Introduction
Community Engagement Reflective Journal
Lashawnda M. Richardson
Liberty University
Running head: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT REFLECTIVE JOURNAL2
This reflective journal includes the direct observation of sixth grade
English/Language Arts (ELA) teacher, Tracee Keels and Social Studies teacher, Patricia
Williams, student D.F. who has been diagnosed with the learning disabilities, Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and
other classmates ages 11 through 12. The school, Columbia Middle School in Decatur,
Georgia, faces some challenges considering the school is in a very transit area where at
least 7 out of every 10 students may transition in and out of different schools in the area
within the three-year span of their middle grade career. The community and school
population consist of lower-income family homes, with a large percentage raised by
either single parents or elderly grandparents.
D.F.’s mother passed away when he was an infant and his father signed his
parental rights to D.F.’s maternal grandmother. He has been raised by his grandmother,
with some help and support from his aunt and uncle. Unfortunately, D.F. does not have
any siblings, has he grown up around any other children in the household or family;
leaving D.F. bored yet also receiving anything that he wants from his grandmother, aunt,
and uncle.
Depending on the challenges and strengths of child with ADHD, characteristics
may be presented in various ways. For example, some students may exhibit challenges
with focusing and staying on task; however, their intellectual abilities can portray them
students who achieve academically well (Kirk et al, 2015, p. 209). In addition, some
characteristics of students with ODD are reflective of “a pattern of negativistic, hostile,
and defiant behavior lasting at least 6 months, during which four (or more) of the
following are present: often loses temper; often argues with adults; often actively defies
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or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules; often deliberately annoys people;
often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior; is often touchy or easily
annoyed by others; is often angry or resentful; is often spiteful or vindictive,” (Clarke &
Gudrun, 2015, p. 342). He was medically diagnosed with ADHD and ODD in first grade
because he displayed several characteristics including frequent need to distract his
classmates, failure to remain on task, and defiance towards authority. He has been
prescribed medicine to treat it; however, the medicine appears to wear off by the time he
makes it to his third class (Ms. Keels class). His grandmother has requested for a higher
dosage as well as a request for special education and an Individualized Education Plan
(IEP) because her observation that his learning disorders are affecting his academics,
along with his Lexile scores revealing that he is currently reading on a third-grade level.
As a creative outlet for his high energy and need to keep his hands moving, he received
drum lessons and plays for his church choir. After meeting with the Student Support
Team (SST) meeting, a decision was agreed upon to place D.F on a Tier III Response to
Intervention (RtI) plan for reading and behavior. I observed D.F. during both his ELA and
Social Studies classes, his interaction with his teachers, the curriculum and his peers for
seven days.
Reflective Journal
Day One Observation
Thursday, September 12, 2019, the students in Ms. Keel’s fifth period ELA class
current lesson is on analyzing points of views in text. After working on their bell ringer
activities, the students are now attractively working on a class activity where Ms. Keels
reads the passage on the promethean board followed by probed questions. Her method of
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keeping the students engaged includes group alerting in which she randomly calls on a
student; however, to boost student involvement, she selects a student to call on one of
their classmates to answer the question. There are several students engaged by this
activity; unfortunately, D.F. appears to be fidgety as he bites his nails and looks around
the room with slight disinterest. He does appear to follow along with the lesson and does
answer a question when called upon by the teacher. As the lesson moves along, the
students are tasked with writing a paragraph based off the passage they read from the
narrator’s point of view. Instructional Support Specialist, Dr. Avis Foley, enters the room
to observe Ms. Keels lesson, she then asks if it is okay for her to chime in on the lesson
with the students. She assists Ms. Keels by providing a more hands-on interactive
approach at explaining the use of first-person points of view to the class. This strategy of
role play with the students tends to get the entire class more engaged; including D.F.’s
level of participation. The interactive activity helps to provide both depth and definition
to the use of first-person point of view.
Day Two Observation
Tuesday, September 17, 2019, the students in Ms. Keels fifth period ELA class are
assigned a test on their recent lesson about points of view. The test includes seven
passages with multiple choice questions. During testing time, the classroom environment
remains quiet with the lights turned off. Before the students take their test, Ms. Keels
provides the students with post-test instructions on what to do next. They are instructed to
work silently in their workbooks to read ahead. D.F. finishes his test seemingly fast. Once
he finishes his test, I have been asked to assist him with a reading activity as part of his
RtI plan. He is given a worksheet that includes two passages (no more than a paragraph
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long) and five multiple choice questions. I give him the instructions and ask him to read
the passage out loud and then we will go over the questions together. He can read each
paragraph without assistance; he then answers each question with understanding on what
happened in the passage. We were able to complete the assignment in fifteen minutes.
Day Three Observation
On Wednesday, September 18, 2019, Ms. Keels utilizes cooperative learning
strategy by arranging the students in groups of four to work on the lesson on descriptive
writing/reading and descriptive details. As a class, Ms. Keels goes over the lesson and the
use of descriptive details that are used in writing sentences that tells the reader what is
going on in a story. She provides several examples of what makes a more detailed
sentence. Afterwards, each group is tasked with pulling two slips of paper with a sentence
on it; as a group they create a more descriptive paragraph of what is written on the slips
of paper. D.F. appears to be engaged in the activity in his group. While working in his
group he notices that I am observing him and his group. As the group works more on the
activity, he begins to be more talkative and sillier. He also gets out of his seat several
times. He is redirected to stay in in seat and to work more quietly after Ms. Keels steps
out of the class to assist another teacher. When Ms. Keels returns, she addresses the entire
class because of they have gotten off task and are too loud. As class gets ready to dismiss
Ms. Keels instruct the students to make sure that they put their names on their paperwork
and turn it in as they exit the classroom. She also states that anyone who attempts to turn
their work in without their name on the paper she will not accept it. As Dwight exits the
room Ms. Keels stops him and ask him to put his name on the paper. However, he refuses
to do so stating, “I ain’t got time for that right now,” (T. Keels, personal communication,
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September 18, 2019). She hands him back his paper and he walk off to the next
classroom. At the end of the day I am notified by his guidance counselor that he has been
suspended from school for five days for through a desk in the direction of his sixth period
social studies teacher, Ms. Williams. My observation has been put on hold for five days.
Day Four Observation
Monday, September 30, 2019, D.F. has returned from his five days of out of
school suspension. Due to the observation being placed on hold, I observed D.F. in both
his ELA class with Ms. Keels and his social studies class with Ms. Williams. During Ms.
Keels class, students work on reviewing the unit content to prepare for upcoming unit
test. The study exercise is a “Show Don’t Tell” activity via a Brain Pop Video. After the
video is over, as a class, the students answer the multiple-choice questions regarding
descriptive reading and writing. For this class activity, the students are competing against
the other six classes. As an incentive for the class period that receives the highest score
will receive a homework pass. During this time, D.F. is appearing to be engaged in the
activity, because of the incentive. When the class answers a question wrong, he blurts out
his frustration stating, “Man we gonna lose!” He also answers one of the questions for the
class correctly. For the next class activity, the students use their Chromebooks that have
been assigned to them by the school district’s Digital Dreamers program. Unfortunately,
D.F. has not yet been assigned a Chromebook because he was on out of school
suspension when the Chromebooks were assigned. He asks if he could go get a
Chromebook; however, he is not allowed to because the school is not assigning anymore
at that time. As Ms. Keels continues the lesson, she uses instructional technology tool,
Live School, to keep track of the students’ responses and to utilize group alerting to
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randomly select students. The students are asked to share their responses out loud with
the class. D.F. is no longer engaged in the lesson and begins to bite his nails and look
around the classroom instead. After the class dismisses to the next classroom, the students
in the class are rowdy. The entire atmosphere of the class changed once they were in Ms.
Williams’ classroom. Students who were attentive, quiet, and responsive in Ms. Keels
classroom are now loud, rude, and do not follow the rules in the classroom. Some
students behaved defiantly and even talked back to the teacher. D.F. is talkative and
refrains from staying in his seat until he noticed me observing the classroom, this is when
he finally sits in his seat. Ms. Williams spends the first twenty minutes attempting to
collect homework and assign new seats for the students. Afterwards, I spoke with both
the sixth-grade counselor and Ms. Keels regarding my observation of Ms. Williams
classroom. It has been observed that Ms. Williams lacks effective classroom management
and that this happens daily.
Day Five Observation
Wednesday, October 2, 2019, students are working on school-assigned benchmark
assessments. The students use their Chromebooks for this assessment that will be marked
in the gradebook. I ask Ms. Keels how is D.F. performing on the assessment? She states
that he finished the assessment very quickly. Post-test instructions for the students in the
class consists of them getting a textbook where they must read the passages and then
answer the responsive reading questions at the end of the chapter. D.F. uses this time to
build excuses for getting out of his seat. He raises his hand and asks if he can sharpen his
pencil. Ms. Keels allows him to sharpen his pencil. A couple of minutes later he asks if he
can get another textbook and points to the textbook that he must reveal that it is torn. He
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can get another textbook; he does this two more times and never starts on the assignment
because it is time to dismiss class. There are still several students who have not
completed their assessments. I ask Ms. Keels what happens with the students who do not
complete the assessment. She explains to me that they will continue each day until all
students have finished because the school has required that teachers give students time to
complete it. I follow D.F. and the class to the next class with Ms. Williams. As observed
in day four, the class is rowdy, loud, and defiant. Ms. Williams makes a comment to the
class stating that they are being disrespectful to themselves and the guest that is in the
classroom. It takes her fifteen minutes to get the classroom settled to start the bell ringer
assignment.
Day Six Observation
Thursday, October 3, 2019, benchmark assessment continues in Ms. Keels
classroom. Students who have completed the assessment are to work silently and
independently on assignments in the textbook. Ms. Keels steps out of the classroom
briefly. While Ms. Keels is gone, the classroom is quiet for several minutes; however, as
more students complete their assessment and get up to grab books it gets noisier. D.F.
attempts to play the role of the teacher by telling his peers to be quiet while Ms. Keels is
gone. He also waves hello to me when he sees me sitting in the back of the classroom.
Upon her return, Ms. Keels briefly address the classroom regarding the talking; she can
get students back on task.
Day Seven Observation
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Friday, October 4, 2019, the class is working in groups on instructional
technology tool, Quiz-It. D.F. is focused during the bell ringer activity and the class
lesson. He is responsive to questions and answers several questions correctly. Once the
group work starts, he begins to get off tasked and lacks focus. He is less engaged in the
assignment and uses this time to make excuses for getting out of his seat. He first asks to
sharpen his pencil. After going back to his seat, he gets back up to ask for a water break.
Ms. Keels allows him to go get water. When he returns, he stops at the desk to get hand
sanitizer and remains there for a couple of minutes talking and behaving silly with other
students before going to his seat. After he sits down with his group, he gets back up again
to speak with another student and then sits in her seat. This goes on until class is
dismissed. In Ms. Williams’ classroom, the same behavior continues from the past few
days; however, on this day, another student gets confrontational with D.F. The class is
rowdy and there are several students shouting at one another. D.F. then makes eye-contact
with me and attempts to straighten up in his seat. Ms. Williams speaks to the class again
regarding their behavior while guests are in the classroom. She rearranges seats and
reassign students to new seats. D.F. begins tapping on his desk with his drumsticks. This
continues for about twenty minutes before Ms. Williams can begin with classwork.
Conclusion
After my seven days of observing D.F., the classrooms of Ms. Keels and Ms.
Williams, and the curriculum I was able to observe and identify a few exceptionalities
and its characteristics in other students besides D.F. In addition, I was able to identify
several learning strategies used by teachers, as well as both effective and ineffective
strategies for classroom and behavior management. In regard to the characteristics of
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exceptionalities I identified in other students, I noticed one student who appeared also
show signs of ADHD. Each time I observed the classroom he appeared off task, silly, and
consistently had loud outbursts which disrupted the learning environment. Another
student showed a couple of signs of unspecified learning disability. She was off task, yet
quiet and reserved. She also appeared as if she could not follow along with the class. In
observing D.F., he lacked attention, could never stay on task, and constantly made
excuses to get up from his seat. These characteristics appeared to increase whenever the
classroom work independently in student-lead groups. However, whenever Ms. Keels
hovered over him or gave him directives, he was able to stay on task. In addition,
whenever D.F. was either redirected or addressed regarding his behavior, he either
blamed others or would not own up to his actions. He lacks self-awareness, has a habit of
provoking his peers, and sometimes is defiant with authority figures. I have also noticed
that he seeks attention from some authority figures and peers. From my observation, it is
unclear if D.F.’s learning disability is due to his being an only child and sense of boredom
or if it’s something more cognitive. My plan is to continue, when time permits, to assist
Ms. Keels with the RtI plan for D.F. to collect enough data to see if an IEP is needed.
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References
Clarke, J.N. & Van Ameron, G. Parents whose children have oppositional defiant disorder talk to
one another on the internet. Child Adolescent Social Work Journal (2015) 32(341).
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s10560-015-0377-5
Kirk, S., Gallagher, J., & Coleman, M. R. (2015). Educating exceptional children (14th ed.).
Stanford, CT: Cengage Learning.
