Arrange through the Office of Placement Services to visit an early childhood special education classroom

Arrange through the Office of Placement Services to visit an early childhood special education classroom

Assignment #1: Field Experience 1 Due Week #3 20 points Arrange through the Office of Placement Services to visit an early childhood special education classroom (or an inclusion classroom with at least three students with disabilities and IFSPs or IEPs). Observe the students and arrange to meet with the teacher to discuss the curriculum, current topics of instruction, and to identify a small group of students that includes the three students with disabilities—or the whole class—that the teacher will allow you to teach, using a lesson plan from your Unit Plan (Assignment #3). Request permission to teach and to video tape the lesson. [You may have to have yourself videotaped without showing the children’s faces, depending upon the school’s policies.]

Then write a Field Experience Report: describe the classroom, draw the floor plan, describe the management system, the students, and the activities that you observed.

You must spend a minimum of four (4) hours in this setting, which must be a school other than your own. (You may choose to visit twice, for two (2) hours each, if you prefer, but this must be approved by your Instructor in advance.) You will need to arrange to meet with the teacher for a few minutes when the students are not present to answer some of the questions listed below (and to collect information that you will need for Assignment #3).

Your report must include sufficient detail about what you saw in the classroom to reflect the four hours of your observation.

Your report must address the following:

a. Date and time of the Observation (e.g., Tuesday, January __, 2013, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)

b. Description of Setting: Community: Is it rural, urban, suburban? etc. School: Is it a preschool center or an elementary school? How many students does it serve? What percentage of the student body receives special education services? Classroom: How is the room arranged? What is on the walls? Are there computers, learning centers, a library, a bathroom, etc.?

c. Floor plan: Include a sketch of the class demonstrate furniture and materials placement. (See Figure 4-1 in the textbook as an example.)

d. Description of Students: age(s), type and severity of disabilities, ethnicity, socio economic status (SES), gender; What were the criteria for placement in this setting? With what developmental areas/concepts/skills do these students have the most difficulty? (You may want to present this information in a list or table format if there is a lot of diversity in the class.) [Remember to complete the Demo graphic Information—see Appendix A for directions.] Generated: 12/9/2021 Page 8 of 57

e. Description/Background of the Teacher and any other Adults Working with the Students: Teacher & Aide: education training, experience, area(s) of certification Volunteers: How were they recruited? Did they receive any training? What do they do in the classroom? Others?

f. Schedule: What is the teacher’s schedule and during what hours do the students attend? What doe san average day look like (this could be presented in list or table format)? Do the students have regularly scheduled art, music, and physical education/movement periods? (Do they attend these with their non-disabled peers?) Were there any changes to the regular schedule on the day of your observation?

g. Mainstreaming or Pull-out/Therapy Programs: Do some/all of the students spend some portion of the day in a different setting or do all specialists (e.g., therapists) come to the classroom to work with the children? (e.g., Are they in a pull-out program for resource room or time with a speech-language, physical or occupational therapist; mainstreamed into a general education class—if they are in a self-contained special education classroom for most of the day, or into a special education classroom—if they are in a general education classroom for most of the day?) How many of the students and for time, for what types of services/ instruction, and during what part of the day?

h. Curriculum: What is the overall approach or combination of approaches being used in the classroom (e.g., High/Scope, Montessori, etc.)? Do the students have opportunities to make choices (if yes, describe them)? How does the teacher incorporate art, music, and creative movement into his/her instruction?

i. What did you observe? Provide sufficient detail to reflect the four hours that you spent with the teacher and his/her students. Describe the activities and the materials used—commercial and/or teacher-made; the concepts/skills being taught/worked on/reinforced; classroom and behavior management techniques; type sand quality of interactions between the students and the teacher, between the students and the Aide/other adults in the classroom, among the students; etc.) Pay special attention to any adaptations that were made for children with disabilities. What types of centers are provided in the classroom and how were they used? [Note: this should be a very detailed report.] j.

j. What are your conclusions about this teacher, the students, and anyone else involved in this classroom? What seemed to be working effectively? What would you consider changing are adding If this was your classroom?