Fieldwork Report for Special Education Classroom

Fieldwork Paper and Fieldwork Form The purpose of the fieldwork is to observe the two certified special education teachers and make connections to course content within real world classroom settings. One of the schools where the observation was conducted is P.S. / I.S. 266 whose address is 74-10 Commonwealth Blvd, Jamaica, NY 11426 (P.S. / I.S. 266, 2018). The school, which falls under New York City Public Schools district, is a pre-kindergarten to eighth grade learning institution that was established in September 2003 and has a student population of nearly 700 students.

The second school is CLASP, which is located at 80 Grace Avenue, Great Neck NY, 11021 (CLASP Children’s Center, n.d.). This pre-kindergarten setting seeks to provide quality childcare for working parents and has existed for more than 35 years. This paper provides a summary of observations made in each of these schools as part of this fieldwork. Summary of Observations P.S. / I.S. 266 The teacher under observation at P.S. / I.S. 266 is Paul Murphy who provides special education in a sixth grade class comprising 25 students.

I interviewed this certified special education teacher for 1.5 hours and conducted observation of the classroom for 6 hours. The interview provided significant insights regarding the nature of the classroom environment and teaching strategies utilized in this co-taught general education classroom. The observation was made during an English class that incorporated different learning activities to help meet the diverse learning needs of the students. These students have different types of disabilities including visual impairment, intellectual disability, speech impairment, and emotional disturbance.

Students exhibited behaviors that reflect the symptoms of each of these disabilities. This English class was a co-taught general education class since the students with special needs were not pulled out from the rest of the classroom to undertake the class in a different location. Different learning activities were utilized by the teacher based on the students individualized educational plans (IEPs). Some of these activities included reading and writing exercises, color coding, and breaking down different tasks.

The subject matter taught in this classroom was Vocabulary, which would help enhance students mastery in reading and writing in English. Lesson objectives included to promote students’ understanding of advanced vocabulary words, to enable students identify advanced vocabulary words in literature, and to enable students understand the meanings of vocabulary words. To achieve these objectives, the teacher utilized graphic organizers and musical pieces with advanced vocabulary words.

Student responses was measured through examining his/her involvement in the classroom and using a test that was completed at the end of the lesson. Through incorporating musical pieces and graphic organizers in the classroom, the teacher utilized multisensory instructional approach. Students color coded text to identify advanced vocabulary words. They also listened to musical pieces and discussed advanced vocabulary words used in the music. They also engaged in reading and writing exercises geared toward identifying these words and created clay sculptures of individual vocabulary words.

Some of the instructional accommodations used in this classroom include allowing students to record their work in different ways, using flexible time schedules for students to complete learning activities like creation of clay sculptures, and reducing assignments depending on the student’s learning needs and abilities. Paul Murphy utilized the students’ individualized education plans (IEPs) to develop Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), which was used as the behavior management system in the classroom. IEPs were utilized to identify and list the students’ problem behavior.

As part of the behavior management system, the teacher created a Behavior Improvement Plan that comprised different aspects of behavior management. The improvement plan stipulated the rules, directions, and instruction in a clear manner that could be understood by all students. The teacher also identified and used appropriate interventions to help students’ model the desired behaviors. This behavior management system was effective since students displayed the target behaviors and learning was characterized with minimal disruptions. CLASP The certified special education teacher observed at CLASP is Ms.

Lynda who taught Mathematics to pre-kindergarten students. The observation was conducted for 6 hours and the teacher was also interviewed for 1.5 hours. Through the interview, Ms. Lynda provided insights on her experiences in teaching special education students in a children’s care center, which has children in pre-kindergarten. Since the school is a children’s care center, it does not go beyond pre-kindergarten. The interview with Ms. Lynda enhanced my understanding on how a special education classroom differs from a general education class, particularly in a pre-k school.

The classroom comprises 15 students with different kinds of disabilities ranging from intellectual disability to visual impairment to deaf-blindness to autism and auditory impairment. These different types of disabilities affecting the students were identified through examining student profiles provided by the teacher. The class was a self-contained special education class in which counting exercises and group work were utilized as learning activities. The subject matter in this Mathematics classroom was Fractions, which is one of foundational skills of Mathematics.

The objectives of this lesson include to enable students identify fractions on number lines and to enable students learn how to match fractions to models. Through this, the main goal of the lesson was to provide them with basic or foundational skills on Fractions. Given the students’ academic level, the lesson did not seek to provide advanced skills and concepts in fractions, but offer foundational skills on this topic, which would in turn be utilized for enhanced learning in subsequent grade levels.

The measurement of student responses was carried out through requiring them to participate in different learning activities relating to the subject. Graphic organizers and Google Classroom were technological tools used to engage these students. Through Graphic Organizers and Google Classroom, the teacher utilized creative teaching and problem-solving teaching methods. Ms. Lynda also used task analysis, which entailed the use of visuals in teaching students. During this process, students were provided with visuals from the textbook relating to the topic.

They were then taught on how to identify fractions in these images. The teacher also used Google Classroom to engage students in identifying or determining fractions in different visuals. The other method utilized to teach fractions in this classroom was Domino Fraction Games through which students drew dominoes using their two opposite sides as fractions. Through the process, the students compared fractions and matched them. To help in enhancing students’ mastery of the lesson, Ms.

Lynda made setting accommodations, which involved changing the instructional location or conditions in the learning environment. The use of the different instructional locations and changes in learning environment conditions was influenced by the student’s specific disability, learning needs, and learning abilities.