Jonathon

Jonathan is very good-natured, respectful and cooperative in that he does not complain or is actively defiant in any way to his peers or to me. He is a very hard worker, completes most of the homework assignments, and works on task when he is in a good group. In class, he pays attentions and has shown he can work independently. On his test, Jonathan shows that he has understood most of the concepts.

In class, Jonathan has been very quiet and soft-spoken from the beginning. He has not participated much in class in terms of raising his hand and answering questions or calling out any answers. When asked to present in groups, he often gives short responses and statements that he reads off of a paper or poster. In smaller groups, he is also somewhat quiet and takes a more passive role rather than a leadership position. For example, with the internet scavenger hunt, his group failed to complete assignment fully but he did not try to take the initiative to lead or complete the activity himself. In a recent group activity on the Andersonville prison situation, Jonathan remained aloof and not attentive as his group lacked leadership and initiative in undertaking the project and eventually one person in the group did all the work.

In terms of things he could improve, Jonathan needs to improve his speaking as well as his writing abilities. His answers to homework questions and test questions show that he is behind on his writing skills and perhaps his reading skills. Jonathan’s writing shows a multitude of spelling mistakes, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph structure/organization that would lead me to believe that he is not grade level. For example, in response to the homework question, “what do you know about economics?”, Jonathan wrote this sentence “source of consuming money, ways of try to my a better profit of good” which is somewhat incoherent and grammatically incorrect. Furthermore, his level of class participation and presentation skills perhaps may also be linked to his lack of basic writing and mostly likely reading skills. Perhaps due to his quiet nature, teachers in the past have let him get away with not reading aloud or challenging him to improve his speaking and writing abilities. In developing and strengthening his basic skills, I am hoping that Jonathan will become more confident of his abilities and therefore more capable of contributing his thoughts, opinions, and leadership in small group situation as well as large group situations.