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

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

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

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

I like that the teacher believed in her class and gave them the opportunity to be relevant.  She takes the time to analyse the different need the child has and worked towards scaffolding so that the children she undertakes will benefit from her as their teachers.  Sadie also gave the children an opportunity to put to practise what they had learn from her.  It was teamwork.  She taught them job skill, functionality skill, independence, responsibility and to be part of a greater school.  
 
 I also like the fact that she took it upon her to teach the children social interaction with safe strangers and that is one aspect where it does not apply to our conservative asian context.  Having said that, we do have a similar setting at Northlight school where a café like setting is run by the students at Northlight.  This teaches the children to be responsible, to have integrity when dealing with sensitive matters and to have the social interaction with others.  
 

What was good in the video?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2)      Assess and take note of their stages of development

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

3)      Build schemas

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

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

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

5)      Arrange for social experiences and interactions

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

6)      Pay attention to developing higher level thinking skills

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

7)      Develop their language

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

What I like:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learning occurs through the job opportunity given to each student:

·       Noah gives coffee to teacher.

·       Wedad takes orders.

·       Jacky is the barista.

·       David pours coffee.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The coffee cart provides open ended activities.

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

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

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

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

10)  Provide time to reflect on experiences

Not observed.

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

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

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

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

Principle 2: 

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

Principle 3:

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

Principles 6 and 9:

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

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

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

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

Suggestion:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

x)    Provide time to reflect on experiences

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

 

What I like?

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

 

Suggestions?

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

1.       Learning should be active process

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

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

3.       Build schemas 

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

 What I like about the lesson?

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These constructivist principles were used by the teacher: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

B)

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

My suggestions would be: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Principles 3 and 4: Build schemas and disrupt schemas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some notable constructive principles used by the teacher was:

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Principles 1: Learning should be active process

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Principles 6: Arrange for social experiences and interactions

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

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

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

Principles 9: Develop their language

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

Principles 10: Provide time to reflect on experiences

Not sure whether the teacher used this principle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

What I like about the lesson:

 

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

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

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

 

Suggestions for the teacher:

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

 

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

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

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

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

Just 3 suggestions that I would make. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you have any suggestions for the teacher?                                                         

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 
6.  Arrange for social experiences and interactions

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

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

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