Rachel Vestri Ms.

Caldwell EDUC 417 10/9/13 Observation of student T T is a sweet and helpful little boy with a great sense of curiosity. He is active and loves playing outdoors. When T is at school, he loves the opportunity to take leadership roles in the classroom. T seeks opportunities to receive attention and praise from his teacher and peers. He is currently seven years old and being served in special education under the disability category of Other Health Impairment. After repeating 1st grade for a second time, T has shown improvements related to his sight word recognition and reading level. In addition, his testing scores from the KTEA-II show strength in his spelling ability, listening comprehension, and letter/word recognition. Although improvements are being seen, T continues to struggle with phonemic awareness, math symbol recognition, and the overall ability to remain focused in various settings. After observing T within his first grade classroom, it is evident that his struggle with attentiveness during both whole group instruction and independent work is an area of specific need. He is a bright young boy, however he is unable to remain on task without copious amounts of redirecting and reminding from the teacher. At times, his lack of focus appears to be an effort to gain the teachers attention. Although, this may not always be the function for his off-task behavior, it certainly appears to play a significant role. T shows off-task behaviors more frequently during whole class instruction, or in independent work at his desk. This offtask behavior includes wandering around the classroom, talking out of turn or blurting out

answers, not following directions, and not focusing or completing assigned work. T appears to be able to work hard once he gains focus, however the process of helping him regain or maintain focus is both constant and time consuming for the teacher. Due to this information, it is safe to conclude that T struggles most with his ability to attend during class, specifically in his display of off-task behavior.

Recommendations and Adaptations Based upon observations of this student, T would benefit from receiving support that encourages on-task behaviors. On-task behaviors include following instructions, listening to the teacher, remaining quiet while the teacher is talking, raising a hand to speak, and focusing to complete work. Hopefully by improving Ts ability to attend to tasks, T will begin also improving in academic areas of need. To begin addressing Ts off-task behavior, the teacher may want implement the following strategies:

Whole Group Activities:

Seating Arrangements: To help student T be more attentive to the teacher during whole group activities, it may be beneficial to have him seated closer to the front of the classroom and nearer to the teacher. Fidget: It may be beneficial to provide T with a small fidget item to hold and play with during the instructional period of whole group activities or carpet time. This will provide him sensory stimulus and hopefully help him avoid feeling the need to move around and receive sensory input in a more distracting manner. Being able to fidget with an item may help T to focus better so that he can interact appropriately and listen to the teacher. Prior to using the fidget, have the teacher model good fidget use and discuss with the student how the fidget should be used appropriately.

Talking Sticks: T struggles blurting out answers during whole group instruction. The talking stick system will help him begin self-monitoring how often he talks during these times. Have the teacher explain and model the system to the student prior to implementation. For this system, the student will receive three popsicle sticks. (The number may be changed as needed.) In order to answer a question the student must be seated appropriately, quietly, and be raising their hand in a non-distracting manner. If the student would like to share an answer, they must raise one stick in their hand in order to answer a question. Once the question has been answered, the student must hand the stick to the teacher. The student may do this until all his sticks are gone. Once this has happened, the student must sit quietly and listen. If the teacher feels that the student is sitting quiet and listening, she may reward the student by returning a stick and allowing him to choose to answer another question. If at any point, the student blurts out or is talking out of turn, a stick will be immediately taken away, and the student will not get to share their answer with the class. This system rewards the student for practicing good listening and hand raising skills, while also teaching him to monitor talking. This will hopefully eliminate the student blurting out answers or continually talking throughout the lesson.

Individual Deskwork: Visual Instructions: Based upon observations of T, he seems to respond well to visual reminders. In order to help him focus and follow directions during seated deskwork, it may be beneficial to implement the use of picture symbol instructions. These could be a set of simple board maker pictures posted on his desk that show what on task behavior looks like while doing deskwork. These pictures should be simple and easy to follow. The goal is to remind T that when he is at his desk he should be seated, quite, listening to instructions, and working hard. Using three or four pictures to remind T of these things may be a positive way to remind him to be on task. Talking-Time: For T, the opportunity to talk with the teacher and receive that one-on-one attention is a huge motivator. If the teacher sees T demonstrating on-task behavior throughout the school day, she can walk to his desk, praise the behavior, and then add a token to Ts talking jar. Each token is worth 5 seconds. At the end of the week these will be added up and T may trade them in for that amount of one-on-one time to talk with the teacher. During this time the teacher can praise T for the on-task behavior he displayed and highlight his achievements during the week.

During this time, T will have the opportunity to talk and share anything he would like with the teacher.

Desk Boundaries: T struggles frequently getting out of his seat and wandering the classroom during deskwork. This keeps him from being focused and finishing his work, and also causes distraction for other students. To eliminate this behavior, but still allow T to fulfill his need for movement, the teacher can place tape on the floor around the students desk. This tape square should extend only one or two feet from the edge of the students desk. As long as the student remains in his work space designated by the tape, he will be aloud to stand and quietly move around during desk work. The student must still be completing his work, but can use the space to move around at will.

Transitions: Picture Schedule: For students who struggle staying on task, providing a picture schedule can help sustain their focus and direct them during transitions. It is an easy way for teachers to help prepare these students for transitions well before they actually happen. The picture schedule should be a visual list of symbols that represent each activity that will be completed throughout the day. If the student is unsure of what to do after an activity has finished, they simply need to look at their picture schedule and it will direct them to the next task. In addition, it is a concrete and consistent way of acclimating students to the daily routine. The hope is that by using the schedule, T will decrease the amount of time spent offtask and wandering, while increasing his ability to remain on task throughout the day.

Math: Math Manipulative: Learning how to subtract can be difficult. Using hands on manipulative is often a great way to help a student visualize equations and associate appropriate number sense. For student T, using manipulatives would be a good way to not only engage him by providing tactile stimulus, but also provide him with a visual representation of numbers and equations. Manipulatives are a great tool to engage a students whole self while also providing them with a concrete example of a number. Using a white board to have the student also write the written problem may help the student gain a better understanding of subtraction and begin recognizing the appropriate subtraction symbol.

Language Arts:

Clapping and Taping: One of the easiest ways to help children realize that words are made up of several sounds and syllables is to allow them to break up words by clapping or tapping out their syllables. Tapping can be performed with fingers, hands or an object such as a stick. When first introducing this concept, the teacher should model clapping or tapping. For example, a teacher can show a child that the word forever has three syllables by clapping three times while reciting the word (/For/ -clap- /ev/ -clap-/er/-clap). This kinesthetic connection allows students to become actively engaged in syllable recognition. For T this may be a helpful strategy to introduce with syllables and help him begin distinguishing phonemic sounds and blends. Phonemic awareness games: T thrives on individual attention. Having him practice phonemic awareness in an individualized setting can help him be more motivated to focus and learn. In addition, playing fun word games can help him familiarize himself with how to form words and decode specific phoneme sounds. Play fun games together that focus on decoding words with consonant blends and diagraphs. These games can be as simple as handing the student a flashcard with a word ending on it. Take turns pulling a vowel or vowel diagraph and a consonant or consonant blend from a bucket. As the student pulls each from the bucket, have them read the sound. Then have the student construct a word and read it aloud. If the student reads the word correctly they can keep the word. If they do not read it correctly, they must return it to the bucket. The person with the most words read correctly at the end of a designated time period, wins.

Science/Social Studies: Hands-On Experiments: Involving a student in an active learning opportunity is not only fun, but also a great way to maintain their focus. Learning science and social studies through experiences can help increase a students level of engagement and also help them to remember the information better because they are actively involved and focused on learning. This would be a good strategy to help keep T on task. Also, giving T a specific role in the experiment may help motivate and empower him to maintain focus.