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Elizabeth White

SPED 510-01

Diversity Project

Introduction:

General School Information

I am placed at Southeast High School in Cherokee, Kansas. Southeast High is a

rather small school of about 230 students total. The high school is made up of four small

towns that are in the nearby area: Cherokee, McCune, West Mineral, and Weir. I am

working under Mr. Taylor, the physical education instructor and also Mr. Dunlap, the

special education teacher. Both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dunlap have students that are in 9th

through 12th grade. The school is inviting and everyone seems to know everyone. It is

conductive to learning and filled with unique resources, such as the one-to-one initiative

with iPads. I have noticed that many of the students are from the country and enjoy

organizations such as Future Farmers of American and 4H Club. The community is tight

knit and many students have known each other since they were small children.

Building Report Card

Upon researching the data and demographics of District 247, I discovered that

more than half of the students in the Cherokee District are economically disadvantaged.

61% have a low socioeconomic status and 39% do not. This, however, may be somewhat

inexact because classification for low SES is based upon free and reduced lunches and

not all students that may have economic difficulties apply for these lunch plans out of
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pride or other reasons. The percentage of economically disadvantaged students in

Cherokee is greater than the state average by nearly 11%. USD 247 has an overwhelming

statistic of 94% of students that classify their ethnicity as Caucasian. Accounting for the

remaining 6% of the demographics are 2% African American, 2% Hispanic, and 2%

other. The state of Kansas is much more ethnically diverse with 66% Caucasian, 7%

African American, 18% Hispanic, and 9% other.

At Southeast High School, 52% of students are economically disadvantaged.

Although this number is high, it is still less than the district by about 9%. It is unusual

that poverty decreases as students progress into their secondary school years. This could

be because of parents gaining financial maturity or students could be avoiding filling out

paperwork for reduce school lunches out of embarrassment. Southeast High Schools

socioeconomic status numbers are near identical to the state average of 50%. Although

50% is considered average for a public school in Kansas, it is still a large number of

students that struggle finically. While poverty is not a disability, it is a disadvantage. I

would estimate that this could have negative effects on student learning, and in turn, be

evident in state tests. The school contains predominantly white by a considerable 95%,

outweighing the state average of Caucasians in schools by 29%. The rest of the

population is made up of 1% African Americans, 2% Hispanic, and 2% of other

ethnicities. I am curious to how race and the lack of diversity affects the atmosphere of

the high school and district. I would assume that some students might be less tolerable or

excepting of other ethnic groups from lack of familiarity with those groups.

Regarding state assessments, Southeast High Schools reading scores for 11th

grade are respectable. Approximately 95% of students had met standards and only 5%
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had not. With such high numbers of low socioeconomic status these test scores could

possibly show that students are resilient to their adverse conditions. Southeast High

exceeds state data that records 11% of students have not met standards of proficiency in

Kansas.

When taking gender into account, Southeasts males do slightly better with only

3% not meeting standards opposed to the 6% of females. From this I could conclude that

this group of males learns more effectively through linguistics. Once again reinforcing

the students resilience, individuals with low socioeconomic status were near identical to

those without. Only 6% of students facing poverty did not meet state standards. This is an

example of breaking a stereotype that students with economic disadvantages cannot do as

well and those without. The state has almost a forth of its students with low

socioeconomic status not meeting standards at 20%. These numbers are much greater

than Southeasts data.

Southeast Highs math results of 11th grade are not as high as reading. 29% fall

short of state standards and 69% meet proficiency. Compared to the states average of

19% failing to meet standards, Southeast is below average. This information causes me to

question if students are struggling more with math at this school or if they may possibly

not be receiving what they need out of their math programs.

When analyzing gender performance in mathematics, this time it is the females

who preform slightly better. 73% of females meet standards opposed to the 70% of males.

This makes me draw conclusions that the females in this district are better at logical and

mathematical learning. Concerning students of poverty, an overrepresentation of data

states 42% of students do not meet expectations. This is 13% more than the average of
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the district and 11% more than the state. This clearly states that children who are

economically disadvantaged are not doing as well in math in this district.

To make some comparisons with Southeast High School, I chose Baxter Springs

High School because it is the school I graduated from. Regarding demographics, the two

schools are quite similar. Baxter Springs has 56% of its students reported as economically

disadvantaged and Southeast has 52%. This is most likely because these districts are

close to each other and the southeastern corner of Kansas has the highest rates of poverty.

Baxter is slightly more ethnically diverse recording 1% of its students African American,

4% Hispanic, and 14% classified as other. The large number of other is most likely

because Baxter Springs has many students who identify as Native American.

With grade 11 reading, I see students at Southeast scoring significantly higher

with only 5% not meeting standards opposed to Baxter who has 17% not meeting

standards. This makes me assume that the reading programs at Baxter Springs are not as

successful as Southeasts have been. Considering grade 11 math, Southeast reports 29%

of students not meeting standards and Baxter Springs reports a significantly higher

number of 43% not meeting requirements. With these two schools being so similar is

size, location, and demographics, it provokes thoughts regarding why Southeast is doing

noticeably better on their state tests. I am not sure as to why this gap has occurred

between the two schools, but I would assume that Southeast is doing better in their state

test preparation.

After reporting this data, I would state that it refutes quite a bit of the knowledge I

have of diverse backgrounds. Although Southeast did not have large enough groups to

report differing races, students with disabilities, English language learners, or migrant
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students, I did find that students with economic disadvantages broke many barriers

regarding their test scores, exhibiting that they were doing just as well as the district

average. Another thing that I found odd was that typically females do better in reading,

and males have more success in math because of how they learn. This was not the case

however for Southeast High School. This models that not all assumptions about students

are always correct.

Whatever the circumstances, data is extremely valuable for schools. It allows

teachers to compare their students with other students in the district, surrounding areas,

and state. Having that kind of accountability and knowledge is important. It also allows

educators to look at segregated data, which helps teachers realize where

overrepresentation and underrepresentation are occurring amongst differing groups such

as gender, race, and disability. Overall, the more knowledge a teacher can possess about

learning, the more power they have.

Although physical education classes do not require standardized tests, I do know

that physical activity can have a positive impact on them. As a future physical educator

that knows this, I would want to urge my students to be involved in some type of activity

or movement on the mornings of standardized tests. I think there is value connected with

physical education and learning. Knowing the trends of educational data regarding

schools with diverse ethnicity and high percentages of students that are economically

disadvantaged, I would say that I am interested in working for a school with higher

numbers in these categories. I think that challenges make excellent educators.

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The Target Student Profile

I spent most of my diversity project working with a target student at Southeast

High School. He is a white male in 12th grade and is identified as having intellectual

disability. The special education teacher at Southeast High, Mr. Dunlap, says that he was

identified at a young age. Mr. Dunlap receives this student for two periods during the day

and spends time working with him on core subjects such as math, history, science,

writing, and reading. My student is courteous and extremely quiet. Many times he will

appear to comprehend the things you are saying and working on, but I think he also just

tries to give an answer people want to hear in order to avoid talking. My target student

appears to have nice clothing and hygiene. Some of the things he enjoys are

skateboarding and art. He is quite weak in math and reading contents. This student will

graduate from Southeast High School in a month.

Record of Hours

March 31, 2015 1:00 - 2:00 pm

April 2, 2015 12:30 - 2:00 pm

April 7, 2015 12:30 - 2:00 pm

April 9, 2015 12:30 2:00 pm

April 14, 2015 1:00 2:00 pm

April 21, 2015 1:00 2:15 pm

April 28, 2015 1:00 2:15 pm

April 30, 2015 1:00 2:00 pm

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Daily Entries:

Journal Entry #1 March 31, 2015, 1:00-2:00 pm

Today was my first day working with my target student for my diversity project. I

am placed in a physical education classroom at Southeast High School for clinical

experience and overview of special education. To allow more one-on-one and quality

interaction time, my cooperating teacher contacted his colleague Mr. Dunlap, who is the

special education instructor, and asked about the possibility of me working with him. I

met with Mr. Dunlap during his planning hour and discussed the details of my project. He

agreed to let me work with one of his students in his sixth hour classroom. He informed

me that the target student was one of the more low functioning students in his classroom.

He forewarned me that this student was at an elementary level in some subjects,

especially reading and math. Mr. Dunlap also said I would be able to work with the

individual on a variety of subjects and skills, including telling time on an analog clock,

reading, writing, and counting money if I wanted. Although Mr. Dunlap gave me helpful

background information of the student, he did not identify the students disability or

information about his individualized education program today.

After receiving all this information, Ill admit I was quite nervous. I had no idea

how this student would act behaviorally or how this student learned. In addition, knowing

that he was at such a low level intimidated me because I assumed he might be frustrating

to work with. I had encountered some hands on interaction in a Title One math class

during my first field experience, but they were elementary students, and I was anxious

about working with a high school student.

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When the bell rang, three students walked into Mr. Dunlaps classroom so I was

unsure of which student was the one that had just been described to me. Mr. Dunlap

introduced me to the students and then asked them what subjects that they needed to

work on. After a few minutes of the beginning of class, he brought the target student to

the back of the room where there was a quiet area to work. He said I could work him on

reading and comprehension today. My target student was skinny and short in stature, I

presumed him to be a freshman. He appeared to be somewhat reserved. I smiled at him

warmly, but I didnt receive much in return. To me, he didnt look angry or embarrassed,

but perhaps sad. I decided one of my goals would be to make him to smile or laugh a

little. We introduced ourselves and began reading a passage about a family that sailed on

the Atlantic Ocean. I offered to take turns reading out loud. I chose to do this so he could

also listen to some parts of the story if he was more of an auditory learner. I noticed

right away that he was an extremely weak reader. He read slowly and stumbled over

many words. One of the words he struggled with the most was Lucette, which was

the name of the boat the family sailed on in the story. He arrived at this word in the

passage probably ten times, and every time he paused and I would remind him how

to say it. I wondered why he was having such difficultly with this word.

After we finished the passage, we started on a section of review questions. I

instantly became aware that he did not comprehend anything we had just read. He

had to go back and retrieve every question from the passage and many times I had

to assist him in finding the paragraph the answer was in. I tried engaging him by

asking what he thought about the story or to elaborate on his answers but he was

hardly conversational (B). During all of the reading and review however, he did not
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become distracted or off task once. He seemed focused, and followed along in the reading

well. I think his focus is one of his strengths. Though my student didnt speak much, he

seems like a sweet, well-mannered young man.

When we finished up our work for the day, I asked my student how old he was.

He said he was a senior and I was surprised because of his small size. Mr. Dunlap then

encouraged my student to show me some of his artwork before the bell rang. To my

surprise, my student showed me another strength of his: he is an amazing artist! You

could see the excitement that emerged from him as he showed off his artwork in a

sketchbook and it truly made me smile. That moment was probably the highlight of my

day. It just goes to show that many individuals that may have weaknesses in some areas

make up for those with amazing strengths.

Overall, I think I my first day was a successful one. I understand that breaking the

ice with a student can sometimes seem difficult and I think we made some major

headway today in that area. I enjoy Mr. Dunlap and can tell he cares about his students by

the way he bragged about them. Southeast High School is small and filled a warm and

inviting community that reminds me of my high school. Today I left feeling good,

knowing that I had overcome some first initial fears and nerves about working with my

targeted student.

Journal Entry #2 April 2, 2015 12:30 - 2:00 pm

Today, I observed two of Mr. Dunlaps class periods. During 5th hour my target

student does not have Mr. Dunlap, however, there were a two students who came to his

classroom to take a test. One of the paraprofessionals said I could observe her giving the
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test to them. It was a health exam. She showed me the test briefly and said that the health

teacher usually modifies part of the test for the two students. The students taking the test

were freshmen girls. I assumed these two girls had hidden disabilities because I would

never have been able to tell that they were different from any other student. The

paraprofessional read the test out loud slowly and clearly for the two students. The

students seemed to be doing well on the test and it even appeared that one student was

working ahead and ignoring the readings given by the para. Occasionally, if one of the

girls did not know the answer, the para would assist them by eliminating some of the

possible answers. She would say things like, Its on the top row if a question was

multiple choice. The part of the test the two students seemed to struggle with the most

was writing an essay response at the end. I thought this was a valuable experience to

observe because I had never seen a modified test given in a special education classroom. I

remember hearing rumors back in high school that paraprofessionals would just sit and

give students all the answers to exams. It was not like that, however.

After 5th hour, my target student walked into class. He seemed to be in a good

mood, but once Mr. Dunlap said I would be working with him again on some

reading, he seemed disappointed. I assumed that this student had a bad connotation

with reading from the drop in his mood. Although at times the student showed a

negative attitude toward the assignment, he did not show that attitude toward me.

For our lesson today, we read a passage about the history of whaling. I asked

my student how he wanted to read the story today and he said he wanted to take

turns reading again. I could tell he was following along as I read, but knew he was

most likely not comprehending much that I said from our last encounter and from
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his lack of enthusiasm about reading. To attempt to make the story more interesting

and engaging, I would pause and ask him questions like, Could you imagine that?

or, What do you think about that? I would stop him at difficult vocabulary words

and ask him to identify what the word meant. I mentioned that you can usually tell

what a word means by the words context clues and explained what context clues

are. I also tried to make a connection to the movie Finding Nemo when we talked

about whales teeth. The majority of the time when I ask my student something, he

just shakes his head or shrugs his shoulders. I have begun to wonder if he truly

understands what I am saying, or if he is trying to give an answer that he thinks I

would like to hear (D). I imagine that it would be extremely frustrating not

comprehending what someone is trying to teach you, and I think that sometimes my

student tries to give an answer he perceives as correct so that he can be left alone. By the

frequency at which he does this, I would say it has worked for many teachers in the past.

As we read the rest of the passage, my student once again read at about an

elementary level. I also noticed that when my student reads, he doesnt take breaks at the

ends of his sentences. He will continue into the next sentence, like it is all strung together

as one. Next, we began on the review questions. Once again, my students comprehension

was low. He would flip through the pages of the passage looking for answers. I would

assist him by rereading a section the answer was located in or by pointing to the

paragraph were he could find the answer. I noticed that when we arrived at the

vocabulary questions, he did better than with the comprehension ones. He was able to

identity challenging words such as harpoon. For the last question, the review asked for

the students opinion on the banning or legalizing of whaling. He especially had

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difficulties with this. After several minutes he wrote, Whaling should be alegal. They are

beatiful animal. Beyond his spelling, I noticed that my student would put a word down

and then write another in front of it. For example, wrote beatiful animal, and then

They are in front of it. It makes me sad to watch him struggle.

After the review I asked my student a little more about himself to attempt to

make him smile. I asked him if he played any sports and then he questioned, Does

skateboarding count? I said, Of course it does! And you must be skilled because I

could never balance like that! We laughed together about my lack of coordination.

It was nice to see my student smile. He also told me that he was going on his senior

trip soon. His eyes lit up and he showed me a copy of his itinerary for the trip. He

was especially excited to see the new The Fast and the Furious movie. He showed

me which of his friends would be rooming with him and explained that one friend

would help him with his money. (C). I recalled that Mr. Dunlap said my student had

difficulties with understanding money. It made me feel assured that someone in his class

was looking out for him and was a good friend to him.

In general, I think it was another quality day. I can tell my target student is

starting to warm up to me and I enjoy him too. I am beginning to acquire a better

understanding of what kind of a learner my student is, and am making an effort to ensure

that our time spent together is more enjoyable and effective. Although my student is

possibly at one of the lowest learning levels in the classroom, he is by far the most

respectful and well behaved. These qualities make it near impossible not to like my

student.
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Journal Entry #3 April 7, 2015 12:30 - 2:00 pm

Today, I arrived a few minutes before sixth hour, which is when I observe my

target student. I asked Mr. Dunlap to tell me a little bit more about my target student and

if he was comfortable revealing what disability he was identified with. Mr. Dunlap

informed me that my student had intellectual disability, also called ID. He said that the

former terminology for this disability was mental retardation and expressed that was no

longer appropriate to use. He also told me that many times my student would act like he

understood materials that were being presented to him by shaking his head to agree or

appear like he was engaged. However, Mr. Dunlap said he often doesnt absorb the

content he is presented. I remembered observing this the last time we worked together. It

seems that my student wants to be a people pleaser and does not want to trouble others

with his problems. He told me that the student was a good young man, but he just

struggled in school. I also learned that my target student receives special education

services at another facility in Columbus before his lunch period. There he receives

services in math, English, and life skills. I assumed that some of these life skill classes

were a part of my students transition plan. After lunch, my student has physical

education, then spends two hours with Mr. Dunlap, and ends the day with art. I am happy

to know that my student doesnt spend all day in a resource room. Being a physical

education major, I know it is important for students to be able to stand up and move

around. In addition, content areas such as physical education and art allow students to

express themselves, relieve stress, and can certainly benefit them academically.

Before my student arrived, I asked Mr. Dunlap what I would be helping him with

today. He said that my student has difficulties with handling money and could use work
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in that area. To let my student have some input, he allowed him choose between working

on reading and comprehension or working with money. My student arrived to class

quietly as usual. I asked him if he wanted to read like we had been doing or if he would

like to work with money today. He made it extremely clear that he did not want to

practice math and currency skills. I asked him if he enjoyed math and he replied, No.

Im not good with math or money. Because my student was so put off by the thought of

doing math I told him we could read again today. However, by the end of my project I

would like to work with him on math skills.

Instead of reading from the textbook as we had the last two times, Mr.

Dunlap gave me a science magazine that was geared toward students. We took turns

reading an article about a teenager who was stranded while skiing for two days. The

student stayed alive from recollection of survival strategies he learned from survival

reality TV shows. The article discussed the TV show Man Vs. Wild. At the end of

the passage we answered a few review questions, and to my surprise, my student

remembered several of the questions I had asked! It looked as if choosing a story

that was interesting to my student made it easier for him to comprehend what he

was reading (G).

I remember when I was still in high school I would often become frustrated with

the reading passages I was assigned. Reading becomes exceedingly more difficult, for

any person, if they are not interested in or find value in what they are reading. I know that

many textbooks and reading materials are outdated and expensive to replace, nevertheless

I think it is certainly possible to find relevant and appealing reading materials with the

advances in modern technology. I thought it was even a little odd that Mr. Dunlap was
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looking through old textbooks and science magazines for something to read to my student

when my cooperating school receives the incredible one-to-one initiative with iPads.

Though I do not have an iPad of my own, I would assume that they have many current

academic resources for math and reading content areas. Perhaps, I will try to find one to

use in some of our future time together.

Once again I had an enjoyable experience today in the classroom. In my opinion,

any day is a great day to be in the classroom and learn! In addition, I have gained some

valuable more insight about my student today regarding his disability. I have discovered

more of my students strengths and weaknesses and feel that we are truly starting to

connect while we are working together. I am eager to try out some new learning strategies

and continue to understand my student.

Journal Entry #4 April 9, 2015 12:30 2:00 pm

For todays classroom activity, Mr. Dunlap assigned my student a paraphrasing

worksheet. He said that my target student had difficulties making the things he writes a

work of his own. Mr. Dunlap explained that the student would not comprehend what he

was writing, and therefore would paraphrase stories and information word for word. For

this reason, Mr. Dunlap believed that my student needed to focus on this area for the day.

After reading several stories with my student, I knew this was not going to be an easy

worksheet to complete. This is because he seldom remembers the material that he reads

and has a hard time putting sentences together that make logical sense when he writes.

Admittedly, this was slightly out of my comfort level because I knew that my student

would most likely fail at the task.

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I took my student to the back of the room to work quietly. The sixth hour class

period where I spend most of my time working with my target student only has two other

students, but I still dont want my student to feel that all the attention is on him from his

peers. After we sat down I asked him, Do you know what paraphrasing is? He shook

his head no at me. I was shocked that a senior in high school had never been introduced

to paraphrasing. It made me wonder if he did in fact receive instruction on this topic and

forgot what it was, or if educators had failed to explain paraphrasing to my student. I

explained to my student that paraphrasing was taking a piece of writing and putting it in

your own words. I mentioned summarizing and explained some similarities and

differences between the two. However, looking back, I think that describing paraphrasing

and summarizing together might have confused my student. Next, I talked about

plagiarizing and how it was wrong to use someone elses words as your own without

giving them credit. I told my student that we were going to practice putting sentences into

our own words for todays assignment.

The first piece of writing my student worked on paraphrasing was about

Cleopatra. I knew from the way he stumbled over her name that he was unsure who

Cleopatra was. He also had problems pronouncing words such as Egypt and pharaoh.

After finishing the two sentences about Cleopatras life, I told my student that we could

begin by paraphrasing the first sentence. The first sentence said something along the lines

of: Cleopatra was a pharaoh who governed over Egypt thousands of years ago. I

explained that to paraphrase something, my student did not need to change all the words

in the sentence, just several key words to make it a new sentence. I knew that we could

rearrange the sentence structure altogether, but I believed that I would be more realistic
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for my student to just focus on changing key words in the sentence instead. The first

word I focused on was pharaoh. I explained to him that pharaohs were rulers or leaders in

ancient Egypt. I told my student that Cleopatra was like a queen. I then asked my student

to think of a word that would work well to replace the word pharaoh in our new

sentence. I then noticed that instead of talking about his ideas or thought process he just

wrote down queen. This was incredibly frustrating for me. I felt like I was putting in a

lot of effort to help my student understand the topic but he was just reiterating the

examples that I had given in the hope that I would accept them.

I painfully went through the process of attempting to explain paraphrasing from

different viewpoints, but it appeared that no matter how many examples or background

information I gave my student, he was unable to process what he had just read. This made

it nearly impossible to rearrange a sentences structure and produce a new sentence

altogether. We went through three different, small paragraphs of writing attempting to

produce new sentences in his own words. When my student was trying to come up with a

sentence in his own words he would look down at his paper for long intervals, sometimes

5 minutes at a time, and then write down a word or two. At times it seemed as if he was

staring off into space, or trying to escape. I know that if were being put on the spot to

preform a task that I knew was beyond my skill set, I too would want to escape. Other

times, however, it appeared as if he was concentrating extremely hard. He would sit in his

chair thinking, for minutes at a time, like he would rather use up the whole class period

pondering a question, than to give me the wrong answer. I can relate to that. It is

discomforting to be wrong or to not have the answer. I feel that my target student and I

both shared in this obstacle today. We did not have an answer. My student generally did
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not have an answer to the question I was asking, and I did not have the answer of what

questions to ask. Today I learned that being an effective teacher and using a variety of

strategies while instructing is much harder than it looks.

To wrap up the worksheet, I asked my student to try to paraphrase the last piece of

writing on his own and stated that I would go over it with him after. It was a simpler

piece of writing than the last three, and only contained two sentences referring to

Groundhog Day. I was doubtful about my student being able to complete this task alone

from our prior effort, but was mostly using this final attempt to assess if my student had

learned anything. He took twice the time to work on this final piece, and looked up at me

for approval when he was finished. I reviewed his work and he had made two changes to

the original piece of writing, however, they were small changes that hardly made the

writing his own. His improvements were changing words like he to the. I was

saddened at the lack of impact I had made for the day, but made sure to let my student

know I appreciated his effort. I complemented him by saying, I like how you made a

sentence change here and here, but I think that we could change words like hole to

burrow or silhouette to shadow. I think it is important to help a student find a

positive in a seemingly negative situation. Although he did not give the preferred

response, I still wanted my students hard work to be noticed.

Today was possibly one of the more challenging days I have experienced with my

target student. I felt extremely discouraged and frustrated at times during todays lesson. I

think today showed me why it is so important to have different teaching strategies. No

two students learn exactly the same, therefore, instruction has to be modified and molded

towards a childs needs. I also learned that if you try a strategy and it doesnt work how
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you anticipated that its okay and will not be the end of the world. Sometimes failures

give you opportunities for your biggest growths if you decide to learn from them.

Journal Entry #5 April 14, 2015 1:00 2:00 pm

For todays assignment, Mr. Dunlap asked me to help my student with

paraphrasing once again. He handed me a paper that my student had written that was

completely plagiarized, word for word from Wikipedia. Mr. Dunlap asked that I go

through the paper with my student, and help him change it into his own words. Mr.

Dunlap also asked me if it had been difficult helping my student with paraphrasing the

last class period I worked with him and I explained to him that it was frustrating at times.

He told me to simply give it my best shot working with him. At this point I was feeling

nervous about working on paraphrasing again because our last experience together was

not as successful as I would have liked for it to be. Today I decided I needed to use some

new strategies.

After skimming through the Pre-Referral Intervention Manual (PRIM) in

class last week, I found a few new ideas for attempting to help my student achieve

greater success in his work. One of the strategies I read about suggested using a

highlighter to highlight key terms or events. Because my student was editing a paper

he plagiarized, I highlighted key words that he could change to another word. After

highlighting a few words in his first sentence, I asked my student if he knew what a

thesaurus was. He said he did not. Next, I asked him if I could see his iPad. After he

handed it to me I went to the App Store and downloaded a free thesaurus app. I told

him that a thesaurus is a great tool that is used to search for a word and then find
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other words that mean the same thing as that word. After explaining what a

thesaurus was, I let my student try it out. The first sentence of his passage read:

Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks. The

first word I asked my student to find an alternative word for was sport. My

student typed the word into his new thesaurus app and decided to use the word

activity instead. He proceeded to do this for all the words I had highlighted in the

first sentence. After he had completely finished editing the first sentence of his

paper, I read to him out loud the sentence that had been plagiarized, then his new

sentence, which was now in his own words. I asked my student if he thought the

thesaurus app was a helpful app and he agreed that it was (E).

It appeared that these new strategies were working a lot better than what I had

been doing the previous class period I spent with my student. I think that this is mostly

attributed to the fact that I used approaches that visually stimulated my student. When I

highlighted a word, it was something easy to detect and my student knew that he needed

to change that word. In addition, I believe that utilizing my students iPad for the activity

made this assignment much more hands on and interesting. I also think that using the

thesaurus app aided my student in the assignment for today. I know that my student

understands the meanings of the words he is changing, but is unable to come up with a

synonym for that word. By using the thesaurus, my student was able to look at a list of

synonyms and choose the one that he wanted to use in his paper. I could tell that using

these new strategies was a lot less confusing for my student than what we had been doing

before. We did not have time to finish the entire paper today, so I told him we would start

where we left off next time.

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As a whole, today was an excellent day. I feel like I made a breakthrough with my

student and it felt nice. Its the moments where you see a student understanding or

achieving something that fuels educators to do what they do. I am glad that I tried some

new techniques today and went outside of my comfort zone with my student and

everything worked out well. I know that not everyday in the classroom is first-rate, such

as last week, but the days that you see glimpses of progress and find meaning in what are

doing make the bad days seem like a little less bad.

Journal Entry #6 April 21, 2015 1:00 2:15 pm

Today, I once again worked on paraphrasing with my student. Mr. Dunlap said

that I could assist my student in finishing the paper that we worked on the last time I

visited. When I approached my student to work with him, he seemed irritated that we had

to work on writing again. I asked him, Whats wrong? You seem put off by the thought

of working on writing today. My student replied, Im just ready to be out of here. By

out of here, I assumed he meant he was ready to graduate in May. I thought it was

somewhat unusual that my student was so sullen today. Although my student is quite shy,

he hardly ever seems irritated when he is working on classwork and he doesnt ever make

comments like the one he had just made. I wondered if something had possibly happened

in class or with his friends today. To attempt to turn the conversation around I asked my

student about senior trip, since his class had just returned from their trip to Chicago. He

just replied, It was good. He had been so excited about it before that I was surprised

when he answered so indifferent. This made me question if something had gone wrong on

senior trip. I have noticed that my target student does not have many friends. This breaks
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my heart because high school is hard enough even with friends. I am sure my student

feels extremely alone sometimes. I didnt want to pry my student for answers about his

mood because he clearly did not want to discuss it, so we went to work.

I asked my student if remembered how to use his thesaurus app on his iPad. He

said that he did. We continued editing the paper that he had plagiarized by paraphrasing

it. While we worked today, my student seemed to be operating extremely slower than last

time we were together. I can tell that my students motivation levels go up and down like

a rollercoaster at times, and today he was not motivated to do his work. I honestly did not

know what strategy to use to attempt to improve his motivation. It doesnt feel good

when you dont know what to do to inspire a student. Nevertheless, I tried to stay as

chipper and enthusiastic as I could about the assignment. I also told my student that once

he finished the assignment that we were working on, he could then work on his art. That

seem to motivate him slightly, but he was still working at an extremely slow pace. I have

noticed that Mr. Dunlap often uses art as an incentive for my student to work on other

assignments. Art seems to truly be his passion. My student continued to work at a slow

pace for the rest of the class and never seemed to have any drive while doing it.

Overall, today was a tough day. My student was struggling with motivation and I

was having a difficult time being his motivator. Today my student worked slowly

throughout his entire assignment. I also noticed that while he was working, he was

choosing synonyms from the thesaurus app that did not always fit the sentence he was

putting them in. In addition he misspelled several words while he was writing. In general,

my student just appeared to be having a difficult time, especially compared to the last

time I was in class with him. I hypothesize that this could be attributed to the fact that the
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school year is nearing its end and the weather has been extremely nice lately. Students

generally have a more difficult time trying to hold on to their motivation in late April and

the month of May. I know that this was something I had a hard time with in school as

well. Today I have learned that when you students are lacking motivation, you need to

have a plan! I felt that I was not as well prepared today as I could have been. I look

forward to the next time Im in class, so that I can hopefully learn from my faults today

and apply them to my teaching.

Journal Entry #7 April 28, 2015 1:00 2:15 pm

Today when I walked into the resource room to observe I noticed that Mr. Dunlap

was not present, however, two of his paraprofessionals were. They informed me that Mr.

Dunlap was assisting with state tests for the rest of sixth hour. My target student was the

only student present in the room at this time. I expected that this was because the other

two students were taking state tests. I sat down next to my student to see what he was

working on. He was completing a history worksheet. Seeing as how Mr. Dunlap wasnt

present to give my student and I an assignment to work on together, I just decided to help

him with his history.

The history worksheet consisted of basic American history questions that my

student searched for on his iPad. Some of the questions were things like, How many

stars are on the American flag? or What was the U.S. war fought between the northern

states and the southern states? Even though many of the questions are the worksheet

were extremely basic history questions, my student was unable to answer any without

looking them up online. He was able to find many of the questions on websites such as
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Wikipedia and Answers.com. In my future classroom I think I would want to use a more

hands-on approach for teaching history to my target student. To me, this activity seemed

to be testing obedience more than any actual skill. I think that my student would certainly

benefit from activities where he was possibly acting out historical events or watching

videos containing valuable history information. It appeared to me that although my

student was completing the task he was assigned, he wasnt retaining the information he

was finding online. The only thing that my student seemed to like about this assignment

was that he was able to use his iPad. I think this is because my student enjoys using

technology and participating in hands-on lessons. I believe this is why he enjoys physical

education and art classes so much.

For the assignment, I read the questions on the worksheet to my student out loud

and assisted him when he was having difficultly finding an answer. I noticed that for

some questions, my student would just write the first sentence that he found on Wikipedia

for his answer. At times when he did this, I would help him by narrowing down what

paragraph the answer was in. I feel that my student was not being intellectually

challenged by this worksheet. He seemed bored while we worked and I feel that he was

once again just trying to give an answer, right or wrong, so that he didnt have to ask for

help or be a bother to anyone.

Towards the end of sixth hour, Mr. Dunlap returned his classroom for a brief

moment. He informed me that he was helping with state testing. I asked him a little about

state testing and he said that he assisted some of the students in his classes with their

tests. He said that juniors and sophomores collectively have to take the math, science,

reading, and history tests. After our brief conversation, Mr. Dunlap was off once again to
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help with state tests. State testing is something that I am somewhat nervous about as a

future teacher. During this time it seems that many of the teachers schedules are thrown

into chaos and the students are worn out. I hope that as a physical education instructor,

my classes will be a place for students to relieve some of their stress, wake up their

brains, and just have fun during this frantic time of the year.

When seventh hour began, the classroom size went from my one target student to

seven students. The two paraprofessionals and I were the only adults present at this time

because Mr. Dunlap was still assisting with state tests. Although I only spent a brief

moment in seventh hour, I noticed immediately that the students acted differently when

Mr. Dunlap wasnt in the room. My target student remained on task, but several of the

other students were disruptive. Three of the students were talking extremely loudly and

failing to do their work, while another would not take his seat and was walking around

the room and distracting others. I could tell my student was having a hard time

concentrating in the noise filled room. Eventually, a paraprofessional gained control of

the students and they settled down a little bit. I think the cause of the students in seventh

hour being disruptive and unable to concentrate was partially because Mr. Dunlap left the

room and also because summer is so near. I have noticed a definite change in students

motivation in the last several weeks since the weather has been warmer and classes are

coming to an end.

Overall, today was a fairly good day except for a slight moment of chaos in

seventh hour. I was able to see first hand how the dynamics of the room change when a

teacher is gone. I think that many of the students think that they can do certain things

when only the paraprofessionals are present. It agitates me when students do not take
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paras as serious as teachers or treat them with the respect they deserve. However, I was

happy to see that my student was respectful and remained on task, even with distractions.

I am sad that my time with my student is coming to an end. My experiences with him

have truly taught me so much in such a short amount of time and opened up my eyes to

students with differences.

Journal Entry #8 April 30, 2015 1:00 2:00 pm

Today as I entered the classroom for my last day, I noticed two disappointing

things. The first was that Mr. Dunlap was not present because he was helping with state

tests again, and the second was that my target student was absent. I was extremely sad

that I was not going to have the opportunity to spend my last day observing with the

student had had spent so much time with! Even though my student was gone for my last

day, I was still grateful for the time I had experienced with him.

Since my student and Mr. Dunlap were gone I wasnt sure what do for the next

hour. I didnt have much of a plan for when my student would be absent because he had

good attendance. However, one of the paraprofessionals in resource room said I could

observe her giving a test to two students. The test was for a family and consumer science

class about stress and two female students were taking it. The para began to read off the

test questions to the students, but then discovered that her paper was different from the

students exams. The para called the teacher of the class to ask if she had the key to the

modified test for the two students and she did not. The teacher had given the

paraprofessional a review worksheet that is similar to the test, but still had several

differences. As a result, the para looked off of one of the students test to read it out loud.
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I am sure this was frustrating for the students and the paraprofessional. However, the two

girls had no problem answering the questions and finished the test fairly quickly.

After the two students finished their test, another student came in to take a

biology exam about photosynthesis. The test was an open book exam. The

paraprofessional orally gave the test to the student and if the student was struggling with

finding an answer to a question, she would tell the student what page to find the answer

on. In addition, the para would eliminate two incorrect answers from the four multiple

choices. I think that this strategy could possibly be teaching this student learned

helplessness. I feel this way because the student was already being read the questions

orally and had the textbook to look up the answers as well. From what I have observed of

the student taking the test, he seems to be an intelligent young man. I think that this

student could possibly be taking the extra help because he knows he can receive it from

the paraprofessional even if he doesnt necessarily need it. I think that almost all students

in the resource room are receiving the same assistance and services for their tests from

the paraprofessionals. Although this may seem like the equal thing to do, I do not

necessarily believe that it is the fair thing to do. I think that many students could benefit

from less help and challenging themselves more, while others require the aids that the

paraprofessionals are providing. Just as my time for the day was finishing up, Mr. Dunlap

walked into the room and I thanked him for sharing his classroom with me for the

semester with a card.

Today was an anticlimactic last day working at my school. I was disappointed that

I didnt have the chance to spend my last day with my student or Mr. Dunlap, but I still

had the opportunity to watch some valuable experiences. I had never seen an exam given
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in a resource room until I observed for Overview of Special Education this semester and

it was interesting to watch. I have enjoyed my experience at Southeast High and have

learned so much valuable information! I am sad that today was the end of my project as I

have became close to my student and the family-like staff of Southeast.

Final Reflection

Overall, this project has been extremely valuable to me. I think that hands on

experience working with an individual with a disability or disadvantage cannot be

replaced. Listening to lecture and having discussions is important as well, but my student

has taught me so many things. I would say he has taught me much more than I have

taught him in our time together. My student has shown me that he has good days and bad

days, just like everyone else. He taught me that people with special needs may struggle in

one area but can make up for it with other amazing strengths. I still cannot believe how

incredible my student is at art! He as also taught me that not every strategy you trying is

going to work and that is okay. I have gained a whole new respect for special education

instructors and students with special needs. My student has also truly instilled in me that

everyone, with or without a disability, are not all that different from each other.

I would say that this project has certainly developed confidence in myself as a

future teacher. I have not had a lot of experience with individuals that are living with

disabilities; therefore I felt that this experience allowed me the opportunity to dip my toes

in the water a little bit. After finishing this project, I think that my thought process is

definitely different towards these individuals. I have gained a new level of understanding

and appreciation for individuals that struggle with learning, especially my student. One
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thing that has amazed me during this project is that although my student had many

difficulties and barriers to overcome with his schoolwork, he never gave up. I felt that he

did have some days where his motivation was lower than others, but he always gave an

effort and never quit. Because of this new understanding of students with special needs, I

think that now I will be able to relate to these students better in a future classroom to give

them what they need for a fair education.

Although my confidence has been boosted from this project, there were times

where it wasnt easy or clear what I should do. Developing effective strategies to use with

a student who has special needs can be difficult. Some days I would feel frustrated

because my student did not understand something, and then I would feel bad about being

irritated with him. However, I know that many times my student was even more

frustrated than I am. I also know that it is a teachers job to do everything in their power

to give each student the means that they need to succeed. I think that the difficulties and

unsuccessful strategies that I encountered during this project opened my eyes a lot.

Teachers need to think of everything! I am honestly so glad that I have received these

experiences now to process and reflect on them, rather than encountering them for the

first time during my first year of teaching.

To conclude, I have appreciated the quality experiences I have received from this

project. This assignment forced me to become a more reflective teacher, and in return a

more effective teacher. My student inspired me and reminded me that no student should

ever be written off. I believe that education is one of the only things in this world that

truly makes you a richer person, and everyone should be entitled to the experiences of a
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fair education. I am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to participate in this eye-

opening project.