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My initial reaction to the Please Excuse Me From Learning by Robert Schmatz brought the visual of the students that attend my school. The students I see day to day come from different backgrounds and family histories. Some of these students come from families where the parents did not graduate and feel like they will follow their parents course. The students have a variety of different disabilities ranging from learning disabilities to ASD. One student I had recently reminds me of the student in the poem. The student doesn’t feel like they need school, they wear glasses, but don’t feel like they need them. One day the student was having a bad day and tore up my classroom by tossing chairs and desks, grabbed my lanyard and tried to pull me to the floor (thank you break away lanyards). The student was suspended, but the next day the student wrote me a letter in my virtual classroom and called me to apologize about his behavior in the classroom and explain how he felt about school. This student remind me of the poem because he felt that he couldn’t succeed in school, that he was stupid and would never be able to accomplish anything because he has a temper and doesn’t know what school can do for him. When he returned to school the following week and came to my class, he thought I was going to be mad and yell, but was welcomed with a high five and welcome back. The student in the poem also reminds me of myself when I was going through the public school system, feeling stupid, feeling alone, feeling misunderstood, and asking for help in their own way. It reminds me that we don’t all ask for help in the same way, we feel ignored and scared that asking for help in the simplest way is the wrong way. Now that I am the teacher, I notice this even more, that some students as for help in ways that are not noticeable and some students have backgrounds and pasts that are misunderstood and bold them back.

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·         Reflect on your thinking, learning, and work in this class.

During this class, I was able to develop a further understanding to the process in which ELL students develop their understanding of a second language. This also allowed me to process different learning styles, strategies, and concepts that have been used in different settings. I hope to be able to use some of these strategies within my lesson and incorporate new strategies to benefit my students.

·         What were you most proud of?

I am most proud of the new strategies that I have read about and how I can possibly incorporate these ideas into my classroom. The second thing I am proud of is how I use the feedback from every evaluation and student in order to develop new strategies to benefit the students in my classroom and provide them with a better education.

·         Where did you encounter struggle in this class, and what did you do to deal with it?

The main struggle that came with this class was the amount of work due in such as little amount of time. I was working on two different classes, while working a summer job. In order to overcome this struggle, I carried an agenda that had times to complete the work and a read the different reading during my breaks and free time. Keeping an agenda and using positive reinforcements allowed me to stay on task more often and complete the work effectively.

·         Where did you meet success, and who might benefit most from what you’ve learned along the way? How can you share this with them?

Working at a school where most of the students are from minority backgrounds was a challenge. The strategies taught in the class about the student backgrounds was informative and reinforced my beliefs that teaching is more than teaching new curriculum. Learning about the students different cultures and community will help all of my students and possibly raise their motivation to work hard. I can share this information with the students by responding more to their needs based on their cultural backgrounds and using different strategies to reinforce their language acquisition.

·         What connections to prior learning did you make?

When teaching math, I always give a pretest to the students in order to gauge their prior knowledge of the topic. If the students are struggling, I will give the students models on papers to follow and use this method to check their understanding of other concepts like addition and subtraction. When teaching new strategies, I reinforce the old concepts by checking for understanding. Example: When teaching adding and subtracting fractions, I check for multiplication facts and addition/ subtracting skills.

·         What impacted you the most about CLDE students?

CDLE students impacted me the most by how they overcome challenges and how they react to different strategies. Some of the students are a challenge to motivate to succeed and learn, but when I see their accomplishments and they see that school is not a chore makes me want to keep working hard. A student I had my first year would ditch only my class, the second year after taking a chance, started to learn in my class. She started to ditch all her classes, but mine because she saw that she was learning and started to understand why I was hard on her the previous year.

·         How did I help you in this class? What can I do tomorrow to help you more?

You helped me in the class by offering sessions to review the text for the exams. When reading so many articles and texts, it is a challenge to comprehend what one has read. When the classes are accelerated, the comprehension is even more challenging. When offering the review times, it helped drivee me to search the text to find answers and gave me direction. I was wondering if the students could have a discussion time to review the text without the exam questions in order to discuss what we learned and what we found interesting.

·         What are six adjectives that best describe this class?

Difficult, taxing, educational, enlightening, informational, tiresome

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This program will improve the educational success for this student because of the different strategies that can be used to support this student. “Curriculum adaptations need to be an integral part of daily teaching if each CLDE student's needs are to be effectively addressed in the classroom” (Baca, 2004, p.281). The different strategies and adaptions that were prevalent in Chapter 11 will enhance my teaching methods to best meet the needs of the students. The adaptions and strategies can be used to make changes to the curriculum and develop new ideas based on the feedback from the students and evaluators. Using these strategies and feedback, will enhance the my lesson and in return it will increase the rate of success for the students in my classroom.

A new title that represent the success the student will have after receiving support and having these strategies in place would be “Please Excuse Me While I Succeed”. The student will develop the motivation to continue their education and see their weaknesses as strengths because they are being guided and included within the classroom effectively and their development is shared by their peers within the classroom.

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-Achieve. National Center on Educational Outcomes. (2014) Considerations fo Special Education Assessment Systems. https://www.achieve.org/files/Considerations_Special_Education_Assessment_Systems.pdf

-Baca, L., & Cervantes, H. T. (2004). The bilingual special education interface. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.

-Calderón, M. E., & Minaya-Rowe, L. (2003). Designing and implementing two-way bilingual programs. A step-by step guide for administrators, teachers and parents. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

-Colorin Colorado. What are BICS and CALP? (2019, May 10). Retrieved July 29, 2020, from https://www.colorincolorado.org/faq/what-are-bics-and-calp

-Colorin Colorado. (2015, December 01). Helping Parents Become Partners. Retrieved July 29, 2020, from https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/helping-parents-become-partners

-Finley, T. (2014, January 02). 8 Strategies for Teaching Academic Language. Retrieved July 30, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-strategies-teaching-academic-language-todd-finley

-Jobes, N., Hawthorne, L. (2018). INFORMAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE CLASSROOM. Focus on Exceptional Children. 9. 10.17161/fec.v9i2.7128.

-Hall, N. (2019, April 03). 4 Things to Understand About Education Consulting. Retrieved July 29, 2020, from https://www.edelements.com/blog/4-things-to-understand-about-education-consulting

-•Muniz, J. (2019a). Culturally responsive teaching: A 50 state survey of teaching standards. Retrieved from https://d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net/documents/Culturally_Responsive_Teaching_2019-03-28_130012.pdf

-Persaud, C. (2020, January 02). Instructional Strategies: The Ultimate Guide. Retrieved July 30, 2020, from https://tophat.com/blog/instructional-strategies/

Zigmond, N., Silverman, R. (1984) Informal assessment for program planning and evaluation in special education, Educational Psychologist, 19:3, 163-171, DOI: 10.1080/00461528409529292

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The type of informal assessments that are used on a student to determine areas of strength and concerns varies depending on the needs the student is showing. The main informal assessments I use on a regular basis is writing samples, various level comprehension questions, math probes, and oral reading fluency assessments. These assessments cover most of the areas in which a student is usually found eligible for a learning disability. The writing sample will give me information about the student grammar usage, vocabulary, and the skills that are needed in order to develop an essay. The comprehension assessments allow me to determine the possible grade level of the student prior to referral for evaluation, the math probes will have a various different levels of math ranging from second grade onwards to motivate the student by seeing questions they know and motivating the to try harder. The oral reading assessment will let me know how the student reads and vocabulary knowledge to better understand their phoneme and decoding skills.

It is important to have this information because in order to have a student be evaluated for special education services, the team must review student work samples to determine if there is a need. “Assessment for instructional planning and assessment for the evaluation of pupil progress are both central to the concept of an individualized educational program” (Zigmon, 2009). It is also important to have examples of the assessment for use in order to compare progress. “These concerns suggest the need for a model of assessment which is broad enough to encompass assessment of relevant environmental characteristics, that can serve as a basis for effective instructional planning, and that can satisfy accountability demands by measuring pupil progress toward instructional goals” (Jobes, 2019). The assessments share information about the student progress in the general education classroom and shows areas they need more support and areas of strengths. Each assessment that was listed previously can be used to show if there is a possibility of a learning disability. The challenge for using informal assessments for a possible referral is collecting data on behaviors as some state have different requirements in order to start collecting data on behaviors before a teacher can start collecting it.

The results of the informal assessment showed that the student has a deficiency in writing because the sentences were short and was not able to produce paragraph. The student also show he may require help with reading comprehension as he showed he could answer questions correctly at a 4th grade level.

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When collaborating as a team to develop a program for the student, it is a good idea to have a consultant available for the meeting. “Many group projects are based on efficiency, dividing labor to create a product in the most effective way possible” (Finley, 2014). Breaking down the meeting and giving everyone a part of the development will lead to development of ideas, respect, and motivation from every team member to build a plan to benefit the student. The general education teacher would share work samples from the classroom. The bilingual team will share what type of interventions can be used in the classroom. The special education teacher can share accommodations and modifications that ma benefit the student. The parent can share concerns at home and strategies that have been working at home in order to give the team ideas of strategies and interventions. When collaborating as a team, the program developed can focus on the goals that will be developed, how these goals will be met and what strategies will be used to meet these goals. The team will use cultural factors, academic levels, language development levels to drive all of this development.

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The procedure that would be appropriate for communicating with a parent that does not speak English is both simple and challenging. School and district have different resource available depending on the language that the parents speak fluently as well as the cultural background of the families. The first step to communicating with a parents that does not speak English is “Find a fully bilingual interpreter” (Calderón, 2003). It is best to have an adult that is fluent in English and the parents native language in order to communicate fluently. In some cases, the student is able to communicate and interpret, but this may lead to a lesser motivation from the parent due to embarrassment. When using a bilingual interpreter, it is a conversation between adults and empowers the parent. If we are in the evaluation process, the interpreter may assist the parent to complete paperwork if necessary. When communicating through the student, the parent is less likely to share concerns that they may have as well as less likely to share information the school may need. When using the interpreter, the parent can share concerns from the home and community, share cultural factors that may be limiting the students progress, supports that work in the home, and other strategies for the team to use in the school.

I have a file on my computer that has informal questions for the parents that get is passed out during meet the teacher. Currently the form is available in 3 languages. It was translated by bilingual teachers in order to maintain grammar and professionalism. It asks the parents what strategies are used at home t motivate the students and asking some background knowledge of the family.

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Considerations

1. Cultural Background- Family Beliefs and standards

2. Education Background- Progress with the curriculum

3. English Language Proficiency- What languages are they proficient in. English Language Proficiency

4. Family Language- What language is used at home

5. Educational Neglect- Lack of classroom support, Lack of interventions,

6. Work Samples- Sample of the students classroom work

7. Previous Interventions- What interventions were previously used

8. Family Concerns- What are concerns he family has about the students development

9. School Concerns- What concerns have been monitored at the school setting

10. Schooling History (Schools attended)

11. Behavior Concerns- What is the student doing within the school setting that is concerning

12. Physical Development- When the student started walking, physical impairments

The best possible assessment process for assessing CDLE students is to determine the concerns and which concerns are related to the cultural background of the family. “the perspectives of the students who receive special education services should be taken into account” (Achieve, 2014). This is saying that based on the student language, cultural, and concerns. The team should determine the correct assessments to be used and the results of the assessments should be interpreted based on the student background.

The student described has a bilingual specialist that would give the academic achievement assessment in their first language in order to eliminate the language barrier for the student. When the cognitive assessment was given, the evaluator included sub notes about social norms from the students culture in the results in order to get more efficient results. The family did share behavior concerns, the team sent home protocols to evaluate the student based on social norms and made side notes to share what the cultural concerns were present. The results of the assessment showed the acculturation of the student, which the parent was concerned, but was reaffirmed that this was progress.