Field Experience Observation

I observed Mrs. Haile on Monday November 21st. Mrs. Haile is an English,

Social Studies, and life strategies teacher at Hempfield Area High School. I observed
her fourth period learning support class and fifth period full time learning support class.
She told me that she for the students on her monitor list, she will email, text, call the
parents if she needs to, and other students parents she gets in contact with by email
and/or a phone call. Mrs. Haile continued to remind the students to raise their hand to
answer the questions while they were reviewing. One student answered the review
questions by pointing to the notecards that his paraprofessional had placed on his desk.
I noticed the smartboard in the classroom and the students all had chromebooks, but
none were used for the review that Mrs. Haile had planned for the day. There were
accommodations for all the students in both classes, and they all had assigned seats
based on their needs. Mrs. Haile gave her fourth period class two days to meet with her,
revise their rough draft, and write their final draft of their letter. Her fifth period class was
given the entire class to review one review sheet that was front and back. When I asked
her about her grading, she says that she does not grade any of her students differently
than the others, but she grades on the work turned in and if it meets what was assigned.
She gives opportunities for points for homework and for exams, so every student has
the opportunity to succeed.
Mrs. Hailes fourth period class was an English 9 learning support class. I
observed them revising their rough draft and beginning to work on their final draft of
their letter and their envelope. She went over the different parts of a letter, such as the
date, the greeting, body, closing, and the signature, as well as the different parts of the

envelope like the stamp, the return address, and the receiving address. Each student
was called back to the teachers desk by Mrs. Haile to review their rough draft. She
went through each students entire paper with them and discussed ways that they could
improve, things they did well, grammatical errors they had, and layout errors they had.
The class only had eight students in it, so the students go more individual attention. The
students who were not meeting with the teacher were working on changing their rough
drafts and beginning to work on their final drafts. Mrs. Haile walked around the
classroom when she had met with each student individually. As the students were
starting being ready to move on to the final draft, she met with them again to make sure
they changed the things that needed changed.
When the fifth period class came in, the three students with paraprofessionals
came in first. The other five students arrived shortly after. Mrs. Haile reviewed the story
that they read in class on the Friday before. She went over the story in detail with them
and reviewed the main characters, the plot, and the ending. Then she explained to them
how to do the review activity that she had planned for the day. One student was taking
the test that would be given to the rest of the class the next day while the other students
studied. There were two groups of students. Each group was instructed to ask each
other the questions on the review sheet that they filled out on Friday. There was one
student who lost focus, so Mrs. Haile went over and tapped his shoulder to get his
attention even though she knew that he did not like to be touched. When he started to
go on about how he did not like to be touched, she explained to him that that was the
only way she could get his attention because he was not responding to his name. By
the end of the class, the students had gone over their review sheet at least twice.

I asked Mrs. Haile what the difference between the two classes were. Most of the
students in the first class were only about a year or two behind in reading, and they are
in general education or other learning support classes, but the students in the other
class were severely behind. I also asked if there was a difference in the curriculum
between the two classes. She told me that the curriculum for her English 9 LS class was
the same as all other ninth grade English classes. The full time learning support class
has a separate curriculum. Another question I asked was what are some basic skills that
she teaches to the FTLS class. She told me that she teaches everything from how to
take out a pencil and paper to how to read a story with that class. I asked her what she
was working on with them. Mrs. Haile told me that they were at a part in the school year
that she is working on getting them to do things more independently. She is being less
hands on and getting them to be more self sufficient and be able to work together. I
asked Mrs. Haile if she ever contacted the parents about the good things that their
student does. She told me that she would contact the parents with improvements during
the year, but she makes it a point to make a good phone call to the parents of all her
students during the first nine weeks. She says that this opens the lines of
communication between her and her students parents. I really enjoyed getting to see
the range of abilities in each class and the difference in her teaching when I observed.