Abstract

Running Head: FIELD EXPERINCE OBSERVATION PAPER 1

FIELD EXPERINCE OBSERVATION PAPER 8

Mary Jones

My name is Mary Jones. I completed my field experience at Parkside Elementary School. I 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 autistic students who

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 urges 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 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 online. 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 versus 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 prepares the students for GA Milestones which are also taken on student computers. Students are placed in a 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 consists of one high functioning and one low functioning student in a skill or area of study. This is considered peer tutoring; this method is useful 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 engaged in learning. She has established clear, consistent methods 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 saw that if there were 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 class 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 essential 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 callbacks to gain students attention.

Ms. Paramore uses a stoplight 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 confidence back to try again.

When observing Ms. Paramore during an ELA lesson, she started 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 book. 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 then did an informal assessment by asking students questions related to the story. She provided multiple opportunities for the students to answer. After completing item 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 significant because this assignment prepared the students for the next task. She then provided the students with writing prompt to answer the critical 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 put counting bears in the rings. For example, they did multiples of 3, she brought three loops 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 engaged and eager to raise their hands to answer.

The Parkside elementary school has some strengths as well as weaknesses. The school boasts of some academic and regulation compliance records in the state. The school is one of the few district schools to meet adequate yearly progress. The graduation rates have been on the increase with the number of students receiving special education exceeding state and special education state performance plan. The drop-out rates are also one of the lowest in the state.

The teaching and learning team comprising of the directors, teaching and learning staff are tailored to the needs of the students. There is also focus on results regarding data, progress monitoring and substantive issue schools crosstalk that has always resulted in institutional practice and culture improvement. The school also has important math and literacy material and human resource. A co-teaching pilot program was also initiated in the school with a team of special and general teachers as a building-level goal general practice. The post-secondary employment records of the school are also remarkable as over 75% of students with disabilities that graduated in the school got engaged with post-secondary employment or education even surpassing the targets of the state (Phillips, 2014).

However, there are a few areas that should be improved for the betterment of special education at the Parkside elementary school and the community. One of the areas is meeting the required 95% statewide assessment targets for reading and math (Phillips, 2014). This is the only class in the school that failed to meet the percentage participation target in the statewide assessment. The reading proficiency of the level also needed improvement as it was relatively low despite meeting the disability safe harbor confidence in grades. This is in comparison of student performance in reading in students with disabilities with other students. There is also a need to improve in math to level with other classes in the school as the class though scored above the average in proficiency in math, was the lowest scoring class in the school. There is also a concern in access to core curriculum as the school as the school does not comply with pacing requirements and has inadequate differentiate instruction. There is, therefore, need for self-contained special classes generic since the current level is not aligned with grade-level standards. Another area of concern is the focus group scheduling as individualized education programs are not keenly put into consideration. The school has intervention programs instead that have not been aligned with the needs of students with disabilities. There are also scheduling problems resulting in less time for program co-planning by general and special educators.

To mitigate the shortfalls, the school needs to install school teaching and monitoring staff for students with poor performance in math and reading, and since this is a special education school, there need to be research-based interventions implemented with fidelity. The progress of the students with exceptionalities should always be monitored and the necessary data reviewed and instructional adjustments made. For the classes that have insufficient intervention materials, a phased-in plan should be developed to ensure the needed materials on training and support are purchased. The school should also review the current professional development, coaching and support plan to give all students access to core curriculum (Raju & Tiwari, 2015).

My field experience gave me a lot of valuable insights into the special education field that if applied with ensuring an excellent performance among students with disabilities. There needs to be high collaboration and cooperation level between the education program and the teaching and learning staff. Schools should also cooperate with local task forces on rights to education for support together with meeting their requirements. Schools should also ensure they have sufficient behavioral staff.

References

Raju, K. D., & Tiwari, S. (2015). The management of geographical indications: special education: post registration challenges and opportunities. Decision, 42(3), 293-306.

Phillips, L. E. (2014). Pre-service teachers' attitudes toward the use of inclusive classrooms.