WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY TL330 1

Emily Sands
11/3/2017
1. What is the general layout of the classroom and resources available for you to use for
your lesson and stations? Whiteboard, projector, laptop, document camera, smartboard,
Chromebooks, etc.? What supplies do the children generally have in their desks that they
can use?
When looking at the layout of the classroom it is a very standard layout. The teacher has a
document camera that is facing the front of the classroom with her community desk right next to
it. The students are placed in groups of four and five. The desks are placed where they are facing
one another. There is a white board on the side of the classroom where the teacher writes the
daily schedule. There is also another whiteboard next to it where the teacher can demonstrate
problems as well as have students come to participate. While we were observing the students
used the document camera that was placed facing the front of the room. The students would
come up and place their own student work under the document camera for viewing. Students are
responsible for using their own pencils and markers when working on projects. It looked as
though the teacher had a few extra supplies to offer the students.

2. What are some of the classroom dynamics to consider? Number of boys and girls in the
class? What grouping strategies might you consider for your stations?
One of the classroom dynamics to consider is that students are placed in groups based on their
abilities. Each group has a few struggling students as well as a few students who are in the higher
section. There is more boys than girls in the classroom, however it isnt an alarming number of
girls vs. boys. The groups are pretty equal and the students seem to help one another during the
lessons and keep on tract. One thing that we have to consider, which the teacher also mentioned,
is that there are very high students and very low students in the class as well as at the tables.
When creating our lesson we will have to keep that in mind.

3. What are some of the general mathematics concepts that all of the students in your grade
level can understand/use, regardless of their math grouping? Are there particular
mathematical concepts that the teacher thinks would be useful for your lesson to use?
While we were in the classroom we were able to observe a math lesson. The teacher put a
number on the board and the students then filled out a worksheet based on that number. The
worksheet had them break apart the number, and analyze it. The students wrote a number story,
as well as giving a number that is higher or lower that the given number. They also had to draw a
number line of their choice and write the given number down. The students then looked over the
worksheet as a class and were able to share their ideas with the teacher and the class. A lot of the
answers varied so it was interesting to see what the students had to say. The students are able to
do addition and subtraction as well as basic multiplication and division. They are also capable of
doing number sentences as well as other concepts based on base ten blocks. They work a lot with
manipulatives and other hands on activities. One concept that she wants us to focus on is the use
of manipulatives.
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY TL330 2

4. What are some of the main themes in the social studies curriculum for your grade level
that might be a good tie in for your lesson?
The teacher mentioned that she had not really gone over a lot of the Social Studies curriculum.
She did mention that one of the leaders from the diversity program on campus had come to teach
a lesson to the class about diversity. She read them a book about a little girl who had a diverse
background. She mentioned that it would be nice to do something about culture due to the fact
that the class was very diverse. So our lesson could focus on the different cultures around the
world and incorporate the different backgrounds of the students.

5. What social studies resources do you observe in the classroom (maps, texts, books, etc)?
There was a world map in the classroom, however we werent shown any social studies books or
curriculums while there.

6. Regarding ELL students, what is the first/home language? Are they receiving services in
the school? How many years? What strategies have teachers used that were helpful?
One of the students in the classroom was from European descent and his second language was
English. The student was placed in a pull out program to help with ELA. However there were no
other high need ELL students in the classroom who were in a pull out program. That being said
there were quite a few students that were from culturally diverse backgrounds. One of the
students had a mother from Kenya and another students had both parents who were from Latina
descent. There were around 6 students in the classroom who had diverse backgrounds.

7. Regarding students with special needs, what accommodations do you need to consider for
reading, math, language arts, social studies? Think about students with documented IEPs
and 504 plans as well as those that do not have official plans on file. What strategies have
been successful?
There is one special needs student in the classroom that really caught our attention. A little girl
who is non-verbal. She has an IEP for SLD and ELA. She also receives special help in Math.
The girl has a communication pad which is kept on her desk in order for her to talk with her
classmates as well as tell her teacher what she wants. The teacher is aware of her problem but
says that studies have shown that the girl may never talk again. However within the first part of
the year, she has already picked up some different tones and motions. They are currently trying
to teacher her ESL. There are no other students that stood out or were mentioned to have an IEP.
Another student in the class is an ELL student. The teacher has placed this student by a fluent
English speaking student and the child receives help through a pull out program.