INTERVIEW AND OBSERVATION 1

Field Work Special Education Teacher:

Interview and Observation

Yvette Picon

National University
INTERVIEW AND OBSERVATION 2

Abstract

In the following paper, I will summarize an observation of Mr. Brook’s class. He is a

special education teacher at Central Union High School. I will also reflect on the components of

the UDL incorporated in his classroom and on what I learned by this observation. I will conclude

this field assignment by providing a summary of an interview I had with Mr. Brooks.
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Field Work Special Education Teacher: Interview and Observation

Summary of Observation

The main reason why I had decided to observe Mr. Brooks was because he is a special

education teacher for Geometry basic. As a math teacher, I wanted to learn on the different

strategies he applies with his Special Education students.

I got to Mr. Brook’s third class period three minutes before it began because I wanted to

be able to observe everything that Mr. Brook did and how the students also behaved and reacted

towards Mr. Brook. Before the bell rang, I took those few minutes to observe Mr. Brook’s

classroom and the way it was set up. He had grouped the desks in groups of four. I immediately

knew that he had a strategy with his seating chart. I then asked Mr. Brooks about his seating

chart just to confirm that it was strategical and he confirmed it. Something that Mr. Brooks uses

to facilitate his students is his wall space. Something that was great to see in his classroom was

the type of word wall that he had. He had all kinds of vocabulary words with definitions and

visuals that represented the word. Not only that but, all of those words also had a Spanish

translation right next to them for his English Learners.

When the bell rang for students to come inside the classroom, Mr. Brooks stood at the

door to greet each of his students before they entered his classroom. He smiled and shook

everyone’s hand, while having a great attitude with them. I could see his intentions and passion

for this career. He was making strong eye contact with each of them as he welcomed them into

the classroom. Things that he said to the students that really created that safe space for them were

phrases such as “It is awesome/amazing that you came today! I missed you! Are you ready to
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learn something new today?” Before he even began the lesson, he made sure to ease them up by

welcoming each and every one of them and making them feel important. Slavin mentioned an

important aspect of what Mr. Brooks did. “A school that emphasizes social-emotional learning

might, in this view, create an environment that is more conductive to academic as well as social-

emotional learning” (Slavin, 2018, pg. 251). I could see how Mr. Brooks has created this trust

with their students because they all seemed very comfortable with him as some of them shook

his hand and some decided to fist bum.

Most of the students that were in Mr. Brooks’ class were Hispanic. There were 2 white

students and the other student was black. As soon as they came in the classroom, they went

straight to their assigned seats and stared at the whiteboard. While the instructions were posted

on the whiteboard for students to get started working on something, they were still deciding to

waste that time. This is something that I can say is very normal for most of the students in high

school level. We usually have to remind most of the students to get started. Mr. Brooks had “Bell

Work” posted on the whiteboard with instructions that they had to work on the assignment on

their notebook for the first five minutes of class. Students were working on finding the area of

polygons, specifically on parallelograms and triangles. I noticed that students had already seen

this the previous school day because a lot of them who didn’t quite remember the formulas took

out a foldable that was based on area of parallelograms and triangles. As a math teacher, I

decided to get out of my seat and help Mr. Brooks monitor and assist students if they needed me.

I could almost instantly know who Mr. Brook’s ADHD students were two minutes into the bell

work. Three of his students who were in three different groups just couldn’t get started on their

Bell Work. They were all distracted with little fidgets or talking to the person that was next to

them. As teachers, we have to know what triggers our students to not be ok task. We have to be

able to attack those distractors as soon as possible. Mr. Brooks never sat down at his desk. He
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was always progress monitoring his students. I believe that this is something that gets rid of

distractors in a huge way. The three students who were really distracted got back on track

towards the last two minutes of the Bell Work and were able to solve the 2 problems posted on

the whiteboard. They all had to find the area of a parallelogram with a base of 5 feet and a height

of 10 feet. They also had to label what their base and their height were. When the timer went off,

Mr. Brooks chose two non-volunteers to walk up to the whiteboard to explain and write their

process. They both seemed nervous. A girl who went up explained the problem was really shy

and explained the problem too quickly, and nobody could really understand what she was saying.

Mr. Brooks remained patient with her. Instead of calling her out on talking too fast or in a very

low voice, he asked her leading questions that helped her explain her steps in a more

understanding manner.

After the bell work was done, Mr. Brooks had a student pass out another foldable that

was based on finding the area of trapezoids, rhombi, and kites. As the student was passing out

the foldable, another student complained saying that it was too hard. He said “Mr. Brooks, I

don’t want to do this! Can I just take a nap in the back of the classroom? I won’t be able to do

the problems either way.” Spring mentioned that this is usually an issue in many classrooms

where teachers could be blamed for. He said that educators “develop expectations that these

children will either fail or have a difficult time learning” (Spring, 2018, pg. 87). Mr. Brooks was

the exception to what Spring argued. He told that student that even though it might seem difficult

at first, that if he paid attention, he was going to be able to understand the topic. He also said,

“I’ll be walking around to help you all out. If you have any questions along the way of

completing the foldable, please stop me to ask!” Unfortunately, many teachers don’t have this

kind of attitude towards students. Like spring mentioned, it is disappointing that there are
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teachers that go into teaching with this mentality that students won’t be able to grow in their

understanding and therefore, will fail. As teachers, we have to believe in the unbelievable. If the

students don’t find the desire to learn and if we encourage that thinking, then they will never

grow.

While the student seemed to not want to do the foldable out of laziness, he did follow

through the notes. I thought that the foldable was an excellent scaffolding material, especially for

students with ADHD, autism, and other disabilities. These guiding materials help them

understand the topics in a more visual and interactive form. Many of them were flipping through

the foldable looking for the formulas. While it may seem insignificant, there is a big difference

of giving students a simple and boring worksheet than giving them a fun, colorful, and

interactive foldable.

After Mr. Brooks filled out the foldable with the students by using a document camera,

he had students working in pairs on a worksheet where one student would complete all the odds

and the other student would complete the even problems. The interesting about this activity was

that students were able to self-check their work because even though the even problems were

different from the odd ones, each pair of problems had matching answers. If a pair of students

ended up with different answers, then they knew that one of them got it incorrect or maybe both

of them. This is an activity that promotes independence and accountability in students. Students

have to depend on their teammate to complete the other problem to complete the assignment.

This builds up their learning skills, which is something that they really need to do in special

education classes.

Something that Mr. Brooks mentioned to me in the interview was about progress

monitoring. He said that “SPED students need 100% extra monitoring. Why? Because we want
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to be able to meet their needs in the best way possible.” This point leads me to the UDL

implemented in his classroom.

UDL Observation

The way I understood the Universal Design for Learning, known as UDL, is that it is a

system or framework that is made to create an education environment to meet the needs of those

students that most need it. In other words, the “UDL approaches to instruction and curriculum

development provide flexibility in the presentation of information, multiple ways for students to

demonstrate knowledge, and diversity and choice in the content of lessons and assignments to

support students’ diverse interests and learning styles” (The Access Center, 2003). I saw

indicators of UDL in Mr. Brook’s classroom in the way he designed his seating chart, in the

scaffolding strategies that he used for note-taking, and in the flexibility that was involved in the

learning. Mr. Brooks told me that it is crucial for teachers to follow every single detail that is

written on the IEP’s. Some students need to be seated at the front of the class. Other students

need to be monitored every five to ten minutes. I mainly learned about the importance of IEP’s

from observing UDL’s implemented on different students. As teachers, we also have to be

realistic on the goals that we write for our students. “Usually, IEP's contain too many goals.

Some of the goals are also unrealistic. This can cause frustration and confusion for all of those

involved” (Jean, 2016). If the IEP goals that our students are unrealistic to reach, then the UDL

will make it frustrating for teachers and for the student. Some of the goals that are set in the

IEP’s aren’t meant to always be met, but at least to get to most of them. Short and achievable

goals make it easier for the students to commit to reach them. When students know that they are

able to reach those goals, they will automatically be more encouraged and involved in their own

learning. I was able to observe how Mr. Brook had this pattern of encouraging his students
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constantly for the purpose of getting them to become more accountable and responsible of their

learning.
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References

Jean, C. (2016, April 20). The Importance of an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Retrieved May

05, 2019, from https://wehavekids.com/education/The-Importance-of-an-Individual-

Education-Plan-for-Your-Special-Needs-Child

Slavin, R.E. (2018). Educational psychology: Theory and practices (12th ed.) New York, NY:

Pearson.

Spring, Joel. (2018). American Education. (18th ed.). New York & London: Routledge.

The Access Center. (2003). Using a Universal Design Approach to Find Barriers and Solutions

in the Curriculum [PDF File]. Retrieved from https://ccie.ucf.edu/wp-

content/uploads/sites/8/2018/02/UDLBarriersExercise.pdf
 Appendix

Summary of Interview

I observed and interviewed Mr. Brooks, a special education teacher at Central Union

High School in El Centro, CA. The students he worked with represented the student body,

composed of 90% Hispanic/Latino students, 1% African American students, 3% White students

and 1% other ethnicities or mixed students. There are also about 80% English Language

Learners in his classroom for every class period. All of his class periods are 45 minutes long.

The following interview lasted for about 40 minutes in his prep class period. The

questions and answers are provided below.

1. What is your current position?

“I am a Resource Special Education Teacher. This is my second year working at Central

Union High School. However, I worked as a special education teacher at Yuma, Arizona for

about 10 years.”

2. What are the ages and grade levels of your students?

“I teach 13- to 20-year-old Freshmen to Senior students. Many, but not all, students in the

Special Education area stay here until their twenties.”

3. What student information system do you work with?

“I use Aeries where all of the demographics of my students are recorded. We also use SEIS.

This is a special ed informational system that is made to help us record the data and make

decisions from the data, such as the IEP’s.

“I collect all types of data. Academically, that data is always IEP driven. There are specific

IEP goals that I try to target and develop that will fit my students. I document grades, reports,

behavioral and data building, such as medical billing. This helps us in order to get funds

reimbursed from the state. Progress-monitoring is crucial when it comes to reporting their

daily improvements. I have to monitor them all period when they are working in activities.”

5. What are the assessments used in the process of early screening and/or identification?

“We use the WJ4 academic skills assessment. We try do it on every student. Depending on

the ability of the student, they will receive a more personalized test. For example, the higher

functioning the student, the longer the test will be. These assessments help us find their basal

and their ceiling.”

6. What are the most important legal mandates a general education teacher should be aware of

regarding services for students with special needs?

“Everything. We need to always be progress monitoring. There must be IEP meetings within

the due date and have data collection. The IEP is a binding legal document. We must provide

documenting for everything on an IEP. Everything can’t come from what you just think.

There has to be proof of what we are saying about a student. On some schools that I know of,

there are even some classrooms that have cameras for legal issues because of violent students

previously attacking teachers. There is a fine line of students being in less restrictive

classrooms.”

7. What are important insights for a general education teacher regarding issues related to

common medications administered to children and adolescents?

them in a great way. Since students are growing rapidly, sometimes what they needed for

medication a month ago, they might need more of it by the next month because their body

grew already. Therefore, many times, there are students that just can’t focus because they are

under the medication.”

8. What is your experience implementing UDL in your teaching practices and / or collaborating

with other teachers?

“We have a three-tier model. Different special education classrooms/programs get together

and map out the curriculum of how the next geometry basic class will be. We do have a lot of

collaboration between other teachers and me to plan out for next year. The main aspect of the

UDL in special education is the IEP accommodations. This requires team work from all the

teachers.”

9. Have you ever had students that you think that they don’t belong in special education classes

anymore?

“All the time. Some students just have a language barrier. I always have issues with that all

the time. I believe that if they have special disabilities, they should always be in special

education classes because you can learn how to live with that disability, but the disability

never leaves.

10. Why did you become a special education teacher?

“My main reason for becoming a special education teacher was because my nephew has autism. I

had seen that his teachers wouldn’t provide the he really needed. I decided a long time ago that I

would help him out by becoming a special education teacher.”