CSN Education Department - Alternative Field Observation Activities Packet

Name: Gladys Soriano

CSN Course: EDU 203

Professor: Constantina Pappas M.Ed.,BCBA

Part 1 (Instruction): Video Selected: SPE 551 Observation 2

1: Is instruction delivered in small groups, centers, whole groups, individually?

First the lesson is delivered as a whole group, then students are separated into

small groups to complete the lesson. Finally, students come together, again, as a whole

group to finish the lesson together.

2: Describe your cooperating teacher’s teaching style.

The teachers cooperating teaching style is extremely interactive with her students.

While presenting the lesson to the students, the teacher had them engaged by asking them

questions and giving positive reinforcement. Followed by putting the students into small

groups to create sentences, while she goes around encouraging and helping them. Once

all the students were done, the teacher and students came together once more to finish the

lesson as a whole group. This was extremely interactive, which helped keep the whole

class motivated and excited to be a part of something bigger.

3: How does the teacher incorporate the sensory modalities (learning styles)? Give

examples.

The teacher incorporates sensory modalities with visuals, collaborative work, and

objects. The teacher accomplishes sensory modalities with visuals by presenting students

with words attached to pictures. Students use the pictures to help them remember the

word and then proceed to create sentences. The teacher accomplishes sensory modalities

with collaborative work by having the whole class participate in reading the words
together and make connections to the sentences. Then, breaks the whole class into

smaller groups to create different sentences. Students help each other in their small

groups to complete their sentences. Followed by coming together at the end to put all

their sentences together, thus creating a story as a whole class. Finally, the teacher

accomplishes sensory modalities with objects by having them physically put together

their sentences with words that have pictures. Students organize their words in order and

then glue them together in a long piece of paper.

4: Do the students seem engaged in the lesson(s) presented? Please explain.

Most students were extremely engaged throughout the entire lesson. In the

beginning students were excited to participate in figuring out the structure of sentences

and were constantly positively reinforced by their teacher. This helped students to

continue participating and encouraged other students to participate, as well. Then, when

students were broken down into smaller groups to put together their sentences, they were

happy to have a responsibility of being a part of creating a story with their classmates.

Once the class got together at the end to put together all the sentences, everyone was

excited to see their sentence make it to the story.

5: Are there any students isolated or not present/participating in the class? Explain?

Towards the beginning of the lesson when the teacher was presenting the lesson

to the entire class, a few students sitting in back did not really raise their hands or speak

up. These students were more slouched while sitting and stared at their hands quite often.
6: How does the teacher handle absences from the class?

Unfortunately, I do not recall any of the videos talking about the teacher handles

absences.

7: How does the teacher handle transitions from subject to subject or activity to activity?

Are the transitions efficient?

The teacher handled transitions from subject to subject by giving clear

instructions on what to do and how to accomplish their task before they transitioned to

the next activity. For example, towards the end of their lesson when the teacher asked

students to write their own individual sentences, she gave clear instructions on what to do

and how to accomplish their task. She asked the girls to grab pencils first and then

clipboards and she asked the boys to grab clipboards first and then pencils. She then told

them to come back and sit on the floor to complete their sentences. This was effective, as

the girls and boys got up and did as they were told right away with no issues.

8: List ways the teacher uses “attention getting” commands, word phrases, signals, etc.

Are they effective?

Some ways the teacher used “attention getting” commands were by using her

body language as she spoke. Such as making constant eye contact with students. She

would also call on specific students to grab their attention. Additionally, she asked

questions constantly followed by positive reinforcement, this helped keep students’

attention.
 9: What specific behavior issues does the teacher have to deal with? How does the

teacher handle the behavior issues? Be specific.

One behavior issue that the teacher had to deal with is when students did not

participate. She dealt with this by redirecting their attention to the lesson or task in front

of them. For example, when students were creating sentences in small groups if a student

was not participating, she would come over and help/encourage the student to participate.

She did this by asking questions and helping move the words around.

10: Are there any policies or procedures that help or hinder instructional time? Please

explain them and how they help or hinder instructional time.

Procedures that help instructional time are the way the teacher clearly

communicates what is expected of students and what exactly they need to do. This allows

for less confusion and more clarity; this helps with time management because students

know exactly what is expected of them and what to do. Which allows for smoother

transitions from activity to activity and less time repeating instructions.

Part 2 (Observing a student): Video Selected: Correction of Reading Disabilities – Formal

Observation

1: What drove you to choose this student?

What drove me to Maddox was how interactive he was with the lessons and how

talkative he was with the teacher and his fellow student.

2: Explain what the student did during the observation.

Maddox constantly participated when asked questions. He did this by either

raising his hand in excitement and/or with his body language as he answered questions

excitedly. Maddox was talkative and interactive with his teacher and fellow student.

Maddox started off the lesson focused and on task but towards the end of the lesson he

started to show signs of being tired and burnt out. Towards the end of the lesson,

Maddox, started to slouch in his chair, talk about inappropriate conversations, and not

participate.

3. Summarize the lesson given and the student’s responses to the lesson.

The lesson given was about a book called “Casey at the Bat”. First the teacher

presented a variety of words to the students, she asked them to guess what each word

meant and write it down on their piece of paper. Then, she proceeded to read the story to

the students. As she read the book, the words that the students guessed what their

meanings were, started to appear in the book. Maddox became excited to catch the words

as his teacher read them. Through the reading of the book the students were able to

identify and learn the actual meaning of these words. The students then wrote down the

actual meaning of the words, as well, next to their original guesses. This was followed by

the teacher bringing up pictures of the story, and them discussing the order of the story.

When discussing the order of the story Maddox was very interactive and recalled the

story well. Maddox was able to put the story in order from beginning to end.

Furthermore, they talked about the author, title, setting, and characters of the story, again,
the students wrote down all this information. Afterwards, the students got up from their

seats and showed their teacher how they would act according to the story. This was when

Maddox showed his baseball skills and how excited he was to show off his batting stance,

he laughed and talked excitedly. Additionally, the teacher played the 7th inning song to

the students and they were able to dance and sing to let out some built up energy. Here

Maddox was happy to have a break and enjoyed dancing and singing. After that, the

students played a few “Connect Four” games, where they each read a word that ended

with an “e”. Every word they got right they were able to paint a dot over the word, and

every word they got wrong they had to skip putting a dot. Whoever connected four dots

in a row won the game. Maddox enjoyed the game and asked to play of this type of game

in future lessons, as well as inviting the teacher to play the game with them. Lastly, the

teacher provided the students with a story on a piece of paper that they needed to cut up

and put it in order with glue. At this point, Maddox was tired and burnt out. He was

having a hard time focusing on finishing the task in front of him, he kept slouching in his

seat, and was having inappropriate conversations such as asking if they can fart.

4. Make sure to document ALL behavior in relationship to what was being presented by

the classroom teacher.

The behavior that Maddox displayed was excitement and eager to learn and

participate. As he figured out what was happening and getting answers right, he would

show great enthusiasm to continue the lesson. When the teacher allowed him to get up

and show his baseball skills and played music for him, Maddox behaved with great

excitement to move around and let out some energy. Shortly after their movement break,
 Maddox began to decline though and started to get tired of the lesson. He began to show

signs of boredom, tiredness, and being burnt out. He displayed these signs by not staying

in his chair, talking about events outside of school that were inappropriate, and not

wanting to participate anymore in the lesson.

5. Please describe what you discovered about the student’s learning styles, involvement

in class, and his/her educational needs.

Maddox’s learning style was interactive and social. Maddox showed that his

educational needs were met when he was interacting with the teacher and his classmate.

That is when he seemed to show the most enthusiasm for participating and learning.

Part 3 (Summary):

I observed how much multi-tasking, patience, flexibility, and creativity is required to be a

teacher. Teachers have a wide variety of students to teach and create relationships with. Every

student is different and requires different techniques to learn and thrive. I observed that students

by nature want to learn and be a part of a fun learning environment. This is why it is crucial for

teachers to be flexible, patient, and creative when it comes to lesson planning and teaching. I

realized that teachers are truly passionate about what they do and need to be good roles models

to children. When it comes to instruction, teachers need to be clear consistently and constantly

with their students every single day to help them thrive and succeed. By providing students with

clear instructions constantly, teachers create a smoother learning environment. When it comes to

the school environment it is important to create a safe and warm space for students to feel
comfortable, motivated, and welcomed. This can be accomplished by putting up motivational

posters, artwork of students, ABC’s lettering, mathematical cutouts, and so on. Brightening up

the walls of the classroom and school helps students feel motivated and safe to create and learn. I

feel that this observation has better prepared me about the teaching profession by showing me

the variety of personalities, needs, and wants that students have. All students are different and

unique, and this observation has taught me that teaching requires teachers to constantly learn and

adapt. This observation better prepares me by showing me different teaching styles, techniques,

and patience required to help students thrive. Another way this observation has helped me is by

showing me the wonderful rewards of helping students learn and overcome obstacles. I want to

help children believe in themselves and I want my future students to know that they will always

have me, as their teacher, cheering them on to succeed and that they will always have someone

to help them when they need it. This observation relates to our text information and class

activities in a more visual way. We have learned about a variety of different needs that different

students have and what teachers do to help them help their students learn. These observations

have put the different methods and practices we have been learning in a realistic setting.

Teaching and special needs requires a lot of patience, understanding, and consistency every

single day. A specific idea that I will make sure to remember for my classroom is the teaching

style I learned in the “SPE 551 Observation 2” video. I loved the way the teacher started off the

lesson with such excitement and positivity with the whole class. Then, proceeded to put the class

into small groups to complete part of the lesson and then ended the lesson, again, as a whole

class. The students seemed to thrive being in an environment where they learned together but

were also a part of something bigger than just completing an assignment on their own. I feel this

teaching method/style really brought out a lot of participation and excitement for the class.