What Is My Classroom Observation

My classroom observation took place in a second grade inclusion classroom at the W.L. Morse School in Tarrytown, N.Y. The classroom consisted of one general education teacher, a special education teacher, and a teacher’s assistant. There were 22 students in the classroom and eleven of these students had IEP’s. Four of the students were ELL students. Throughout the day students were pulled for speech and occupational/physical therapy. In addition, an ELL teacher would push in for math and writing lessons. The classroom space consisted of one room with a door to an adjacent smaller room in the back. The back room was used to test the special education students and to deliver all of their writing/book review/ essay lessons and workshops. The main classroom had a blue u-shaped desk in the front that the special education teacher would sit in as she worked with the special education students for all other lessons. The student’s desks were arranged in rows facing the smart board. There is also a list of student jobs that are changed weekly on display. At 8:15 the students arrive for the day. Upon arrival, the students place their backpacks in their lockers, their math homework in a bin, and pull out their composition homework books to be checked. Students have homework Monday-Thursday. Once their homework has been checked, students immediately start writing in their notebooks. Every morning, the general education teacher writes a question on the board. This question is the topic for the student’s writing and students are expected to spend fifteen minutes on their writing. On the morning that I observed, the question was, “What will you do, if we have a snow day tomorrow?” At the end of the morning writing session, a few students are called upon to share their writing. Students were then asked to pull out their Fundations magnetic letter board. Fundations, is a multisensory and systematic phonics, spelling, and handwriting program that aligns with the Common Core Standards. One of the male special education students refused to participate in this lesson and wandered to the back of the room. The student also screamed out, that he wanted to go home. He was then redirected to his desk and was allowed to “sit out” the lesson. The student has a picture of his mom taped to his desk. I was told the student asks to go to the nurse throughout the day, in the hopes of being sent home. At 10:00 students are all called to the carpet for a read aloud. The general education teacher was starting a biography topic and selected Louis Braille. The students were allowed to handle a sample of Braille writing and were very engaged in the read aloud. After fifteen minutes of reading, students were broken into groups, and presented with a collection of biographies. They were asked to select a person that they were interested in learning about. People of interest included, Amelia Earhart, Gandhi, Jane Goodal, President Obama, Benjamin Franklin, just to name a few. Upon completion of the reading assignment, students were expected to answer and update an important fact sheet. These fact sheets were to be the basis of the student’s biography essays. During the selection process, one student, who is emotionally disturbed refused to select a biography, as instructed. Thus, ensued a power struggle between the student and the general education teacher. As the student grew more defiant, so did the frustration level of the teacher, who firmly stated that if she didn’t select a book, one would be chosen for her. After …show more content…
Fisher stated that the self-contained classroom is very diverse. For example, at W.L. Morse there are seven students in the self-contained classroom. Four are Caucasian and three are Hispanic. Two of them come from wealthy families who want the school district to have to pay for specialized residential educational facilities, which cost around sixty thousand dollars per year. She said most families do not realize that the school districts are obligated to pay for the education of students that cannot be “effectively” educated in the public school system. There are other students in the class who receive free lunches and have their field trips paid for by the