Casta Garcia-Rosen

EDUG 805-61
Maria Quail
James Quail
12/10/13
Final Growth
Over the course of this semester we explored teaching Social
Studies to English language learners and special needs students.
Through classroom discussions, article reviews, and final group projects
I have learned how to planning and teaching strategies to special
needs students.
One of the highlights of this course was the classroom
discussions at the start of each class. Students were asked to share
concerns about teaching and talk about their experiences from the
field. I learned different approaches to classroom management that
other teachers use with English language learners and special needs
students. For example, using a buddy system for English language
learners creates a safe environment and allows them to feel included
in the classroom. The weekly articles discussed were also very
insightful as they informed me about the teaching profession. My
favorite articles were about poverty and its affects on learning and how
to give constructive feedback to students.

Another aspect of this course that was helpful was learning about
the social studies framework, common core learning standards and
Danielson rubric, all which support teaching, learning and
assessments. As a final project we worked in groups to create a unit
plan that required applying all these practices. I found this to be very
engaging as my group figured out how to best apply these standards to
our unit plan. We learned how to focused on key concepts such as
essential questions, enduring understandings and content. We used
the social studies framework to helps us shape the unit plan.
Overall, I really liked the course because it helped me develop
ways to teach social studies to special needs students. I have a better
understanding of how to apply the social studies framework and the
common core learning standards. I would highly recommend this class
to other student teachers because you learn how to apply planning and
teaching strategies in the classroom.