Observation & Adaptation Plan Robinson Elementary Placement 3 On Tuesday morning, I sat in Mrs.

Ms first grade general education classroom to observe one of the students who receives special education services from Mrs. M-S throughout the week. This student, Student A, is an energetic student who has shown great potential in the classroom. She also interacts well with her peers and has been said to love sorting through papers/materials in her possession. During my observation, the class was in their reading block and was being introduced to new spelling words for the week. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss several of the strengths, needs, and accommodations that I observed for Student A. To begin, the teacher started class time by reading the students new spelling words from a chart located at the front of the room. Student A was seated near this chart, and she seemed to be attentive to what was being taught. Her eyes were fixed on the teacher and the student was engaged in providing group responses. Next, the teacher transitioned into the students station time, and she began giving directions and materials to each group. In the time Student A was waiting, she was very distracted and moved around in her seat. She began to touch a peers desk, even after continually being asked to please stop. The teacher provided materials for Student As group, and gave modified instructions to the student. Student A was given a small booklet of white paper and was asked to write and illustrate her spelling words on each page. Other students in her group were writing the spelling words in complete sentences and then illustrating the sentences. As I watched Student A begin her work, she immediately became distracted by her peer. Student A stared at her peers work and then helped her peer organize crayons. After being redirected by the

teacher, Student A started to write in her booklet. She remained in her seat and on-task for about one minute. A few minutes later, Student A became distracted again. She began to look from the spelling word chart, to her booklet, to me. She continued looking at and away from the booklet several times, until finally she pulled out other work to do instead. Student A pulled out her reading book and a worksheet that was previously assigned to the students. This was admirable in that she did not just sit there and not work, but she brought out other materials she was more interested in. Regardless of this, she still needed to complete the spelling booklet assigned to her at the start of class. Her peer prompted her to complete the spelling booklet and repeated the directions to her an additional time. However, this notion was ignored and Student A continued to work on her worksheet. The teacher noticed the students off-task behavior and got her back on track working with spelling words again. As I observed this student, I specifically noticed that she was getting distracted between the time she looked at the spelling chart to when she had to record the spelling word into her booklet. One adaptation that I believe would be beneficial for this student is to provide the student with a model of her spelling words on each booklet page. She would look at the model and then write the spelling word underneath on the blank page. This would help to reduce the students distractibility and may increase her on-task behavior. I actually attempted this for three of the students spelling words, and I noticed a quick difference in her behavior. She was much more focused on the task at hand and was able to complete it in a timely manner. If the teacher would rather, this student may also benefit

from a spelling list provided for her at her desk. This would keep the words confined and in close reference for the student to look at. Another adaptation that may be beneficial to this student is to give her a privacy folder to limit distractions during station time. This student is easily distracted by movements around her, and I believe that she would do well and show greater on-task behavior if she had a privacy folder to limit the movements around her personal space. This would aide in the production of her best work possible. In addition, the teacher might try to implement a student checklist or picture schedule to keep on this students desk or at hand. I noticed that when Student A does not have a clear visual direction for what she is to do next, her attention shifts and she does not complete her work in a timely fashion. I believe that if the student had a visual she could refer to her on-task behavior would improve. For the final part of my observation, I observed this student during the classs whole group reading time. The students sat on the carpet and were asked to follow along while their teacher read the story aloud. Student A had difficulty keeping up with the pages as the teacher read aloud. I believe that this behavior could be reduced if the student were given a bookmark or some type of clip that would hold the allotted pages during whole group reading time. Several of these adaptations are fairly simple and would require little time for the teacher to implement. I believe that each of the adaptations would benefit Student A and would increase her on-task behavior as well as the work she produces. Although these would be simple changes made to the students daily reading time, they could make significant positive impacts on her learning and growth as a student.