again, an opportunity to study whether Baoweis increasing ability and engagement in class was influenced by my own increasing interest him as a student). During the first two marking periods, Wenlong never volunteered an answer to one of my questions. He seemed reluctant to participate in general, and seemed to take every opportunity to sidetrack with his friends. During our Strange and Mysterious unit, he frequently handed in assignemtns late. My impression of him was that he was sullen with teachers and uninterested in learning. I confess that I found it all too easy to ignore him as much as possible. Since he was hardly disruptive compared to some of the other students, I didnt even spend much time analyzing the factors that might be influencing his work as a student. Last week, Dr. Marshall and the other 7th and 8th grade teachers held their second marking period parent teacher conferences. Wenlong, his mother, and his little toddler sister came in for his conference. Ms. Chen, the ESOL teacher, translated for his mother. By the time Wenlong and his mother came to Dr. Marshall and me, he had been crying for a while. His mother held his report card and asked Dr. Marshall (through Ms. Chen), what she could do. Wenlong kept crying, silently, through our conference. Dr. Marshall demanded that he answer why his grades were poor. She seemed very tough with him, but I felt that his distress had more to do with his mothers quiet, pleading disappointment than with his teachers. Wenlong answered, through tears, that he needed to do his reading. Dr. Marshall

challenged him to say one thing about Edgar Allan Poes stories, and he didnt respond. Although I agree with Dr. Marshall that Wenlong doesnt seem to have done much reading during our Poe unit, I have my suspicions that he could have fudged an answer. He was silent: a confession of his felt culpability for his grades. What a drama! His little sister kept looking up at me with concern while Wenlong cried and his mother spoke softly to Ms. Chen. This was the one parent teacher conference where I ventured to speak up: I advised Wenlong to change his participation habits in class, specifically to keep up with the reading and homework during our upcoming collection on Anne Frank. I told him that there would be frequent reading quizzes and small homework assignments, and he would need to invest in these on a daily basis. He nodded, of course, tearfully. After they left, Dr. Marshall and some of the other teachers seemed dismissive of Wenlongs emotional display. I credited my pity for him to first year teacher gullibility. The other teachers remarked that the only way to tell if it was sincere was to observe his behavior in the coming marking period. I confess, as I left school I didnt have high hopes that Wenlong would turn around his record. Its been a little over a week since that meeting. True to my plan, the 8th grade students have earned approximately 2 (usually small) grades a day. Wenlongs performance in class has been exceptional. Since that meeting, hes handed in each assignment. His grades on the reading checks indicate that he is keeping up with the nightly reading. I could have shouted with excitement and surprise when I saw him raise his hand in answer to a literary analysis question during the whole-class discussion. In the course of a week, Wenlongs hand has been up every day. His quizzes and homework show that he is reading the text closely, and carefully responding to the writing prompts. Im startled by how effective a parent-teacher conference can be. It makes me think about how effective it could be if I had paid closer attention to Wenlong earlier, and initiated a conversation with his mother before report card conferences demanded one. Im delighted to see such a change in one students work ethic and behavior. Will it continue? At the risk of sounding like the gullible first year teacher, I think it will! What can I take from this little case study for my inquiry, and for my future practice? Perhaps the moral of the story is that a teacher shouldnt take her students at their own estimation of themselves. A slew of poor grades werent affecting Wenlongs decisions, and I left him alone. What if I had talked to him? What if I had talked to his mother? Talking to his other teachers wasnt sufficient. I had mentioned him to his math teacher and Ms. Chen, who knew him from ESOL, and we all had the same despairing attitude. This seems to fall into the category of know my students families. Im also impressed by the strength of the cold data of grades here. It wasnt a journal entry or incidental conversation that alerted Wenlongs mother it was the line of Ds and Cs on his report card. How does that sort of data fit into my inquiry? Is it more reliable than the meta-cognitive and interpersonal methods Ive been relying on so far? Regardless of my inquiry, Im looking forward to encouraging Wenlong throughout the rest of the year. Ive already penned some - probably overeager- affirmative notes on his returned quizzes. Heres hoping!