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Active Learning & The Development of Understanding Abstract Concepts
The idea of the mobile coffee cart is an interactive process that encourages students to apply their acquired skills to concrete and authentic experience. It infused various academic, functional and communication skills.

Assessing Stages of Development
The different grade-level students which within themselves differ in needs and abilities requires individualised instructions.

Building Schemas & Disequilibrium
Students interaction at the bakery allowed students to build on each other's knowledge.

Suggestion:
Teacher Maddie could perhaps include probing questions that will provide an opportunity for the students to develop higher thinking order for the students.

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The coffee cart activity provides an opportunity for the students to interact with different people in different parts of the school. Performing their tasks in novel environments with novel interactions puts them in a stimulating environment where it can be intellectually challenging. They get the opportunity to practice concepts that they learn in class and apply it in a controlled, Concrete experience. Additionally, skills such as seriation of coffee cups, socioecentricity and language can be practiced/honed during the course of the coffee cart activity; two facets of Piaget’s Concrete-Operational Stage. The students get to build schemas based on the different roles played in the operation of the coffee cart. Their roles were very clearly defined in on the whiteboard before the start of the activity. Disequilibrium can occur quite frequently in a novel activity with so much interaction. For instance, students will realise that despite everyone has a role in the coffee cart activity, they need to work together as a whole and may even need to adjust their roles to assist their peers. The entire process is an interaction-rich and active that allows the students to combine the different skills that they learn in class in a real-world context. The video interview throughout the video gives them the opportunity to reflect on their learning and how they can generalize the skills that they learnt in the future (abstract thought).

Suggestions:
I would propose additional activities in the future such as carnivals where they get to apply the skills with a larger group of individuals. It was a good starting point for these students and as they mature, collaborations with external agencies may be possible i.e. Purple Parade in Singapore.

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Teacher Sadie used most of the constructivist principles. I am going to mention the few obvious ones in the video.

Active Learning:
Mobile coffee cart was created to help the students get a feel of a real life of running a mobile cafe or food truck alike but in a closed school environment. There are both outdoor & experiential learning taking place in these twice a week scheduled project. They are learning job skills, basic life skills, how to be independent and responsibility through this. They learn to explore new ideas and discover how to work in a team.

Assess and take note of their stages of development:
The teacher planned customised roles and differentiated instructions for each student as they had different roles to take on, either barista or baker for the day. She understood her student's strength and has rapport with them, thus using it to the fullest advantage.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions:
It was apparent that at the start of the year, the SEN students are just recognised as SEN students and most of the teachers do not even know their names. By the end of the year, the teachers personally knew them and one teacher even mentioned that one of the students has a cynical sense of humour. These real life social interactions has in a way prepared the students to interact from people outside of school. This  experience also will make them feel belong in school and make them feel welcomed by the community.

Develop their language:
Running a mobile coffee cart requires on the spot thinking and personal response to any situations given in that day. It is not a routine thus SEN students are practicing to be open and not rigid. They learn how to communicate thus their use of language will also develop and get better in time.

What I like about the lesson:
I love the fact that these students are given the chance to showcase their talents and skills in running the coffee mobile cart. This will boost their self esteem and enhance their social interactions with the people around them which will be needed when they graduate and leave to face the real working world. They learn to take ownership, learn to be responsible and build their confidence.

Suggestions to Teacher Sadie:
She must continue to inspire the education fraternity with her passion for SEN students by showcasing these project to the schools in her country. She can also include time for reflection with her students and even include this mobile coffee cart to bigger events like parent-teacher meetings so as to expose the students to different environments.

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Active Learning

I really like that the teacher engaged the students in learning values/concepts like job skills, independence, and responsibility through the use of a mobile coffee cart. They were each given a role and responsibility, which expanded their perceptions of their own abilities. The students learnt that there is so much they can offer to the world through a simple yet engaging task.

Assessing Development stages

As Ms Sadie mentioned, as a sped teacher, on average she has 3 different grade level students and within each grade level, every student has different needs, strengths and abilities. She assesses their individual needs before planning her lessons.

Building Schemas

At first students were confused and did not understand the purpose of this activity. However, once teacher Sadie went through with them their individually assigned roles, functions of that role, and the purpose of this activity, the students were able to build schemas and understand the bigger picture. They understood the significance of their individual contribution and what this contribution meant collectively.

Creating physical, concrete experiences

The students learnt how to use the transport, how to collect the baked goods, how to make coffee, collect and count money via first hand experiences in the real world.

Incorporating Social Experience as part of their learning

My favourite part is Teacher Sadie giving her students the opportunity to learn language and how to communicate with various people, such as the bakery staff, teachers, school staff, peers.

What I like about the lesson?

I like that teacher Sadie created a holistic learning experience via a simple activity. The entire process seemed very enriching. The coffee cart activity imparted them with skills and values that they will be able to generalise to other real world contexts.

Suggestions

Instead of holding the coffee cart activity on campus, I wish she could have collaborated with sponsors and conducted it at some carnival or out of school event to allow the students to experience and learn even more.

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The coffee cart idea by Sadie Guthrie promotes an active process of learning in many areas. There are several prospects for exploration, discovery, creation, and making connections. Students get to learn skills for the different contexts of running the coffee cart. Guthrie mentioned that at the start of the program, it was not well received. She used one of the constructivist principles, which is building schemas. In running the coffee cart, they learn job skills, their different roles, and their responsibilities. It was not explicit in the video, but it is a given that students must learn the different areas needed to run a coffee cart.

Guthrie had to explain the purpose of the coffee cart. There is an overarching theme about them being part of a community and contributing to society. Another constructivist principle is demonstrated here as they have to absorb the abstract idea of the overarching theme mentioned. The coffee cart activity allows the student to develop an overall purposeful idea of what they can be in a society. Apart from that, there are authentic experiences of physical and concrete tasks. The experience in the activity includes performing different tasks they set to do; taking orders, being a cashier, a barista, and even a serving waitress or waiter. Having to perform the different tasks is another reference to another constructivist principle: "provides opportunities for social experiences and interactions." In carrying out the different roles, there are other learning opportunities for social experiences and interactions. The students get to travel, and they must learn transportation skills. They travel to collect baked donations, where there is a need for social interactions. Hence, they must learn conversational skills, another constructivist principle, "to develop their language."

The idea for the coffee cart lesson is terrific. It is excellent because it provides many learning opportunities. The value of learning the skills is that it incorporates many of the constructivist principles. Running a coffee cart has many overlapping learning points. Having to travel to collect baked donations needs social interaction skills and improves one's language.

Additionally, the task they have to do not only teaches them skills but also builds confidence in the students, something that is almost always valuable. While not explicit in the video, I can suggest that Guthrie create opportunities for students to reflect on their experiences. She can further guide the students with open-ended activities to suggest other projects that they can do with the skills they have learned. Therefore, teaching them that skills can be transferrable and that there is much more that they can do to contribute to society.

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Learning should be active process: the teacher brings her student out to the community and around the school. They have a chance to interact with different group of people and learn skills such as taking transport, know the way around in the community, purpose of visiting the bakery and recognize people they met, etc. When they are in the community, people know what they are capable of and able to accept them for who they are after interacting with them in person.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of concept and operations: the students learn their roles and responsibilities, put them into real life practise and collaborate with peers to carry out the task successfully. The hands-on experience allows them to be actively engaged. They also learn conceptual skills in the process from their experiences to solve problem that they encounter along the way.

Develop their language: in the process, the student communicates to different groups and people. They learn to connect through verbalization. They learn how to express themselves and how to answer peoples’ question. Thoughtful thoughts were processed when they are expressing themselves, and they learned. They become more at ease and confident when talking to people as days passed.

I like the lesson as the teacher facilitate her lesson and understand her students well. She provides an authentic learning platform for her students. She encourages them and provide them with many learning opportunities. She makes meaning to the student’s learning. They can see and feel that they are important. It motivates them, builds their confidence and self-esteem. The process of learning is fun and engaging. The authentic learning and skills acquired will make a difference in their lives.

Suggestion: The teacher can include the parents, working together with them around the school for one day. Promote family bonding, sharing thoughts and experiences. The student can also show the parents what they are capable of. In this way, the student can expand their learning experiences.

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Ms Sadie has successfully resonated majority of the constructivist principles through "Coffee Cart"

The students in Ms Sadie’s class were given the opportunity to experience this unique hands-on activity. There is active learning in process, where the students were able to discover abilities, they never knew they had. They were taught skills beyond the classroom and were able to explore different concepts and ideas during Ms Sadie’s lessons as she provided guided instructions and scaffoldings using visual aids and concrete materials. They were also able to socially interact with bakers outside of school, and with teachers who were not teaching them. They were able to verbally share what their specific job roles were, which were matched to their own ability.

What I liked about the lesson:
I love how the students were able to socially interact with individuals from different communities (teaching staff and staff from the cafe). It must not have been easy to persuade the students to break out of their shell and to commit to something they have never done before, but she has successfully done so. It was heartening to see the students remembering the teachers' usual orders. She could perhaps have a rotation of duties so the other students were also able to experience different roles.

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Learning should be active process - Students are given the opportunity to explore and discover the skills required to work as a front-line staff. Students are encouraged to be independent and hone their skills through day-to-day experiences while working.

Assess and take note of their stages of development - As there are students from different grade levels in the class, the teacher must design the curriculum to each of their cognitive level.

Build Schemas - Students are taught the social skills in-relation to customer service. They can then experience and differentiate the different social rules from a professional and casual context.

Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas for learning and growth through experiences -Students have prior experience with purchasing baked goods. However, they do not understand the purpose behind baking, purchasing, selling the goods. (productive part of society)

Arrange physical and concrete experiences - The children learn how to make coffee, exchange money, commute via public transport etc.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions - The children learn how to interact customers and learn to create emotional bonds with the school community.

Develop their language - The students develop the verbal and communication skills by interacting within their customers, bakers, and bus drivers.

I like the part when the students build relationships with the teachers and the teachers get to know them as individuals beyond their special needs/diagnosis. I would suggest opening the coffee cart to other students as well and not just the teachers. It would be a great opportunity for all students to interact and build relationships with each other.

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(a) The teacher had successfully incorporated numerous constructivist principles. Some of which include:
1. Experiential and real-life contexts - The coffee cart activity in itself is experiential and incorporates skills that these students can apply in the real life. Apart from serving the coffee, they also get to experience a snippet of customer service, something which would be particularly useful in future.
2. Social experience and interactions - The coffee cart lesson presents a myriad of opportunities for students to interact with others. This includes interacting with the staff when serving them the coffee+baked goods and also the cafe staff when collecting the baked goods.
3. Guidance and scaffolding - The teacher was present throughout the entire process, giving students the appropriate prompts when needed.

(b) Apart from the real-world application and the successful incorporation of constructivist principles in the lesson, I genuinely admire how this entire learning journey not only led the students to grow and learn new skills, but it also appears to have given the students a sense of identity and self-confidence. This is extremely valuable since identify formation is crucial in an individual's adolescent years. I also find it particularly heartwarming how this coffee cart idea has not only helped the students grow but also the other staff and students in the school. It is clear that getting to know these students individually has been eye opening for the other people in the school and perceptions of the students appear to have shifted in a positive direction, based on the positive interactions shown in the video. This in turn creates an even more positive and nurturing environment for the students to continue to learn and grow.
As it was not showed in the video, perhaps she could do regular checkins with each student to check for understanding as well as any feelings/thoughts/frustrations they may have bottled up throughout this learning process since it may be daunting and especially frustrating for some of them. And over time, perhaps she can allow them to try other new tasks to pick up new skills or to bring this coffee cart idea and help students generalise to slightly different settings (e.g. have a coffee stand outside the school to sell baked goods/coffee to strangers).

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a) Constructivist principles used:

Active learning: Students were directly involved in managing the coffee cart and each of them had responsibilities (taking orders, pouring the coffee, being the cashier etc.) They were able to explore what it means to run a 'business' and discover their capabilities for themselves.

Developmentally appropriate: The teacher structured the coffee cart activity around skills that were age-appropriate for her students, who were in middle school.

Build schemas: The teacher used the 5W1H approach (seen on the whiteboard) to develop knowledge in her students about what is involved in running the coffee cart.

Concrete experiences: Managing the coffee cart allowed students to practise language, math and social skills in a 'real life' context outside of the classroom. Having to take public transport and interact with community members also helped them learn skills for activities of daily living.

Social experiences/interactions: Students had to interact with members of the community outside their school when getting the baked goods and later interact with 'customers' at their coffee cart.

Language development: The writing on the whiteboard showed that the teacher used the coffee cart activity to build language skills in her students, including context-specific vocabulary, such as barista and cashier, and sequence words such as first/next/last. Students also got to practise listening and speaking skills when they interacted with customers and members of the community, as well as writing skills when they took down orders.

b) What I liked about the lesson and some suggestions:

Sadie's effort in creating this outside-the-box learning activity for her students is so inspiring. I really liked how students were able to practise both academic and social skills through running the coffee cart, as well as functional job skills and values such as responsibility, courtesy and independence. Even more heartwarming was how the students were able to build relationships (with the other teachers and bakery staff), forge a place in their community (both in and out of school) and be seen as valued members of society.

A suggestion I can think of would include getting students to reflect on their learning, such as drawing or writing in a reflective journal every week after their turn running the coffee cart. In order to promote higher-level thinking and peer interaction, the students who have been involved in running the coffee cart for some time can be 'promoted' to managers who train new students to run the coffee cart. The teacher could also facilitate a discussion on how to expand their 'business', such as finding a more efficient way to take orders or having a wider range of food & drinks.

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Constructivist principles used by the teacher:

1.     Learning can be an active process

Teacher Sadie had objectives that children with SEN should be treated equally and be given opportunities to learn, just like any others. She introduced ‘Çoffee Cart’ to her students and brought life lessons outside of the classroom for them to experience the ‘real world’. They were given opportunities to explore the local transportation and bakery, serve coffee to teachers and interact with people.

2.     Assess and take note of their stages of development

Teacher Sadie noted on her students’ abilities and tapped on each of their strengths to assign them roles for the ‘Coffee Cart’, such as barista, greeter and cashier.

3.     Build schemas

The whole experience from going to the bakery to purchase the pastries to getting the orders and serving teachers, help in learning new things.

4.     Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas

The experience of travelling on the buses and interacting with the workers at the bakery help to build on their knowledge (what they already knew versus what they actually experience). It can also clear some of the misconceptions they may have had prior to the experience.

5.     Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations.
Teacher Sadie organized their ideas (purpose of the project, roles, schedule, expectations) and wrote it down on the board explicitly. This can help students understand the whole concept of the project. Roles and expectations of each role were clearly written so that students could carry it out. Tasks such as boiling the coffee, serving and interacting with the customers, and handling money are real learning experiences for the students.

6.  Arrange for social experiences and interactions

When the students interacted with the teachers while serving them, it gives them the opportunities to share their feelings, experiences and what they have learnt. It was a ‘feel good’ moment for them and they appeared confident.

What I like about the lesson:

This shows the story of a passionate teacher and her students with SEN. It is heartwarming and inspiring to see how Teacher Sadie had taken the step to create opportunities for her students to learn ‘out of the box’ and show their capabilities to the whole school. This allowed the teachers to know the students better, find out their personalities and strengths.

Suggestions to the teacher:

Teacher Sadie should continue with the experience of ‘Coffee Cart’. She could get the students to talk about their experiences and ask them for ideas on what other activities they would want to do around the school. She could record the ‘Coffee Cart’ experience and air it during school assembly programmes for the whole school to see. This can be a great confidence booster for her students.

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For me, the teacher has managed to use mot of the constructivist principles in her use of the "Coffee Cart". I will highlight 4 that resonated well with me.

1.Learning should be an active process; Give students opportunities to explore, discover, create.
For this, I felt that she did very well to let her students have hands on experience of a real world situation. Her students were given a chance to get out of the classroom and experience something or gain knowledge that they would require in future. She gave them the opportunity to learn how to do certain things like taking public transport, having the confidence to speak to strangers and being able to run a cafe.

2. Build up on their prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) so that her students can learn and grow through experiences.
Before the whole initiative started, Ms Guthrie gave her students some prior knowledge of what they can expect themselves to be doing. She mentioned that they were afraid at first but I think she did very well to let them know what they were getting into. She guided them throughout and let them took charge of their respective tasks. A scene where a teacher was joking with the student stuck to me because the student might not have been expecting that but he reacted well to something that happened outside of his schema. Also, it was encouraging to see the students being able to speak to strangers (at the bakery) to get what they want.

3. Arranging physical, concrete experiences to develop their understanding of abstract concepts and operations, giving them experiential, hands-on activities.
The whole initiative was so that her students have concrete experiences with something related to a real life experience. It was inspiring to see the whiteboard prior to the initiative where she wrote out clearly the roles involved and what actions were required from each role. Ms Guthrie did her best to give her students the concepts of different roles. e.g. a cashier has to collect money and a greeter has to greet customers and take their orders. After the clear explanations, her students are then given the chance to physically experience the concepts they learn, helping them digest the information.

4. Develop open-ended activities for them to construct knowledge and understanding.
Personally for me, this is a pretty tricky thing as open-ended activities can be risky. Ms Guthrie seemed very confident when she brought her students out to take the bus, guiding them across the road safely and letting them have interactions with strangers. These activities can vary easily, e.g. a bus may come late or break down, the baker may change. The students are given the chance to experience all these and over time I believe they can adapt accordingly. Within the school as well, interaction with the customers are not limited to a scripted answer. Her students interact freely with their customers and adapt to the small changes accordingly. This allows them to slowly build up their schema of how to run a cafe. I feel that this is the most important thing, given them a life skill that will allow them to have means to live even after they graduate.

What do I like and suggestions for the teacher.
I like everything about the initiative as I believe it is very important to equip students with life skills that they can take away after they graduate. The initiative is a great tool for that. The fact that it ran so well shows me the effort that Ms Guthrie put in and it was heartening for me to see the rewards (the students doing very well to serve their customers and knowing their roles well.) A suggestion would be to allow the roles to be rotated so that students gain a holistic view of how a cafe runs and maybe let them be involved in certain decision making processes (what bread to choose, what coffee to make available and what price to put for each item).

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This video shows most of the constructivists principles being used.

1. Learning is an active process
The whole process of the Coffee Cart is a learning process for the students. They expand their comfort zones by planning, learn about their individual roles, interacting with the community, learn new skills and making connections with the things and people around them. These knowledge and skills will continue beyond high school and for the rest of their lives.

2. Developmentally appropriate
Ms Sadie Guthrie plans for differentiated learning for each student to help them develop at their own pace. She tapped on the students’ strengths and carefully chooses the roles that are suitable for each student such that they are comfortable and able to carry out their roles effectively.

3 & 4. Build Schemas & Disrupting schemas (disequilibrium)
With prior knowledge on interaction with people that they already know, students get to interact with others in the community and people at Devil’s Teeth bakery. They answer various questions that may be new to them and learning from others can disrupt existing schemas that helps them build critical thinking.

5. Arrange physical, concrete experiences, develop abstract concepts/operations, experiential, hands-on activities.

The students learn through experiential learning by going outside of classroom as a group to sell coffee/cakes, understand and use various things like cups, thermos flask, tongs, computer to input sales, money etc. Their hands-on activity helps them reinforce previously learnt information like Math, Science and English and put it to practice.

6. Arrange for social experience and interactions
Apart from group interaction within themselves, they speak with their customers (teachers, principal, staff in the school) and people outside of school setting like the bus driver and people at the bakery. Having open-ended conversations/questioning with good strangers and members of the community helps build confidence when presenting themselves to others.

9. Develop their language
Even from the get-go, the students learn language in the form of learning new words associated to the coffee cart activity, then using those words to converse with other people and I see Wedad writing down the orders.

What do you like about the lesson?
I liked that the teacher gives the students the opportunity to shine and to be recognized for their work. It also helps them prepare for their life beyond school. Knowing that the students have difficulty when interacting with others as she said they have no common ground, this activity allows them to leave their comfort zone and challenge themselves during social interactions.

Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?
Perhaps the teacher could get the students to write reflections or journals after every coffee cart activity to think about what they have learnt and what can be improved. This life-skill activity can be repeated for every cohort and items to sell can be varied from clothing, books, fruit juices, stationeries etc. for the development of language, skills and interaction.

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a) Every student was assigned with roles and responsibilities for the ‘Coffee Cart’ initiative. This provides them with opportunities to practice skills such as planning and organizational skills. These opportunities are essential in helping them adapt and accommodate new experiences (build on prior knowledge and schemas). Ms. Sadie also includes experiential learning where her students are actively engaged in the learning process whereby, they are put in real social settings to practice social skills. It allows them to develop their use of language, especially when interacting with people in the community. These active learning process allows students to explore, discover and make connections to what they have learnt in the classroom to authentic settings (real concrete experiences).

A lot of thought and planning goes into ‘Coffee Cart’. Ms. Sadie would have plan for ‘Coffee Cart’ to be developmentally appropriate. She makes sure she explains the purpose of ‘Coffee Cart’, so her pupils understand why they are doing it. She uses visuals such as chart to show the different roles to help deliver instructions/information. It is also observed that throughout the manning of the coffee cart, Ms. Sadie was there with her students, assisting as they work in their zone of proximal development.

Through the ‘Coffee Cart’ initiative, not only does it offer opportunities for students to converse with teachers and peers (social experiences and interactions), but it also allows the school community to get to know them better in person, not only by name but also on a personal level (their personality/characteristics). Recognize their ability to contribute to the community and see them for the skills that they have and how they use it to overcome challenges, a very important component to inclusivity.

b) I admire Ms. Sadie's tenacity in wanting the best for her students despite their special needs. She bonded well with both her students and their family in order to provide the best educational experience.

As an extension to Ms. Sadie's 'Coffee Cart' initiative, she could consider having her students reflect on their experiences manning the Coffee Cart. Students can share how it has helped them, the discoveries made (their strengths) and identify areas for improvements. Self-reflection can help students understand and recognize their achievements which could result in deeper learning.

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Learning  should be active process

Teacher explain the different job scope and requirements, students can choose what role they want to take up. They have opportunity to experience the different type of cups and utensils used for Coffee Cart.

Assess and take note of their stages of development

As there are three different grade levels in the class, the teacher has designed the appropriate job scopes for the students based on their individual ability.

Arrange physical and concrete experiences

Through the Coffee Cart project, the students have the opportunity on how to use the public transportation system and collect the pastry from the bakery.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions

The students will push the Coffee Cart around the school to sell coffee and pastries, they will learn how to interact with teachers (customers) and provide what the customers want. Through this project, the students create emotional bonds with the school community.

Develop their language

The students develop the communication skills require for interacting within the school community and outside the community such as bakers and bus drivers.

From the video, I like the part on the teacher works closely with parents to understand the students and build great rapport with the students. One suggestion, the teacher can share the success of the students to the parents to be part of their children learning journey.

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Active Process
What i saw was an active process being implemented. This was a very real and concrete experiential learning point with the coffee cart. They were taught that items they were selling did not just appear in their hands, but needed to be bought and transported to their school. The students were also learning to execute complex duties in a very safe environment, which is crucial for the students.

Social experiences
Getting a student to go around taking orders from the teachers and letting her experience social interaction is a good learning point for her. This can slowly build up life experiences of meeting various people and that each person is unique and can give different responses and let her know how to deal with each of those answers.

Schemas
The teacher also taught what each duties was involved in and that each one is important in the running of the coffee cart. She was very detailed and gave very specific instructions on what each member was to do.

What i liked:
The teacher was very empathetic and her passion towards the students. It must not have been easy for her to teach and mentor the students for them to learn and practice these skills.

I also liked how she roped in the Principal and teachers at her school and got the teachers to bond with the students and learn more about the students under her care.

I also liked how she focused on the positive and what students could do rather then what they could not do. She celebrated small successes instead of major milestones, which can be very encouraging to the students.

Suggestions for improvement:
She could also rope in parents of the students to help make these activities more sustainable and make it a more real life experience.

Have a myriad of activities to help students get exposed to different environments and eventually become contributing members of society. Eg. Selling Lemonade, cakes.

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Constructivist principles used:

1.  Learning should be an active process
Coffee cart allowed the student to explore and discover how the students can contribute back to the society. This activity has taught the student to take the public transport, collect their products from the bakery and being able to articulate their needs.

2. Developmentally appropriate:
The teacher take note of the students' stages of development and assigned them duties accordingly to age appropriateness and their strength.

3. Building schemas:
Writing on the board and mapping out the roles of each student helps to build onto their knowledge.

4. Experiential and real context:
Coffee cart is an activity in which the students get to experience real life skills. It teaches them interpersonal skills such as being responsible, practice active listening and team work.

5. Social experience and interactions:
This activity requires and gives the students an opportunity to learn how to interact with the external vendors, such as the bakery to articulate what they need. In school, they approach the teachers to sell their products. This helps to improve on their communication skills.

What do I like about the lesson?

Hats off to the teacher for coming up with such an awesome initiative. This coffee cart will definitely help to boost the students' morale and motivation. It gives them a sense of belonging and acceptance. They are taught real life situations and how they apply what they learnt through coffee cart and apply it when they step out in the working environment. Ms. Sadie Guthrie is  truly dedicated and passionate educator.

One thing that I would suggest:

Ms. Sadie could have included situations where it can develop higher thinking skills among the students. For example, getting the students to brainstorm other than coffee, what else can they promote and what the students' have noticed on the buyers' preference. Another thing is giving the students' to reflect on their performance which is not captured in the video.

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What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

Develop their language

Through interactions with customers(staff) and responsible strangers, students were able to practise speaking to others in a non-classroom environment.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences

The coffee cart programme allows students to have a glimpse of the possible career they may want to venture into with authentic experiences. A lesson about retailing will be too abstract for students to understand while having hands-on experience in purchasing/logistics/selling will allow students to have deeper understanding in concepts.

Learning should be active process

Instead of getting the cart all done up and students stepping in just to sell the products, teachable moments like taking the public transport to pick up the goods was also intentionally included. This allows students to relate to a more wholesome “working” environment.

What do you like about the lesson? Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?
I liked that the teacher built an inclusive environment where she allows her students to take on responsibilities. This empowers the students as they have a part to play in the school and community.

She could allow some time for her students to reflect after every session. A journal or sharing in class about their experiences could understand what they have enjoyed or felt challenging. A rotation of roles will also be good for her students. The predecessor could serve as a mentor to guide the new classmate who is on the new role. This allows them to talk about what they have learn and provides an avenue for exchange of ideas.

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Sadie used a majority of the constructivist principles covered in this module.

Active learning - She created opportunities for her students to explore the idea, discover their strengths and weaknesses, create an identity for themselves among the school community. Through these opportunities, she exposes her students to practice the concepts of money(cashier), pounder about transportation skills in big urban cities, how to manage social interactions, etc.

Assess development stages - She acknowledges her student's grade level and their abilities before planning individual lessons for each student.

Build schemas - She explains the job skills, expected values, and functional skills they will learn.

Physical, concrete experiences to develop an understanding of abstract concepts and operations - Managing a coffee cart creates many opportunities for the students to explore - Being a cashier, transportation skills, being productive, etc.

Social experiences and interactions - Managing a coffee cart creates an opportunity to interact with suppliers and buyers. It also involves interacting among team members and deal with their tolerance level.

Developing higher-level thinking skills/open-ended activities for them to construct knowledge and understanding - Her idea allows the development of such skills - Transportation skills in big urban cities create opportunities to discuss cost-effective operations, business opportunities to expand the coffee cart.

What do you like about the lesson?

I like how Sadie creates opportunities for her students to experience hands-on activities in real-life contexts to enhance their understanding of concepts and ideas. I love how she sees so much potential in her students despite their disabilities. Seeing how supportive her school leader and colleagues were to the idea, make it so much motivating for her students to widen their potentials.

Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

Strengthen their intrapersonal qualities by allowing them to experience different perspectives through swapping job scope.

Then move on to strengthening their interpersonal qualities by allowing them to recruit new members and upgrade their management skills.

Once they can manage these qualities, she can even discuss business opportunities.

Most importantly is to build self-confidence in these students. Build their character to be resilient so that they have tenacity in the face of any adversity.

Daily reflections will be good for their intrapersonal development. This will also help to develop their language which plays a central role in mental development.

She has a good relationship with her student's families. An ongoing exchange of student's feedback on regular basis must have inevitably contributed to the trusted relationship. From here, she could pick up feedbacks on how her lessons could have possibly impacted her pupils and their feelings from their parents. This could provide more guidance for her lesson planning.

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As a whole video, the teacher, Ms Sadie Guthrie, has really gone out of her way to allow and to give her students so many opportunities to grow within curriculum and out of curriculum context. She has used many of the constructivist principles within class and out of class initiative.

For curriculum lessons, she has used the 2 nd principle of having developmentally appropriate lessons for her students according to the stages of their development. She has stated that she individualises her lessons to every of her students even after having them spread into 3 different grades within the school.

To deliberately have students to interact and socialise she started her initiative of Coffee Cart, which showcases principles 1, and 3-8. Coffee Cart is a good activity and initiative that showcases an active learning process where students continue learning in class topics out of classroom. Using prior knowledge already learnt in class about maths, monetary transactions, and language. Using this Coffee Cart as a form of intellectually challenging activity as students now get real world experience to interact with many different groups of people by conversing to collect orders, conversing with the different roles of the students within the Coffee Cart and even conversing with suppliers on top of just conversing with classmates, schoolmates, class teacher and family members. Having given the students different roles, barista, cashier, taking orders, pouring the coffee, serving the teachers, these creates schemas for the students that in this role, this is what is needed. Coffee Cart is also a physical and open-ended activity that provides the students to learn a whole variety of concepts and knowledge like, travelling to converse and collect goods from suppliers, sense of responsibility, the whole idea and concept of running a mobile coffee cart and bring out the knowledge of Maths from classroom knowledge to abstract use in the real world.

What I really like about this lesson is that the students are given opportunities to showcase what they can do. Showcasing their strengths, the focus of the whole lesson and initiative is what they have and are good at and not what they are diagnosed with. From a simple community initiative of, Coffee Cart, the students can learn so many things which would allow them to be more prepared to live independently.

Just 3 suggestions that I would make.

Firstly, is to allow the students time to really reflect upon their experiences, think about what they are going through, why they are doing this, the bigger picture and idea of the initiative, how they have done on a daily or weekly basis and give them the opportunity to give ideas or suggestions on improvements of Coffee Cart to allow them to regulate their thoughts.

Secondly, challenge their schemas more by rotating their roles. Allowing them different experiences of the different roles which, in terms of the bigger picture, prepares them more for the adult world where they will have attained skills from this experience. Not so much only the soft or hard skills but the meta skills, the thought process of the different roles.

Thirdly, that this initiative be a self-sustaining, continuous program from batch to batch. Allowing these current batch of students to be the ones to teach the new batch taking over them. And grow this initiative. It provides opportunities for the students; it gives the much needed coffee and breakfast for teachers and it makes the students have this feel good factor that will boost their confidence.

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Constructivist Principles used by the teacher:

1) Active learning approach – Apart from the normal classroom teaching context, the teacher introduced the coffee cart initiative which was an opportunity for active learning for the students as they are directly involved in this initiative and through this, they are able to learn many values such as responsibility and independence.

2) Opportunities for social interactions – Through this coffee cart initiative, students are given the opportunity to interact with many adults such as the principal, other teachers and the local baker. This was a good way for them to build on their language skills which will in turn boost their self-confidence.

3) Develops schema - The teacher broke down the entire process of this initiative on the whiteboard and specifically stated the roles of each student. This allowed the students to understand the entire process of the initiative.

4) Differentiated needs approach – As the class consists of students from different grade levels, the teacher has to analyse the needs of each child before assigning him a role.

5) Hands-on practice – The teacher brought the students out to experience the real life world to better prepared them for the coffee cart initiative. They got to take the public transport, they visited the bakery and collected their orders.

6) Close guidance and scaffolding – At every stage of the coffee cart initiative, the teacher was with the students guiding them closely and providing the necessary support that they needed.

What I like about the lesson:

I like how the teacher decided to expand the teaching beyond the classroom context. This experience would have been a good one for the students as they would have picked some very important life skills such as independence and responsibility.

Moreover, I feel that the teacher’s main purpose of the coffee cart initiative was to include special needs children as part of the society and I am sure she was able to achieve this goal as evident by the various good conversations that the other adults had with these students and with the fact that the other adults knew the names of these students by the end of the year.

I also liked how these students, despite their learning needs were able to be part of this initiative and were happy to be able to do this.

Suggestions for the teacher:

I feel that since this coffee cart initiative was well-received in school, the teacher can consider expanding it beyond school (probably to parents for a start whereby parents can be provided the opportunities to buy at this cart in the mornings and evenings when they send and fetch their children to school).

In the long run, the teacher can consider opening this up to the society.

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Active Process
Setting up a Coffee Cart allows the students to learn beyond the normal curriculum and it helps to instill life skills and values. The teacher facilitates the activity by explaining to the students the What, Who And How.

Developmentally appropriate
As she had a class of three different grade levels, the job scope for each students was carefully chosen to match the students’ ability.

Build schemas
The Teacher broke down the entire activity on the board for students to understand the whole process. This helped them organize their thoughts and understand the activity better.

Disequilibrium
Running a business is a new experience thus it disrupts their schema and helps build new schemas through their new experience of making coffee, taking orders and making sales and socializing.

Experiential, hands-on activities Students had to travel to by public transport, visit the local bakery and learn how to set up their Coffee Cart.

Social experiences and interactions
Students have to interact with their Teachers, Principals, the Local Bakery help build social experiences and it teaches them responsibility, independents and being polite.

Developing higher level thinking skills
and intellectually challenging activities
Learning to travel, communicating with Teachers that they normally don’t interact and strangers help develop their ability to develop higher order thinking as they need to step out of their comfort zone.

Develop their language
Teachers having casual conversations, jokes and asking simple questions help build their confidence in their language skills.

What I liked about this lesson
A simple activity like this teaches them life skills and values. The students take ownership, learn responsibility and be more confidence.
The support of the school and the community is also applaudable.

Suggestions
They can slowly build on this cart by adding on more varieties of food and drinks. Conduct workshops/training to build on their existing schema.

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Apart from looking at the student’s development from a curriculum aspect, the teacher also assesses her student’s development in a holistic approach when designing activities according to their grade levels. She thought about planning for her student’s development after they finish this portion of their educational journey and move on to the next phase, be it in high school or other institutions. That was where she implemented the coffee cart activity.

The teacher made l earning an active process, learning about roles and responsibilities of running a coffee cart. The teacher integrated role-playing and student centred planning where all of them are deployed to a certain role within the coffee cart and have to carry out the specified jobs necessary.

She also arranged concrete experiences & built on schemas on the processes of running a coffee cart. For example, taking transportation and developing their navigation skills to get around using public transport to their destination, acquiring goods needed from other vendors to work on their communication skills in talking to other people to reach an objective. They also have a hand in preparing and packing the products that they are selling which works on their planning and organisational skills. These skills are easily transferable to different aspects of their lives which they can implement in the future because of the skills they have learnt.

A large portion of what the teacher implemented relied upon arranging for social interactions. The students are tasked to work together in groups and learn about each other’s roles such that they’re able to function as a group to achieve their goals. They recognise that the different roles within a group are important and working together effectively was important. The students also have to interact with outsiders such as the vendors to acquire the baked goods and the other teachers. Through facilitation, the students gained confidence in their social interactions with strangers.

What I liked about her activities is that it encourages the students to develop a higher level of independence. From learning soft skills of communication, teamwork and planning to concrete skills such as preparation of food and drinks, note taking, handling money. This student centred activity gives the students a sense of autonomy over their activities and makes them feel appreciated and accepted within the school community.

To further expand the coffee cart activity, the teacher could possibly involve the whole classroom instead of a select few such that everyone gets the chance to have a hand in the process. To segment the class into groups that do the preparation and acquisition of baked goods and drinks, another group prepares the items to be sold and another to push the carts to then sell the items to the teachers. They could also have a weekly rotation of the roles that each group has to ensure a fair exposure to all of the students.

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a) What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

The teacher used:
constructivist principle i)
-The teacher set up the 'coffee cart' programme for her students to explore respective roles as they ran the mobile cafe and discovered their individual capabilities as they performed their assigned roles. The teacher provided opportunities for the students to learn transportation skills while taking public transport and communication skills as they requested for bakes at the bakery and taking orders to prepare drinks and food.
constructivist principle ii)
-As middle schoolers, the students are supposedly at the Formal Operations stage (Age 11 to Adult)who can think abstractly, systematically and hypothetically. The teacher assigned developmentally appropriate roles such as barista, asking the teachers if they want coffee, cashiering and pouring coffee. They can systematically learn the steps for each role so as to learn functional skills and build their confidence.
constructivist principle iii)
-The teacher brought the students to the bakery to have an experience of requesting for the bakes to build their schemas of requesting for food. The teacher brought the students through the expectations of different roles .
constructivist principle iv)
-The teacher built on their prior knowledge based based on their experiences at the bakery; of how to request for bakes by observing or experiencing a request made at a bakery, and guiding them in small groups for various roles before running the mobile cafe (for instance, each student takes a cup to prepare for role-play).
constructivist principle v)
-Based on similar cafe culture of the Americans, the 'coffee cart' programme provided an authentic context for the students to prepare and sell drinks and pastries.
constructivist principle vi)
-The teacher planned opportunities for the students to interact with the staff at the bakery (safe strangers outside of their school community) and various staff members of the school (a teacher is the "lemon bar girl" who orders lemon bars). The student made a request to collect the bakes from the staff at the bakery shop. The students prepared drinks and pastries, collected money based on their practice from respective roles. The staff in the school took efforts to communicate with the students and learned about the abilities and personalities.
constructivist principle vii)
-The teacher planned opportunities for intellectually challenging activities by encouraging the students to communicate with the staff at the bakery so as to fulfill the objective of getting the bakes. One staff member asked a student to guess why she ordered two pastries.
constructivist principle viii)
-Prior to the actual experience, the teacher explained the purpose of the 'coffee cart' programme and requirements of the various roles. The teacher also planned for the students to utilise and develop language by communicating with the staff at the bakery so as to fulfil the purpose of getting the bakes. The staff of the school engaged the students through communication by asking how their day was and asking one student who he thinks the recipients of the two pastries were for.

b)What do you like about the lesson?
Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?
-The part of the lesson that i like is when i observed how the students served drinks and pastries confidently to the various staff of the school and how the staff engaged them positively by asking them questions and complimenting them.

-The teacher could provide time for the students to reflect on their experiences in a more structured manner to help them be aware of their personal strengths/ abilities or what they discovered about themselves.

Furthermore, as the students have built their confidence in preparing and selling drinks and pastries, the teacher could provide opportunities for them to plan and sell other types of drinks and pastries with non-SEN students so as to promote disequilibrium and build on their current knowledge and understanding of preparing and selling them within the school to further build inclusivity in a safe environment. These students could also teach the non SEN students the steps of preparing certain drinks and/or pastries that they had previously learned from the teacher.

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What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

Some constructivist principles I have identified are that learning is an active process, lessons are developmentally appropriate, there is development of language and there are experiential, hands-on activities as students are practicing their skills learnt in a ‘real’ context.

The teacher first teaches them the skills they need to know such as the responsibilities of being a greeter, cashier and barista. They are taught the functions of each role and how to fulfil the role. Then, the teacher teaches them daily living skills such as how to cross roads, take public transport, how to interact with strangers and make orders at a coffee shop. They later get to go around the school to deliver the orders to the teachers. Throughout this process, the students get to learn functional skills and practice them in authentic settings (i.e. in public). They get to have social interactions with members of the public and teachers in the school to practice their social skills and language skills. Through this process, the students are able to move from the zone of proximal development when they are guided by their teacher to independent performance when they can practice these skills on their own.

What do you like about the lesson? Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

I like that the lesson teaches skills that the students can use to achieve a higher level of independence. Learning daily living skills and adaptive skills such as how to cross a road, take public transport and how to order food are important life skills. These skills help the students fulfil the learning objective of this lesson, but also teaches them skills to help them in their everyday lives. Learning occurs in in the social context that the students will practice them in the future. They practice these adaptive skills in the authentic community setting which will allow the students to make meaning of the knowledge acquired. The students can get a sense of accomplishment knowing that have successfully practiced these skills in the community. It is also encouraging that this lesson has helped other members of the community realise the capabilities of these students.

I would suggest allowing the students to learn other roles within this lesson too, so that all of them can learn how to do cashiering, how to be a barista and how to be a greeter. Afterwards, they can set up a schedule within the class so they can rotate who plays each role. This will give the students opportunity to practice more skillsets, have autonomy in deciding when to practice each role, and practice the skill of taking turns.

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The Constructivist Principle used by the teacher is almost all. The coffee cart idea was brought to life thus there is active learning in process as its hands on life lesson.  This coffee cart idea when the teacher introduced was planned out on the whiteboard with different colour markers and categories, explaining the process and logistic needed. This build schema and the teacher took note of their stages of development prior designing the activity when they first started it.

The students have to make coffee, collect bakery from the store, take the transport and sell them. This process shows real life context where there is physical and concrete experiences.

Different roles were taken by different students, there is cashier, barista and greeter. This experience actually disrupt the schema when they took on the roles and students will also be able to develop their language as they are have to talk to the teachers in school and strangers in public. This social interactions that the teacher had created for the students allow them to step out their comfort zone and create rapport with other members of the staff.

What I like most about the lesson is that they are able to make coffee cart experience a real authentic experience. This is actually beneficial as they have first hand experience in working in a coffee cart. They understood the process from getting the supplies, the journey to get the there to taking orders and selling them. This experience will actually help them for life after school.

Suggestions I would introduce is to provide feedback forms for the customers to write their feedbacks down. Both positive and need to improve on are welcome. This will allow more growth in learning. Thus the teacher can then explain and share the learning experience. Another suggestion would be taking it up a notch to change the experience by selling it to a bigger crowd. This will be a new challenge for the students but will allow them to disrupt the new formed schema.

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a)

Principles 1: Learning should be active process

The entire Coffee Cart initiative is an active learning process for the students. Students take on different roles like greeter, barista and cashier and learn new skills and knowledge through their experience.

Principles 2: Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum

Teacher assigned appropriate jobs to each students based on their capabilities and strength or areas that need development. Assigned task that is not overly challenging but something that the student can manage with some help from teacher.

Principles 3: Build schemas, Principles 4: Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences, Principle 7: Develop higher level thinking skills

By doing new things like communicating with strangers, interacting with other members of the school, selling coffee and baked goods and taking public buses, students are constructing new knowledge or schemas. Along the way when they encounter problem, they will need to think of solution, perhaps guided by teacher.

Principles 5: Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations

Students have hands-on activities of selling coffee and baked goods, dealing with real situation of interacting with people and taking public buses.

Principles 6: Arrange for social experiences and interactions

Students work in groups, some same role some different. They can help each other and learn from each other.

Principles 8: Develop open-ended activities for them to construct knowledge and understanding

Students interact freely with people in school and in the neighbourhood.

Principles 9: Develop their language

Teacher taught student how to greet customer and how to introduce themselves and request for the baked goods. This develops their language skills

Principles 10: Provide time to reflect on experiences

Not sure whether the teacher used this principle

b) Not only did students gained important life skills and knowledge, they gained acceptance and a sense of belonging to the school as well as the community. Teacher has done a fantastic job in educating her students.

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Some constructivist principles:

Active Learning

An activity called “coffee cart” was created by the teacher. The students learned values such as “responsibility” and “independence”. This is also done 2 times a week to give them the real-life experiential feeling to the students. Students get more opportunities to become active contributing members and be part of the greater school community.

Stages of development

The students are from different levels and therefore planning is done individually. There are different roles such as order taker, barista, cashier, and serving the coffee. The teacher had close bonding with the family of these kids and thus the teacher can apply differentiated learning for everyone.

Build Schemas

The teacher explains the schemas by elaborating in an overall view why they are actually doing the activity. The students were also briefed on their individual roles. This activity is done to learn the job and functional skills. They were also able to build on social interactions through communication when they are talking to other teachers and peers from the school. These skills will come in handy after they have graduated from high school.

Build on Prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences

The students interacted with the staff from the local bakery when collecting their baked goods. This interaction gives them an insight into how it will feel when they will interact with their own customers. It also gives a chance to pick up new skills. They were also able to show other students on the campus what they are truly capable of.

The students also learned that the “coffee cart” does not only need to serve coffee but food as well and they were able to interact with their teachers/ remember their favorite food.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop an understanding of abstract concepts and operations

The activity the teacher drafted was indeed unique and an authentic task for her class. The end goal was to make every student feel accepted and have the chance to explore beyond the classroom.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions – to talk about what they learnt; test schemas, help each other understand

Initially, the teacher had difficulty talking to the students without knowing them but after this activity, the other teachers knew the names of the students, strengths, and likes.

What did I like about the lesson?

I felt that the teacher was very optimistic. She had a growth mindset. She was also very clear about the end in mind, where she wanted her students to participate actively, enjoy themselves, and also succeed in performing their individual duties. She also wanted them to be accepted by other students on campus.

Suggestions

·  The teacher can tie in with other organizations/businesses outside school and organize a real attachment to give the students more exposure.

· Training/ talks can be arranged by the school for the students to be able to deal with difficult or different situations that might arise.

·  Students should also collaborate among themselves to give feedback/ do self-reflection and journaling. They should share their experiences and learn from one another.

· The schedules can be done by the students themselves (allows them to take ownership) and exchange their roles through experiential learning.

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Constructivist Principles used by the teacher were:

Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people)

The Special Ed teacher, Ms Sadie, came out with an interesting hands-on activity for her special ed students to expose them to real-life experience. Ms Sadie, created Coffee Cart activity in school which involved the students to go out for a short learning journey to collect baked goods from a nearby bakery store.

Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities

The teacher planned the activity according to the students’ need and level. Ms Sadie knows her students strength and capabilities prior to designing Coffee Cart. She assigned the job to the students according to their capabilities.

Build schemas – help them organise their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemes

Before the students carried out their role, Ms Sadie wrote down the Job title and the description of each job scope on the whiteboard to explain to the students. This gives the students a clear and comprehensive understanding of every role and make it easy for them to carry out their duties.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions

This learning journey teaches the students to be out to the actual community, imparting the transportation skills by taking public transportation and have social interaction with strangers. It also helps to show people what the students are capable of doing.

What do I like about the lesson?

I like about the lesson as it is an out of classroom activities that gives a real-life experience to the students. Such activity help to show case the students’ capabilities and boost their confidence. For example, the students had the opportunity to socialise and interact with their peers and teachers during the Coffee Cart activity, which they have difficulties communicating initially. They will surely discover more about themselves and pick up new skills along the way. From this experience, the students will be able to apply the skills they learnt in the future after they have graduated.

My suggestion is…

To have a verbal reflection from the students to share on their feelings on the Coffee Cart activity that they had participated. This will help them to reflect on their own thinking.

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The constructivist principles observed bring used by the teacher are as follows;

Learning should be an active process..
The "Coffee Cart" initiative is by nature an experiential activity that allows the students to discover  new concepts, perspectives and ideas by allowing them to partake in 'commerce'. By running this activity in a 'closed' school environment it gives the students full opportunity to explore being involved as an important part of a greater school community.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract/concrete concepts and operations.
By linking up with a local bakery for their source, the students gained the opportunity to experience real life concepts to understand that what they are doing is a legitimate job skill. Most of the students were hesitant because they did not get the purpose of setting up the "Coffee Cart".

Through this process of commerce, the students get to learn about logistics, transportation skills, functional skills and responsibility. They also get the opportunity to socialize with the general public.

Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences.
The students are allowed to interact with the local bakery and customers and process 'sales'. This taps into their knowledge and experience on commercial exchanges. It give them the opportunity to build and rebuild relationships with their customers. They also get to learn, unlearn and relearn how they perform their roles.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions - to talk about what they have learnt, test schemes and help each other understand.
It was mentioned that Ms Guthrie's students were only recognized as just Students with Special Needs at the start of the year. With the "Coffee Cart" project the students involved are now well known by the faculty. The teachers know their individual names and personalities. The students feel a greater sense of community and self esteem. The frequent exchanges with teachers may have taught them social banter and ready them to interact with the world outside school.

What did I like about the lesson and if I have any suggestion to the teacher?
I like the fact that this project somewhat readies the students involved with the knowledge and a scheme of how things work outside school. I shows them a glimpse the world they are going to graduate to.

I would suggest the lesson should be an ongoing initiative. Allow a blend of students to participate, expanding the social component allowing students to interact and develop. As they progress, incorporating a deeper financial aspect will allow students to experience and appreciate actual commerce, thus presenting opportunities to disrupt their schema of a 'safe' project forcing them to adapt to difficulties.

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Learning should be an active process

The teacher seemed to have planned her program to be a socially mediated process to help the students be more knowledgeable members of society. Through daily interactions, students built upon their knowledge constantly as learning becomes a dynamic rather than passive process. Learning goals are long ranged beyond the grade for the rest of their life.

Assess stages of development prior when designing activities and choosing content / curriculum

There were 3 grade levels within the SEN classes. And planning is individualized for each of those students. Learning for students seem to be scaffolded, from heavily guided learning of simple content in class, to actual cashiering at the kiosk where the learning becomes less teacher centered. Hence there seems to be developmentally appropriate planning and execution in this program.

Arrange physical and concrete experiences

The program put into practice the life skills they had learnt. The concepts they learnt could be implemented through authentic hands-on learning (authentic context).

Arrange for social experiences and interactions

Every aspect of the program had to be implemented by the students and allowed them to learn real experiences in the community, from transportation to procurement and interacting with strangers. It is actual world learning. The program also allowed students to interact with their peers and others typically outside their circle. It allowed them to interact with the community rather than isolate them. The school population could also see them regularly and get to know them. Through such social interactions, this allowed every single person in school to learn about each other. The program served as a common ground for everyone to have opportunities to connect.

It is aligned with a community approach where every child has belonging. Using social factors to contribute to cognitive development, the students could learn job skills and independence (functional skills), and social interactions themselves form guided learning.

Develop their language

The students build upon their knowledge through action oriented and cooperative learning. Students construct knowledge and independently apply their learning through real-world application.

What I liked

The program is very student centered. The teacher’ helped to give the students more opportunity to be part of the greater school community. The teacher’s passion is commendable is striving to improve general perception of people with SEN. Her determination to convince faculty past their apprehension made it possible for the children to feel special in school. Every child had the opportunity for more people to get to know their personalities. She focused on the possibilities rather than the difficulties.

The students seem genuinely happy in school, and it is evident they were proud of their job within the program, and being productive and contributing members in the school.

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What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

1. Active learning
Students actively participate in the execution of the coffee cart project. This includes planning, travelling to collect goods, interacting and serving customers. Roles have been divided equally to each individual student.

2. Assess their stages of development
In the video, Sadie mentioned that in her class she typically has students from 3 different grade levels. She planned her curriculum accordingly for each individual student. On top of that, she assigned an appropriate role for each student for the execution of the coffee cart project.

3 & 4. Build/disrupt schemas
Being 'on the job', the students will also be constantly upholding the expectations of their role. The coffee cart project is an activity that allows a lot of interaction (with facilitation). Through the many interactions and changes of the environment when they step outside of school, they are constantly being taught new ideas that may lead to a sense of disequilibrium.

5. Physical, concrete experiences & Develop open-ended activities
The entire project allows the students to experience first-hand running something. They are also allowed to travel outside of school, enter a new environment (bakery). While they uphold a role, they are to complete the tasks mostly on their own (albeit with some prompts/facilitation). Being outside of school, they are exposed to various factors that can happen unexpectedly as it is an uncontrolled environment.

6. Social experiences & develop their language
The students get to interact with various people such as teachers and the staff at the bakery. This helps a lot with practice in articulating their knowledge into words.

7. Develop their higher level thinking skills
Sadie mentioned that in the beginning, the students were hesitant to start on the project as they could not understand the objective behind it. With time and further explanation, Sadie managed to encourage them into bringing the project to life.

What do you like about the lesson? Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

I like how passionate Sadie is. It is evident that she thoroughly went through planning with the many stakeholders such as parents and other teachers of the school. Her energy and motivation are a good influence on everyone, including the students.

As for suggestions, perhaps a way to step up the project is to have the coffee cart happen during particular school events where other sets of people could be the customers.

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The constructivist principles that were used by the teachers are listed below.

i) Learning an Active Process
The Coffee Cart activity has actively engaged students to be participants of the school community and beyond. The Coffee Cart activity allows students to pick up life skills, functional skills as well as soft skills - communication and social skills. On top of these skills, they gain confidence and independence that would help them as they progress beyond school. Students are part of the learning process and have a shared purpose and responsibility in what they are doing.

ii) Assess on Development
In the video, Ms Guthrie mentioned that she has three different grade levels and has to plan for each student within those levels. There is no one size fits all curriculum for Ms Guthrie. She has to plan activities based on each students progress/abilities as their level of understanding and learning are different.

iii) Arrange Physical Experience
The students learn to about the different job roles and what they do. From this, they are able to apply what they learn through physical interaction with others. They learn to make coffee, learn about money as well as how to serve others. Part of the Coffee Cart experience allowed students to venture out and navigate into the city and learn about transportation and road safety rules - e.g. how to cross the road

iv) Arrange for Social Experience
The mobile Coffee Cart has definitely amplified students' social experience. It was difficult for Ms Guthrie students to interact with others due to not having common ground. Hence, through this activity, her students are able to have meaningful conversations with teachers and staff in the school. The social interactions have also equipped students with knowledge about what certain teachers prefer - for example in the video, one student passes the box of creamer and sugar to the teacher. Communication with peers have also strengthened as they work together to make sure that everyone does their 'job'. This increases their confidence and feel that what they are doing is important for the school community.

What I like about the lesson?
I like that the Coffee Cart enables students with special needs to interact and be part of the school community. Ms Guthrie prepares her students for the world beyond classroom teaching by teaching them values and skills. Her students are feel included and are confident. They enjoy what they do, which can motivate them to do better. This activity empowers her students to take charge of their own learning.

Suggestions for the teacher?
I would like to suggest for her students to interact with other students - not just those from her classroom. They can learn to socialise and interact with peers from other classes in implementing this Coffee Cart idea. Ms Guthrie should also allow her students to reflect - what they have done well and what they can do better.

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Learning should be active process..
The teacher started this coffee cart to get her pupils involve and give the students opportunity to become the greater part of the school community. They were hesitant but after the teacher explained that they were learning job skills, independence, responsibilities and all the functional skills, being a part of the community, it starts to click for them.

Assess and take note of their stage of development..
Her students were in different grade level. She has to plan for each child. Each student has a role to play. She tried to cater to their needs and level. Get them to look beyond the classroom and the future.

Build Schemas..
She wrote on the board what each job is like so the students know what is expected of them. Clear instructions for them with step by step guidance.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions..
Students had the chance to have social interaction with strangers, safe strangers when they went to the bakery stall to purchase baked goods for their coffee cart. They get to socialize with people and have a conversation with them. In school, as the coffee cart is mobile, they get to interact with the different teachers in school and even their principal.

I like how the lesson goes beyond the classroom. They did not shy away from the school community even though they know that they are different. The coffee cart makes them feel important as they are the only ones doing it in school. Like what the principal said it is important to ensure that every child feels accepted, that they belong and that they have a place. My suggestion is that they can set up a coffee cart outside their school. It will give them real life experiences.

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Constructivist Principles that I observed:

Learning should be active process…

Ms Guthrie gave her students the scope to explore by getting them to start on the coffee cart project. Her pupils were initially hesitant till they realised the purpose behind it. She explained to them that they will be learning job skills, independence and responsibility through this project which is a great way to connect the purpose to the real world.

Assess and take note of their stages of development…

Ms Guthrie mentioned that she has students in three different grade levels and within these levels she has to plan for each child. Thus, her planning and milestones set for each child will be different and specific. She has different goals for different students which would naturally require her to take note of their stages of development.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) …

She gives ample physical, concrete experiences for these students such as:

selling coffee to the teachers

interacting with teachers and also the workers at the bakery

learning transportation skills by going out and taking the bus to the bakery

giving each child a role in the coffee cart project (e.g. barista, cashier etc.)

Arrange for social experiences and interactions…

By pushing the coffee cart around the school and selling coffee to the teachers/staff, they get the opportunity to interact with people. And since they are moving around in a group and working together, they learn to help each other out. In the video you can hear them reminding each other about what they should do (Jacky emphasising to Wedad to give the teacher two more brownies).

What I like & my suggestions:

I like the confidence this project brings out in each of the child. It gives them a sense of the real world and has a purpose behind it. The whole concept of teaching them life skills and making them feel a part of the school community gives these children motivation and a sense of belonging.

Instead of just having the coffee cart project within the school boundaries, Ms Guthrie can plan on having it done out of the school on certain occasions. This can give them a proper real world experience. By doing so, this would also develop higher level thinking skills in these children and challenge them to step beyond their comfort zone.

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Below are the constructivist principles that I observed being used by the teacher in the video:

Learning should be an active process. Arrange physical, concrete experiences to understand abstract concepts.
The teacher created the 'Coffee Cart' to allow her students to be actively involved in school and the community.  This happens twice a week and it created opportunities for her students to explore and experience real-world situations and settings. People usually learn best when their five senses are involved.

Access and take note of their stages of development and prior knowledge
The teacher know her students’ abilities and assigned tasks that they can accomplish.

Build Schemas
Job scopes were written on the board with descriptions and definitions for each role. With that, students understood their roles and was more confident to take up the tasks assigned.

Build on prior knowledge & disrupt schemas
Students were brought out to the public community to collect baked goods. They learn that 'Coffee Cart' does not only involve coffee, but food as well. Also, students learn to socialise and create appropriate conversations while serving their customers. This is essential especially  in social settings.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions
The teacher realised that it is not easy to communicate with her students without having a common ground. WIth "Coffee Cart', students are able to create meaningful conversations and reflections with others and also one another. They also learn about customers' preferences and favourites.

What I like about the lesson:
The teacher helped motivate her students by building their confidence and feel a sense of belonging in the school and also community, despite being different from the rest. It also made them feel important as their customers looked forward to the cart coming to them.  Others, especially teachers and staffs learnt more about the students and their abilities, that could be kept hidden without the introduction of 'Coffee Cart'. With repetitive practice on social and interactive skills, it opens the door to the real-world and the students will be able to be independent adults in the future.

Suggestions:
The 'Coffee Cart' can be taken up to another level; school-wide. Students can open up their cart during break/recess periods so they can socialize and communicate with other students and vice versa. The teacher can also involve real money as payment so her students can learn to receive money, calculate and return the correct change. The teacher can also rotate the roles so that each student gets to gain experience on different roles and not get too comfortable with just one role.

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1) Constructivist principles used by the teacher:

- Assess stages of development
The teacher customized her lessons for the students based on their grade levels.

- Arrange for social experiences and interactions
The teacher provided opportunities for social interactions by introducing the coffee cart concept and also gave the students opportunities to integrate into the school community and subsequently into the actual community.

- Physical and concrete experiences
The coffee cart concept gives the students "real-life" experience.

- Develops language
By giving the students opportunities to communicate with different people, the students get a chance to improve their language.

- Build schemas
The teacher allocated the students job responsibilities based on their strengths.

2) I like how the teacher empowered her students in their learning. She has tapped on their strengths and given them opportunities to learn. This will also boost their self-confidence and self-esteem.

3) The lesson could have incorporated the feedback from the students and let them reflect on their experiences. The lesson could also have addressed the negative feedback and guide students on how to deal with such feedback.

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A)Constructivist principles used by the teacher:

Learning by active process

She connected the students with a common goal of setting up “Coffee Cart” and involved the students in the planning and execution of running this project. Students are able to explore ideas, discover new ideas as a team.

Assess stages of development

In the start of the video, it was mentioned that there are 3 different grade levels and she has to plan for each level accordingly. The different roles assigned to the individual students is likely according to their developmental levels and suitability. The roles included order taking, cashier, barista and coffee pouring.

Physical and concrete experiences (real)

Starting “Coffee Cart” that involves pushing the cart to “sell” their product, order taking, collecting money, coffee preparation and serving of coffee (pouring) are all  hands on activities for the students in real time.

Social Experience & Interactions

Bringing the students out to the actual community from taking the bus to crossing the roads to speaking to “safe strangers” and articulating their purpose at the bakery are all social experiences and interactions.

Within the school community, the students are also provided with the opportunities to  interact with the other school members with their Coffee Cart service. This gives the students a safe space to practice and express themselves in a social context.

Develop Language (access to knowledge, tools to think about the world, problem solving)

The journey from leaving the school to taking the public transport to the bakery teaches students about safety do’s and don’t’s, public transport (bus) etiquette and communication with safe strangers.

B) What I like about the lesson:

I like how this lesson empowers the students to go beyond their otherwise perceived limitations. This lesson builds positive social skills and also boost their confidence level with the awareness that they can be as productive when given the right opportunities.

Suggestions: Perhaps taught but not shown in this video. I would share the flip side of a positive experience via role play in the class and provide explicit ways to handle negative experiences.  Example, if a “customer” is impolite or ignores you. This is to prepare the students to manage such scenarios out there in future. (Linking this to Piaget’s cognitive theory on equilibration).

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What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

Some notable constructive principles used by the teacher was:

a)       Active learning. The teacher creates an activity that is to sell coffee to teachers and staff from their coffee cart. The student participates and interacts in the learning processes to teach values like responsibility, independence, and politeness.

b)      Assess their stages of development. The teacher mentioned that every student in her class has a different level of learning and understanding.  So, the teacher would apply differentiated learning to support everyone.

c)       The teacher develops the schemas by classifying and elaborate on each role during the activity. She would use visual aid on the job role and their descriptions. She also assigns each student to each role-play needed during the activity.

d)      The teacher arranges physical interaction for the student. They can experience and develop an understanding of responsibility, independence, and politeness. They learned how to work as a team to complete an order from a teacher that purchases a coffee.

e)      The teacher's other purpose is to create social experiences and interactions when performing the activity in the school. The teachers and staff can interact with them. This makes the students feel confident and satisfied to be a part of the school community.

What do you like about the lesson? Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

I like how a simple activity of selling coffee from the cart would create many learning opportunities for the student with special education needs. She can teach concepts like responsibilities, politeness, and independence. I think the teacher's purpose is to expose the students. And get them to feel that they can be part of society by interacting with other teachers and taking the bus down to the baker shop to purchase the order.

It is great to see them able to enjoy themselves doing these activities. I believe the intention was to teach the students values and assimilate them into the community. One suggestion is that she could arrange for the students to work with the local baker. The students will have more interaction with people and experience society.

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a) These are the constructivist principles used by the teacher:-
* Build Schemas:  Teacher scaffold the students by writing on the whiteboard the student's responsibilities, job scope and overall picture what are they going to do.  Hence this help them to organized and prepared for their mental what they will be doing.

*Arrange physical experience: Teacher and student went to the bakery by public transport and the student order the food by himself. Hence teacher emphasizing on bringing education to life and teach independence and confidence to the student.

*Learning should be active process: The student saw how the bakery shop runs briefly.  Teacher then make the learning active as she gave this students the opportunity to do the same thing by selling coffee to the staff in school. Hence, this allow student to feel that they can also contribute, feel accepted and important to society as well.

b) If I am the student, I would love to have this kind of lesson where the teacher involves hand-on session. She also able to manage many students with special needs at one time. However in Singapore context, an inclusive culture would be great meaning involves non special needs students to collaborate with special needs students especially in mainstream school.

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Constructivist Principles used by teacher:
1. Learning should be active process: Through the process of eliciting inputs from the students, the teacher presented the coffee cart idea explicitly on the whiteboard. Together, they co-created the coffee cart details.

2. Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate: the teacher was aware of the different grade levels of her students, so she planned and assigned specific roles to match the students’ levels e.g., Nathan served coffee to the school personnel while Wedad was in-charged of asking school personnel if they wanted coffee.

3. Build schemas: the coffee cart facilitated interactions with different school personnel and provided students with information of their choices of bakery e.g. the student associated Teacher #2 as the lemon bar girl and they were informed by the Principal that her favourite bakery was scones.

4. Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences: the coffee cart experience helped the students appreciate what it meant to be part of the school community and challenged the students to interact with the ‘real’ community when they stepped out of school to take the public transport to collect the bakery. On another occasion, when Teacher #2 asked for 2 more brownies, the students learnt that the brownies were not limited to school personnel only, teachers could share the bakery with their families, in this case Teacher 2’s kids.

5. Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context: the teacher created excellent opportunities for her students to practice job skills and apply character values taught in the classroom as they carried out their assigned roles diligently. Taking public transport becomes part of the coffee cart routines and it certainly boost the students’ confidence in their transportation skills.

6. Arrange for social experiences and interactions – test schemes: Student Nathan, was able to remember and articulate his request for the baked goods politely and clearly from one of the staff in the bakery (someone outside school context). The affirming responds from the staff proved that the way he present his request was correct and acceptable.

7. Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities: Teacher Sadie shared that the students were hesitant in the beginning when she put across the coffee cart idea to them. The coffee cart moved them out of their comfort zone. It deliberately created opportunities for the students to initiate interactions with many different school personnel (the students were seen to approach the adult) as well as strangers (safe strangers) in the community. The students would never had imagined that they could accomplish such tasks but Teacher Sadie carefully curated their roles to help them overcome their initial fear with joy. Consequently, the students appreciated the privilege to be chosen to serve the school community.

8. Develop open-ended activities for them to construct knowledge and understanding: the coffee cart prepared the students for future employment after graduation from Lawton Middle School. The coffee cart is somewhat similar to 'learn through play' as students carried out their roles to explore and develop relevant skills and knowledge to accomplish the tasks satisfactory.

9. Develop their language (this provides access to knowledge, tools to think about the world and solve problems, means to regulate and reflect on their own thinking): according to Teacher Sadie’s sharing, it seemed like the students had encountered unpleasant comments from others however, the rich verbal interactions between different school personnel and bakery staff, disputed the 'lies' made by others and propelled the students to move forward with dignity. I believed it was through thoughtful trainings that student Nathan was able to clearly and confidently articulate the request for the baked goods from one of the staff in the bakery.

What I like about the lesson:
I like the fact that the teacher began the coffee cart with the end in mind. She wondered what was next for her students after they graduated from school. She was concerned with their lives after they successfully complete their educational journeys. It seemed liked she desired that her students remained active in the community and be valued in the society. Therefore, she intentionally created opportunities for her students to practise values in actions, communication skills, transportation skills and different job skills in a safe environment. She was aware of how her students learnt well and best - that was through practising. Teacher Sadie was aware of her students’ abilities and curated specific roles to build on their strengths and maximise their potentials. She presented the tasks explicitly on the whiteboard to guide students' understandings of the expectations of their roles. The coffee cart was an excellent concrete way for the students to build on their self-confidence, self-worth and lead productive lives. It enables and empower the students to accomplish more than they could imagine. Teaching and learning had become meaningful and relevant to the students.

Suggestions for the teacher:
The teacher can inform the students’ parents about the coffee cart and encouraged students to share their experiences with their parents. The aim is to help transfer the learning from school to home and make learning even more meaningful and relevant for the students. The parents can also participate actively by reinforcing the learning at home and provide necessary support for their children as they assumed the assigned roles to build on their strengths and maximise their potentials.

It would be helpful for teacher to provide students time to reflect on their coffee cart experiences so as to help them to be more effective in carrying out their designated roles.

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a) The constructivist principles used were:
1. Active learning process - Students were involved with every aspect of the coffee cart - planning, learning how to take public transport, collecting, interacting with and serving customers. Each stage of this process gave the students opportunities to make connections with ideas and people

2. Design content and activities based on stages of development - In the video, Sadie mentioned that her class typically comprises students from three different grade levels, and so she has had to plan for each student. She does this not only for the curriculum, but also for when they graduate and move on to high school.

3. Build and disrupt schemas, open-ended activities - I noticed that each student was assigned a specific role. This helps the students to learn about the job scope and expectations for each role and thus "compartmentalise" their learning. However, these roles are in a setting whereby responses may vary, so these open-ended activities may disrupt the child's existing schemas and force them to either accommodate or assimilate.

4. Arrange for physical and social experiences - The coffee cart project also allows students to go outside of school and interact with people outside, albeit in a safe and controlled setting. The students also get the opportunity to interact with members of staff, learn to take public transport etc.

5. Develop language - Through interacting with the teachers, the staff at the bakery, amongst each other when serving customers, students are required to use language to communicate. These different settings allow for the students to practise the many different forms and styles that one typically encounters when communicating with others.

b) Thoughts and suggestions:
I felt particularly inspired as Sadie really tries her best. It is evident that she went through a lot of planning with stakeholders and even with the community that the school is in. She sees the potential and strengths in each of the students and has helped other teachers see that too.

My suggestion would be to continue building on this project and perhaps do a coffee cart for the community on select days of the month. The conditions will be a little less "controlled" but this also provides an opportunity for the students to build on what they have learnt and to apply it in a more open-ended context. This also helps to increase the presence and awareness of special educational needs in the community.

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A) I believe all of the constructivist principles were used by Teacher Sadie with particular emphasis on the concrete operational and formal operational stages of Piaget and Vygotsky’s sociocultural development.

Principle 1:Learning should be an active process

Ms Sadie believes her students should be given opportunities to adapt to its environment through assimilation and accommodation.

Principle 2:

Apart from the Coffee Cart,  Miss Sadie does create developmentally appropriate curriculum and activities for her class of students of various levels/age groups.

Principles 3 and 4: Build schemas and disrupt schemas

By assigning them roles and teaching them the function of each role she helps them form new schemas and assimilates them into their role. But there are challenges they may face with changes to their existing schemas such as a request for tea instead of coffee or if the designs of the new cups  bought from stakeholders change, or any other unusual requests from customers. This change allows them to learn to accommodate and hopefully reach a developmental ideal balance known as equilibrium where the students have mastered their roles and confidently carry out their task.

Principles 6-9:

Vygotsky’s influence, particularly the Zone of Proximal development, is largely applied across this experience. By allowing the children to put into practise what they have learnt in class (conversational skills, listening to requests, purchasing items, getting on the public transport, math skills (cost of materials)), it enables them to be mindful of learnt concepts and apply it to a real world context. Students are also seen scaffolding, cooperative learning and group problem-solving. Although, increased open-ended activities/opportunities could be encouraged as the coffee Cart operation could over-time be seen as predictable and “problem-free”.

B) This is a remarkable idea and experience that Teacher Sadie has initiated for the school and students of SEN. I love that she has enabled her students to become an integral part of the community and that with her initiative the future generation of students would also grow to learn and experience this. Children with autism often have difficulty adapting to changes and therefore appear to be less relatable to society. However by exposing them to a variety of changes it teaches not only the students, but members of society to employ these students, provide more opportunities for them and be inclusive. (for example the cafe Professor Brawn cafe in Singapore). A few adaptations that could be considered are:

1. Monthly changes to the menu (flavours of coffee and type of muffins) to provide further opportunities of group-thinking and adaptation for the students

2. Mentorship program: Students who graduate from the school to be future mentors to the next batch (peer-learning)

3. An internship track pathway to allow the students opportunities to work in similar small coffee places and slowly build up to bigger retail shops like Starbucks etc.

4. Coffee Cart could be open to public to encourage engagement with the general public

5. Teacher’s role could subside slowly and empower a team of leaders to supervise wholesaler meetings, coffee cart sessions etc.

Teacher Sadie also does a fantastic job of assessing teachable moments like when her students' sarcastic humour is pointed out. More of these wonderful moments could be looked out for. More importantly, Teacher Sadie should encourage and train other teachers to be a part of her program so that more classes and students can benefit from the functional, experiential journey in schools. Moreover she could encourage other vocational trades to be explored such as clothes designers, bakers, sports coach, app developers etc.

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Constructivist principles used:

Learning should be active process:

This principle was shown throw the implementation of the Coffee Cart. Through this initiative, the students constantly got the chance to pick up and strengthen their skills such as independence, responsibility, conversing with others they are not familiar with in a social setting (the students were able to make small talk with the teachers purchasing, which likely took several rounds before achieving that level of comfort in speaking to someone they didn’t know as well as their class teacher).

Assess and take note of their stages of development:

Teacher Sadie mentioned that she takes 3 different grade levels. And by choosing to do this Coffee Cart only for this particular class, it shows that she does have a strong understanding of what stages of development each of her different classes are at, and believed that this initiative would equip these students with the skills necessary to transition to high school and beyond.

Build schemas:

Teacher Sadie wrote down the different job roles the students would be assigned to, and further explained just what each particular “job” does (barista, cashier, greeter). All these job roles are roles they most likely have encountered by themselves when they are outside with their family paying for food/services. With the way that the teacher has given structure to the activity, it helps these students organise what they already know.

Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas:

The students were initially hesitant about the initiative, and teacher Sadie demonstrated this principle by explaining about its purpose, and how it helps them to learn about responsibility and independence, as well as how this can help them to be part of the community.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations:

This is linked to the previous point. After the students got the opportunity to really try running Coffee Cart for themselves, they could experience, internalise and understand through such a hands-on activity how it helps them to develop responsibility, independence and also allow them to interact with others not just in school, but also in the neighbourhood.

What I like about the lesson:

I like that it’s very hands-on and functional, and that teacher Sadie found a way to incorporate these rather abstract concepts such as “independence” and “responsibility” into an activity that these students could see manifest for them in a real-life setting. I also admire the fact that she placed a huge importance on this activity because she was thinking about the long-term benefits of it for the students (how the skills learnt can help them after middle school).

A suggestion I have is that perhaps she could organise a bigger scale event (i.e. end of the year Christmas bake sale), where the students can practice selling and interacting with peers from other classes. The interactions will differ from that of other teachers, but it’ll also offer an opportunity for them to make small talk with peers of their age (which will be important for them in high school).

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a) Constructivist principles used by the teacher:

1. She made learning very much an active process as students get to explore and experience first-hand how to do different things by themselves with coffee cart, such as collecting the baked goods, taking and preparing orders and collecting money from customers.

2. Building schemas - the teacher created a very organised and neat structure of how the whole process of coffee cart was going to be like on the board and explained to the students what they had to do and what they can learn from it, which would have made it easier for the students to absorb the information and start on their mission!

3. The whole idea of coffee cart is itself an experiential, open-ended activity built into a culturally authentic context where students step outside of their classroom into the real world to learn practical and functional skills, such as conversational skills and transportation skills that would be really beneficial for them in the long-term. Students get to construct new knowledge on navigating the real world on their own, but under the guidance of their teacher.

4. This initiative also helped the students to develop their language, as they have many opportunities to interact with people in their community, other teachers in their school, and even the principal when they go around the school with their coffee cart. They have so much more chance to use language and engage in conversations with many different people, which is useful for developing their oral language abilities.

b) What I liked about the lesson:

I like how the teacher gave the students such a great opportunity to learn skills that they would not have been able to learn if they were just confined to the classroom environment. The teacher went beyond teaching curriculum to look at the students' needs in the long-term and what they have gained through this experience - lifelong skills and values - are indeed invaluable.

I also like how the students have gained a sense of purpose by being a part of coffee cart and they genuinely enjoy the process of learning.

A suggestion for the teacher might be to make learning a little more challenging by changing up the routine a little, such as having the students to collect the baked goods from a different supplier or adding new responsibilities to their roles, but ensuring that the activities are developmentally appropriate for them. This would create some disequilibrium in their experience and allow them to learn more extensively.

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A)

These constructivist principles were used by the teacher:

a.          Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people)

b.          Build schemas – help them organize their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemas

c.          Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences

The teacher introduced the ‘Coffee Cart’ project whereby the students were assigned roles such as Barista, Greeter and Cashier as they walk around the school compound selling coffee to staff of the school. This concept of this Coffee Card is similar to food trucks selling coffee, possibly widely seen in where they lived, and the roles are similar to that of a Barista, Waitress and Cashier.

d.          Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate

e.          Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context

I believe there was a reason why the teacher chose the ‘Coffee Cart’ project instead of let’s say, a full-fledged canteen coffee stall in school. This project may be developmentally appropriate for these students. The teacher mentioned that this project is a great start, which meant to say that she has just finished teaching them explicitly on foundational life skills needed for this project i.e. money counting, making instant coffee, greeting sentences and this project is a hands-on test to see how they apply such skills.

In the video, it seemed as though the teacher had meticulously planned the path in which the coffee cart would be going around school, perhaps going the extra mile to notice staff of the school beforehand.

B)

I enjoyed this lesson as it provided the students a glimpse into fulfilling the roles of a Barista, Waiter/Waitress and a Cashier, it is an activity that relates back to modern day society. I could tell that the students enjoyed themselves a whole lot, all of them were diligent in their roles and perhaps even got to choose the roles themselves given that amount of motivation.

My suggestions would be:

1.     Circle time before and after the project ends: This time can be used for recapping of skills (task analysis), Share their thoughts on what they’ve learnt and what they needed help on and perhaps brainstorm on how to improve themselves in their roles etc.

2.     Practice makes perfect:  Role-play more in their roles, develop their skill; Challenge them with scenarios i.e. dealing with angry customer for the role of a Greeter. Swap roles between the students from time to time. Encourage team communication in the process.

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Constructivist principles used:

Learning as an active process
Teacher Sadie provided meaningful life lessons that goes beyond the curriculum. She gave her students the opportunities to explore and discover new things so that they will be able to apply and transfer knowledge better. They also get to play an important part in their own learning processes.

Assess and take note of students’ stages of development
She also identifies her students’ ability. As they were in different grade levels and have different strengths, planning was done uniquely for each of them. The task and role chosen by her was developmentally appropriate for all of her students.

Building Schemas
Her students were initially hesitant to start but Teacher Sadie helps to systematize their thoughts by explaining and writing down the job skills on the whiteboard. It helps them to organize their knowledge into mental models.

Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas
Students experienced disequilibrium when they had to go out to the actual community and performed tasks that they would not experience in a classroom setting. In the video, Noah mentioned that his role was to give coffee to teachers. However, he was also tasked to pick up the baked goods from the bakery. Thus, her students get to learn more than just 'coffee-making'. They were giving opportunities to experience other skills as well.

Arrange physical experiences to develop understanding
They were also given the exposure to experience how is it like to manage a business in an authentic context. The items used were real and that will allow the students to see the connections of what being taught in school to the real-world applications.

Arrange for social experience and interaction
Coffee cart allows the student to create a community within their own school. The students get to be out of their classroom, and be involved in social interactions with the school teachers. With that, they will be able to evaluate what they have learnt and understand the demands in a real-world setting.

Developing higher level thinking skills &
Develop their language
Students get to practice and develop their language through this activity. As there is a social interaction involved, it helps to challenge their thinking skills as well. They will learn how to communicate with their 'customers'.

What I like about the lesson?
I think as a student, it will definitely benefit them a lot. Students learn better through active learning. Having an authentic learning activity, It gives them the opportunity to test out what they have learnt. Besides, they get to build their self-confidence and that can help them feel very valuable in the community.

Suggestions for the teacher?
Probably it was not featured in the video. However, it would be good for the teacher to set a time for students to reflect on their experiences. It could be a simple activity such as a checklist, or just a 'one sentence summary'. Also, teacher can consider getting the students to bake their own baked goods! That will take them to the next level.

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1) Build Schemas
For the students, the concept of running their own coffee cart is new and foreign. The teacher managed to explain and break down each individual job scope/role to her students clearly.

2) Assess and take note of their stages of development
As there are different grade levels in the teacher's class, the students were given roles based on their ability.

3)Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context
When operating the coffee cart, the students had the opportunity to handle actual objects, such as food, drinks and money. This will give the students ample experiences that could be applied in the real world.

4)Arrange for social experiences and interactions –to talk about what they learnt; test schemes, help each other understand
During the whole process of running the coffee cart, the students had the experience of interacting with different people, ranging from the general public to their own school principal. Through this interaction, the students will get to apply what they have learnt, and at the same time, building relationships with new individuals too.

5) Develop their language
The students had various opportunities to put their thoughts into words, through various interactions with the store owners, as well as their various coffee cart customers.

What do I like about this lesson?
I really like how the students are able to learn important life skills through social experiences, and not through the typical textbook method. By having the coffee cart initiative, the students will be able to build up their self esteem as well as their self confidence levels.

Suggestions for the teacher
The teacher should have a reflection sharing sessions with the students involved. The students will get to voice out their thoughts regarding the coffee cart initiative.

If it is possible, the teacher should have the students rotate amongst the different job roles. This will definitely create a disequilibrium in the students, and this will help the students to gain more knowledge and experiences.

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(1) Learning should be active process
The teacher took the students out to take public transport to the community, encouraged students to communicate with the supplier and strangers. The outing and coffee cart create an opportunity for them to explore, discover and make connection with community. This let them feel they are part of the community.

(2) Assess and take note of their stages of developement and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum
The teacher mentioned in the video that she has students with 3 grade levels. She takes note of the students' stages of developement and assigned them job according to their grades and ability.  She planned prior to ensure they are able to do the job.

(3) Build Schemas
Teacher planned diffenrent job scopes for her students such as Greeter, Barrista and Cashier. She wrote the tasks on the white board clearly to help the students understand their roles well.

(4) Build on prior knowlege and disrupt schemas(disequilibrium) for learning and growth experiences

The coffee cart provides the students an environment to  learn new skills which they may be fear to handle and communicate with teachers who they are not familiar with. This helps them to learn and grow through experience out of their classroom.

(5) Arrange physical, concrete experiences

Students learned to handle money, cut biscuits, preparation of coffee & tea, take orders from customers. These hands-on activities give them a sense of responsibility and concrete operational experience to understand abstract concept.

(6) Social Experiences & interactions
Teacher brought the students out to reach out to community, chat with people they have not met before, communicate with the supplier to state his request. This creates better social experience and let students feel that they can be part of the community.

(7) Develop higher level thinking skill
The teacher develops their higher level thinking skill by assignig them with challenging tasks like to be a cashier, a barrista etc. To help them handle better with their roles, job descriptions are stated on the white board for reference.

(8) Develop language
With the coffee cart, the students have a common ground to interact with their customers and people in the community. Therefore they are able to develop the language skill further even building new schema.

Suggestion
Teacher may consider having regular feedback from students to know what are their comfort level in meeting people and learning new skills.

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Constructivist Principles used:

1)Learning should be an active process
The teacher gave her students opportunities to explore by giving them significant roles in their mobile coffee cart initiative. She brought her students out to get their bakes, took the public transport and got them to communicate with shop owners and people in the community. This is definitely an authentic learning experience for her students.

2) Developmentally Appropriate
The teacher assigned roles to her students based on their capabilities.
(Wedad - ask the teachers if they want coffee, Nathan - the cashier, Jacky - the barrista, David - pours the coffee and Noah - get the baked goods)

3) Build Schemas
Its fantastic that the teacher have all the requirements and instructions listed on the white board with regards to their mobile coffee cart initiative. For SEN students, getting to see the steps visually will let them have a better understanding of the whole process.

4) Build on prior knowledge
Even though its not shown in the video, I am very sure that the students already have an idea what's the process like to manage a small stall when they themselves got their food and drinks from their school cafeteria. This will help them when they are managing their coffee cart initiative.

5) Arrange physical and concrete experiences
The students got a chance to learn the steps on how to make coffee and serve their "customers" with great respect. They learnt how to manage money and checked on their inventory so that their coffee cart initiative can run smoothly.

6) Arrange for social experiences and interactions
The students got the opportunity to interact with different teachers and joke with them at the same time. The teachers were very supportive and appreciative towards the students. This mobile coffee cart initiative is a great training exposure to prepare them for the working world in future.

I love that the teacher believe in each and everyone of her students capabilities. She gave them opportunities to blend in the community and make them feel equally important just like everybody else. I also like the visuals that the teacher displayed on her whiteboard. It would be great if the teacher could let her SEN students collaborate with a few mainstream students for this initiative. They can learn from each other. Maybe they can come up with their own simple bakes which they can sell as well. It would also be good for the teacher to check in with her students once every two weeks as to how they are coping with their coffee cart initiative and if they have any ideas to make the whole experience an exciting one.

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Constructivist Principle that I observed:

Active Learning
The teacher, Ms Guthrie came out with an activity that help the students explore. She started the mobile coffee cart project which the students were initially little hesitant and did not get the purpose of doing it. Having explained to the students that they will be learning job skills and functional skills like independence, responsibility and being part of the community, the students were open to the project as it helps them to connect to the
real world.

Assess stages of development
At the start of the video, Ms Guthrie mentioned  that she has an average of three different grade levels of students and therefore, she had to plan and assigned roles according to each students. This shows that she has to apply differentiated learning in order to support the students in her class.

Building schemas
Ms Guthrie wrote on the board the different jobs roles that the student will be assigned. She also explained to her students on the different roles and what each role does. She also taught the students communication skills by writing on the board on how to greet, ask questions to "customers". There were clear instructions written on the board for her students to follow through.

Social experiment and interactions
The students were able to actualise their project by going out to the actual community bakery to get the baked goods, taking the public transport to learn transportation skills and running the mobile coffee carts, selling serving coffee and baked good to teachers and staff in their school on every Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are able to interact and communicate with safe strangers and this let them be a part of the community.

What I like about this lesson:
I like that this lesson built confidence in the students it also gives them a sense of empowerment. They are able to have a sense of belonging in the community despite being different. I like how the other teachers in the schools recognised them and is getting to know them better. Ms Guthrie succeeded in creating an authentic learning experience  through real-life experiences for her students.

One suggestion is that maybe the teacher could take the mobile cart project out in the public during like community/town fairs so that the kids are able to expose themselves to more people and are able to build more confidence.

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These are the constructivist principles used in Class Act as shown in the video:
1. Active learning; Sadie not only took her students  to the baked goods store to show them how to collect their goods, she also made use of this opportunity to teach them how take a public transport. These experiences allows her students to make so much new connections, ideas and concept in life skills.
2. Take note of their stages of development ; Teacher used short and simple instructions broken down in steps and wrote it on the whiteboard with visuals (photographs of their roles) to make teaching explicit.
3.Build schemas ; through the coffee cart experiential experience, students can generalised new schema of self-confidence and sense of acceptance in the community.
4. Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas ;Sadie mentioned the students were hesitant in the project at the start,  thus she had explained the purpose of running the cart, and at the end, they accommodated with the new schema and were able to stay on task.
5.Arrange physical, concrete experiences ; Sadie provided authentic context of coffee cart as learning experience with hands on activities, collecting cash, making coffee, taking orders ,and the students learnt roles and responsibilities of task.
6. Arrange for social experiences and interactions ;At the store, there were opportunities for social experiences and interactions with unfamiliar adult store staff, other than their parent and teachers which further assimilate new schema for social skills.  Teachers in the school are able to remember the names of the students involved in the project and this helps to build an inclusive school culture for students with special needs.
7.Developing higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities ; Sadie explained the purpose of the coffee cart as a learning experience that can help them to build independence, responsibility, functional skills that will serve to be of use to them in a bigger community.
8. Develop open-ended activities ; This activity itself integrates the most important skill that the students will learn; that the challenges are no longer an obstacle once you learnt a new skill to do it.
9. Develop their language ;Her students used language at the store, used it to take  orders from the school staff, all these served as direct means of promoting language skills in context.

What I liked about her lesson is she uses the whiteboard to teach short, succinct definitions of cashiers and other roles by also implementing comprehension skills by teaching 5Ws and 1H.

10. Provide time to reflect on experiences ; The video did not show Sadie having her students to reflect on their experiences which if she had, this will serve as a good closure to what the students had learnt about themselves through this experiential project.

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Teacher Sadie gave the students the chance to go out and have interactions with the neighborhood and learn crucial independent life and social skills for them to be responsible for their actions.

While designing, teacher was a bit hesitant but slowly everything worked well.  She taught them how to do their individual tasks which they are supposed to do, from brewing coffee to collecting the money for them to learn through experience.

She arrange for them to follow up from their understanding the theory to hands on and experiential activities like taking a bus, visiting bakery, meeting safe strangers for social experiences which allows them to gain better knowledge in completing their tasks.

Back at school, the coffee cart experience help them to interact with the teachers which provided them the practice to interact and chance to do what they are tasked to do. They will able to develop higher level thinking skills when challenging or questions they have not encounter before and try to solve or answer it. Teacher Sadie does not interrupt them thus it was able to develop their language and a way to let them try to develop their own language and styles in doing things.

I like the lesson as it provide the opportunity for the student to really do something which is not in the textbook and provide a real life situation working space for them to do something out of the box.  The students are able to interact and learn life and social skills which are meaningful for their life. It creates confidence for them to keep learning and never bow down to failure.

Other than operating the coffee cart, Teacher Sadie could try to add in the teaching element in which the students can teach and share what they have done and learnt through their experience which can greatly increase their motivation to do more incredible feats.

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Principle 1: Learning should be an active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people)

-          The entire concept of the coffee cart has already allowed the students to learn actively. From the start of making the coffee and probably rounds of practicing and getting familiarize with the order etc. It allowed them to explore, discover and create something that they might not have had experienced before. The coffee cart also takes them out of the classroom, where they serve, they make the interactions with people. With every interaction, there will be something new for them to learn.

Principle 2: Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate

-          At the beginning of the video, Ms. Sadie mentioned that her class has 3 different grade levels, hence, there needs to be planning done prior to setting up the coffee cart, to see which grade levels her students are in and planned based on their level. She also needs to find the right balance to impart skills that are functional such that they can go beyond school, to the rest of their lives.

Principle 3: Build schemas – help them organize their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemas

-          Explaining the jobs using a work system and spelling out explicitly the roles of each individual helps the students to build knowledge of the roles. The work system provides a step-by-step and structured way of retaining information.

Principle 4: Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences

-          Knowing the roles and what they do is one, but executing it is also a form of building on prior knowledge and disrupting schemas as the roles might not be that clear cut e.g Wedad’s role is to ask the teacher if they want coffee, but it is not limited to coffee, it also expands to serving the baked goods.

-          It is also mentioned in the video that it is difficult for students with special needs to just go up to someone and talk to them. Having the coffee cart created an opportunity for them to have a common ground and become part of the community to interact with others.

Principle 5: Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop an understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context

-          The use of a coffee cart itself is a hands-on activity and it is done authentically (i.e. real food and money/payment involved). The students can see that this coffee cart gives them the opportunity to be a contributing member of the school community.

Principle 7: Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities

-          Bringing them out to the community which requires them to take public transportation requires higher-level thinking skills as they are no longer in a safe space like school. They need to know the procedures when taking the bus, safety when crossing the road, etc.

Principle 9: Develop their language (this provides access to knowledge, tools to think about the world and solve problems, means to regulate and reflect on their own thinking)

-          Having to ask the storekeeper at the bakery for their baking goods. Noah needed to know what to say when he approached her. The introduction (where they are from), what are they here to do, and how to respond after the storekeeper has replied.

My thoughts:

Watching the video makes me miss being in a special education school, but of course, the culture in the United States is very different than Singapore. I really like that the lesson is very well thought out. The objectives were explained to the students at the beginning so that they understand why they were doing this. The attitude of the teacher was what touched me a lot, she really knew her students well and she had a positive can-do attitude, looking beyond their disabilities. The lesson was very functional for them and they also had both the real-life experience talking to people in a safe environment and also in the community.

My suggestions would be:

1.       To rotate the roles once in a while for the students to gain exposure. They might not be proficient in them, but it will be a good experience.

2.       Engineer some situations for them to learn problem-solving skills. E.g. run out of a certain baked good, run out of coffee, not enough loose change.

3.       Not in the video, but perhaps the students can be given some time to reflect on one thing that they did good and one thing that they can improve on.
4.       They can also have a say in the menu. If possible and manpower allows, they can get other students involved to bake some cookies (can have occasionally some goods that are baked by the students).

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Constructivist Principles used by the teacher:

1.       Learning should be active process

The coffee cart project provides opportunity for the students to explore and discover different functional skills, enhancing their cognitive abilities. She guided them through the entire process from taking transport to collecting the baked goods themselves and then operating the coffee cart. This also creates opportunity for social interactions with the community. Other than acquiring functional skills, the teacher also explained how the project can teach them responsibility and independence, for them to understand the connections as to why this project is being done.
2.      Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior

The teacher planned the curriculums that are appropriate for their development and level. She assigned each task of the coffee cart project based on the strengths she observed in the children. This allows the student to take ownership of their roles.

3.       Build schemas

The teacher provided task list on the board on the different roles the students are playing. She broke down and guided the students throughout the process. She explained the purpose of the project and the positive outcomes that come out of doing this project to ease understanding. She built schemas on their pre-requisite knowledge of making and serving coffees and translate the teachings to hands-on activity in operating the cart.
4.      Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences
Disequilibrium happens when the students had to go out of the classroom and experience the actual task of interacting with unfamiliar people in the school to make and sell the coffee. Over time, they get acquainted with the customers and it gets easier communicating.
5/6.      Arrange physical, concrete experiences and  social experiences and interactions
Coffee cart serves as a good training exposure for real life work experience. The coffee cart project further encourage social interaction with people in the school. You can see how comfortable the interactions are between them and their "customers".

What I like about the lesson?

It creates so many opportunities for learning from cognitive to social abilities.
It teaches independence, responsibilities, functional skills, allowing them to work and be part of the community. She believes in the students put her faith in them to do a great job. This is important to boost their confidence and morale, allowing them to push boundaries.

Suggestions:
-  The teacher can involve the community outside of school with the project such as a local coffee place for them to work / intern.
- Expand to other scope or activity depending on the interests and strengths of students.

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Constructivist Principles used:

Learning should be active process:
The children were given opportunities to explore and discover the skills needed for their roles. They were involved from planning to actual operation of the coffee cart.

Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content.

Build schemas

Build on prior knowledge and disrupt Schemas
The teacher assessed what they could/could not do, organized their experiences/ knowledge, and tapped on their prior knowledge before running the coffee cart in the school.
She built schemas, listed down the different roles and taught them what to do, what to say and how to do it.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences, hands-on activities:

She allowed them to try the different experiences outside of school, taking public transport, serving coffee to customers who made different requests.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions:

Social interaction was also available as the children learn to talk to good strangers and other teachers in school.

What I Like about the lesson:

Objective of the lesson was clear and met. Experience was real and kids seem to enjoy every part of it.  They learnt many important skills and the teacher has successfully boosted their confidence level. They felt important and special, definitely happy to be a contributing member of the community.

Suggestion:

It will be great if the teacher can discuss with the students and explore other possible activity. She can either let them switch roles after a period or change it to a different activity. Example: Fund raising - car wash in school.

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What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

Principle 1 - The teacher brought her students outside school community where they get to take public transport and interact with people at the local bakery.

Principle 2 & 3 - Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities  and choosing content. The teacher planned out the coffee cart, learning job skills on the whiteboards. Details like task for each students, instructions and learning goals can be seen on the whiteboard. (Help them organise their experiences and knowledge)

Principle 4 & 5 - Each of her students were given a task. For example, Jacky learnt how to serve coffee to customer and Wedad learnt how to take orders. Task were assigned to each of the students and the teacher gave them step by step instructions for them to follow. The coffee cart enabled students to develop their understanding on how it was operated and experience in serving their customers.

Principle 9 - This learning job skills allowed them to social interact with people within and outside school community. This would help to develop their language skills, problem solving, regulate and reflect their own thinking.

What do you like about the lesson?
Ms Sadie gave her students a platform/exposure to explore and gain new experience. Like for example, her students were given the opportunities to follow her to local bakery and interact with strangers at the local bakery, taught them transportation skills. Coffee cart allowed her students to learn different kind of task and how it operates.

Do you have suggestions for the teacher?
Maybe she could get her students to switch task with their peers so that they could gain experience and learn different roles and responsibilities. Other ways to make them feel inclusive with the community is by giving them the opportunities to be involve in the school event. Whenever possible, for a start maybe can introduce coffee cart or fund-raising for the cause during the school event.

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Principles 1 and 5:

The teacher created an active learning process for her students. She created opportunities for them to make connections between the different occupations and them in those roles when selling coffee. To help them better understand the different roles, she explained to them what was required for each role.

It was an authentic experience for the students when they went around the school to sell coffee and baked goods to the school staff. When items were sold, and money collected, it helped them construct the meaning of ‘selling’ and ‘collecting’ money.

(Barista was spelled incorrectly. Students might learn the wrong spelling.)

Principle 2:

The students were assigned specific roles for their coffee cart experience. This would have been done intentionally by the teacher who would have chosen them according to their ability/personality. She had chosen developmentally appropriate tasks for her students. The equipment used were also items that the students could handle safely.

Principle 3:

By stating what they, the students, were going to do (selling coffee and stuff), where they were selling the coffee (school), and the ‘job scope’ for each role, the teacher was building their knowledge and helping them organise that into specific units.

Principles 6 and 9:

By pushing the cart around the school, these students had opportunities to interact with other teachers and their school Principal. And when they travelled by bus to collect the donated baked goods, they would have interacted with the bus drivers and bakery staff.

Through these interactions, they could learn (more) about each other and how to converse appropriately. This can also help to develop their language skills which will be useful for them in the future.

(b) I like the lesson in that the teacher has the best intentions for her students at the heart of everything. She has changed the perceptions of how others view these students within the community. They are now seen as contributing members to the community. The students feel good about themselves, and through the interactions with other teachers, they also gain more confidence. The students learnt functional skills which are transferable to beyond school.

She has a positive mindset and more importantly, she believes in her students.

Suggestion:

Rotation of roles between the students when they become proficient in the assigned roles.

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Constructivist Principles

1)      Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people)

Learning occurs through the job opportunity given to each student:

·       Noah gives coffee to teacher.

·       Wedad takes orders.

·       Jacky is the barista.

·       David pours coffee.

Through the job opportunity given to each student, they make connections via interactions not only through teachers that bought coffees but also through the community.

2)      Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate

Looking at the different roles given by the teacher, I can see that there is different level of difficulty in each role. It ranges from easy to hard. Even though the video did not show the stages of development, I believe that students were assessed and assigned the job roles according to their capabilities.

3)      Build schemas – help them organize their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemas

Teacher list task on the board. This schema of “Who does what?” is divided into different roles: Greeter, Barista and Cashier.

4)      Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences

Students do not know how to sell coffee, but they must have had prior knowledge on coffees, baked goods, coffeeshops and bakeries. With the opportunity given, students can learn and grow through this new experience.

5)      Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context

This opportunity provides authentic learning experiences. They took the bus and learnt about local transportation, and this is a life skill that they will use it throughout their life. They went to the bakery to collect the baked goods. They meet the community through these exposures, and they are able to have conversations with the safe adults. Back in school, they have a hands-on experience to sell coffee and baked goods.

6)      Arrange for social experiences and interactions –to talk about what they learnt; test schemes, help each other understand

Via the video, I was able to see schema in placed. Communication skills are observed between teachers and students, students and students and lastly bakery (community) and students.

7)      Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities

Roles in job opportunity will increase the level of thinking as they need to carry out their role well.

For example: The student needs to be alert if they still have coffee or baked goods. They will also need to clean the cart without being asked if they spill the coffee.

8)      Develop open-ended activities for them to construct knowledge and understanding

The coffee cart provides open ended activities.

For example: When an item is not available for sale, the students can think of an alternative solution. (When lemon bars are no longer available, can suggest scones)

9)      Develop their language (this provides access to knowledge, tools to think about the world and solve problems, means to regulate and reflect on their own thinking)

The students get to develop their language by communicating with the teachers and community.

For example: Noah talked to the bakery staff during collection of baked goods. Teacher enjoys Jacky’s cynical humour.

10)  Provide time to reflect on experiences

Not observed.

What do you like about the lesson?

Teacher creates an authentic learning experience for the students. It is a life skill and these set of skills can be continued when they start working. I observed that the teacher uses at least 9 constructivist principles. Learning takes place as it is relevant.

Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

I hope the teacher can ask the students to reflect on their work processes, challenges and successes. This will allow them to improve their job skills.

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Active learning process:
The teacher planned hands-on activity that requires students to practise. During the activity, she provided opportunities for the students to explore and experiment, at the same time allowing students to make decisions. Students are actively acquiring new skills while practising.

Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas:
After learning the specific skills, the teacher proceed to conduct a high level activity. While students are confident with interacting with their teacher and classmates, it is a challenge when they proceed to interact with the others (other teacher and public). Responses from others are unexpected and this provides the opportunities for them to process new information when reacting to different situations.

Arrange physical, concrete experiences:
Other teachers were invited to interact with the students. This is a fantastic way for the students to apply what they have learnt into real life context. The experience is authentic and it is necessary for students with SEN as they are able to learn through experience. This also makes learning relevant as they understand that the skills can be applied to real life.

Arrange for social experiences and interactions:
The activity allows opportunities for the students to interact with people whom they do not usually meet. However, the teacher also took the extra step to arrange for safe strangers. This makes the interaction real but at the same time, comfortable for these students.

Develop their language:
The idea of setting up a business and involving the students as the service crew allows them to communicate with the others. This is done when the students process orders, interacting with their team member and the customers. This activity is useful in building their confidence in using specific vocabularies. Students use both verbal and written language in this activity, and this helps to reinforce what they have learnt in class. Other than that, the students learn to use appropriate tones when communicating with different people.

What I like:
The teacher knows each student very well, and she is intentional in planning each stage of activities according to their abilities. Instead of focusing on learning in a confined space, the teacher brought learning out of the classroom. The teacher believes in her students, and this is extremely important for students with SEN. A inclusive learning environment is created.

Suggestions:
She might consider getting more teachers to be involved. Other than coffee cart, students can explore other areas of strengths, such as art & craft, robotics. A permanent platform can be created for the students to showcase their talents. In a mainstream school setting, it will be good to have a mixture of students of different profiles participating in this project.

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Contructivist principles used by the teacher:

1. Active learning by doing an authentic task;
2. Schemas were introduced by having to repeat the same process over and over again;
3. Disequilibrium forced the students out of their comfort zone when they had to go out in the public;
4. Physical concrete experience and social interactions took place both in public and in the school;
5. And of course language was developed when the students had to learn the proper vocabulary associated with their trade, so that they can have a decent conversation with the customers.

In brief:-

Paiget:
Adaptation to the outside world;
Assimilation, dealing with new situation;
Equilibration, by mastering new challenges.

Vygotsky:
Interaction;
Socio-cultural setting.

What I like about the lesson:
I was smiling throughout the video as I loved how the kids were being treated with respect. I was just beautiful to see how easy it is to forget their disabilities and to just see the wonderful human beings doing a task and doing it well, with pride and joy. I am very sure this gave the kids a huge sense of accomplishment, an experience that would have marked them for life and skills that they can now use in their everyday life, outside of the school boundaries. Others teachers in the school now know them by name and know what they are capable of doing, instead of just remembering them as "special needs kids".

Suggestion(s) to the teacher:
This has to be taken out of the school and into the world. Through professional sharing of good practicce, other schools could learn from this particular one and implement it in their schools too. The world needs to see more of what these kids can do and less of what their limitations are.

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After watching the video reminds me of guiding my Normal Technical students exposed to a real work scenario in Barista, making dessert and drinks. Below are the constructivist principles that the teacher used.

Active Learning Process

Ms Sadie has taught them in preparation for coffee and guided them well throughout the session in which students felt motivated. The students are enjoying the session as Ms Sadie deliver constructive instruction one at a time. From the expression of the students and hands-on shows, students immensely enjoyed the learning process delivered by Ms Sadie.

Assess and take note of their stages

Ms Sadie gives a different role to the students based on their capabilities and levels. Hence she splits the students’ responsibilities and teaches them to work independently as a team. I like how Ms Sadie wrote all the activity components on the whiteboard and was accessible and guided for students.

Build on schema, prior knowledge and disrupt schemas

Before this activity, they get to know only teachers in the classroom who are teaching them. But this activity teaches exposure about themselves to engage other teachers in the schools.

Arrange physical and concrete experiences

Ms Sadie allows them to explore the whole process of developing a cafe in real life in future. Begin with planning in the classroom, using public transport for baking goods places, interacting with safe strangers and guided them with speaking.

Arrange social experiences and interactions

The students get to interact confidently with teachers and introduce the name of the coffee they are serving.

The teacher is passionate about teaching the skills and enjoys with the special education students. After this experience, the teacher may consider teaching in different areas like making crafts and design & technology. Meantime the students can be group with non-special educational students for them to experience work together. This will help them achieve and prepare them to work in the community.

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Based on the video, the teacher used various types of constructive principles.
1- Learning should be active process;
The lesson conducted was done out of classroom and it relates more to the real world. It provides opportunities for the students to explore and discover things around them by enhancing their cognitive and social abilities.

2- Assess and take note of their stage development;
The teacher used appropriate development materials in this area. Here, she too integrated differentiated learning when she assigned roles to different students based on their capabilities and needs. Here, students will  learn from each other, this too integrates social skills.

3- Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop an understanding of abstract concepts and operation, hands- on activities;
As an experiences preschool teacher, i strongly believe that physical and and concrete activities gives the child the best learning experiences. The teacher came up with operation a coffee cart in school allowing the children to experience real life skills and enhances their social and cognitive skills.

suggestion-
teacher can expand the lesson to a more integrated lesson by adding in community helpers- community based project. Here, students can interact with real people doing real work and understand the lesson better.

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Constructivist principles used were;

(a) Principle 1: (Learning should be active process.) The lesson was done differently than usual. It was done outside of the classroom and what they did was more of real life situation. The teacher created opportunities for her student to explore new skills and create connections with other teachers in the school. Not only that, she also made the students have social interaction with "good" strangers such as the bakers of the bakery that they went to and also teaching them transportation skills. She wants to make them feel part of the real community too.

Principle 2: (Assess and take note of their stages of development.) The students were assigned roles based on their ability such as greeter, barista, cashier, taking orders, pouring coffee.

Principle 3: (Build schemas.) The teacher explained to the students their specific role in detail and also wrote down clearly on the board so that the can see what they should do and how they do it.

Principle 6: (Arrange for social experiences and interactions.) When the student walks around the school with their coffee cart, it gives them the opportunity to create social experience and interactions with other teachers that they seldom communicate. This helps to boost their confidence to communicate openly with other people and expand their conversation with them. When this happens, they build rapport and felt accepted. They also feel like a "big man on campus" and proud of themselves as they were the only group that can go around and be seen more. The experience to take public transport and take their bakes will be like a routine and they will be use to this. This is another big step for them to be closer to the community outside.

Principle 7: (Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills.) Going out of their comfort zone and doing something that is not easy for them takes a lot of effort to process their thinking. When they collect money from the customers and returning the exact change challenges the child to a higher-level thinking skills.

Principle 10: (Provide time to reflect on experiences.) It will be great for them to sit down and reflect on the takeaways of their experience. They need to understand why was this initiative done and what skills they have attained. When they understand that with the skills they have, they can be a productive community, feel included and important. This mindset will prepare them to be independent and work confidently one day.

(b) I like the lesson because the teacher taught something different than what they usually do and wants the students to try out new things. The teacher wants to get the students closer to the work life and let them be responsible for themselves by carrying out the task independently. She taught them very important life skills that will benefit them one day in their life. In addition, she had also exposed them closer to the real community and wants the community to see them more. The most important thing is that she believes in them and want them to feel valuable to the community.

My suggestion is to not stop this initiative at this batch and continue for other batches. The former students can be the pioneer for the programme. They can help train the new students in their role. This will make them feel a sense of self-worth and develop leadership skills.  They can also have other varieties of bakes to increase their inventory and learn more of the bakes names.

Alternatively, the school can also have entrepreneurship day where classes have to come out with ideas to sell and open to public where the community outside can come in to purchase and interact with them. Not only will they be creative but they will also acquire other skills like teamwork and leadership skills, business management skills, communication and listening skills and many more. In addition, this will get the real community understand and appreciate them more.

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1. The teacher is creating a mountain of opportunities for her students. Socially, they are to open up and reach out to more people around them. Mentally, they are being pushed to do jobs that many people think its beyond their capabilities. Emotionally, they are creating connections with their peers and teachers and community over the duration of this coffee cart.

5. The various job roles provide an opportunity for the students to understand abstract thoughts behind the the "simple" act of perhaps taking down an order.

9. The students will be put in a situation where they need to converse and interact woth others.

What I liked about this coffee cart is at the end of the day, her students are getting the opportunity to translate these skills into the real world the next time they graduate from school.

A suggestion for the teacher would be to perhaps arrange for a job stint at the local cafe or coffee house, where the students will be able to see how their efforts in school have translated to the real world out there.

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1. What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

(1) Learning should be an active process

The teacher brought her students out to interact with the community. This encouraged them to talk.  The coffee cart project gave them many different opportunities to practice their life skills such as taking orders, writing down the orders, attending to the customers.

(2) Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum

The teacher ensured that the coffee cart project was developmentally appropriate for her students. She had observed their strengths and assigned them roles based on their strengths. In this way, she ensured that they achieve success and this gave them a sense of achievement.

(3) Building schemas-help them organize their experience...

The teacher had broken down the steps of the project for her students. She explained to them what they are doing, why they are doing the project, the different roles each of them were given, when they are on duty and how they need to set-up the coffee cart.

(4) Arrange physical, concrete experience

The teacher provided an authentic experience for her students through the coffee cart project. This project gave her students opportunities that go beyond their own classroom.

(5) Arrange for social experiences and interaction

The coffee cart project had enable the students to create connections with the staff and community. They are now more recognized and accepted in the school.

(6) Develop their language skills

The roles the students are given such as taking orders, writing orders and communicating with people allowed them to constantly develop their language skills.

2. What do I like about the lesson?
SEN students are given an opportunity to serve the school community. This made them feel useful, accepted and belonged in the school. This project has allowed these  students to develop in their life skills.

3. Suggestions?
To encourage a more inclusive culture in the school, get some non-SEN students to spent some time to work with these SEN students in this project or other projects such as fund-raising project or school carnival project. In this way, both the SEN and non-SEN students will learn how to work well with each other.

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(1) Learning should be active process
She gets them to do real life skills (cashier, barista, waiter etc) thus deploying their senses, cognitive thinking & communication skills(taking orders, writing down the order) which is active learning.

(2) Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum
She design the whole project(cart project) based on her assessments of the pupils ability. She mentioned that there were three different grade levels in her group. She assigned individual roles based on their development.

(3)  Build schemas – help them organize their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemas.
Explained to them their roles before embarking on the project. Written it on the board. Though I did not see the the practice run on the video, I believed this was done. That will create a mental model in their mind on what they need to do or say.

(4) Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences.

Though the video did not show the problems she would have encountered along the way, I am sure that there were the disequlibrium.  She would have then fine tuned them and help them get around it.

(5) Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) ......
The cart project was not confined to the classroom. The pupils went around the school to serve the teachers and principal. Thus proving an authentic experience.

(6) Arrange for social experiences and interactions ...

The bus ride to the bakery shop, communicating with the owner...
She was integrating the pupils into society and community. In fact the teachers never knew the names of her pupils before the project. After these experience the teachers knew them by names. Thus that provides greater interaction.

(7) Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills..

She mentioned in the video that she would want the pupils to have functional skills, be independent and responsible in the community. She want them to have the skills to move forward in life and less about their struggles. Thus she is not stopping there but planning for their next level of development.

(9) Develop their language ...
Taking orders, communicating independently with the bakery owner in proper sentences. (Not monosyllabic conversation)
Though we know that they have speech issues, all of them spoke coherently.

What do you like about the lessons?
These are SEN pupils. Most have speech issues. She did a good job in getting them to talk. Making them feel good and being part of the community. Taught them functional skills. She also taught them to handle money. She is an example of a truly dedicated teacher.

Suggestions:
She could get them to run a mini canteen to serve food and drinks to a selected group of pupils. That will be a bit more authentic as the numbers are higher than just serving teachers and principals.

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(a) Principle 1: Learning is an active process. The lesson is conducted outside of the classroom and not confined to using books as the medium of learning. The teacher guided the students through the process of handling a coffee cart step-by-step like walking to the bus stop, taking the bus to the bakery to collect the baked goods and bringing them back to school to start the sale.

Principle 2: Assess and take note of their stages of development. The students were each given a specific role (eg: cashier, barista, taking orders) based on their abilities.

Principle 3: Build schemas. The teacher explained to them what their role entails. For example, the barista will pour the coffee into a cup and the cashier will collect the money from the customer. That way, the students understand exactly what they need to do.

Principles 5: Arrange physical and concrete experiences; hands-on activities. The coffee cart serves as vocational training for the students to prepare them for the working life after school.

Principle 6: Arrange for social experiences and interactions. The children walk around the school to sell coffee and baked goods to learn and practice more social skills with the opportunity to interact with other teachers and get to know them.

Principle 9: Develop their language. This initiative encourages the students to ask for something when in need and teaches them how to communicate said needs to others.

Principle 10: Provide time to reflect on experiences. The coffee cart allows the students to reflect on the takeaways of their experience; they feel important and included in the community by being productive contributing members of the school.

(b) I like the lesson because the teacher gives each of the students ample opportunities to try out new things and be responsible for themselves. The teacher does not only focus on academic skills with her students but also work on their social and vocational skills, which are important life skills. She also helped her students to integrate with the community.

My suggestion for the teacher is to allow these students to train the next batch of students on how to handle the coffee cart. This way, the students feel empowered, accomplished and have a sense of leadership.

Another suggestion would be to either change the products or include more variety in the cart. For example, on top of the coffee and baked goods, the teacher can include lemonade and sandwiches. Alternatively, instead of selling coffee and baked goods, they can sell handmade products. These can help to build on their schema and allow them to assimilate what they have learnt.

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Constructivist principles used by the teacher:

1)      Learning should be active process(concept, ideas, people):

Teacher make connections for the students by explaining the purpose for the coffee cart. Teaching the students about job skill, independent, responsibility, functional skills and be part of the community.

2)      Assess and take note of their stages of development

Teacher plans activities base on where the students are for each student.

3)      Build schemas

Teacher writes the information for the coffee project on the white board. Example “Who does what”. She writes the job and what they do.

4)      Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual)

Teacher prepares a lot of hands-on activities for students to develop the skills. She also brings them out to the community by taking transport to the bakery to collect the biscuits.

5)      Arrange for social experiences and interactions

When the students are at the bakery they learn to communicate with people. They also have a chance to interact with the teachers when they are selling coffee.

6)      Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills

Teaching the different job role to each student, learning conversation skill and taking public transport.

7)      Develop their language

The coffee cart gives students the opportunity to be confidence using the vocabulary and communication skills they have learn in a F & B setting.

What I like:

The teacher has a build a very good rapport with the students and plan activities for each student base on where the child is at. She also created an environment where the students feel safe and wants to learn.

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From the Coffee Cart, I could see many ways in which the constructivist principles were used. The ones that struck me most are the following:-

Principle 1
The lesson allows the students to explore the different roles they could take up such as Greeter, Barista, and Cashier. It also allows them to make connections with people in and out of school.

Principle 4
Using their knowledge from prior classes (I assume) and previous observations, perhaps, they were able to execute their duties and operate the cart confidently.

Principle 5
The Coffee Cart is very unique and really allowed these students to have a hands-on experience. Instead of sitting the students down to study theories, they instead incorporated the cart for the students to learn to apply these job skills.

Reflection
I really liked the fact that they took the lesson outside of the classroom to a more practical setting. I feel they will be able to connect what they had studied to how it applies in real life. One area that I feel perhaps could be an add on would be for the teacher to facilitate a reflection perhaps once a month so that the students can ponder and think of ways to improve their cart operations.

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a) Teacher Sadie has incorporated the following constructivist principles in her 'Coffee Cart' project.

1. Learning is an active process
2. Assess and take note of their developments
3. Build schemas
4. Build on prior knowledge
5. Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding
6. Arrange for social and interaction experiences
7. Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities
9. Develop their language

She established strong partnership and trust with the parents. This allowed her to have a good understanding of each individual student's social and cultural backgrounds. Coffee is one of the common beverages in the community and this helped her to narrow down her options by tapping on their individual prior knowledge on the beverage. It helped to bridge the gap between her students and the school community.
She strengthen their existing knowledge on the beverage (eg. make and pour coffee) and identified each individual's strengths/ comfort zone by allocating manageable tasks ( taking orders, barrister, cashier etc) to each individual. She made sure that students were clear of their roles by writing the information on the whiteboard. Step-by-step instructions were provided and she briefed each of them properly before they start. Individual and collaborative activities were evident.
She accompanied them through every step of this 'Coffee Cart' project like  accompanying them to the local bakery, crossing the roads, taking public transportations and how to interact with peers, teachers, business owners  or strangers. These helped the group to develop language and social competencies which are critical life skills that they could apply in job employments. Inclusiveness is vital in community cohesiveness and  students felt that they were valued members of the society.

b)This project is a success story that proves to us that every child can learn. I like the fact the students develop confidence and social competencies as they embarked on the 'Coffee Cart' project.

Suggestion:
I would like to suggest that she could consider getting another team of students to partner her group or rotate the roles of the students. These could help to strengthen their social interactions and competencies.

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1) Learning should be an active process
- The teacher explained the objective of the coffee cart which was to learn about functional job skills, independence, responsibility.

2) Developmentally appropriate
- The coffee cart real life lesson allowed her students to develop age appropriate skills such as taking orders, preparing orders, pouring and serving coffee as well as money skills
- This would have been a lot less developmentally age appropriate if her students were younger.

3) Build Schemas
- The students had to learn to take public transport and this would involve taking the right bus, knowing how to indicate they were alighting, knowing where to alight and the path to the bakery.
- They also learnt how to collect the baked goods from the bakery and this is important because the students have to know the correct bakery to go into.

4) Arrange physical, concrete experiences
Though not shown in the video, the coffee cart would have been the teacher's way of allowing her students to apply previously learnt skills. This was also her way of letting her students be more included in the school community and the community beyond through the experience of managing the coffee cart.

5) Arrange for social experiences
- Interactions with the teachers test schemes - this is reflected by the students' knowledge of the individual teachers preferences and it also demonstrated deductive reasoning when the principal says the 2 extra brownies were not for her.

6) Develop their language
- The students had opportunities to develop their receptive understanding of spoken language. This was achieved through taking orders, passing them on to the one preparing, understanding comments made and questions asked by the teachers. They also gained comprehension skills as a result of their interaction with the teachers.
- Expressive language was also developed through the answering of questions and the responses given.

What I like
I liked how the teacher made learning an active process. She did not see their special needs as a limitation, instead it inspired her to find opportunities to help her students learn in an equally enriching way.

Suggestions
1) I would partner the local bakery that supplied the goods to allow the students some on the job training.
2) Take the coffee cart to the next level by allowing to students to run the coffee cart during school events as this would give them interaction opportunities with unfamiliar people
3) Identify a few students who have interest in food preparation to make their own baked goods. This would provide experience in making food and would increase their independence instead of having to rely on the bakery.
4) By preparing their own food, the students will in turn have to learn about budgeting and going to the supermarket to shop for supplies which would build on their prior knowledge and may disrupt their schemas.

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All constructivist principles were applied. The more evident ones are:
1. Learning as an active process - The students were given opportunities to explore and make connections by serving the school teachers and learning how to get around the neighbourhood with the teacher accompanying them.

2. Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities - The teacher assigned different tasks to different students who were ready to take on the different roles - who pushes the cart, who takes orders, who serves drinks, who collects money / gives the change.

3 and 4. Build schemas and disrupt schemas - The teacher helped the students gained knowledge about life skills such as taking a public transport, crossing the road safely at zebra crossings and how to talk to (safe) strangers.

5. Arrange physical, concrete experiences to learn about concepts and operations - The students get to learn about how teachers get their coffee / tea, what goes in to the coffee / tea, the drinks are hot, so how do you serve them, etc

6. Arrange for social experiences and interactions - The teacher and students would have discussions about what they did well or what they could have done better.

9. Develop their language - The students learn how to communicate with others to achieve their objectives, eg. convey the reason the students were at the bakery to collect the bakes or joke with the teacher

What was good in the video?
- Students given a sense of purpose to serve the school community.
- Students learning life skills so that they can be as independent as they can.

Suggestion:
Maybe the next step could be for the students to man a stall at the school fun fair where they could interact with people
outside the school community.

What was good in the video?

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Laura Fernandez (TG02) - Individual Reflection

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Laura Fernandez (TG02) - Individual Reflection

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a)       What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

From the video and in my opinion, Sadie Guthrie had utilized all at least 7 constructivist principles.  Constructivist Principle 1; She allowed the children the opportunity to explore, discover, create; making connections with people, ideas and concepts.   Constructivist Principle 2; Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate.  Constructivist Principle 3; Build Schemas on what they already know and think of making and serving coffee.  Constructivist principle 4; building on what they already know through lessons.  Constructivist Principle 5; allowing the children to have a hands-on experience by creating the “Coffee Cart”. Constructivist Principle 6; arranging a session outside of school so that the children can interact with “Safe strangers” within the community.  Constructivist Principle 7; by collecting money, you are challenging the child to a higher-level thinking as the child would have to give the exact change to the consumer.  Constructivist Principle 10; by performing all task assigned, the child’s language will be developed naturally, overtime.

When she assigned the task of a coffee cart, she worked with the children to get their developmental stages at hand so that when the children were ready, they will be able to carry out the task independently.

b) What do you like about the lesson? Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

I like that the teacher believed in her class and gave them the opportunity to be relevant.  She takes the time to analyse the different need the child has and worked towards scaffolding so that the children she undertakes will benefit from her as their teachers.  Sadie also gave the children an opportunity to put to practise what they had learn from her.  It was teamwork.  She taught them job skill, functionality skill, independence, responsibility and to be part of a greater school.

I also like the fact that she took it upon her to teach the children social interaction with safe strangers and that is one aspect where it does not apply to our conservative asian context.  Having said that, we do have a similar setting at Northlight school where a café like setting is run by the students at Northlight.  This teaches the children to be responsible, to have integrity when dealing with sensitive matters and to have the social interaction with others.

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Constructivist principles used were;

Principle 1.
Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people). The teacher gave them opportunities to explore when she brought them to the bakery to get the cakes.

Principle 2.
Developmentally appropriate: Teacher choose an activity based on their development stage. She did not choose something that is beyond her student’s scope.
Principle 5. Experiential and ‘real’ context. The teacher gave them the real experience of preparing the coffee and interacting with the “customer”

The lesson is very experiential and interactive. It is also heart-warming to see the teacher’s effort to make her SEN students feel part of the school community. Developing their confidence and making them know that they are a valued member of the school.

I would suggest expanding this project to the bigger community where students can meet up with unfamiliar faces and see the ‘real’ world outside. This will help to include, constructive principle 4 where students will be able to build on prior knowledge and learn and grow through a more real-world situation. This allowing for disequilibrium to occur thereby expanding their learning.

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Constructivist principles used by the teacher:

i)      Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people)

Teacher Sadie connected the class within the school & the community. She explained the purpose of the coffee cart. She gave each child a role with the coffee cart (job skills). Each child is able to make connections/interactions to the teachers when they came by to the coffee cart. Teacher Sadie also took the students out to the community to collect the baked good donation. Giving them a chance to explore the community (learning transportation and social skills).

ii)   Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate

I am sure Teacher Sadie has taken time to assess and develop the student’s ability and their strengths prior to assigning the roles when manning the coffee cart.

iii)  Build schemas – help them organize their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemas

Teacher Sadia had a plan listed on the board using the 5W & 1H. She elaborated on the different job roles and the timeline for coffee cart day.

iv)  Build on prior knowledge and disrupt schemas (disequilibrium) for learning and growth through experiences

Teacher Sadie took the students out to the community to collect the baked goods and taught them transportation skills, learning is taking place out of class and out of school. Tapping on their prior knowledge on traffic rules and social behaviour when they are out in the public.

v)    Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context

Teacher Sadie had arranged a very good experience with the coffee cart. Students in her class were known to all the teachers and the students were able to exhibit their abilities. They are also learning functional skills (interacting, listening, communicating, etc) while they are serving the teachers in a real context.

vi)  Arrange for social experiences and interactions –to talk about what they learnt; test schemes, help each other understand

Teacher Sadie allows social experience and interactions when the students picked up the baked goods in the community. She also “test” the students on how they should do social interaction with strangers, how to take the public transport.

vii)    Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities

Starting the coffee cart project is actually a step to challenge the students to be out of their comfort zone and learn new skills and reinforce their values, like responsibility. Teacher Sadie gave her students a chance to be out of the class and even out in the community to interact with strangers and staff of the school, this could be seen as a challenging activity for children with Special Needs.

viii)   Develop open-ended activities for them to construct knowledge and understanding

Coffee cart is an open ended activity. The students might not know what baked goods will be donated for the day, they do not know what the teachers and staff will order for the day too. Someone might come with a big note and the student will have to learn hoe to give back the correct change. Students will learn and understand that there might be changes in the environment and they will have to learn to embrace the change when it happens.

ix)       Develop their language (this provides access to knowledge, tools to think about the world and solve problems, means to regulate and reflect on their own thinking)

The different roles will allow the students to further hone their language as each person they meet will have different requests, they might also come with different notes and the student must learn how to problem solve if the cash is running out or a certain item is not available for sale. They might want to promote other baked goods which is left on their coffee cart.

x)    Provide time to reflect on experiences

Though not shown in the video, but from what Teacher Sadie said, they feel like “big man on campus” and “They really like it and feel important when they do it.” I guess, the students must have reflected and felt happy as they are being accepted by the school for who they are.

What I like?

I like the teacher’s idea of getting the students to participate in the coffee cart project. It helps them develop skills which will be useful when they go to a bigger community as they grow older.

Suggestions?

I think she can expand the project by getting another class to join hers so as to let the children learn how to work among other students who do not have special needs. She can also try rotating  roles among her students so that each can have a try and who knows, another skills is acquired.

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1 - Learning should be active process
She creates opportunities for her students to explore around the school and create connections with other teachers in the school. She also creates opportunity for the students to explore outside of their school compound by taking public transport to collect their bakes, so as to make them feel that they are too part of the community.

2 - Assess and take note of their stages of development
She assigned roles based on her students’ ability. These roles teaches them to be responsible and they take pride in their roles.

3 - Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations; hands-on activity
Knowing her students’ developmental stage and ability, having to come up with ‘Coffee Cart’ suits them the best as it requires them to be more hands-on which they are physically capable.

4 - Arrange for social experiences and interactions
Going around the school gives them the opportunity to create social experience and interactions with other people, especially to the teachers who do not teach them. This helps them to build up their confidence to communicate openly with other people whom they are not familiar with. At the same time, rapport were being built and they felt accepted in the community.

I love the teacher’s idea of having this ‘Coffee Cart’. To me, it is the best and important life skill that these students get to experience. Through this ‘Coffee Cart’, it opens up the mindset of others that these students with special needs can also be a valuable member of the community.

I would suggest the teacher to perhaps work with a cafe nearby the school to provide an internship for these students. This will create an opportunity for these students to feel how it is to work in the outside world and thus, enable them to interact with more people.

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1) Learning should be an active process -
Opportunities to allow her students to explore going out and onboard the bus to learn about transportation at the same time pick up what they need from the baker to start their Coffee Cart project. It gives students meaning to be part of the process of setting up their Coffee Cart project by sourcing their own materials.

2) Assess for developmentally appropriate task - teacher allocate roles for each pupil based on their capabilities from her own experience with the pupil. It is important to find out what is the baseline of the pupil without forcing the pupil to take on a task that he is unable to carry out. One pupil was see in the video to ask the bakery what he needed "to pick up the bakes".

This also taps on the principles of
3) Social experiences and interactions where capable students were giving opportunities to interact with strangers in public. Back in school, when the students were running their 'Coffee Cart' they were also given the opportunity to interact with more teachers as they prepare their orders. Not only does it help the student to open up but helped them transform their own school community. It allows every child to feel accepted and that they have a place in the school.
This evidence supports the principles on 4) Arrange physical, concrete experiences; experiential, hands-on activities; using real context, in this case the Coffee Cart project.

At the end of the video, teacher summarised a reflection for students not by asking how they are struggling to be accepted in the school community but more about how awesome they can be - constructivitist principles on 5) Providing time to reflect on experiences.

Suggestion?

I would suggest to the teacher that she should continue to do this every month to engage pupils in more social interaction with the school community. When the students see and interact more with other peers, they will understand one another better vice versa so as to build an inclusive school community.

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From the video, I could pick out that the teacher used these constructive principles.
1. Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people )
- When she brought her students out to collect baked goods, it allows them to make connections and explore the outside world in a safe environment.
2. Assess and take note of their stages of development and prior when designing activities and choosing content/curriculum (assess); developmentally appropriate
- When she came up with this idea, I am sure that it took a lot of time assessing her students' needs and capabilities as she has to make sure that they are able to take up the skills that they need to operate the coffee cart in school.
3. Arrange physical, concrete experiences (real or virtual) to develop an understanding of abstract concepts and operations (concrete operational); experiential, hands-on activities; use ‘real’ or authentic context
- When she came up with operating a coffee cart in school, she gave her students the opportunity to experience something that is out of classroom context. Operating the school cart also allows the students to develop better social skills and real-life skills.

I really liked her idea of the coffee cart because the first thing that came into my mind was that she believed in her students. Even when many were skeptical about her idea, she pushed for it and it worked out. I could see her students loving what they do and having a good time contributing back to the school.
One suggestion that I would give the teacher would be giving her students a chance to rotate their roles. I understand that these students have autism so it could be challenging for them to step out of their comfort zone as they do not like change which is why the change should not be sudden. She can give the students an opportunity to help their friend in another role so that they could get comfortable in the other role as well. She could also sit down and go through with them the changes that will be happening so that it will not be too sudden for them. Changing their roles here and there could expand their knowledge and develop more skills.

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a) This teacher has actually used all the 10 Constructivist Principles. For example, bringing her students on public transportation to collect the baked goods from the local bakery is arranging real-life experiences for her students to develop understanding on how to take a bus, having social etiquette in public areas and making conversations with strangers.

b) I think this teacher's idea is wonderful. My suggestion would be to let her students invite some of their friends who are non-SEN students to join in this coffee cart programme so that her students can learn to work with non-SEN students and vice versa.

Perhaps the non-SEN students can join in at a later stage so that this teacher's students will have a chance to learn and do things at their own pace. Once her students have mastered the skills taught, the other students can join in and this time, her students can be the ones teaching the other students how things are done in their coffee cart programme (e.g. how to make coffee, how they manage their budget and money etc). The more opportunities there are for students to work with one another, the less stigmatised students with SEN will be.