Context for Learning Description of School and Students

Trinity Christian College Field Experience Form

Context for Learning

Description of School and Students

Caitlin Santini

About the School Where You Are Observing or doing Field Experience

School Name and City: Freedom Elementary Plainfield Illinois

Type of School: Elementary school, Middle School, High School, or Other:   Elementary

Setting: Urban, Suburban, or Rural: Suburban

Write your responses to the three questions below in paragraph form.

1.       List any special features of the school or classroom setting (e.g., themed magnet, classroom aide, bilingual, co-taught with a special education teacher, pull-out program).

None that I know of for the class that I was in

2.       Describe any district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that affects the planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing plan, use of specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.

I have only done one field experience and I know that they do have standardized testing that they use and a set of required curricula but I do not know the specifics.

3.    For special education only: List any educators with specialized expertise in the school/district (e.g., specific disabilities, subject-specific pedagogy, English language development, speech therapists).

About the Students in this Class [Give a brief or one word response]

1.    Estimated percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch: under 5%

2.    Grade level(s): second

3.    Number of

a.    students in the class: 24

b.    males: 10

females: 14

c.     English language learners: 0

d.    students identified as gifted and talented: 2

e.    students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans: unsure

4.    Complete the chart below to summarize required accommodations or modifications for students receiving special education services and/or students who are gifted and talented as they will affect instruction. As needed, consult with your cooperating teacher to complete the chart. The first row has been completed in italics as an example. Use as many rows as you need.

Special Education Category	Number of Students	Accommodations, Modifications, and/or Pertinent IEP Goals
Example: Learning Disability	Example: 4	Example: Close monitoring, follow up, and Resource Room

About the Class You Observed

1.    How much time is devoted each day to instruction in the classroom? Describe the class periods (if applicable)? Choose a content area of your specialty or major. How much time is devoted to teaching that subject? My content area is science, but I was there for math and reading.  The room has specials each day that consist of physical education, health class or music and those change each day depending on the classes schedule.

2.    Is there any ability grouping or tracking? If so, please describe how it affects your class.  It seemed as though they is tracking and grouping of students based upon their level.  For reading I took each student out in the hallway to practice a specific book that is at their reading level.  There were about six different books and each book had a sticky note with specific children’s names on it and some of the books were much more difficult and some were very simple.  This class also utilizes XtraMath which is a technology based program where they do math problems and it keeps track of their progress and makes the questions more challenging if the student is going fast and getting all questions correct or it makes the questions easier if a child seems to be struggling.

3.    Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for instruction. If a textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication.  I did not use any specific textbook, flashcards that the teacher had made for math problems and a timer because they wanted each child to be able to go through each set twice in one minute and the books were a variety of books for each child’s reading level.

4.    List other resources (e.g., SMARTBoard, manipulatives, online resources) used for instruction in this class. The class did have a smartboard, but the teacher did not use it during the time when I was there.  The online resources that I did see being used were XtraMath.

5. What do you know about what your students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do? What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests? Since I was in a second-grade room none of the curriculum was challenging for me, times tables and addition depending on the child’s level and working on spelling and reading as well.  There was a wide variety of students from many different cultural backgrounds, but all are from upper class or upper middle-class families from a well-off suburb.  The school is located on the border of Plainfield and Naperville and some students have Naperville addresses and some Plainfield.  The average home value in the area is between 400 and 500k. 

  

6. Describe one teaching event. What best practices in teaching were used? The teacher for half of the time I was there was in the front of the class and children were practicing spelling words in preparation for their spelling test the next day.  Other than that I was working out in the hallway one-on-one with each child practicing reading and math problems.