Field Observation

Estefania Caro
Introduction to Special Education 203
Field Observation
Tues. May 17, 2020

Social Skills: Applying a Five-Step Process for Giving a Compliment

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Exceptional Needs- Mild/Moderate Disabilities

Case #784

Grade 2

The cooperating teacher is teaching her second grade students on how to give an

appropriate compliment to others using a five-step process. The students are to role play and

complement themselves and each other. After role playing, then they compare and contrast

compliments and insults. They learn about body language, facial expressions, and what giving a

compliment or an insult means. This is a really good social skill for the students to learn that

they can practice in school and outside of school.

The learning environment looks safe and encouraging for the students. They feel

comfortable while they collaborate and role-play amongst their peers. The students first

compliment themselves by passing a mirror around and saying one thing they like about

themselves. Then the students are to stand up and make eye contact with another peer before

complimenting them. Everyone is included in the activity and the teacher makes sure no one is

left out on receiving a compliment. The students are all respectful to one another when

exchanging complements.

From the video, you can see there is a lot of student engagement with their peers and

teacher. As soon as the teacher asks a question, they all quickly raise their hands to answer. The

teacher has them thinking about how and why they have to have certain body language and

facial expressions when giving and receiving compliments. She shows them how her body

language and facial expressions are and asks the students what she needs to do to correct it in

order to give a proper compliment. After the students practice giving each other compliments,
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the teacher then draws a double-bubble map for the students to compare and contrast

between a compliment and an insult.

The lesson is well organized. She intrudes a five-step process on what the students have

to do to give a compliment. After the students are done complimenting each other, she gives

certain students feedback on what they did wrong and how to correct it. The double-bubble

map at the end was a great way for the students to think of how compliments and insults are

similar and different to one another. Even though they are complete opposites, she has her

students really use their problem-solving and thinking skills to fill out the bubble map.

Building Foundational Skills in Phonemic Awareness

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Exceptional Needs- Mild/Moderate Disabilities

Literacy & English Language Arts- Phonemic/Phonological Awareness

Case #1678

Grades 3 & 4

The cooperating teacher is providing direct instruction to a small group of special needs

students on phonemic awareness. The students are learning how to sound out the long and

short vowel sounds of the letter “a”. She shows her students how to sound out words in

different ways using her hands and body motions as well.

The learning environment looks safe and encouraging for the students. It is also a quiet

and structured environment so the students can learn and not get distracted by others if it

were a larger classroom. It is a very small group of children so everyone is included in the lesson

and they all seem to actively engage and participate. She as well calls out students one by one

to answer her questions. The students are respectful to the teacher and to one another.

The teacher asks the students to read each word and act out with their hands and body

to the sound of the vowel, so they know if it’s a short or long “a” sound. She has them

repeating every word after her. The students are then asked to come up to the board and a

pointer is used for the student to point the words out for the other student to read. The whole

group applauds once they read out loud all the words correctly. The teacher uses flashcards,

pointers, hand movements and different body language to accommodate and modify the lesson

plan for her special needs students.

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The lesson is to improve their reading and writing proficiency and as well as their

confidence. As they interact in the lesson, they are able to identify sight words and they will

know how to read fluently once they learn how to read and sound out each word. Every

student is included in the lesson so they do not get distracted and off task. They are all well

behaved and actively participating.

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SPE 551 Observation 2- YouTube Video

This video was filmed in the United States. It’s an English/Language Arts lesson being

taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher. They are using the co-

teaching strategy, while one is teaching, one is assisting.

The teacher presents a lesson in a fun and creative way for the students to stay engaged

and learn what they are being taught. She gives them several words that make up a sentence

but they are not in the correct order. She has the students read back the words to her and they

call it a “twisted turkey” sentence because the words are all mixed up. The students are then

asked to put the words in the correct order to form a sentence. The teacher gives the students

hints on what to look for to start and end their sentence, such as looking at capital letters and

periods.

While the cooperating teacher was teaching the lesson, there was another teacher

walking around and making sure each student was paying attention. Once the students are sent

back to their seats, they work together to make a sentence using the words they have. There

are several teachers walking around, checking, and making sure the students are doing their

work correctly. Once they have their words in the correct order, they have to glue down their

words. I observed that instead of using regular glue to glue down their words, they had a

container of glue where they pressed down each word on it and then stick the word on to their

paper. I noticed this was a faster and less messy way on gluing down their cut out words. This is

a great method to use for Special Needs.

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I liked the teacher’s classroom design. The students all sit down together on the carpet

to review and go over the lesson. Then they are sent back to their tables, which are different

colors. The colored tables let the students know which group they belong to such as the blue

table, yellow table, and etc. That’s a great accommodation for Special Needs.

The teachers appeared to have good classroom management. The students appeared to

be happy and comfortable in the classroom. They asked for help when they needed it and each

teacher helped the students when they saw them struggling. All the students were engaged and

were being active listeners during the lesson. The lesson was given as a whole group and then

they worked in their own individual groups to complete their assignment. After each group had

their sentences down, they went back to the carpet as a whole group and shared each of their

groups’ sentences with the other students.

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2nd Grade Reading- YouTube Video

The video is filmed in the United States. The cooperating teacher is teaching her second

grade class a reading lesson and they work on fluency and learning new words. She is teaching

her lesson to different small groups at a time while the rest of the class sits in their own seat

and work on a different assignment. I like her method of teaching and how well her classroom

management is. The rest of her class was quietly working on other assignments while she

worked with a small group of students.

Accommodations and modifications were used for her students with Special Needs at

the beginning. Her first small group that she was working with all had a language barrier. They

were all Hispanic students and some struggled with reading fluency and pronouncing certain

words. I observed that with the first group, the teacher had a list of vocabulary words that she

went over with the students and made sure they knew what each word meant. Her second

group didn’t go over vocabulary words and instead went right into the book. Before they start

reading, they look at the pictures in their book and talk about what they see and what they’re

going to read about. They practice pronouncing any big or hard words they see before they get

to reading. The teacher separates each chapter and makes them read as an entire group, with a

partner, and by themselves.

The students appear happy and comfortable in the teacher’s classroom. They were well

engaged in the lesson. They were active listening and they all raised their hands every time she

asked a question. They all looked like they were excited to read and learn about their story.

While they were reading to their partner, she listened to each of them and made sure their
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reading fluency was good and they were pronouncing the words correctly. After they were

done reading to themselves, they were sent back to their seats to write five things they learned

about their story.

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Field Observation Paper

The YouTube video, “DC Prep - Snapshot of an Elementary Special Education Lesson,”

was filmed in the United States. The cooperating teacher is an Elementary Special Education

Teacher who is teaching a math lesson to her class. This is a small group of students with

Special Needs. I can see there is a mix of males and females with different ethnicities and

backgrounds. While they work on math, they use counters and drawings to help them solve

their division problems.

The learning environment looks safe and encouraging for the students. They are

learning how to solve division problems by using different methods. Not all students are

auditory learners, so they have counters to help them physically count objects and be able to

move around and group together for the kinesthetic learners. They are also learning to draw a

model for each of their division problems for the visual learners to better understand the

lesson. These are great accommodations and medications for this special education classroom

so everyone can understand and learn the lesson at the same time. The students are well

engaged in the lesson and are called out to read their division problem and explain how they

got their answer. All the students celebrate together when a student gets the question right.

I observed a lot of student engagement with their peers and teacher. They work

together on a problem, and then the teacher has them work individually on a different

problem. She goes around the classroom to check their work and helps them out if they need it.

A student is then called out to share their errors to the rest of the classroom and explain how
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they noticed their error and how they fixed it to get the correct answer. All the students appear

happy and comfortable to share their errors and solutions to the rest of the class.

The teacher appeared to have great classroom management. Her students were well

behaved. A countdown method from ten to zero is used every time to transition to the next

lesson or problem. The students stay on task and know what they have to do when they move

on to the next activity, whether it’s working with a partner, as a whole group, or individually.

The students know to raise their hand when they haven’t been called on. This shows that

instructional time is managed efficiently and she doesn’t waste time dealing with behavior

issues or students getting off task. No student is isolated from the rest of the class either; they

all appear to be on task and working with the rest of the class.

At the end of the lesson, she goes over their work and reviews what they have learned

as a whole class. She makes sure all the students understand how the division problems work

and makes each of them explain step by step on what they have to do to get the answer. Then

they go over their goals to see if they accomplished what they were supposed to learn for their

math lesson. Then she has the whole class choose a cheer to know they have successfully

accomplished all their math goals for the day. This lets all the students feel good about

themselves and know that they are doing a great job.

The cooperating teacher’s personality and interactions with the students show how well

her students respect and listen to her. Her goals and expectations are written up on the white

board and she reads them out loud to her students so they understand what they need to

achieve by the end of their lesson. All her students were participating and spoke up when they
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were called on. They all seem to understand the lesson, since she used several methods and

teaching styles on how to solve a division problem.

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Works Cited

“Applying a Five-Step Process for Giving a Compliment.” ATLAS, National Board for Professional

Teaching Standards, 2015, atlas.nbpts.org/cases/784/. Accessed 12 May 2020.

“Building Foundational Skills in Phonemic Awareness.” ATLAS, National Board for Professional

Teaching Standards, 2016, https://atlas.nbpts.org/cases/1678/. Accessed 13 May 2020.

Candace Ledbetter. “SPE 551 Observation 2.” YouTube, uploaded by Candace Ledbetter, 16

Nov. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoBUb4ZpgyI. Accessed 16 May 2020.

Dc Prep Home Office. “DC Prep - Snapshot of an Elementary Special Education Lesson.”

YouTube, uploaded by DC Prep Home Office, 8 Nov. 2012,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lHF1QNzIY8. Accessed 17 May 2020.

Massachusetts DESE. “2nd Grade Reading.” YouTube, uploaded by Massachusetts DESE, 27 Oct.

2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKk2XzCSHu4. Accessed 16 May 2020.