Running Head: FIELD OBSERVATION REPORT 1

Field Observation Report

EDU 203

Angelina J. Maisano

14 March 2019

College of Southern Nevada

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Abstract

This paper will compare and contrast what I have learned during my ten hours of field observing

and the fifteen chapters I have read in the textbook for this course. I have noticed many of the

same concepts I have learned in this class while visiting the elementary. I believe I have learned

more from reading the textbook by myself than I have learned hands on, while sitting in the

classroom. It was a great experience to be able to see a third-grade classroom from the outside

perspective, and not being a child in the class. I was able to see students with different needs; I

saw students with speech impediments, autism, and ADHD all in my one class. Seeing what I

read in the textbook in person was very interesting. I will be briefly explaining each student who

had these conditions, along with one other student that made me concerned.

keywords: field observing, textbook, perspective

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When I first started this course, I had very little interest in completing the ten hours of

field observing. I was nervous about how I was going to manage my time and juggle my two

jobs, four classes, and family time. Though I was nervous and not quite as excited as I should

have been, when it came time to step into my assigned third grade classroom a wave of joy over

took my emotions. The kids were all so welcoming and happy to see me, even if they didn’t

know me. I went into the school thinking I was not going to enjoy this experience, I left the first

day with tears in my eyes and had a little mental breakdown in my truck. It was happy tears of

course.

One of the kids in this class really left a mark on me. Austin is an IEP student who was in

the classroom from nine o’clock to ten and one fifteen to two. He only was able to come to the

classroom if he was on his best behavior during his time in his special education classroom.

When Austin came in everyday with his little folder and big smile the other kids would wave and

say hi. He is a very intelligent kid who is great at reading and writing. My cooperating teacher

told me he has moderate autism. He was a very cute kid and I enjoyed watching him. I can tell he

had a very short attention span. The teacher would explain how to do a worksheet to him and

then they would do a problem together, he understood and would read the directions aloud to her.

Then the teacher, Ms. Day, would go help other kids or grade papers. Austin would slowly stop

paying attention to what he was doing and start playing with his pencil or start biting the eraser

tip. Ms. Day was good at noticing every small detail that goes on in her classroom. She would

grab Austin’s attention and just say, “Auuustin,” and he would bounce back up, let out a tiny

“ugh” at himself, and start doing his work again. I remember reading that some of the

characteristics of ASD was hyperactivity, short attention spans, impulsive behavior, and more.

The textbook also said that every individual is unique. I read in the textbook that almost forty
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percent of students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder were assigned to regular classrooms and

thirty-three percent were in special classrooms (Gargiulo 329). Austin is assigned to a special

education classroom for almost the entire school day but is with a general classroom for a partial

portion. I enjoyed observing Austin, I am not sure if I learned anything from this part of the

experience, reading the textbook beforehand let me understand what I was seeing a tiny bit better

than I would have known prior to reading.

In this classroom, I also was able to see a student with a speech impediment as well. In

chapter eleven we learned about the different types of speech impairments. We learned about

omissions which is when a sound is missed in a word. Additions is when there are extra sounds

in a word. Substitution is when one sound is substituted for another. And distortion when a sound

is said incorrectly (Gargiulo 377). A kid in the classroom named Brendon would make

substitutions with certain letters. He went to speech therapy every Tuesday and Thursday. For

the most part, Brendon was a pretty good kid. He had to sit in the corner of the classroom with

his desk facing the wall because he would get very angry and storm off. When I started field

observing he already had his desk isolated. I asked my teacher and she said there were several

times he acted out and that is how she punishes him. I personally believe that this isn’t the

correct way to punish him because he is far away from the board and in order to pay attention to

lessons, he needs to sit out of his desk and turn his whole body to see. The teacher would get

mad at him for not sitting properly with his legs under the table. I know I am getting off topic

with the whole speech impairment topic, but I am briefly explaining Brendon’s situation.

Another cute kid in my class has ADHD, according to my teacher. I noticed some of the

symptoms I learned in the textbook that I saw the kid doing. There were probably a lot of kids in

this classroom with some spectrum of ADHD. The textbook does say on page 255 that ADHD is
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“one of the most common disorders of childhood”. This kid named Kevin is super cute and

funny. I think he probably has impulsivity ADHD because he would often blurt out answers and

interrupt other student’s answers when he found it out himself. I found it cute when his light bulb

clicked on in his head, he always said it aloud, but I can understand why the teacher would get

mad at him because other students need to answer too. The teacher told him several times to not

do it, but he couldn’t help himself. See, I am not one hundred percent sure if Kevin actually had

ADHD, or if he was just so eager to get answers right. My cooperating teacher told me he does

though.

Now, this kid I am going to explain doesn’t have any type of special needs or anything

like that, but my heart goes out for him. Ms. Day told me he has missed more that twenty days of

the school year. She is very hard on him for not coming to school. In my head though, I believe it

is not Jordan’s fault. He is a little third grader and can’t take himself to school. Ms. Day says the

dad told the school Jordan has a contract with Disney and that he is going to be a “future star”.

Jordan, the kid, doesn’t ever seem to be genuinely happy like the other kids. I think I saw him

smile once, with the whole time I have been there. He whispers all of his answers when the

teacher calls on him. He dresses in baggy clothes which may or may not be his fathers. He also

has a staple in the back of his head, which he said hesitantly he got from falling off the bed.

Jordan also always has dark bags under his eyes and struggles to stay awake throughout the day.

The teacher is always telling him off and saying little things like, “well, if you would have been

here maybe you would know how to do this.” I am unsure what has happened to him, but he

misses school a lot. I do not want to assume, and I am in no place to tell any adult my concerns

mainly because I haven’t been there long enough to fully grasp all the details on this kid. One

day he was wearing a shirt with a picture of him and his mother that said, “Rest in Peace, we
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love you.” I just feel bad for this little kid. I don’t think the dad is allowing Jordan to have an

educated upbringing. Jordan talks with a lot of slang and improper grammar, that is obviously

taught at home. He isn’t getting enough sleep and is always very sad looking. I wish I could help

him, but I do not know how to. I do not think he has any disorders that we learned in this course,

but he is definitely a questionable subject that I would’ve loved to observe and learn more about.

Overall the textbook reading and field observations worked hand in hand. I was able to

see some of the conditions I read about in the classroom. I saw autism, speech impediments,

acting out, adhd, and I feel like emotional abuse. It is sad to know that there are so many students

in this world who must deal with so much at a young age. Teachers make a huge impact on kids,

whether good or bad. Students are always looking up to them.

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References

Gargiulo, R. M. Special Education in Contemporary Society. [Chegg]. Retrieved from

https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781506310718/
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Footnotes
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Tables

Table 1

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