Benchmark Observations in a kindergarten classroom

The student is five years old. The student is in kindergarten. The kindergarten class has fourteen children. The classroom is a mainstreamed and both teachers have special education experience. The student has strengths in reading comprehension, phonics, and spelling. He enjoys puzzles and can complete a fifty piece puzzle on his own. The student focuses on the end pieces of the puzzle first. The puzzle is a picture of the United States and the students reads all the states and their capitals. When the student completes the puzzles he recites the cities that are listed. His weaknesses are in physical activities that involve group participation. The student does not show interest in teacher directed games such as leap frog. The student has trouble making eye contact and engaging in conversations. The student repeats questions when he is asked. The student repeats what he hears throughout the day so he will often say hello, how are you? When the student repeats the phrase he does not make eye contact or pause for a response. The student has an IEP and a goal for the student is to promote conversations with peers, family members, and teachers.

The IEP states that the student works with a therapist for speech. The speech therapist states that the student uses echolalia which is repetitive use of language. The student can read age appropriate books for eight year olds. The student read the book, Stegosaurus The Dinosaur with the Smallest Brain, by Elizabeth J. Sandell. The student pronounced every word correctly. Another saying he often repeats out loud often are, come on lets wash your hands. When the student says that, he does not go wash his hands. In fact the teachers have to aid in hand washing with the student because he seems to avoid soap when not supervised. The student was observed climbing up the slide at recess and he said out loud slide on your bottom. The student is aware of the directions but does not grasp the comprehension of what is expected of him. The student adjusts well to center time he chose computer for free choice. The student has a modified center chart.

The charts purpose is to ease the anxiety of making choices. The activities that the student seems to have the most success with are visual types. The student was observed many times reading picture books. The teacher made a poster of the life cycle of a frog. The student observed the poster and used a pointer to point to the correct events in order. The student was observed many times walking around the classroom looking at different pictures on the wall. He seemed to really enjoy the calendar on the wall. He counted to twenty-eight using the numbers on the calendar. The student is considered autistic but the student seems to be functioning in a general education classroom very well. The student’s parents believe that because the student mock’s behavior that by being in a general education classroom the student will mock the correct behaviors.

Lesson Plan

Subject:
Reading /writing/social interaction

Date: 03/03/2014
Essential Question(s)/ Big Idea(s):
Why do people use calendars? Where do you see calendars?
What are some things that we do each day in order? (Get up in the morning, brush our teeth, eat breakfast, etc. What order did you do things in today?
What happens in this classroom each day we come in to school?

Aligned Standards for South Carolina schools
K-R1.5— Begin identifying the title and author of a text.
K-R1.6—Demonstrate the ability to retell stories.
K-R1.7—Continue recalling details in texts read aloud.
K-R1.11—Respond to texts through graphic art.
K-R2.1—Identify characters and settings in a story.
K-RS3.1—Organize and classifying information by constructing categories. http://www.earobics.com/resources/SCcorrelations.pdf

Key Concept Vocabulary: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, First, second, third, fourth, caterpillar, leaf, egg, butterfly Other Concepts:
Days of the week, story sequencing
Following directions

Instructional Objectives: (should be observable and measurable)

1. Read the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle and put the story events in sequence order by the days of the week. 2. Individually demonstrate comprehension by retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar story through an individually created book. Learning Targets:

I can work with a partner and communicate the tasks that need to be completed. I can follow directions that are being stated.
I can listen to a story about the days of the week.
I will identify clues about what comes next.
I will identify the correct event for the day.
I can read sentence strips about what comes next in the story. Activities:
Teacher shows a calendar, and discusses the sequence of the days of the week. Teacher reads story, asks guiding questions
Students return to their tables and complete a booklet with pictures to color and sentence strips from the story. Students read the sentence strips.
Resources and Materials:
-The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
-Classroom calendar
-Crayons, scissors, and glue
-Booklet made by individual
-Sentence strips with the book summary.
-Pictures for individual to color with pictures from the book -Thinking Map: booklet
Rubrics

Supplemental resources and assistive Technology:

Students use the computer to create pictures to color for the booklet.

Tiered Content High:
1 .Students just complete booklet with correct matching pictures in the correct order of events from the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.

Students read sentence strips and match them to the correct picture.

Students retell the story in the order of events.

Students make a booklet to show understanding of sequencing.

Students can use the computer to print pictures from the story.

Teacher will read the book and ask children to retell the story. The children will participate in drawing a life cycle of a butterfly.

Tiered Content Average:
2 Students just complete booklet from the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.

Students cut of pictures and glue them to the booklet in the correct order of events.

Students color pictures in the booklet.

The student is paired with a partner and the two work together and completing the booklet. Working with a partner will encourage conversation for the student.

The booklet will have sentence strips cut out and the students will glue the strips under the correct picture. Tiered Content Low:
Accommodations and modifications

3. Students just complete booklet from the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.

Students can draw a picture about the events they remember from the story. The students can use the book as a guide.

The teacher will read the book in a group setting and then provide paper and paint at the art easel.
The easel will have stencils of the leaf, egg, caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly.

To promote interaction with a group after the teacher reads the book the teacher can ask the class to act out the book. Ask the students to pretend to be an egg on a leaf, a caterpillar crawling, a cocoon, and flying like a butterfly. Assessment:

The teacher will observe the students while they are completing the sequencing activity. Teacher will also encourage participation during group discussions. The booklet will also allow teacher to understand the individual’s comprehension of sequencing events from a story. The teacher may want to follow up with a science activity about Life cycles The teacher recognizes that the student avoids groups so she read the book as a group. The student also struggles with completing a project. The student needs improvement on holding writing utensils so the teacher encourages a drawing activity in a small group setting.

Assessment:
Successful completion of the booklet. All pictures are cut out and colored. The pictures are placed in correct order. The teacher will ask different question to document the level of understanding of the topic The student struggles with group activities. Communication is a challenge therefore the teacher provided a partner to work with while the two cooperate together and complete booklet. Assessment:

3. Students successfully draw the pictures from the story.  Students look at pictures in different science books.

The student struggles with following directions. The teacher enhanced those skills by providing an acting activity. The teacher game directions and the class obeyed. The student also struggles with physical activities so the teacher made it possible for him to move around the classroom. Reflection (what worked, what didn’t, items to reteach):

Students loved the book. Spend more time with the real pictures instead of individual drawings; use a real calendar to show days of the week. .Need to use picture icons instead of having struggling students read sentence strips. Struggling student 3 needs to have someone point to the picture as they draw the picture from book. Gifted student 1 can help the group that is cutting and pasting pictures in the booklet. Tomorrow: Prepare a life cycle activity and discuss placement words such as first, second, third, and fourth. Review sequencing of the events of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. Read the story again and discuss the order of the life cycle. The student did not act out the motions however the student did laugh out loud while he observed the class participation. The student was observed flapping his hands while the teacher gave the directions. The students seemed to get overly excited with the activity.

The student arranged the sentence strips in order. He read the strips out loud. He also seemed to enjoy the glue. The glue seemed to distract him away from project and the partner completed the work while the student poured the glue in a bowl. Reteach tomorrow the sequence of the life cycle.

References for Lesson Plan

Education Planets. (2013). Retrieved 03/03/20 14 from
http://www.earobics.com/resources/SCcorrelations.pdf

Carle, E. (1979). The very hungry caterpillar. New York: Collins Publishers

8:00-9:00
Reading: independent reading and books on cd
9:00-10:00
Math: adding, counting to 100, what’s different? Unit 5 math workbook 10:00-10:45
Science: Life Cycles “looking at posters, puppets, and flannel story” 10:45-11:25
Lunch and recess
11:25-12:15
Spelling and grammar: review site words
12:15-1:15
Specials : treasure box
“rewarding good choices”
1:15-2:15
Writing: free write in journals
2:15-2:45
Reading Centers add The Grouchy Lady Bug, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Mitten

Reflective Analysis
The lesson plans subject was life cycles. The teacher focused on the life cycle of a butterfly. The teacher had a lesson plan completed on the sequencing from the book, The Very Hungry Caterpilla, by Eric Carle. The teacher had the class engaged in an activity using the calendar. The calendar was a visual that the teacher used to represent the days of the week. The book discussed the days of the week and the life cycle of a butterfly. The observer made accommodations and modifications to the original lesson plan. The teacher’s goal was for the students to create booklets using pictures and sentence strips that were already prepared. An accommodation that the observer made to the lesson plan was pairing the student with a partner. The student struggles with communication and interaction with peers. The observer encouraged working together in partners to enhance social emotional development. The teacher’s original lesson plan had the students working as a group. The student has autism and listed on the IEP was a goal to promote social activities. Another goal that the IEP listed for the student was that the parents hoped the child would learn to seek adults help when the student senses trouble. Problems that the student needs to improve are using socially acceptable actions instead of yelling or hitting.

Working with a partner did not seem to promote interaction for the student. In fact the student walked away from the table many times. The student was directed back to the table each time. The student eventually showed interest in the sentence strips after about two minutes. The student read the sentence strips out loud, but did not place them in order. The student poured the glue out of the bottle and on the table. After that the teacher placed a Styrofoam bowl on the table for the glue. The teacher placed paint brushes in the bowls. The teacher stated that in the past the student had a hard time judging the right amount of glue that needs to be used so that’s why the teacher put glue in the bowls. Pouring the glue seemed to really occupy the student’s time. While he was pouring the observer listened to the student say, “don’t do that!” The student made a humming sound until the teacher noticed the noise. When the teacher asked what was wrong, the student responded by repeating the teacher. The student said, “Uh-oh what’s wrong?” When the teacher asked the student what order the sentence strips go in.

The student repeatedly said no. The teacher reminded the student about the story, and the student seemed to get upset. The student placed his hands over his ears. The teacher then asked the partner if they remembered and the student repeated the question to the partner. The teacher and observer both felt that the student repeating the question was a step in improving communication. If the lesson was taught again the observer would first read the book in a group setting. Then the observer would arrange for the children to sit at a table with three or four classmates. While the children are in groups the observer will ask questions pertaining to the story. The observer will ask questions such as what happened first, second, third, and last. Asking the questions in a small group will allow the chance to hear different answers. The observer understands that each child has their own answer and this particular activity promotes diversity in the classroom. The student will witness communication in different ways. Children learn interpersonal skills through the guidance of adults and working with other children.

The observer will use the sentence strips that the teacher provided in the lesson plan to complete the booklets. The observer will allow the students the choice of cutting out pictures from the computer or coloring their own pictures. The observer wants the children to work together in a group but still feeling independent. In order for the students to feel independent they need to complete something of their own. That is why the observer used the individual booklets instead of a large poster board. The observer knows that the student struggles with decision making so the observer will have all the material available for the student. Instead of preparing for the students to cut out sentence strips the teacher can write on the smart board and the students can copy the sentences. The students can draw the pictures of the steps and then label them. The student’s special education teacher may change the lesson plan because the student was not engaged in the activity the entire time. The special education teacher may see that the student is struggling to concentrate in the large and the small groups. The special education teacher requests that the student have a transition activity before the lesson begins. The special education teacher thinks the activity too long for the student.

The special education teacher suggested the next activity being five minutes long. A transition activity in this case would be reviewing the instructions, fly like a butterfly to the seat, and sit as still as a caterpillar in a cocoon in your chair. Reading the book to the student and asking the student to point to the butterfly or the caterpillar will help the teacher gain an understanding of the student’s comprehension of the story. The special education teacher may suggest the teacher use a picture schedule for the student. A picture schedule will provide a visual learner with reminders of what to do next. The special education teacher is aware that it takes the students longer to start a project so a picture schedule will provide the student with organization. The picture schedule would list the steps of the activity but along with the steps it will have pictures of the steps to the activity. The picture schedules are used to reduce down time. The student is known for wondering around the classroom when certain activities are taking place. The pictures will help keep the student engaged. The occupational theraptist may change the way the teacher wrote the lesson plan. The lesson plan allows the children the opportunity to use the computer for pictures.

The therapist’s job is to improve the student’s performance of tasks, activities, and to achieve success at school. The therapist may include clay in the project. The therapist is aware that the student’s small motor muscles are not developed. The student cannot use a pencil properly so the therapist will provide cookie cutters of a caterpillar and butterfly. The therapist may suggest reading the book and asking the student to make the correct clay art from the book. The therapist agreed that the easel activity suggestion is a good one for the student because it is a great way to strengthen the upper body. Occupational therapists believe that playing is the job of the student. The activity should be addressed in a playful manner to the student. (Loizou, 2009) The teacher should use props such as puppets. The student learns best through visuals. When children learn to play the children often feel successful and confident. (Loizou, 2009)The therapist agrees that group activity will promote social development. Another way the observer tried to enhance muscle development was having the student pretend to be a butterfly and a caterpillar.

The student did not participate in the action part of the activity but the student did laugh while the observer was participating. The observer felt like using puppets while acting out the book would have helped the student participate. The student watched the observer the entire time but did not make eye contact. The student watched the observer’s hands or the top of head. The observer feels like the student was trying to picture the image of the actions. The observer feels like this was a great learning experience with many teachable moments. The teacher recognized many different ways to help the student master the goals from the IEP. The lesson plan was a guide for the teachers to use in the classroom. The teacher realized that the student was not focused on the lesson plan and she taught the student many other life skills that the student will need to become successful in life.

References
(2008). Resource On Educational Planning for Students with Autism. .Exceptional Parent , 38(5),8. Ferguson-Patrick, K. &. (2012). Developing an Inclusive Democratic Classroom “in Action” through Cooperative Learning. Australian Association For Research In Education, . Loizou, E. (2009). In-Service Early Childhood Teachers Reflect on Their Teacher Training Program: Reconceptualizing the Case of Cyprus. Journal Of Early Childhood
Teacher Education, , 30.