Runninghead:SERVICELEARNING

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ServiceLearningReflectiveSummaryReport
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ErinLenox

SERVICE LEARNING

Introduction
This Service Learning Project took place at the public school of V O Isom Central
Elementary in Greenwood, Indiana, just a few minutes away from the community high school
and a few other elementary schools. The teacher of the second grade classroom where I
participated in Service Learning was Jessi Holtz, one of three or four second grade teachers at
Isom. She has several years teaching experience and had a second, part-time job after school was
done for the day. The students numbered twenty-two, only two of whom were non-white.

The Least Restrictive Environment

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) states that students with disabilities should be
integrated and included as much as possible with students who have no disabilities, all while
occupying the same environment (High-Incidence Disabilities Inclusion Resource). During my
Service Learning project, I did not see much evidence of the LRE practice being applied, at least
not in Holtzs classroom. While being interviewed, one of the Special Education teachers, Ms.
Katrina Vancelette, mentioned that she teaches the students with low-incidence and highincidence disabilities the same lesson but expects different results and sets individualized goals.
Still, this tells me that she has both low- and high-incidence students in her classroom.
Depending on the specifics of the high-incidence disability, which is more common than lowincidence disabilities, these children hopefully had a chance in a general education classroom. I
was not present to witness any, if at all, inclusion strategies in Holtzs classroom. On the other
hand, this may be because the students with disabilities included in Holtzs classroom were those
with more undetectable disabilities, such as speech or language impairment, learning disabilities,

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emotional disturbances, or intellectual disabilities. In that case, I saw no individualized

accommodations or modifications, and I was not privy to any Individualized Lesson Plans
(IEPs).
Assuming there were no students with disabilities in this classroom, I believe this does a
great disservice to both students with and with disabilities. The special needs students do not get
the chance to interact socially with their peers and the students without special needs to not have
the opportunity to learn and interact with those who have differing learning styles. Early
education is the best time to integrate, to learn about and interact with those who are different.
Children are open to learning and less likely to ostracize if done early in their life in order to
accustom them to people who are different than them.

The Classroom Space

The classroom was not arranged as nicely or invitingly as I would have expected for
second graders. The most color was on the billboard outside the classroom, decorated with
scarecrows for the fall, and the students cut, paste, and color-a-picture craft on the steps to carve
a pumpkin, which were charming. Inside the room, the seating chart varied occasionally.
Sometimes the desks were in groups of five and other times they were dispersed. Nowhere did I
see a glimpse or evidence of components of the classroom being arranged to a diverse
population. The only seating available were standard chairs at desks or computers in the
classroom, and the computers were so squeezed in against the wall, I had to turn sideways to get
access to them. I cannot imagine a student with a wheelchair or other physical impairments being
able to access the computer part of the classroom. In the back of the classroom was a second
desk, which was occupied for only an hour of the day by an assistant, and so diminished the

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available space for the students. Mailboxes and homework trays were set within easy reach for
the students, but not for diverse populations. The bookshelves seemed to be were accessible for
lower grasps because they had five levels. The backpack hooks near the classroom door were at
arm level, but are only available by leaning over an inset bench on the wall that juts out two feet.

Classroom Strategies
There was not a clear strategy that promoted the students positive behavior. When she
saw an action or behavior that she did not like, Holtzs main course of action was to raise her
voice and tell them to stop. Many times, she raised her voice in front of the entire classroom,
having a conversation or belittling a student in front of his or her peers. To me, this is by no
means the best way to promote positive behavior. There was also no social integration of all the
different styles of learning. The moment the students enter the classroom to the moment I leave
right before lunch, it seems that all the students are doing is paperwork. I am willing to give the
benefit of the doubt because I only come in one day of the week, but I have been in on a separate
day and only seen paperwork for the students on that day as well. This does not really seem the
best for different types of learners or celebrating and learning about the different types because
there is no chance to see what type of learner the student is.
I would most definitely reject most of the strategies Holtz applies in her classroom. There
is no reason as a teacher I cannot pull aside a student and have a private conversation with her
about turning in her homework or staying focused at her desk. Conversations do not need to
happen in front of all of her peers because it is between the two of us. While paperwork is
important and can help with testing or assignments, I would reject the idea to use paperwork
constantly throughout the day. There are different ways of practicing concepts and curriculum

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than sitting at a desk for several hours. It does not leave a good impression and children cannot
be expected to sit still and quietly for such an extended time.
One thing I did like but would modify for a future classroom is the use of the projector.
Since I was in elementary school myself, projectors have been a constant presence and incredibly
useful. For morning work, Holtz used the projector to go through the answers on the students
worksheets, allowing them to read along and check their answers. When the students came into
the classroom, they hung up their backpacks, decided on a lunch, and began their morning work
in their workbook. I appreciate the idea of checking the morning work, but I might use the
projector for ideas other than checking work. I saw several students, because they knew they
would soon receive the correct answers, speed through and guess answers, scribble words, and
overall not put much effort into their work in their hurry to move on when I had seen them work
harder on previous assignments. Holtzs class, and Holtz herself, always seemed rushed to the
next phase of their day. Holtz had a timer on her desk to limit the time on a certain task.
Once during reading time, Holtz put on a listening CD that read their book out loud and
the children seemed to enjoy the change of pace from their teachers monotone reading. I wish a
reading station was integrated into the classroom so that those who had trouble reading, who I
helped frequently during my Service Learning hours, would have the opportunity to have
something read to them. Paperwork all day is not going to show a teacher a students strengths or
weaknesses. All students learn in different ways, which would explain the different behaviors
that a teacher sees in a classroom (Karten, 2015).

Relate Service Learning Experience to the Classroom

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I saw little to no math and science in my time in the classroom, so I cannot describe any
effective approaches or accommodations that might have been practiced. In regards to literacy,
there was virtually no accommodations of which to speak. Students were expected to read a short
story by themselves at their desk and answer multiple choice questions, fill out Venn Diagrams,
or other tables that measured their understanding or comprehension, and those were turned in to
be graded. Only two times when I was present they gathered in groups and allowed to read the
story out loud to each other. One or two children had difficulties reading quickly, so Holtz asked
me to take them to the hall, but to not help too much. I helped sound out words when necessary
and encouraged them when they succeeded.
They learned about Johnny Appleseed and the pioneers, which can be considered social
studies. During their Johnny Appleseed learning, they brought in apples and I helped them peel
the apples with peelers Holtz provided. I loved doing this with the children because it was a
drastic change of pace from their paperwork and they were invested and interested. They
appreciated doing the hands-on activity. Only one declined to participate. The classroom could
have, but did not, doing something similar for pioneers, which would have given them more
involvement in the learning.

Future Teacher
The skills I observed were the control of a classroom. Granted, Holtz managed hers by
raising her voice, a method I do not wish to carry on, but having authority and confidence were
skills that she had. The skills that need to be developed are organization. A classroom cannot be
run effectively without some level of organization. I chose these because I need to work on all of

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these, and these can be learned by having more experience with children in an educational
setting.
Summary
This experience has taught me many things about what I want and do not want to see in a
classroom and what I expect of myself as a teacher. I want to continue to have hands-on
experiences like this so I can see more and grow from those observations. I do think that my
place is in the classroom because I value education and I want children to grow from accessing
it. I learned how to be respectful, apply the accept, reject, or refine method, and found out a few
more things about my values.

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8
INTASC Standard, Description and Rationale

Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice

The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate
his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners,
families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each
learner.

Name of Artifact: ServiceLearningReflectiveSummaryReport

Date: 16 November , 2016
Course: EDUC 102

Brief Description: For this assignment, I have reflected on my time spent doing this service learning
project. This reflection discusses how my personal values on professionalism, how it effects the people
around a teacher, and how I can learn from those values to be a professional teacher.

Rationale: To show my understanding of the Teaching Standard #9, I have included my Service
Learning Reflective Summary Report because in it I discuss my personal statements and
thoughtsaboutprofessionalismandhowIwanttotakethattomyownfutureclassroom.

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9
Works Cited

Karten, Toby J. (2015). Inclusion Strategies that Work!: ResearchBased Methods for the
Classroom.ThousandOaks,CA:CorwinPress.
High-Incidence Disabilities Inclusion Resource. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2016, from
https://sites.google.com/site/inclusionresourcenotebook/disability-areas/high-incidencedisabilities