I met up with Jayen and his class outside for recess after lunch. Jayen was playing near his peers but didn't really play with anyone. He was still all smiles and enjoying his time with his friends! When the whistle blew, Jayen followed the directions and sat on the bench with Mrs. Lake's class. They headed back into the special education classroom. According to the schedule we made as a team the day before school started, Jayen was supposed to be heading to re-start; a calendar time activity. During this time the teacher was reading a big book to the class, Jayen went to the bathroom and washed his hands so he didn't get a chance to listen to the book before it was time to meet back up with the general education class to go to specials with them. The para told him to grab his backpack and head to class. I didn't understand why he was to bring his backpack and was actually upset about it. What does he need in there? Do any of the other kids wear their backpacks to art? It wasn't because of his IPad, because once again it didn't come out of his backpack from beginning of the school day to the end. He was actually a little late meeting up with the class and they were gone by the time we got there. We met up with them just before they walked into the art room.
I was very impressed with the art teacher and the way she explained the activity to the kids. She asked each of them to put their name on the paper. At this time Jayen's para was writing in his communication binder, that was in his backpack and is possibly the only reason she had him bring it to art. Although Jayen is nearly independent with writing his name, he still needs assistance and the para was busy. The next direction from the art teacher was to turn the paper over and put your hands on your head. Jayen must have been tuned into that direction because every time the teacher tried gaining the class's attention by asking them to put their hands on their heads, Jayen was prompt and ready. The students were directed to use their imaginary pencils, i.e. their fingers, and draw a line from the top of their page to the bottom. Then from one side to the other side. After using their imaginary pencils they were allowed to repeat the directions with their real pencils. Jayen was able to do the first line, but it took him much longer than the rest of the class. They were on their third line before he was finished with his first. I could see that he was starting to get a little frustrated. It was too many steps at once for him to remember. I tried sitting on my hands and remembering I was only there for an observation. After a few more minutes of struggling, the para came over and tried to show Jayen what to do. After drawing three lines top to bottom and three lines side to side, there were abstract shapes all over the paper. The students were supposed to grab 5 crayons and color at least two shapes with each color until all the shapes were filled. Jayen took a crayon and drew one line in each. He struggles with coloring because it is very taxing on his muscles. The para left Jayen's side again to write in the notebook. I took this opportunity to talk to her about the skill that was being worked on. She mentioned that sometimes she lets Jayen just color one line. I talked about determining what the skill was that you are working on at the time. If you are working on counting objects and the directions are to color 7 shapes, then the skill is really to count and not to color. But when in art class, the goal is to work on coloring. This is when you should try to encourage him to fill in the entire shape. If all he can accomplish in his class time is one of the squares, then encourage him to fill it in until there is no white remaining. I also asked if she had ever heard of wikki stix. I think this would have been a great opportunity to use something like the wikki stix to create a boundary for the shapes that Jayen was to color. Jayen and the para worked on the project for a little longer until the art teacher asked the kids to start clean up. Jayen followed the directions the lined up with the class. He walked appropriately through the hallways all the way to the hallway that splits the general education classroom from the special education classroom. The class told Jayen goodbye and he headed towards the special education room.
Once back in the classroom he hung up his backpack then sat in his seat for math. The room was just as distracting as the day I observed in the morning. Mrs. Lake turned on the projector and displayed a worksheet on the board. I assumed the goal was learning addition problems, but it was never discussed in that manner. The problem displayed on the board were similar to this worksheet.
The teacher had a student come up and count the first set of objects then write the number in the box. Then another student came up and counted the second set, if the first student didn't complete it. Then another student was to count them all. While the answer was correct, I didn't see the object of the lesson being taught. It was explained to the students that they were adding. That the symbol + meant to count them all. It simply was a counting exercise. This could have been the objective, but it didn't seem like the word problems matched the objective then. In all the class completed two horizontal addition problems and two vertical addition problems. I was waiting for the individual lessons like what I witness in the morning observation with reading. But nothing came after the lesson. The kids were instructed to grab their snacks. A Magic School Bus movie was turned on the projector then the teacher asked if the paras were ok then left the room. For the next 30 minutes the kids were to sit in their chairs, eat their snacks, and watch the movie. I WAS FURIOUS! What educational value was there in this? Could his time not be spent in the general education classroom learning with his peers? Jayen sat appropriately until his snack was all gone. He got out of his chair, put his lunchbox away, and tried to grab a book off the bookshelf. He looked at his para for permission and she looked back at him and shook her head no. AGAIN I WAS FURIOUS!!!! A little bit later another student was helped grabbing a center from the back of the room. Jayen noticed and quickly went to grab one as well. Jayen brought the box back to his seat, opened it, looked around at the contents then went to put the center back. He chose another center and returned to his seat. This center was bead stringing. Jayen pulled the beads off the string but didn't look at pattern card to restring. He once again did not complete the center and went to put it away. He then grabbed a nuts and bolts type center and played with one of the bolts on a wooden dowel just making it go up and down. This kept him busy until 130 when the teacher returned and his para left the classroom. The students were instructed to put their items away and get ready for recess. Even though they just had 30 minutes of down time, they were now heading outside for another 30 minutes of down time. Once outside Jayen found a yellow ball that he liked and climbed to the top of the playground to sit by the slide. He stayed there without going down until nearly 12 minutes later when the Kindergarten classes came out. When more friends arrived Jayen's attitude changed and he was in a much happier mood. He found a swing and played near friends until the whistle blew at 2 o'clock. Jayen followed directions as before and sat on the red bench while the special education teacher grabbed the rest of the students. They walked back to the special education classroom and were to work on writing.
Mrs. Lake introduced the lesson by reminding the students of the frog jump letters they have previously completed. She then showed them the new letter they were going to work on today; P. She modeled how to cut out the two pieces to make the letter. The students were then given a scissors, glue, the worksheet and a piece of construction paper. Mrs. Lake sat directing in front of Jayen, since his para was no longer there, and held the paper while he cut. I did step in and asked Jayen to show Mrs. Lake how we repeat, "slow down" while cutting to remind Jayen to slow down and look where he is going. I also offered the suggestion of using thicker paper for the cutting activities and to make the sheets smaller size. Jayen didn't like that I was telling Mrs. Lake suggestions and kept pushing me away. I had to inform him that I wasn't leaving until he told Mrs. Lake, "slow down". He said it quickly and quietly then pushed me away. I took the hint and went back to sit in my far off chair. The activity took about 20 minutes to complete then the students were directed, once again, to grab work boxes.
On Tuesdays, I have to pick Jayen up early to head to therapy so I felt like this was an appropriate time to just grab him and go.
I can't wait until our BCBA Melissa has to opportunity to observe.
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