Case Study

See attached powerpoint

Differentiated Instruction

I think that differentiated planning is a great technique to use within the classroom, but how many teachers really try to employ the technique within their classroom.

I think that the video is a great contrast between a traditional classroom with all students learning the same information and then an example of a new classroom with the instruction. In order for differentiated instruction to work in the classroom the teacher needs to employ strategies that will help all students succeed.

My classroom looks very much like the modern classroom in the video with all the students working in groups around the room, but one aspect of the modern classroom that I noticed was that the students looked like they were all working on the same project. In my class they are only working in centers when we are concentrating on a certain topic. The students then rotate every day, so even though it looks like differentiated instruction the students are actually completing all the same work.

There is one student in my class that we have filled out an SST form on and we are starting to modify his work, or make sure that he has support in order to allow for the student to complete his work. These modifications are only made to accompany him so that he can finish his work. The assignments have not been differentiated, but it looks that the suggestions from the SST will ask for my CT to start differentiation in our lessons.

I think that in order to differentiated as a new teacher we need to look at many strategies that are helpful in the classroom. After some research I found this Differentiated Instruction Resource website that gives new teachers resources that can be purchased in CD form with many ideas and lesson plans for the classroom. I know personally that I do not need specific lesson plans that are differentiated but rather a selection of examples that will allow for me to see examples of differentiation and then be able to use the ideas in my own lessons. The differentiation in each lesson plan will not be the same but it will be easier to point out the parts that need differentiation once I start to write more lesson plans.

Our 516 differentiation plan in groups will be great practice for us when we have to start teaching and writing our own lesson plans. I am looking forward to seeing what other people have found and consider to be important in differentiation.

ELL Students in the Classroom

I do not have any ELL students in my classroom, so I visit other classrooms that have ELL students. In the other Kindergarten class there are many ELL students and they are very interesting to observe. The teacher uses visual cues for the students, as well as asking the ELL students to repeat the directions. There is also a lto more scaffolding with the ELL students and asking if they need help.

I know that the ELL students have very limited english and it is difficult for them to follow directions, since they do not understand the directions. Many times if the teacher wants to explain to the ELL students about procedures within the classroom, she will take time to walk with the student, hold their hand and make sure that they see the procedure with help of an adult.

Many times the students enjoy the extra help which is better than getting yelled at in the classroom and then they see how to act in the classroom and start to understand the language.

Academic Support in Carrboro Elementary

Since I do not have any EC students in my class, I did not know what to expect when I went to the EC specialists room for an observation. My classroom has one visually impaired student and we have a resource teacher come into the room during Literacy Centers and Math Centers. One thing that is noted with the resource teacher is that our IEP student does not need extra academic help, rather when there are assignments that require vision or obstacles the resource teacher will help. The resource teacher has also been very helpful with two other students in my class that my teacher has filled out an IEP request form. So as I stated before I did not know what to expect.

The only background information that I was given before the observation was that we were going to observe fifth graders. My initial reaction was that it was going to be a group, but when we arrived there were two Hispanic males and math was the subject of the meeting.

The first thing that I noticed in the room was the size and setup. It was very interesting to see a small room with a large SMARTboard in the front. The students were seated at a bean shaped table, the teacher on the inside and the students on the outside. There was a movie playing on the SMARTboard as the teacher was trying to find a scene to relate to the students. Finally the scene appeared and paused with a man thinking. The teacher then asked the boys for their thinking faces and asked them to show each other. The chairs that the boys sat in had ties around the bottom for them to put their feet against, in my opinion to stop them from swinging their legs. The room was very colorful with signs, posters with inspiration, ABC charts and all the birthdays of the students that receive help from the resource teachers. The students were very close to the SMARTboard and a white board to the left.

When we entered the teacher was explaining the math worksheet that the two boys were completing. She let them know that the worksheet was in English, but later when they went back to class they would receive one in Spanish. After our observation we asked her about the students, they are in the Dual Language program, so they receive math instruction in Spanish. Since she does not speak Spanish they have to work math in English with her and then they go back to class. In the resource room they go over the lesson of the day so that the boys will be prepared for the lesson when they get back to class. The boys attend 3 hours per day with the teacher and they concentrate on literacy, social studies and math.

Since the students were working on division, they began by looking at the relationship between multiplication and division. The resource teacher praised both the students for their knowledge in multiplication; she called them “awesome”. They then worked a few problems to look at the relationship between the two operations. The teacher recommended that the students created pictures for their problems, for example 6 / 3 =? The students drew six objects in three boxes and found the answer to be two. I noticed that the students were very quick to guess the answer. They called out random answers in order to bet one another, whether they knew the answer or not. She then got the students to write the relationships between the applications and think about their multiplication times tables. After that they were presented with a division times table and then highlighted every other column to differentiate. The students then worked out their questions using the times tables but when asked for the answer, they randomly shouted out the first answer that came to their mind.

One problem that was noted with just the two students was the interaction between the students and the teacher. One student had to be consistently holding an object or he would take another object from the other student. The students also would bicker back and forth between each other about an answer; “It is right” “No it isn’t” “Yes” “No” “Yes” “No”. This continued for about 20 seconds until the teacher stopped the students. The students still got their work done after the interruption.

One thing that I noticed was the way that the boys said that they were confused and the teacher ignored them by asking a question that she knew they would get correct. This was a way to position the students to be mathematically competent and make the students feel that they were able to succeed in their math. The students also were asked to dictate how they worked out the problem and the reasoning behind their choices. The teacher found a way to praise the students and let them feel as if they accomplished something in the classroom.

At the end of the lesson the students were able to play a computer game with both students involved. One student would enter the answers on the keyboard and another student would talk to the teacher, then they would switch. The computer game was an incentive for the students to finish their worksheet and then to go to their specials.

The observation was very beneficial and it made me think about different strategies to use with students in the classroom. I really enjoyed how personable the teacher was with the students and I could see that she really enjoyed and cared about working with the males students.

Peter’s Story

The Educating Peter video was very interesting to me and made me take a step back and think about my practices as a teacher. It was so inspiring to see that a classroom can function with a student such as Peter. The classroom might not as been as calm as a teacher would have wanted, but from my experiences so far in education I have noticed that it is not going to be easy. I have decided that personally it will feel as if I accomplished more as a teacher if I had a class of students that need my help, rather than a class of perfect students.

The students in the classroom had taken over their own learning, they took over the classroom management and made the choices on how to interact with Peter. It did not take the teacher to step into small situations, but rather let the students deal with Peter. If the situation was greater than normal, the teacher would intervene and still the students would talk to Peter. I feel that the way that the students shared their feelings with Peter was much more useful than to tell Peter to stop. Peter was a student that felt feelings, so I believe that the idea to use feelings with Peter in disruptive situations was very useful for the classroom.

I think that the concerns of the teacher were based on her ability to handle the experiences in the classroom with Peter. I believe that the teaher would never have taken Peter as a student, if there was not a belief that it was a positive situation.The teacher was concerned that she would not be able to adjust to the actions of Peter and the relationship of Peter and the students. I believe that it was very hard at the beginning and the teacher seemed a little discouraged at sometimes, but as the year passed, the students grew together. The concerns of the teacher at the end of the year were not based on her management of Peter in the classroom, but rather based on the future that Peter was going to encounter.

The classroom environment was very different in some aspects, but I believed that it was similar in other ways. I think that there were a lot more disruptions in the classroom that the students had to work with that were not seen in traditional classrooms. The students were conditioned to not let Peter distract them and to make sure that they knew the strategies to use when Peter was distracting them. It looked as if the students were given strategies and techniques to use with Peter in the classroom when there was disruption. The teacher talked about the resources that were in the classroom to help the students. I believe that it is necessary to have the resources, as they are relief at certain times of the day when the classroom might be very difficult and busy.

I think that having Peter in the classroom was a positive experience for all the parties. I just don’t know if I would be able to have that experience my first year as a teacher. I feel that it would be difficult for me and I would want to have experiences in my classroom that would build on my ability to have a student like Peter in my classroom. Peter’s story is very inspiring and I would be very proud if I was considered to be a proficient teacher for a student such as Peter.