a) 1. Sadie Guthrie created opportunities for the students to
explore, discover, create and make connections. 

- A visual concept map encompassing the “how”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “why” questions about the learning experience was created and displayed in the classroom. This provided a framework of the learning experience which in turn enabled the students to better understand what to expect.

- She encouraged her students to apply what they have learnt by interacting with people outside the school context. For example, the greeter’s role is to greet people, introduce himself and state the purpose of the visit.

 

2. Sadie Guthrie assessed and took the students’ stages of development into consideration prior to designing the activities. 

- She acknowledges the importance of planning in each grade level.

- She illustrated and simplified the “how” question by breaking it down into smaller steps (first, then, next, after, next, last). This in turn enabled the students to follow through the steps systematically at their own pace. 

 

3. Sadie Guthrie exposed students to hands-on activities and used authentic context to enhance the students’ learning. 

- She brought the students to a bakery in the community.

- She allowed the students to engage in hands-on activities such as cutting the cookies, pouring coffee, taking orders from teachers in the school, catering to the orders, serving the teachers prior to and during the learning experience.

 

4. Sadie Guthrie arranged for social experiences and interactions.

- She encouraged her students to interact with teachers whom they have not met in the school.

 

5. Sadie Guthrie paid attention to developing the students’ higher-level thinking skills through engaging them in intellectually challenging activities.

- She seized the opportunity to teach the students about transportation skills as they travel on a bus to the bakery in the community.

- She played the role of an observer and encouraged her students to interact with the “strangers” in the community.

 

b) I like how the students are given different roles to play throughout the learning experience. I also like how the teacher makes a point to play the role of a facilitator rather than a director. While it is a brilliant idea to take pictures of the students engaging in their roles prior to the actual learning experience, I think the teacher could enhance the students’ learning by taking pictures of the students during the actual learning experience, and then creating a journal for each student. The teacher could also help to scribe the students’ verbal responses about their experiences. To stretch the student’s ability, I thought it would be good if the teachers can bring their “mobile coffee cart” out of the school context where students are given the opportunity to apply what they have learnt in school to the wider community,

E.g.: The teacher applied what she had taught the class in real life situation. For instance, after teaching them the definition of the word cashier, barista and related terms, the students will be going around selling coffee to the staff and they get to experience the authentic context of it. Hands on activities of making coffee etc. 

E.g.: The teacher kept her instructions short and simple and break it into steps when she wrote it on the board. First >Then>Next>After 

 

E.g.: She gave them an opportunity to explore and discover by teaching them how to take a public transport to the bakery. So that they know where to get the bakes before they can sell it to the school community. This gives them the idea that the bakes do not just suddenly appear  out of nowhere for them to sell it. 

E.g.: She showed and taught them what the job description are and what each job does. (on the board) Encourage them to speak up and communicate with the teachers in school. 

 

By getting the students to go around doing the coffee cort project, the teacher is encouraging social interaction between the community and school staff. This project is achievable because each of them did their part well and help each other. 

 

(b) What I like about this lesson is that the teacher makes learning beyond the classroom and get the students to experience real world situation and at the same time teach them to be independent,  learn functional skills and social interactions with the community/strangers.

Another thing that I like is that she makes them feel important, accepted, belonged and that they have a place. By having this project, the school staff also know each student’s abilities, personality, and name. 

The kids were able to go out of their comfort zone to do something with the help of their teacher. As they do it everyday it becomes a repetitive activity which can be easier after many attempts. Their social interaction also improves as they get to meet different people. They also gain confidence when socializing with people outside and inside of school. when they move out of school they might not feel demotivated and intimidating.

B)      I like that the teacher uses real life experience for the kids which boost their confidence level and ready to face the real word outside.  

One theory that was implemented by Sadie, namely Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural development focusing on the zone of proximal key aspects. Sadie recognises her student’s abilities and knows their profile well in order for her to plan or design the teaching for each student. She also sees the potential in them and took the opportunity to expand their potential knowledge by designing and having the “mobile coffee cart” project as an experiential hands on learning. Through this project, she is also able to incorporate other teaching skills to address responsibility, social skills, community mobility and functional skills, to name a few. 

She also uses the scaffolding element, by assisting students with their learning by clearly laying out the purpose of the project, assigning each students to various roles, what exactly their roles and tasks are and the breakdown process of how they are going to proceed. 

Sadie was clear with the purpose and the breakdown of the process for the coffee cart project. The project idea is refreshing and it gives a vast opportunity for students to learn out of the typical classroom setting allowing students to experience an authentic environment for the coffee making role. The project also touches on several other skills that is best taught and experienced in an authentic setting such as social skills and community mobility when her students had the opportunity to collect food items from the bakery and interacting with the people in the community. The project also creates more opportunities for her students to work together as a team as each role that each student holds, is equally important to make the project a successful one. This project is meaningful and empowering for her students as they are able to participate and interact with the community. 

She taps on the students’ ability and assign them with the task and stretch their higher level of thinking through more difficult task. She created a hands-on experience for the students such as cutting the cookies, selling the cookies, making coffee and taking orders. 

There is also social interaction where the students took the bus, got their orders from the bakery and talk to the safe strangers on their journey. The students also communicate with teacher they never met before in their school.

b)
I like that the lesson is clearly designed and executed. I like that whatever is taught in class is brought into real life lesson. The learning did not just stop in the classroom but it was extended to the school and community. I also realized that the teacher was calm and give time for the students to learn and do their task.

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

b) 
I loved how the teacher wanted to bring the idea to the school so that her students can have more opportunity to become part of the greater community within the school. Her love for her students by building the rapport with each and students demonstrates her relationship with them. She gave students the opportunity to learn functional skills which can improve their well being. It also improves their social interaction with everyone in school. I am proud of what the teacher is doing and if possible, she can have Coffee Cart to be part of their fund raising to get the public aware that students are capable if given the opportunity.

I would like to see a leadership role in the group taken up by perhaps, an older student. This leader could take up the role of a “manager”, overseeing the operation, handling misunderstandings, or providing better customer service. This could also promote development higher level thinking skills and intellectually challenging activities. 

b)What do you like about the lesson? Do you have  any suggestions for the teacher?
I like that the application of the skills is authentic and culturally meaningful - it provides the students' families some knowledge of where their child can go beyond high school. Social interactions will help with their communication and language skills as well.

Moving forward, the teacher can use these senior students as the MKO to teach younger students to take over the coffee cart.

b) I feel that the way this coffee cart experience was scaffolded very well. Guthrie exhibited structured teaching and introduced the expectations for each of their roles (cashier, barista etc). This allowed the students to have an idea of what they need to do and gave them the responsibility to focus on their task. With a clear understanding of their roles and a clear physical organisation of the coffee cart the students were able to carry out their tasks independent but collectively as well (working/ moving together as a group). 

 

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

 

The students are exploring beyond their classrooms. They go out in the community where they take the public transports and visit the local bakery. They get to discover the surroundings and make connections with different people. 

 

ii)  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

                     

Getting the students to have their own coffee cart in school gives them the opportunity to take charge of their own learning. They are responsible for taking orders and making drinks for the customers. It creates an authentic experience for the students instead of learning in the classroom. 

 

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

 

When the students go out in the community, it increases their social awareness based on the social experiences and interactions they had with people outside of school. They get to experience and witness for themselves which helps them to understand how things worked. 

 

b)  I liked that she create opportunities for the students to explore beyond the classroom. She understood that special needs students requires concrete experiences for them to understand concepts better. She provides them with authentic experience where they learn how to live in the community such as how to take the public transport and go to different areas in the community. The students learnt about directions and interactions with people around them. It also create an awareness for the public about people with special needs. Having them to have their own coffee cart gives them a sense of responsibility and also to showcase that students with special needs are also able to work and interact well with others.

-        She give opportunity to students to become part of the greater school community via the café cart.

-        She built a common ground to the students so they can communicate to public easier

-        Each student given task to have responsibility & build up their functional skills

-        They out to public on their own, take public transport, then they learnt transportation skills to take them to a bakery where they put in their skills of interacting to public/social interaction with strangers

-        Café cart is also to establish the community relationship with the school so the students displayed productive and contributing members of the school. This means inclusivity of special needs students in the society

-        Every child feels accepted via this learning experience.

-        Through this learning concept, all the teachers in the can get to know the students better.

-        When students know they have a sense of belonging to the school, they become more charismatic

-        They feel important and able to accomplished their role well

-        Students learning life skills to move forward and the teacher believe in them. Students with disabilities were able to do tasks/job well when they are trained or equipped with the skills well. With skills, they can overcome the challenges.

-        Suggestions: Since her students able to do their tasks well, perhaps try to bring them to another new bakery or place. This is to give students new opportunity to use the same skills but adapting to a new place/environment. 

Miss Sadie Guthrie way of teaching is to expose to the student’s real world skills through getting them to understand how the concept of the operating the coffee mobile cart with the use of mock up trolley and learning how to operate the coffee machine, prepare coffee or tea and how to serve customers patronising them. This gives them the opportunity to gain independence as they learn about the functionality of how the business operates in real world context. It also allows them to take ownership of the job assigned to them. Students learn to be responsible for the roles that has been assigned to them. I would say that Miss Sadie uses Vygotsky’s socialcultural theory as she suits the process of learning for the students in authentic real-world context where students get to expose themselves to carrying their role. This also allows them to interact socially where students will get to use language they gained through their learning and thoughts. Through this, students will then feel motivated to learn and this is also a way for them to feel belonged to the large community even though at the start, it will take a while for them to get used to the operation proper. At the end of the day, students feel a sense of accomplishment having to be given the opportunity to serve real customers and also be given the opportunity to serve, to interact and get more personal with the customers patronizing them. 

I like that she exposes the students to real life contexts outside of the classroom where students also learn to build on their social skills. One of it is also teaching her students on transportation skills as they learn to go around on public transportation to get the goods from the nearby baker. This also creates opportunity for her students to interact more with the strangers as they get to build their social skills by having conversations with people they met along the way. I also like that she scaffolds the different stages of operating the mobile coffee cart with given roles like being the cashier, the person making the coffee, how to greet customers. She focuses more on giving them time to adapt as they learn to suit themselves to the routine. As a result, these students were given the opportunity to blend together with the larger community from the school. Her students felt motivated to be able to serve and use the skills that was taught to them showing the other people how awesome they can be regardless of what conditions they are having. 

1.     Opportunities to explore, discover, making connections (concepts, ideas, people)

2.     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

Explanation for Point 1 & 2 is the starting up and executing the coffee cart initiative. It is an excellent way for not only the peers or staff to see the potential of the students with SEN but also an excellent way for students with SEN to build self confidence and truly believe in their abilities. This Point 1 & 2 builds on learner is passive, learns by external processes and also show connectivity, where the learner is self-direction by communicating with the teachers as an example, sharing of information of what is available in the coffee cart today etc.

This video also really stresses the importance of another one more thing I learnt yesterday in module 109, that is it is important to focus what can be done rather what cannot be done in terms of the abilities of the students with SEN. 

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

Having opportunities to teach and learn transport taking, communicating to people in the bakery  in a social setting – social interaction, are weaved into daily activities, which is essential for the child’s developmental growth and self independence when they step out of school. This shows constructiveness, where the students build on personal experience, taking the transport and communicating with people.

b)     I love the way the teacher infused functional skills in learning and creating real time experiences for the students. She has created an opportunity for the staff and peers to see the children with SEN without the tinted lens. That is beautiful. An advocate for the children with SEN, truly inspirational.

I would probably suggest to the teacher to go one mores step further to run a stall in the canteen or a push cart for charity drive as well. So the kids can also learn how to be more enterprising and also learn how to help the community as well. 

The teacher provided physical and concrete experience by setting up Coffee Cart. The pupils will be able to learn the concept of operating a stall and the process involved with it; like obtaining the products, transporting it back to school and actual transaction. Within that, it also provided the pupils with concept of transportation by travelling to and from a point in a bus. These relate to the pupils living normally within society. 

She also facilitated the pupils to build their schemas by assigning them roles. As they performed each task, each of them was assimilating knowledge then accommodating new ones through the help of the teacher. They were also exposed to interactions with ‘More Knowledgeable others’ like teachers and the principal. 

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

I admired how she emphasized that she does planning for each pupil. This allowed her to evaluate her pupil’s baseline and develop appropriate activities for them. It also provided the pupils to interact and build their communication skills to allow access to knowledge and regulate their thinking.

As a suggestion, Ms Sadie may want to appoint a leadership role within coffee cart when the pupils are ready. This position will help to build negotiation skills and ownership of actions contributing to a positive society. 

The coffee cart activity is a fine example how students with special needs can learn to experience and adapt in real world situation and also love the teacher scaffold and break down tasks into smaller bits in order to help her students perform each task properly. This activity also gives the students a sense of  ownership and belonging to the bigger school community.

 

While on the way to the coffee joint, they will take the public transportation. This allows them to actually mingle with society and discover more of the world out there. Some of them may seldom have the chance to do that. By bringing the students out, they get to experience first how the workers interact with customers, examples: what are the techniques and words to say. 

 

 The students are assured that they are an integral part of the community and they feel important. 

By having Coffee cart, it helps improve the community involvement with students with SEN and also give opportunities to the students for the real-life world. They then discovered a lot of things by themselves through these connections.

 

The teacher taught them responsibilities and making them feel happy being part of the community. The students can show people what they are capable of.

 

The tasks were well designed and well thought of as the tasks and doable and enjoyable for the students. She already listed down the duties of each person and matched them according to what they are good at. She broke down the tasks into simple doable steps for the students to follow.

The tasks and instructions are differentiated. These steps enabled the students to be focused and be clear of their roles and responsibilities.

 

The coffee club provided the students with the opportunities to experience for themselves what is it like to work in a real-life setting. It prepares them of what to come in the future when they enter the working world.

They were given chances to present their feelings and thoughts after their coffee club experiences.

 

While working at the coffee club, the students get to interact with other people and that helped them to develop their language and speaking skills. They are reflective when talking to people and help them be a part of the society. 

 

I like that her ideas and lesson are all well planned and thought of. She scaffolded the students well and made them very confident. Teachers from other classes then knew each and everyone of them better. It was also heartening to see the community being so supportive of them.

 

The students in the group are of different ethnic background and levels, thus allowing the students to mingle and model others; working stronger as a team.

b)      The Coffee Cart Project enables the students to experience and learn valuable life skills, example, social interactions skills, supply chain management skills, taking transport, financial literacy. She allows them to share their thoughts, let their voices heard and opinion matters. I like that the activity allows the public and the school to see the strengths and not their disabilities. It was not shown in the video, but I would like to do a round-robin so that the students will get to try the other roles as well.

I like that her lesson offers her students to experience real world skills and an entire school about compassion and independence. It not only teaches skills but also values among students to be inclusive with SENs. It is very inspiring to see her providing knowledge with patience, encouragement and strong beliefs that her SENs are also capable in doing things that a normal person may do simply. They just need more time and effort than the others.

As a suggestion, she may provide reward for the task these students have done to encourage and motivate them to do when they are on their own. This is also to affirm them they are no different than their other peers and that they are equally if not better than the rest. 

 

 

I like that such a simple activity could promote social interaction with other teachers and the community. It helps them learn about independence and a sense of belonging to the community. They gain confidence and feel important. They pick up job skills, transportation skills as well as conversational skills. 

 

A suggestion I would give is to go beyond the coffee cart initiative and branch out to other things such as the arts (e.g. showcasing a play, where they will gain presentation skills) or having people from the community come regularly to teach them new things such as cooking or gardening.

Students will learn functional skill, navigation, when travelling to the supplier's location to collect the food. 

Involving students in social interactions especially for waiter/waitress because they need to take orders from customers.

Since all customers are educators, they will be able to have conversions with students with one of the goals to create a positive learning environment. 

Students will find a sense of belonging and sense of purpose due to what they are doing and in turn increases their self confidence. 

As a result, students will interact within the sociocultural environment which is beneficial in developing their higher mental functions.

b) Consider including technology into coffee cart project by having customers ordering through a smart device (eg ipad).

Students will then have to process the payment using the same/another device (eg ipad/cash register) to provide the correct change or charging to the credit card and even providing receipt to simulate real-life transaction.

b) I like how the student’s benefit holistically due to this initiative. They learn skills that are transferable to their daily lives. Such as greeting, travelling in public transportation, interacting with shop vendors and finance. The student’s self-esteem and self-worth also increases with these interactions that take place. The teacher is doing an amazing job in making a positive impact in her students’ lives. 

b) The teacher really made the students feel that they belong, that they are important. Coffee Cart also provides opportunity for the students to experience a bit of the working world.

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

The teacher is inspiring, caring to make the students feel accepted and a sense of belonging. She brings out the best in individual students' personalities, knowledge and abilities. As such, this will build students' confidence, motivation and resilience levels. The amazing part of the assimilation to accomodation process is experiential and the students will remember more and embed as long term fond memories.

b)    This educator is thinking long range and thus working with families on close terms, they are genuinely concerned about these students’ future, life after school, how to play a part in contributing in the real world. Do they have the required social capabilities and life skills that allow them to proceed to their next stage in life? Will they be able to find their interest and sustain themselves in the long term? What I admire about the educator, is the positive and close rapport she has with these students and she also shows systematic, organised in thinking and planning out for these students. In fact, no role is too small, as all are working as one team, each plays an important role, this is an important collaborative skill. I am sure even before tasks are assigned, the teacher would have interviewed and assessed the student’s capabilities and interest. To students, it may seem daunting about interacting with strangers, but the teacher gave explicit instructions (5W1H, roles assigned etc) and explained the rationale such as independence, responsibility, giving back to community, so they feel confident they are playing an important role, no one is a lone island. They support one another. It is important for the teacher and students to have a weekly review and sharing on their experiences and if there are problems that arise, they can bring up and discuss on how to resolve the issues. Weekly check-in to see their progress. A rewards chart to monitor their behaviour, reinforce their confidence and self-esteem. Parents can also step in, as customers or help out for a day, so that they can see how accomplished and responsible their child can be and create a closer parent-child relationship. I am sure there may be teachers or strangers who may not know these students or be wary of them, but using this coffee cart service, people will get to interact socially with them and understand that they are all part of our society and they want to belong and contribute, making a difference.

-        Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections

-        Build Schemas – help them organize their experiences and knowledge into mental models or schemas

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

b)     I like the teacher, Ms Sadie empowering her students to fulfil their task such as asking the staff at the bakery, managing the coffee cart, handle the orders and payments and providing good customer service. She also creates real life experiences and opportunities for her students to improve their social and life skills which will benefit them later.

 

Suggestion. 

Since the coffee cart is a success, maybe she can explore the idea of having a physical store outside school catering to the public and other members of society as their actual customers. They will be able to learn and improve the sets of skills which they may use when they step into the working world.  

(b)  What I liked about the lesson is that it is out of classroom learning. The real, authentic and experiential learning that take place throughout the activity gave great opportunity for the students to grow in their learning by applying what they have learnt. This creative process allowed the students to be part of the greater school community and mostly, it made them feel important. It also give the students the autonomy to work independently and also as a team player. My only suggestion for teacher Sadie is to have the students try out all the roles, different day, different role. So everyone will have equal chances.

b.     Her lessons are practical and are designed to prepare students for lifelong skills. Yet, she did not take away the joy of learning in a school setting from them. Guthrie may want to explore extending her students’ reach to the community by emplacing them in retail outlets for more authentic experience and exposure.

b) I liked that students taught in a more developmentally appropriate manner where they learned knowledge to work towards a working life in the future. The teacher taught the information for each aspect (travelling etc) beforehand, allowing students to categorize the information. She then brought them into the field to assimilate new information acquired from real-life scenarios into pre-taught categories. Students were also taught to interact positively with strangers and adults.

B) I think the coffee cart initiative is a brilliant idea! It is a lesson beyond the classroom. The teacher focuses on leveraging on their capabilities rather than their disabilities. It allows the pupils the opportunity to learn many different skills which proved that the pupils are capable to contribute actively to society as well. It is also working towards teaching them to be independent learners. I feel it gives them a boost to their self-esteem especially when they know they have done well with their respective duties handling the coffee cart. 

 

b) I really like how her lesson is student-centered and how she was able to create such an engaging and functional learning experience for her students in a safe environment. It was evident that her students really enjoyed the experience and they grew from it as they gained some prior experience of how it is like to be working in the F&B industry. As she allowed her students to be more involved in the community, people around gained awareness and also learnt how to interact with PWDs. 

Suggestions: 

Sadie can provide a form of assessment to check for her student’s understanding by allowing them to collect the baked goods and run the coffee cart all by themselves without her supervision.

It would also be a greater experience for her students to also sell the food in the community (to the public) and not just to the teachers in the school. This is so that the students will have an even more authentic experience of working in the F&B sector as they learn how to interact with people whom they are not very familiar with and probably also learn how to problem solve and deal with difficult situations. 

The teacher also created out of classroom activity where she brings the students out of school to get bakes good at a local bakery. She taught them transportation skills and social interaction skills with people as well as money skills. 

b)     I like how every student are involved with the coffee cart project and every student has a different role to play. With great teamwork, the whole process will be a smooth one. The teacher explained beforehand in detailed before executing the whole idea of the coffee cart so that the students will understand what they are supposed to do. The whole role play makes the students feel important and have the sense of accomplishment. We should see the child’s ability and potentials in all aspects. 

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

·          I could see the Teacher creating more opportunities for the students to become a part of the greater school community and making connections with other Teachers in the school when using the coffee cart.

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

·         The Teacher looked beyond on the students’ future and planned on the job skills for the coffee cart to get the students to be independent. It is more like what are the skills that you do have that you are going to use to move forward.

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: 

·         Getting students to step out in the community such as to use the public transportation and collect the snack from the bakery. This allows the students to have social interactions in culturally authentic settings creating social awareness in these students.  

 

b)      I like how the teacher created community within the school that enabled students to discover their abilities and personalities using functional skills in a culturally authentic context. She looked beyond and created opportunities for students to become a part of the greater school community. Getting her students to have social awareness, she assisted students to use the public transportation and have social interactions with the public. While introducing the job skills, she scaffold the details of the skills well and added instructional steps for each skills (e.g. How to take order) for the students to be independent and responsible of their role. This makes the students feel accepted. My suggestions would be getting students to alternate the different roles and they could also try this in a different setting like bakeries or have push carts during an event in school.

What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

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

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

##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

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

The lesson allows the students to feel that they are part of society, and make them think they can interact with others, contribute to the community in their way.

The teacher can further improve the program in the following way:

b) I like her idea on the ‘Coffee Cart’ project. The learning experience is authentic and gives students a sense of belonging in the community. They can actually contribute to the community and recognize their individual strength despite their disabilities. They managed to overcome their anxiety and gain confidence when they communicated and interacted with strangers. This project indeed creates a lot of opportunities for the students to achieve little successes in many aspects of life. I am thinking Sadie Guthrie could actually further enhance their learning. She could allow them to switch their roles and encourage peer coaching. Keeping a journal or sketch book help students to take down their learning journey and reflect on their experiences.  

(i) Learning is active process --- making connections of money skills and cashiering (making connections) 

(vi) Arrange for concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract concepts --- involve the students in “real work” of collecting baked good and making coffee for teachers. Real interactions, contributing to their school community.

(ix) Develop their language --- team work amongst themselves, talking to customers

What do I like about the lesson?

It promotes continued learning and is pitched at the right level for students to grow in learning functional vocational skills. The students feel enabled, valued in their community and intrinsically motivated to learn and be part of the project. 

Suggestions for the teacher?

We do a similar “mini café” in class back in my classroom. We have similar roles- barista, cashier and waiter. The rest of the students will be customers. Roles are changed every week. We challenge the student’s understanding of money skills by introducing 1-2 new discounts/ meal deals each week. And after every session, there is a reflective component where we take turns complimenting each other on the work they have done. 

In my opinion, Sadie Guthrie used a combination of both Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory. 

Guthrie explained to her students about the various types of job skills, scope with each specific skill as well as how they should go about doing it. All these however, are only theoretical knowledge which students would not be able to relate to without experiencing it first-hand. Guthrie’s students are taking in these information into existing schemas taught previously (that is assuming that they have covered the general topic of different types of occupations) and linking them to the context of their school rather than the general public – Assimilation. However, despite having gone through and broken down each task explicitly, there will still be a missing gap between “theory” and “practical” on the students’ first attempt of going around the school to sell coffee. One possible situation that I feel can happen – student assigned to being a barista has existing knowledge that his role will be to take the order of the customer before preparing the drink. However, in real life context, the customers might attempt to make conversations with him which is not stated down explicitly in his existing schema thus causing a state of disequilibrium at this sudden new information. However, as the students continue to have these coffee cart sessions, they begin creating their own information and schemas of what the job scope entails and thus creating new schemas of their own through the different experiences they encounter each time and eventually, students will reach a state of equilibration.

Not only did Guthrie scaffold the lessons based on her students’ needs, I also like how this activity was first initiated in the school’s community as this meant that the teachers are all people with awareness and knowledge of disability, thus effort will be put into interacting with students whenever they drop by to take their coffee/snack orders. And this, in my opinion, builds a very strong and solid foundation in terms of language development within the students through social interactions. Guthrie had also incorporated the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) where she provided extra attention and support (personally bringing students out of the school to cross the road, take the bus and collecting items from the bakery) in completing tasks in an authentic situation. She was also with her students whenever they were doing their job tasks with the Coffee Cart. In doing so, she is preparing her students to be ready for real life situations and pushing them to perform to their best abilities.

 

 

Rather than focusing solely on the curriculum (or academic aspect) of schooling for these Special Needs students, I like how Guthrie also thought for the kids beyond the school context and transformed these thoughts into her planning of the lesson. She had also thought through every aspect of this activity in detail and was able to break down every part explicitly for her students. All these resulted in a very authentic learning experience for the students – transportation, purchasing of food outside, job skills related to the real world and most importantly, communication with other people. 

 

As mentioned in the video, it is difficult to get students to talk/initiate conversations with others. And I like that Guthrie came up with the idea of a Coffee Cart within the school community as an effective way to build communication skills in students. 

I also feel that a progression from this (if possible) would be to bring this Coffee Cart activity outside of the school community (towards people with little to no knowledge of Special Needs) so that we are able to further expand students’ exposure to the real world.

-Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people

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

-Arrange for social experiences and interactions
-Arrange physical, concrete experiences to develop understanding of abstract concepts and operations; hands-on activities.

b) She created a great experiential learning opportunity for her students to interact with people and the environment in a real life. 

She planned and designed the appropriate roles for each of her students. She also provided some scaffolding in the form of visual/graphic organisers , listing out the jobs etc. Through this activity  teacher student and student-student relationships were fosterd and it brought these students a sense of belonging in the school community. This real life experience taught them functional vocational skills , social skills and gave them the confidence. 

This ‘Coffee cart” idea is brilliant. The teacher could consider rotating  the roles , try out different setting such as F&B outlets   or  helping out at the school canteen during recess. 

 

She plans for each student, explained the Job & what they do. Job skills, responsibilities, experiential learning, social interaction with people in and outside of school.  They Cashier, tells the customer how much their item cost and collects money or credit and give change. Barista, listens to the order and makes the customers drink, pour the coffee. Greeter says hello to customers and takes customers order. She taught them to Face challenges head on. The students were Involve in the creative process, start from scratch. She Work closely with the family and inevitably have emotional relationship.  

 Using schema as a guiding principle, she made adaptation and modification in her lesson. This is to assimilate the end goals. The program call barista is useful lesson to teach her students about socializing and career ready. Students can make mistakes and learn from them under her. This make their lesson authentic. 

Using Vygotsky’s theory, the teacher introduces collaborative learning. Thus, her students can learn from each thru discussion and their own personal learning experience. 

2) Her lesson was very real, authentic and fun because students are able to interact and learn from each other. She can consider organizing a Job attachment programme where her students are able to serve the member of public and their employers. This learning will prepare them to be career ready.

1.       Based on constructivist principles

a.       Knowledge is constructed

                                                               i.      They make meaning to the knowledge that they gain thus being able to understand it better and retain the knowledge better. It allows them to use these knowledge and skills in their own daily lives for them to be able to be independent and hopefully use these for their future ahead. 

b.       Learning is active.

                                                               i.      They are physically active in their learning. From taking the transport to the act of serving and pouring the coffee, they are always actively engaged in their learning. This will allow for knowledge to be retained and for them to build up on these knowledges.

c.       Knowledge is socially learned.

                                                               i.      They learned in groups, they work with different stakeholders such as the café personnels and strangers and even teachers that may not have taught them. The interaction allows for deeper learning to take place which also means that guided learning within the zone of proximal development is taking place from time to time. 

d.       Knowledge is personal. 

                                                               i.      Because they go through each step of creating the knowledge and making meaning and learning it in an active manner, it means that they have owned and made knowledge personal to them. They way they craft that knowledge is then different compared to someone else. 

 

2.       The interaction between the teachers and the students were very personalised and beautiful to watch. The way the skills are taught to the child is crafted specially for the child and the differentiated work that goes behind it is detailed and very well thought through. 

3.       Just wondering if these kids can be taught to make their own desserts by having them work at the café and they can come back and run a café physically and the school can use the space to employ them and allow them to build themselves before they go out and be part of a bigger society. 

 What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

Firstly, the teacher used hands–on activities and concrete objects such as flowers and plastic cups.

 

Next, the teacher arranged for social interactions by setting up a coffee cart in school, and letting students man the cart. The teacher also brings the students out in the community on public transport, where students can learn how to interact with strangers appropriately, and travel independently. 

 

In addition, the teacher chooses content that is developmentally appropriate. The teacher predicts that the students will be working after graduation, and tries to equip them with work skills and communication skills through this coffee cart activity.

 

Furthermore, students are also able to make connections. For example, by letting the students collect baked goods from the local bakery, the student are able to link the occupations “baker” to the object “bread”. Subsequently, the student also discovers that a baker can maker various other baked goods such as scones, tarts, and puffs. As part of the activity involves travelling and the student are given opportunities to explore and discover the people and places in the community, and integrate new knowledge into their schema (for example, if there is a new bus service they can take to get to the bakery.

 

I am particularly impressed that a teachers asked Jacky for whom she bought 2 extra brownies for. This action provides Jacky with the chance to develop higher level thinking skills, that there are many reasons for buying an item (for oneself, for others, or just to support the students), and that beyond a reasonable quantity of brownies, anything excess brownies purchased should most likely be for other people.

 

I like that the teacher works with the family to find out the expected outcome of the students (for example, if the family wants the student to work after graduation), and takes into account the student’s educational and vocational pathway in deciding what to teach the student.

To me, I really love that the task of manning the coffee cart is broken down into 4 main roles, with Wedad as the Greeter and Order taker, Jacky as the Barista, David as the Coffee Pourer, and Nathan as the Cashier. When the task is too complex for a single student to complete, the teacher breaks the task down and allows student collaboration for them to achieve success as a group. This is in accordance with 

 I also like that through the coffee cart activity, the 4 students (Wedad, Jacky, David, and Nathan) are given the opportunity to interact with other members of the school, and engage in small conversations to share about their likes, dislikes, and everyday experiences. 

It is important that the teacher explains the rationale behind the activity (acquisition of skills) to try to get the students on board. When the students can identify with the lesson goal, they become more intrinsically motiviated, which leads to better learning. Also, I feel that the goal of the activity is very functional, as independence and resilience is vital for anyone in the community. 

Finally, it is vital that the teacher has a growth mindset and believes that the abilities of her students can be improved. This is evident from her opinion that she “sees so much in” the students with special needs, and she expresses sadness when other people do not expect the maximum potential from, or make negative remarks about people with special needs. When a teacher believes that the abilities of their students can be improved, the teacher will keep trying to design activities and lessons to help the students learn.

She also applied the principal of physical and concrete experience where the student did the coffee cart. The jobs assigned to the student (e.g. stock take, barista) were reflective of what is needed to run an actual coffee-cart  and i think this would really help to generalise to outside settings if they are going to work. 

B. I really like how each student has his or her own responsibility doing the coffee cart. I felt that this accompanied by the social interactions with other teachers gave the students confidence and increase their self-esteem. It was really amazing to see how the students are proud of what they are doing and know that they have the potential to contribute to society. 

I think it would be nice if there is re-shuffle of duties. So maybe the students can learn from each other’s duties so as to continue to build on their skills. It would also resonates with Vygotsky’s theory of Socio-cultural development where the student learns from a more advanced peer. 

What constructivist principles were used by the teacher?

The teacher used the first Constructivist Principles, which is “Learning should be an active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people)”.  The teacher exposed the students to life skills by creating an activity that allowed the students to take public transport and interact with strangers. Ms Sadie taught her students communication and transportation skills which are essential to develop in every child’s life.

 

What do you like about the lesson?

I like the activities prepared by the teacher as they provide the students with hands-on exercises and opportunities to learn about the actual world. The students were given opportunities to interact with people independently in their school, and they were seen as productive by the school. The teacher explained the process of the activity explicitly to the students.

 

Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?

If I were to do this activity with my students with SEN, I would do it as Ms Sadie did it. I would also introduce the activity by stating the purpose of the activity, the role of each student and the function they would have in the community. She allowed the students to show off what they were capable of doing. However, I would have a self-reflection session after the activity where each of the students would reflect on the experiences, feelings and learning points that they encountered during the activity.

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

Teacher Sadie uses the Vygotsky pedagogical theory (Social constructivist). Each student is given their own individual roles and tasks. They are then to communicate with others e.g. taking orders, speaking to bakers. Language plays a powerful role in shaping thought. Having to run a cafe within school, this allows the students to use communication as a tool to learn the social norms and real world skills such as running a cafe. 

I like that Teacher Sadie gives the students independent and allows them to explore their own strengths and  develop their confidence. Indirectly, she is emphasising on language/dialogue to allow the students to learn social and real world skills. 

(b)   I like this coffee cart initiative as it incorporates many life skills that are essential to the students as they move to adulthood and the real world.  Skills such as taking the transport, striking a conversation with strangers, money skills, serving customers (teachers in this case).  It also builds their confidence and give them a sense of accomplishment. 

I would like to suggest that this coffee cart initiative be expanded to the entire school, as currently they only serve the teachers. Perhaps, have it during school events, or termly basis or once in a semester for the whole school.  Gradually, moving it to the community near the school when they are more ready for the challenge. 

 

Also, perhaps, the students can rotate their roles, this way everyone will get a chance to learn the skills involved in each of the roles. 

 

•       Based on the profile of her students, the teacher may have chosen the students based on their ability to remember the knowledge and skills required to carry out their roles as members of the Coffee Cart. Not only would these students require to remember what needs to be done during the actual Coffee Cart, they would also have to be able to organise and remember all the required tasks that needs to be completed before carrying out the Coffee Cart.

 

•       The teacher emphasised on social interaction between her students and members of the community, be it within the school or outside of the school. She provided opportunities for her students to learn through interpersonal actions.

 

2.    I liked how the teacher expanded learning beyond the classroom and taught her students functional skills like taking the public transport, communicating/interacting with others. The Coffee Cart also provided students a chance to practice their vocational skills and prepare them for employment after graduation.

 

A suggestion I would give is to provide visual supports on the cart, to allow students to be more independent in carrying out their tasks as well as answering the questions of their “customers”.

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

I love how the class teacher embed so many essential domains in an activity with the students. Why I say so is because there were literacy, vocational, social emotional and numeracy in a single activity. 
- How they converse appropriately with people
- Work stamina and endurance
- Knowing how to approach people appropriately
- Practicing their money skills 
- Independent travelling skills

And this is a very functional type of activity that will be useful for the children upon graduation. It involves the life skills needed and the skills taught are applicable for job employment such as cafes and mobile F&B carts. 

A suggestion I would make for the class teacher is to expose all 3 grade levels to such activity, supported with proper individualisation and appropriate level to suit their needs. This is because I feel that the activity is useful for everyone and acquiring, maintaining and generalising these skills can be useful for students with special needs.

Vygotsky rationalised that the link between communication and internal thought process, facilitated by a More Knowledge Other (MKO), leads to cognitive development.

Through involving the children in the: 

- Early stages of planning by explaining the individual roles such as Greeter, Barrista and Cashier, 

- Collection of 'baked goods' in the community,

- Preparing the logistics required to operate the cart, 

Teacher Sadie is facilitating the development of ZPD within the children ranging from transportation skills, social interaction, working with their peers, resolving differences and others. Over time, these help the student to develop different set of skills independently.

Her project also provides a platform for her students to communicate with their supplier, peers and  teachers, thereby helping them to develop the language skills that is important as part of cognitive development.

 

At the Coffee Cart, I love that everyone has specific roles which empowers them to master their skills. 

She also explained to her students what the purpose of the Coffee Cart is, which help her students find meaning to what they learn. 

Suggestions: 
Moving forward, the coffee cart could also sell some other variety of snacks which allows other students in the school to play the role of customers which could also benefit them to be exposed to purchasing skills and social interaction. 
When students at the Coffee Cart has become more stabilised at their skills, they could also be exposed to other roles to learn different skill sets as well.

She made learning a very active experience: the coffee cart gave students the opportunity to practise work skills in an authentic social setting.

 

The coffee cart is used as a concrete task to teach work skills. In scaffolding the skills, she created a written work system, and gave a clear task analysis of managing the coffee cart.

 

According to Vygotsky's theory, development cannot be separated from its social context. Managing the coffee cart has pushed the students out of the campus and into the wider community. Students had to travel by bus to pick up pastries at a bakery, and later push the coffee cart around the campus asking if teachers would like coffee.

 

Through this social experience, students learn commuting skills (traveling by bus to bakery), and social skills (interacting with others), money skills (handling payment),and work skills (making coffee, cleaning up, managing inventory). Sadie was there to guide her students throughout the experience, providing them with support within the zone of proximal development.

 

B) I liked that the coffee cart gave students the chance to practise work skills in a small/safe AND authentic setting. Instead of practising coffee-making, food handling within the classroom, she pushed them out of the classroom to the wider campus.

I thought it was ideal that Sadie taught social skills by having them interact with other teachers/adults first. Besides enabling  her kids to learn social skills from the interaction, it also paves the way for more inclusion when other teachers in school get to know her students.

 

I liked that she used the "WHY" part to discuss abstract values like "Responsible, Independent, Polite and Employable". These values might have been too abstract to comprehend at first, but Sadie broke it down into concrete, actionable steps.

Besides building character, these values are key to her students being recognised as "productive, contributing members of the school'. 

 

Suggestions: 

From the video, when her students were managing the coffee cart in school, Sadie was in close proximity, and ready to jump in to offer assistance at any time. 

 

As the students gain more experience and become independent, I would suggest that she could take a step back and increase the proximity between herself and the students. She could observe them from a distance, watch how they run the coffee cart by themselves, without teacher's help. 

 

Also, I would suggest she let the students swap roles and let them teach one another about the responsibilities of each role. Such peer interaction would also expand their zones of proximal development, while increasing the confidence of each student as they are now in a more knowledgeable position to guide others.

 

In the classroom, the teacher ensures that students understand the job skills and that the purpose of these skills is to promote skills and values such as independence and responsibility before moving on to the coffee cart. 

Opportunities were given to students to explore and make connections of assigned roles to an authentic context within a safe environment (school). E.g. The coffee boy was serving coffee to teachers, a student asking teachers if they want coffee, cashier, barista, pouring the coffee, etc.  

The students were also exposed to the community(bakery). While doing so, they get to practice transportation skills and social skills, which are both essential skills when they go out to work in the real world.    

b) I like that the students feel accepted and productive in school through the teacher’s lessons. As seen by the drawings shows in the video, ‘It is okay to have Autism.’ and ‘I learned that people with Autism wants to be treated the same, it is apparent that she believes that her students’ disability does not define who they are and the abilities that they have which resonate with her goal, which is for her students to be part of the bigger community. 

Moving forward, the teacher can place students to job attachments in a real café or restaurant so that the students can experience and try to adapt to sensory stimulations in the environment. 

1)      She brought her students out and take public transport to the bakery. Indirectly, the students develop their transportation skills (identity the bus stops to alight/board) as well as their social interaction skills when talking to strangers. 

 

2)      Sadie is also aware of her student’s strength. She lays out the task clearly and explains to them in details (with chart) before they embark on their plan. 

 

3)      Sadie also expose the students to be out of the classroom by making the coffee cart mobile. It increases their productivity and improves their social skills when they know what are the teacher’s favourite scones and drinks.

 

4)      Her approach somehow creates a sense of belonging to the students not only at school but also to the community. All teachers who brought from the coffee cart also gets to know Sadie students’ personalities with their little talks during the purchase. 

 

I definitely love the message that the teacher is trying to send to the students. She gives them rooms for creativity and improvements and at the same time building their confidence and being independent. 

ii. 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 – By bringing the students to the bakery, they see and understand for themselves how is it like in the real world - where the bakery items come from, rather than just given to them to sell.

                 
iii. 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) – interactions with the bakery owner, and different teachers allows students to experience for themselves how to communicate effectively with a wider group of people in an authentic setting. (e.g. “how are you today?” “who is the brownie for?”)

I love how this lesson is done in such a natural and meaningful setting, where the students are able to contribute back to the school community while learning so many functional skills – pouring coffee, travelling out in the public, taking orders etc. I also love how the students are taking pride in what they do, and they serve the customers with so much joy. 

This Coffee Cart also allows students to generalise their job skills across settings by going around the school and across different customers (teachers).  

Once the students gain mastery in their roles, they can take turns rotating the job positions so everyone gets to experience and learn more about each job scope. They can also see where their passion lies or what they are good at. 

The students can also learn to do inventory/stock-taking on the bakery items.  

In the future, these students from Sadie’s class can also conduct peer teaching (as the MKO) to guide students from other classes, who could be interested in the project as well :)

i) Learning should be active process; Opportunities to explore, discover, create; making connections (concepts, ideas, people) 
 Teacher creates coffee cart activity for students to practice actual vocational skills and interactive skills with people, making connections through jobs such as Greeter, Barrista and Cashier. It gave opportunities for students to explore classroom knowledge into real-life authentic settings. It also build responsibilities, dignity/self-esteem and passion to their work.

ii) 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 
 From classroom knowledge to experience real-life context such as calculation of money, making the coffee, getting the resources, appropriate ways to interact with people, and responsibilities to get the job done.

iii) 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) 
 There are many opportunities for students to interact with other people in the community, and allow them to reflect on the different ways to interact with different people, as they problem solve to get their passionate job done.

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

I like the fact that opportunities are given to students to explore their skills and passion and clearly the teacher taps onto the existing skills, scaffolding it to provide students with new learning experiences in authentic settings. The teacher started this in a safe setting, she might want to consider further teaching and equipping students with skills when meeting unsafe people.

This teacher has an emotional relationship with the students and their families. Knowing there were many challenges, the teacher did make an attempt to give them that experience of making coffee.

 

 Using the coffee experience and knowledge, they went out on a trip with their teacher to get donations out in the actual community to know what they are capable of as they are being seen as productive and a contributing member. 

 

Social interactions with safe strangers and learning transportation skills which definitely would have been gained through these experiences.

b) I like the school and actual life experience that the students could connect through their teacher's guidance. The confidence and the skills taught by the teacher was awesome.
I would suggest that it would be great if their families were brought in as customers too.

 

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

The whole concept of the mobile coffee cart allows Guthrie’s students to learn and put that learning into application. As they carry out the tasks of handling the coffee cart, service, and communication with schoolmates and staff, they constantly practice and learn social skills.

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

Guthrie’s class consists of students from various levels and she customized her lessons to teach each individual at their pace and level of development. I assume that each child was assigned a role in the coffee cart programme based on their capabilities and were taught explicitly the language and details of the role, as shown by the descriptions written on the board in the classroom.

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

She would have probably gone through the roles with each student and helped them build schemas through discussions and providing prompts on the board in the classroom. 

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

She works closely with the student’s family not only to understand each student’s experiences and capabilities but to also support learning at home. Some students were familiar with transportation and may have experience with going to a community bakery, so she incorporated it into learning journeys where they learnt to take public transportation to the local bakery and had opportunities to practice social skills with people in the community.

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

Guthrie’s coffee cart programme enables the students to apply what they have learnt in the class into a real-life situations and they practice it twice a week. Examples of these physical, concrete experiences are travelling on public transportation, walking around the community, interacting with people in the community.

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

The students work together as a group and support one another during each service. Staff at the school are aware of the programme and they do their part to engage the students in conversation and check in on their learning. 

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)

They learnt about their roles and what their ‘job’ entails. Guthrie follows them during each service and I suppose scaffolds the process to solve problems they may encounter along the way.

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

 

The concept of the mobile coffee cart was inspiring. It is suitable for all students and not only for students with special needs. I suppose it can be scaled to include other students in the school so that there are opportunities for learning and interacting with peers to carry out each coffee cart service. Currently, the teacher has the support of a local bakery. She could also look into getting other businesses to support the programme by providing relevant skills training. For example, a coffee joint could teach the students more about coffee/tea, the brewing process and how to make a good cup of coffee/tea. The students would then be able to take that experience and what they have learnt to share with customers during their coffee cart service, increasing the potential in social interactions. What struck me the most was the teacher’s perspective, to put less focus on one’s struggles but to focus on how ‘awesome’ one can be. 

 

The principles the teacher used from Vygotsky theory were the strong emphasis on sociocultural context where the students get to go out to the community and meet strangers and have conversations with them as well as scaffolding and guiding them along the process.

 

Where I saw the both theories coming together was under the teaching implications where the teacher not only established opportunities for the students to learn with the teacher and more skilled peers (pushing the cart around the school), she also supported her students to explore their world and discover knowledge and their own while travelling to the bakery and while carrying out two-way communications with the teachers while serving their orders. 

 

b)      Overall, I think the teacher has done a fantastic job in teaching the specific topic which is greatly functional and would help the students to blend into the community upon graduating.  I like how she has created the setup, the coffee cart, the clothes the students get to wear and the planning of the lesson where they get to go out to bakery using public transportation and purchasing the items themselves and heading back to school and preparing the cart themselves. She covered a variety of skills in different areas and gave them a concrete head-to-toe steps on what to do and how to go about. 

 

The only suggestion I have for this teacher, is to bring the students out for example a carnival or an event where they can practice and show their skills to the community and by doing so, they would also be able to build more confidence in going out to work in future. 

By arranging for social interactions, students have more exposure and can relate to real-life experience. It answers the question of why are we learning this in school.

Language is important to communicate. However there are different aspects in language, for example the tone and the words. By being taught/demonstraed, students are once again able to apply what they have learnt. 

I like how the lesson is created so that it can be applied practically and students enjoy the learning process

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

I like about having her lesson out of the classroom context. Students are able to achieve rich experiences and knowledge through real-life and hands-on experiences. Also, a big group of supportive school teachers had being a great role-model in showing their school students that everyone is unique and everyone is precious and should be treated fairly and with dignity.

 

The special arrangement of a roving coffee cart on the school compound serves as a physical and concrete experience for Guthrie’s students. The experience helps the students to develop abstract concepts and operations such as relating to the customer and knowing exactly how hot/dangerous the hot water is, of which it can be rather difficult to impart in the traditional class setting. Having learnt the coffee making skills or customer greeting skills in the classroom, the students may not necessarily know when and where and how to actually use those skills. Working in the coffee cart stall provides that platform for students to interact with real customers and then also knowing, perhaps, they need to prepare the cup of coffee faster. On top of that, the students will now know the position to hold the cup when dispensing hot water, to avoid scalding oneself. These are all life skills that comes with hands-on experience.

 

I like that Guthrie has made the world (read: school setting first before venturing out further… baby steps) her student’s oyster. She saw their (dis)abilities as aspects to improve upon, instead of striking them off as “oh, I don’t think they’ll be able to achieve this.”. It was also very heartening that she provided a safe environment as the students’ springboard. Having achieved some success, in terms of buying pastries, serving and cashiering, in the coffee cart stall, you could tell that it has boosted the confidence of those young and impressionable students. With this newly bolstered self-esteem and self-confidence, I feel the students can then be more resilient when they go out for open employment.

 

Perhaps Guthrie could implement a self-monitoring (or even peer-monitoring) checklist where the students can be more aware of themselves and their surroundings. The checklist also helps the student to be more independent in their daily coffee cart duties when they reflect on their daily shift. On top of that, the students can also have a good overview of where they should improve upon (e.g. not greeting the customers loudly enough or forgetting to say thank you). 

 

To ensure a smoother transaction between the students and the customers, Guthrie can consider having the students administer their own self-monitoring checklist either after each customer, or at the end of a peak period, or at the end of their shift; depending on their ability to retain information. As for the peer-monitoring checklist, it serves as a form of modelling tool for the student administering the checklist. As students with Autism lack the Theory of Mind, looking at their peers serving the customer or making coffee, helps with their perspective taking. It also serves as an opportunity for the student who is observing to visually see where they have done well and where they need improvement in. Armed with the peer-monitoring checklist, the students can then help each other improve – working on their communication, interaction and language skills.

Suggestions for the teacher:

I agree with the decision of assigning specific roles for specific students. But I think she should have done a rotation of roles and responsibilities after a cycle. As we have learnt from Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory of cognitive development, the students must have learnt skills of their peers by observing and sharing about their roles and responsibilities. With the same methods of scaffolding the skill and guiding them, the students will be able to pick up more than one skill in their coffee cart journey.