Running head: OBSERVATION 4: TEACHER-TAUGHT LESSON 1

Observation 4

Jeremia Vergara

Raritan Valley Community College

Professor Kimberly Schirner

March 20, 2019

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Education 230 Field Experience

I. Observation #4
Teacher-taught lesson (Morning Meeting)

II. Grade Level and Subject Area

Special Education Pre-kindergarten

III. Setting
Facility of the classroom is in an urban town. The school is public and specializes
specifically in early childhood care and education. This classroom has a main teacher,
two to four assistant teachers and seven students.

IV. Pre-observation
Teaching a child with special needs would require a great deal of patience
and kindness, as any teacher would need to be successful in the classroom. The
thought of special education never crossed my mind until this year. From having
an autistic nephew, I knew only a small portion of what happens in his school
day. The minds of these children are unique. I believe they think more abstractly,
seeing as how some like to organize things depending on shape and size to always
wanting to follow a set schedule. “Special education is an integral part of the total
educational enterprise, not a separate order. In any school system, special
education is a means of enlarging the capacity of the system to serve the
educational needs of all children… A primary goal of educators should be to help
build accommodative learning opportunities for children with exceptionalities in
regular educational programs. In the implementation of this goal, special
education can serve as a support system, and special educators can assist regular
school personnel in managing the education of children with exceptionalities”
(Special Education in the Schools, n.d.). Teachers must understand that these
children require more attention. My cooperating teacher makes sure that each
child is given their fair chances in everything happening in the classroom. She
tries to have them participate in morning meeting.
V. Data
 Children gather on the carpet for morning meeting
 Breakfast lasts for about 20 minutes to half an hour
 Children use the Smartboard during morning meeting. The teacher has them
point out their name and spell it out loud if they can. Non-vocal children
simply point at their name.
 Children also point out the weather, what month it is, and if they’re at school
or home. They would sing a song about the weather and the months.
Sometimes they would dance to the songs.
 There is a calendar on the wall on the morning meeting carpet along with a
weather board. The children are asked what month it is, what day, and how
the weather is outside. Much like their names, if they can spell out the months,
then they will be asked to spell the month out loud.
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 Children who can’t sit still by themselves sit in or near the lap of the teachers.
VI. Analysis
These children are a handful. Although there are less than ten students,
some days feel like
there are twenty.
However, this doesn’t
make any of the
teachers or me think of
the students any less.
From what I’ve been
able to see, no two days
are ever the same. My
cooperating teacher
follows the day by a
schedule. It’s hard to
make a set lesson plan
for each individual
student on account of
the difference of each
disability. To the right
is their schedule.
The kids are
pretty adjusted to this
schedule. Here, we see
that each activity of the
day has a specific
amount of time.
Children with
disabilities tend to like
following a schedule,
as it’s what they are
accustomed to.
“…people with Autism
and related disorders
like ADHD, PDD-Nos and Asperger often have difficulty coping with
unstructured activities and benefit from increased structure in their lives”
(AutiPlan, n.d.). During morning meeting, the behavior of the children varies.
Some get too impatient from sitting too long which in turn leads to one of them
crying. When one cries, another will try to copy even if he has nothing to cry
about. During morning meeting, it’s a good time to observe the appearance of
each child. We try to see if they have any scratches, bruises or rashes that couldn’t
be closely observed during breakfast. Sometimes the parents would let my
cooperating teacher know through email, but from observations, she and the
assistants have been discovering injuries themselves.
VII. Recommendations
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Each disability deserves special attention. During morning meeting,

having the children together on the carpet is great. However, the children often
get antsy and act up. Though it is important for the children to know their names
and how to spell them, it shouldn’t take more than at least a couple seconds for
each child. Granted, sometimes it’s their disability at play and the child doesn’t
know any better. I believe the best way for a child with special needs to learn is
through movement. “Many teachers have found that programs that include
movement help learners with special needs. Several hypotheses may explain this
phenomenon. Many special-needs learners are stuck in counterproductive mental
states, and movement is a quick way to change them. Second, movements, such as
those involved in playing active games, will activate the brain across a wide
variety of areas. It may be the stimulation of those neural networks that helps
trigger some learning. For other students, it may be the rise in energy, the
increased blood flow, and the amines that put them in a better mood to think and
recall. Some routines that call for slower movement can do the reverse, calming
down students who are overactive, hence supporting a state of concentration”
(ASCD, n.d.). Though my cooperating teacher incorporates a song that involves
movement, it’s only effective for a short duration of time. I believe that perhaps a
song that involves spelling your name would be effective as much as it is with the
weather and month. So long as the children are dancing and moving, they’re
having fun while learning!
VIII. Post-observation
Though it’s only a small portion in their school day, morning meeting is
important for these children. It falls into the schedule that they’re so accustomed
to following. After breakfast, the children know to go to the carpet right away. As
a future teacher myself, I need to plan out how my children will greet each other
every morning. This is just a small window of preparation to the way of becoming
the best teacher I can be!
IX. Citation

ASCD (n.d.). Chapter 4. Movement and Learning. Retrieved from

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-

Learning.aspx

AutiPlan (n.d.). Retrieved from https://autiplan.com/why-visual-

schedules-autism
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Special Education in the Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.cec.sped.org/policy-and-advocacy/cec-professional-policies/special-

education-in-the-schools

X. Appendix