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The name of my student is Lucas.  He is in the 7th grade and is 13  years old.  When I first was introduced to Lucas, I was observing him on my first day of the internship.  The first thing I noticed about Lucas was how he constantly was doing something other than what was being expected of him.  He was looking on his phone, talking with his neighbor, fiddling with an object, walking around the room, giggling, or, on occasion, talking back to the teacher.  He was very interesting to observe and when I later asked my CT about him, she helped me to understand why he behaved as he did.

Lucas has an oppositional behavior disorder, meaning that he does not like being told what to do, especially when it is not what he wants.  He tends to rebel against people of authority when they ask something of him.  This poses a problem for him in the classroom.  He does not like being told to be quiet and listen, asked to sit down, or instructed to complete a worksheet.  He has a hard time concentrating and finding motivation in class.  His challenges are further aggravated by his low academic ability.  The students just completed a series of tests that are used to gauge what they know.  In comparison to his peers, Lucas was found to be in the first percentile for reading and general science and in the eleventh percentile for math.  In math, he scored low (out of low, average, and high) for all four sections: number sense, properties, and operations, data analysis, statistics, and probability, patterns, functions, and algebraic structures, and shape, dimension, and geometric relationships.  Ms. A also gave me some insight into his family life.  Lucas lives with his dad, there is no mother in the picture, and the two of them lived with his grandmother until they were recently kicked out.  Presently, they are staying with a friend of his father who is currently undergoing chemotherapy because he has cancer.
Lucas has an Individual Education Plan which includes suggestions for how to help him concentrate. They recommend that he wear a weighted blanket to keep him still in his chair or have him play with a squishy ball to help focus while releasing some energy.  The plan also suggests turning off the lights in the classroom and lighting the room with only natural light because his eyes will often hurt while he is reading.  He also has a modified assessment plan which asks that his tests be read aloud to him.