Class Room Observation

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM HU-D 205
School Name: Roosevelt Elementary School _
School District: Santa Ana Unified School District _
Date of Observation: May 5th 2012 _
Number of Students enrolled: 11 _ Attending: 10 _
Special Education Categories: Autistic, Learning Disabled, Attention Deficit, Speech and _Language Impairment _
Time of Observation: from 8:00 am _ to _ 9:45 am _
Day of the Week: Friday _
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CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT 1. Bulletin Boards
-The bulletin boards the teacher had in her classroom were mostly informative. There was one about library information about their local public library. Another was the lunch menu for the month of May. There was also a bulletin for the parents about free English classes held at the nearest community center.

2. Display of Student Work
-Student work was displayed all over the walls. This included stories they had created as a class and also individual work. On each assignment was to write about Clifford the big red dog. Each student received a positive comment on their assignment and a picture of themselves to attach to their personal work.

3. Incentive Charts
-One example of an incentive chart was the homework chart. This number chart encouraged the students to do homework everyday of the week to get a chance to earn a prize on Friday’s.

4. Special Education equipment
-I did not see any equipment that did not look like it belonged an average classroom.

5. Technology
-Students spend 45 minutes a week in the computer lab doing language arts and 90 minutes a week doing math. They students knew exactly what to do when they logged on to the computers. Some students preferred language arts over math but willingly completed their time.

6. Neatness and cleanliness
-The classroom was very well organized. Toys and books were well put away in their correct shelves. The teacher made sure the student cleaned up his/her messes after they finished their Mother’s Day activity. She also had hand sanitizer and tissues on her desk handy for the students.

7. Summary
-When I walked in the classroom I totally felt like it was early elementary grades. There were lots of bright colors and different shapes all around the room. The teacher did an extremely good job of combining her lesson plan into fun activities for the children.

CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION

1. Student Schedule
7:30-8:00am-----Breakfast
8:00-9:00am-----Circle Time ELD- Oral Language Money/Number Concept
9:00-9:50am-----Language Arts/Reading Groups
9:50-10:10am----Recess
10:10-10:30am---Storytime
10:30-11:00am---K-Reading
11:00-11:20am---K-Math
10:30-11:20am---1, 2 Language Arts
11:20-11:45am---Content
11:45-12:30pm---Lunch/Recess
12:30-1:00pm-----Math
1:00-1:30pm-------Spelling
1:30-2:00pm-------Individualize
2:00pm-------------Dismissal

2. Student Movement
-The classroom was set up with different stations including, the rug where they practices language arts, their personal desks, homework tables, and math tables. Throughout the whole day they knew where to go for the next part of day.

3. Assigned Seating
-The seating chart was according to where the teacher thought the students could behave their selves. For example, the girls sat next to each other and were well behaved but, some of the boys could not be seated next to each other so were seated in a desk with a single seat.

4. Grouping
-The students read out loud as a classroom and if someone was not keeping up the teacher would make them start all over as a class. This is on example of group work. But they also had individual goals such as learning their grade, age, lunch number, and address.

5. Student Materials
-On each students desk they had cup holder that contained pencils, colored pencils, crayons. They also had a small water bottle about 8 oz on their desk in case they got thirsty.

6. Summary
-The students seem to know the structure of the classroom organization very well. They are faithful to the order of how things go and often reminded the teacher of what was next on their schedule. The students seem to know the routine very well and recognize when something is out of place. Overall they work as a classroom to reach there goals.

INSTRUCTION/LEARNING PROCESS

1. Subject/Skills
-At the time of the observation the students were being tested on their personal information. They would start off by saying the grade they were in and their age. To challenge them a bit more they would have to memorize their lunch number and phone number. The hardest piece of information they had to memorize was their address. Not all students were at the same level of memorization. Each student was tested every Friday and results would be recorded.

2. Instructional Materials
-For instructional materials she used the chalkboard and diagrams. She also used one of those charts were it has slits to put in sentences and pieces of sentences together. I’m not sure of the name.

3. Reinforcement Techniques
-A reinforcement technique that was used by the teacher was using a lot of eye contact. When the student with speech and language impairment didn’t quite understand how to answer what grade he was in the teacher used direct eye contact and asked him to show her the answer with his fingers.

4. Focused on Learning
-The children seemed very focused on learning because they know they would earn prizes if they completed and assignment. They also knew about upcoming quizzes and were prepared to study at home so that next time, they would have the answer.

5. Instructional Aide
-There was one instructional aide in the classroom from 8:00am-12:00pm. In the beginning of the day she was in charge of checking homework completion and informing the teacher on status of children. She also assisted teacher with usually about half of the students while teacher assisted other half. The teacher said that it was hard when the instructional aide leaves because her eyes had to focus on every little detail that the aide would usually notice about the children.

6. Volunteers
-There are no volunteers that help out in the classroom setting.

7. Summary
-The teacher is very grateful for the instructional aide she has. They both seem to make a good pair. Because the teacher is much older and wiser she makes an extremely perfect example for the younger aide and in my opinion has a lot more patience. They work together in supporting each student with their strengths and weaknesses.

PROGRAM EVALUATION

1. Interaction of the Students in Non-Instructional Situations
-The boys and the girls seemed to be segregated when it came to non-instructional situations. The boys seemed to have a close bond with each other and interact in rough play. Since there was only four girls then they would usually form a little click and just show off to each other something new they brought to school.

2. Learning Climate
-The learning climate was very rich. As a reward for one of the assignments, the teacher would let them choose out a new book from the library and take it home to read. They students really looked forward to going to the library even if the library was part of their own classroom.

3. Interface with General Programs
- The teacher told us that the students do get spend breakfast, lunch and recess together with the general ed. students. They also involve the students in the school pageants and other activities. On a learning basis the teacher takes her time with her students and teaches them at their own pace.

4. Mainstreaming
-The classroom took several field trips this year. The most recent one was when they went to go see the movie Beauty and the Beast in 3D at Fullerton College. In the future they are going to make a trip to an Aquarium. 5. School Climate
-The school climate was very welcoming to observers like myself. In the office they had pictures of school involvement with all the students. The principal and other teachers were aware of my visit and were encouraging me to return. I felt like the whole school recognizes the importance of being helpful to each other and strives to lend a hand.

6. Other Information
- Most of the students live a few blocks around the school so most of them walk with their parents to school. The ones who need special transportation are picked up from their house, dropped off in front of the school and are helped off by the instructional aide.

SUMMARY