We find Jamal in the same position as many student athletes; that is, he has found success on the ballfield but not in the classroom. Since Jamal has already reached tenth grade, many teachers may have given up on educating him and just want to “pass him along” to keep peace with the school’s athletic department, Jamal’s parents, and sometimes even the school’s administration. This behavior of passing him along has likely suited Jamal, as well, since, like most people, he prefers to take part in activities that result in success and bring him praise. Even in the light of Jamal’s contentment with doing the least he can to get by, as his language arts teacher, it is my job to educate him, that is, to enable him to read and understand what …show more content…
Drabik (2016) stated that poor grades in high school may result in a player not being viewed as a leader by his teammates and coaches, being overlooked in selection as team captain, and an overall negative reputation. Drabik’s statements illustrate that being a good athlete is not the only qualifier a student must meet for selection to play at the NCAA level. To further illustrate the obvious competition an athlete faces in attaining a future playing the sport, NCAA.org (2017) states that only 6.8% (that is only about 73,000 high school players out of over 1,000,000) play at the collegiate level, and only 1.5% of college players ever play any sort of professional football …show more content…
You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”
Jamal is analogous to the servant who had been given five talents, and, together we can be sure that he increases all he has been given to become all he can be both on and off of the football field.
Jamal’s inability to recall what he has read across the board signifies a need for an evaluation to determine whether he has a true weakness in auditory long-term memory or auditory short-term working memory. If Jamal does, in fact, have a weakness in memory, specific cognitive exercises can be used by the educational therapist to help strengthen those areas. In the language arts classroom, though, whether he has significant cognitive weaknesses in memory or not, we will implement a comprehensive program consisting of a combination of organization, elaboration, and rehearsal activities to promote Jamal’s independent use of comprehension strategies when reading (Gunning,