Melanie Facinger Self-Assessment

Field placement self-assessment

My field placement was done on the job at Milwaukee Academy of Science. In

this school I primarily worked with fourth grade assisting students with academics in
math, science, and reading. I supported my students in class, providing them with
resources or tools to support their academic and behavioral needs. I started to
teach an intervention class in the morning after breakfast 2 days a week, Tuesday
and Thursday. The intervention class consists of 4 students all with IEPs ranging
from OHI, LD, SDD, EBD. Each student has a different need in the class and
different hurdles to overcome while in class. The intervention class consists of me
reinforcing lessons that are being taught in math class. I found these students need
a little extra help understanding the concepts in math, or implementing the
strategies they learned. The class is students centered, it was created with the
students in mind. I found a lot of my students were struggling to retain the
information presented the day before in class and needed the extra time to work on
concepts and develop the fundamentals to be successful.

While teaching the class I felt good about providing my students this extra
opportunity to understand concepts and strengthen their math skills. I quickly
found all my students understood concepts differently and struggled in different
ways. 2/4 students struggled to keep their attention on the lesson and thought it
was going to be a party in the hallway. It took me a couple classes before I was able
to correct their behavior, implementing my expectations of how the class would be
ran. Students started to get involved in the lessons and retain more information.
The class was running smooth and I was making real gains with my students. I
worked with students to solve multistep word problems determining which math
processes will be needed to solve the word problem. Students understood how to
pick out the important information to determine with calculation tool is needed to
solve the problem. From there we worked on place value and the manipulation of
multi-digit numbers using addition, subtraction, and base ten rule. I was able to
make gains with the students when they were able to focus on the lesson. I
implemented activities and instructions breaking down the lesson for my students
understanding.

I felt the intervention class was important for my student growth in the
classroom. My students needed to more help for understanding math concepts.
Adapting the lesson and providing my students more resources proved to be
successful for the students in the classroom. I found some lessons were more
successful than others. When I felt a lesson was not successful I felt it was because
not all students benefited from my instruction techniques. It seemed as if the
understanding of the lesson would be split in half, two of my students would
understand and two would struggle a little more. When two students seemed to
understand the work better I would try to implement two different techniques of
collaborations. In one lesson I had the two students with a deeper understanding
partner up with the students who did not understand as well. This would help my
 Melanie Facinger Self-Assessment

students who struggled to learn from a student how a better understanding had.
The other collaboration style was pairing the students with a good understanding
with each other and I work with the other two students to deepen their
understanding of the concepts. Each style had their pros and cons. I noticed the
students seemed to understand better when being taught by another student, other
times they would copy off one another. When I worked with the students to sort out
their confusion it didnt always seem to clear up the confusion as they were
frustrated they couldnt understand and started to shut down. Each lesson I taught
had its pros and cons. Each lesson had a section that went great, and a section
that I would change next time I implement the same activity. The first lesson I
would change by having more resources on hand to help my students success. I
found two students struggle to understand the concept and grasp the focal point of
the activity. I would implement more instruction with reasons why we are doing this
activity. The second lesson they were successful in solving the problems using the
concepts being taught. I felt I did not bridge the gap between the concept taught
and the purpose of the paper used. If I bridged the gap it wouldve built a better
understanding and they would have been more successful in the activity. Some
lessons we didnt get to the activity because I had to keep reinforcing the concepts
to strengthen heir understanding. I adapted my lessons for my students based on
their needs at that time. My lessons provided me with specific feedback to use in
the future, helping me plan better lessons for all learners.