Practicum Observation Essay
Good Afternoon Professor Swaney,
Thank you for comments and kind words on my DQ 2 post. Your comments “Some identify certain behaviors as a special education red flag when indeed it is a behavior of a specific culture. It does raise issues regarding racial profiling too” reminded me of couple events that I experienced. One from my youth and one recently during my practicum observation study. I am a son, a former migrant worker (when he was a child) and grew up in a farming community where bilingual education was the norm in the classroom. Having paraprofessionals in my elementary classroom to work what would be classified today as ESL students was common. Perhaps because farming was a big economic resource to the community when I was a child, …show more content…
This educator was passionate about teaching and loved his students. This was apparent in development and delivery of his lessons and the connection he had with his students. One particular student, I got meet and observe was a bright intelligent first grader whose parents had moved to the district from Mexico. The student had been in school for approximately five months. Neither of student’s parents spoke any English and a cousin was the family’s interpreter. The student could speak some English but was far from mastering the language. This was the only learning issue for the child. Move forward a school year later, during my practicum observation for my Learning Disability Module, I see the same child. He still does quite have mastery of the English language but otherwise he displays no other learning disabilities. He is able to complete ever academic task put before him once broken down to him in a way he can understand it. Usually through modeling strategies (or if given the directions in Spanish). Knowing this student, I ask the Resource Teacher why this student is receiving these special education reading and writing services and I am told because he is falling behind in the general classroom. When I asked one of the paraprofessionals who I knew from my role as an advocate, off the record if she felt that this student was in the LD Resource Room because he does not
Thank you for comments and kind words on my DQ 2 post. Your comments “Some identify certain behaviors as a special education red flag when indeed it is a behavior of a specific culture. It does raise issues regarding racial profiling too” reminded me of couple events that I experienced. One from my youth and one recently during my practicum observation study. I am a son, a former migrant worker (when he was a child) and grew up in a farming community where bilingual education was the norm in the classroom. Having paraprofessionals in my elementary classroom to work what would be classified today as ESL students was common. Perhaps because farming was a big economic resource to the community when I was a child, …show more content…
This educator was passionate about teaching and loved his students. This was apparent in development and delivery of his lessons and the connection he had with his students. One particular student, I got meet and observe was a bright intelligent first grader whose parents had moved to the district from Mexico. The student had been in school for approximately five months. Neither of student’s parents spoke any English and a cousin was the family’s interpreter. The student could speak some English but was far from mastering the language. This was the only learning issue for the child. Move forward a school year later, during my practicum observation for my Learning Disability Module, I see the same child. He still does quite have mastery of the English language but otherwise he displays no other learning disabilities. He is able to complete ever academic task put before him once broken down to him in a way he can understand it. Usually through modeling strategies (or if given the directions in Spanish). Knowing this student, I ask the Resource Teacher why this student is receiving these special education reading and writing services and I am told because he is falling behind in the general classroom. When I asked one of the paraprofessionals who I knew from my role as an advocate, off the record if she felt that this student was in the LD Resource Room because he does not