Field Observation

2

Mary Jones

My name is Mary Jones. I completed my field experience at Parkside Elementary School. I am observed a third and fourth grade self-contained class. This class was made up of a 10:1 student teacher ratio. There were three girls (African American) and seven boys (African American). Their disabilities range from autism to mild intellectual disabled. There were also two students who are served for autism.

Ms. Paramore, my supervising teacher showed many direct interactions with students. She also showed higher order thinking beyond their ability level, to challenge them. She provided stimulating educational programs; such as lexia and dreambox with the use of i-pads. This in itself required high expectations not only academically but behavior wise as well. Ms. Paramore provided emotional development and self-efficacy with consistent praise towards the students. All the students are currently below grade level in Reading and Language Arts. Ms. Paramore set high expectations to increase motivation in students who may find their work to be below grade level. She does this by pushing them to read above grade level. The students in this classroom are currently reading on a 1st grade level (1.0 book level) but she pushes them to read on a higher level. She gives them books between 1.5-2.0 reading level this gives these students a positive attitude toward learning to have read a book above grade level; even if it’s not that big of a margin. This also broadens their knowledge and interpretation of concepts.

There are multiple exceptionalities in this classroom. Those issues are also addressed through differentiating. This is where the she modifies assignments and activates to meet the student ability level. This includes but not limited to all assessments on the state and local level. Ms. Paramore used modified grading and used the platform grading on-line. She modified students test by limiting their answer choices. For example, marking out two of the four answer choices so students would have to choose from A and B verses A,B,C,and D. She also uses platform grading on-line which are the assessment the students take on dreambox and Lexia. Ms. Paramore used this data to focus on standards that students have not yet mastered to improve their skills, and to better prepare students for the GA Milestones Test. She also used a program called Khan Academy, where she goes and create an assessment based on taught material, to see if they have mastered the skill. This also prepare the students for GA Milestones which are also taken on student computers. Students are placed in flexible grouping and the rules are clear and concise. She uses flexible grouping to access their individual needs. One of her grouping methods was High-Low, this is a group that consist of one high functioning and one low functioning student in a skill or area of study. This is considered peer tutoring; this method is effective because many students learn better with their peer’s verses teacher. She utilizes their IEP or Individualized Educational Plan which has the student disability, goals, accommodations for testing, behavior plan, and much more to better serve that student.

In this self-contained classroom the teacher has an effective classroom management system that reaches all students. Routines are developed for each step of the day this allows students to stay focus and be engage in learning. She has developed clear, consistent routines and procedures. Students review classroom and school wide expectations daily, which is a learned behavior that becomes a routine. This helps to increase independence because students can recall and know what the must do daily. While observing this classroom, I noticed that one student is all about routine and does not like change. I noticed that if there was any altercation with their daily routine or schedule he would have a complete meltdown. Ms. Paramore also encourages morning meditation or mindfulness to create a positive atmosphere. This helps to decrease behaviors and minimize the cognitive load of students allowing more brain power to learn content. The para has been trained on the importance of supporting the routines in the classroom, when she steps out the classroom he jumps right in and put up where she left off. The teacher is flexible; no one students learn the same way. She looks at each student strengths, needs, and interest. She keeps students engaged, where not one student is singled out no matter what their disability is. Planning is very important in classroom management, this will give structure to the environment and class dynamics. She also has designated spaces within the classroom for group work, instruction, independent work, time-out area, and free time area. She remains engaged with manipulatives and many hands-on activities. She also uses call backs to gain students attention.

Ms. Paramore uses a stop light chart to reinforce discipline. With red meaning a phone call to your parents or loss of privileges and yellow means stop and think about it. A behavior plan has been inserted in the student IEP. This helps to assert discipline where needed and how certain behaviors should be handled. If the IEP doesn’t work a modification can be done at the discretion of the IEP team. She also finds ways to celebrate the students in the classroom. She has a shout out wall, where she gives students shout outs. They receive good behavior and academic certificates when a student has met his/ her goals. They also praise each other as, a whole class even if the student answer was completely wrong. This encouraged the students to keep trying, allowed their classmates to give them a helping hand, and gave that student their confident back to try again.

When observing Ms. Paramore during a ELA lesson, she started off with a pre-teaching vocabulary of the text she was about to read. One of the goals for ESP students is to be able to ask and answer questions related to the text. Another goal is for students to use context clues, prefixes, and suffixes to determine the meaning of the words. The students and teacher are modeling I do(teacher), We do (as a class), You do (partners/groups), and you do independently (by yourself). Ms. Paramore asked questions as she read the story aloud. The students were very engaged in the lesson and they were able to use phonological skills to sound out unfamiliar words from the story. She than did an informal assessment by asking students questions related to the story. She provided multiple opportunities for the students to answer. After completing question and answers as a class. She worked on writing skills, such as letter formation and sentence structure using the projector board. The use of technology during the lesson provided a visual which benefited all learners. This activity was very meaningful because this assignment prepared the students for the next assignment. She than provided the students with writing prompt to answer the key details in a paragraph.

I also observed Ms. Paramore during math, they were working on multiplication using manipulatives. She placed students in groups of two. Than drew circles on the tables and placed counting bears in the circles. For example, they did multiples of 3, she drew three circles on the table and the problem was 3x3 the students would place three bears in each circle to get the sum of three. The students were really engaged and eager to raise their hands to give the answer.