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Observation at Penn Trafford High School

Observation at Penn Trafford High School

Gabrielle Giovenco

Jennifer Suppo

Introduction to Exceptional Children

December 2nd, 2015

Seton Hill University

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Observation is a key part of life for me not only as an artist, but

also as a future educator. This past Friday I was afforded the

opportunity to observe the head of the special education department

at Penn Trafford High School, Ms. Blank. This was one of the most

interactive observations I had personally been on and I learned a great

amount as a viewer.

Ms. Blank exposed me to a few different settings in the school.

She brought me to a couple of inclusion classes where the students

with special needs were mixed in with general education students. The

classes were set up like most any other classrooms but the students

with more needs were placed closer to the front. Ms. Blank also

brought me to the Coffee Shop were I observed the students with

special needs learn some life skills through application, like taking

orders, and counting money. The coffee shop was a pretty open space,

the front for orders, to the left for order pick up, the back for inventory

and the back left for baking. I also observed in a life skills class with a

focus in reading. The room was welcoming and very open, a couple

tables rather than desks, a couch and bean bag chair for other seating,

there were boards on either side of the room as well, this was my

favorite space I observed in because it did not feel like a work place or

classroom, it was peaceful.

One of the first things I learned and observed from Ms. Blank is

that she is heavily invested in the success of her students. Penn

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Trafford High School itself has the special education department

greatly developed and appreciated. The student body actively engages

with the students, whether it is at the coffee shop or in band they all

seem to function pretty cohesively, it was refreshing to see. During my

observation I was able to discern from the student body that they are

really about creating relationships with one another. It is not like the

kids in life skills classes are out casted or looked down upon; they were

happy people and wanted to socialize. Which they do and are openly

accepted among their peers, Matt for example has down syndrome but

he is openly loved by all, he participates in gym which he loves and

where he is treated like anyone else, he also works the register at the

coffee shop and makes a lot of friends there. Socially, the school and

all students work together effortlessly. Aside from the social aspect of

the school I learned from Ms. Blank and some of the Life skills teachers

that some of their students are at different levels academically, which

is like any other student in the school. Almost all of their students are

in more than one inclusion class, two of which I observed in. The

students are actively engaged in their academic side of school. The

students have a focus in their life skills classes but also participate in

inclusion classes. In the inclusion classes I found that the class does a

lot of table work and partner work, which promotes social skills and

communication while also furthering the students knowledge. In the

life skills classes I asked Ms. Blank what their level of independence
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was and her response to me was that the students goals are to work

primarily independent especially while doing things like Read 180 but

guidance and supervision are always prominent in the classroom, the

same goes for the inclusion classrooms.

The first place I observed in was the coffee shop. The coffee shop

is something the school initiated a few years ago and it is where some

of the special education students work with the life skills teachers to

develop vocational skills like counting money, baking, measuring

things and taking inventory. One of the questions I had was whether

the students enjoyed it, and I found a very positive answer. The

students enjoy working there, the students like it because it gives them

something to focus on and learn more from while also giving them

another chance to socialize with one another and the school body

which I learned through a conversation with Ms. Blank and Matt, one of

the students. I also found out that the students enjoy the routine of it

all. I asked Ms. Blank how the coffee shop operates and how it teaches

new skills, her response was to me, that each student is assigned to a

job of their choice, whether it is taking orders at the register or making

the coffee or making the orders of cookies. Each has a job and that job

along with their names is listed on the fridge along with the jobs

priorities. The way the students learn new tasks or obligations is

through sort of things like visual aides and lists that illustrate what

they are to do and what it is, they also receive verbal direction. There
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were cheat sheets for change at the register, but the students are

influenced to think on their own. While still in the coffee shop I asked

Ms. Blank how the students were graded while working in the shop

seeing as it is still part of the life skills program. I found out that rather

than being graded A-F the students are rated 1-4 for each day of the

week, 1 being unsatisfactory, 2 being satisfactory, 3 being good and 4

being outstanding. The students are graded every day based on their

performance in the coffee shop, rating them on things like initiative,

attendance, responsibility, punctuality, following directions, and

whether they are dressed appropriately for the jobs they are

preforming. This system for grading was intriguing because it was set

up like a data table and I later found out that this was done

purposefully because the teachers want to track the students progress

and instead of providing grades like As or Bs this allows for a greater

sense of growth, especially because it is a daily assessment of

performance. Grading in this manner also differs from grading in

regular classrooms because in general education students are primarily

graded on the content of the assignment based off a rubric, while here

students are graded on things like more representative of the tasks at

hand and life.

One of my questions throughout the different settings I saw was

whether accommodations were used more or modifications were. I

asked Ms. Blank this and some of the other special education teachers
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and they all replied with very similar answers. Their answers being that

classes are modified depending on the students and the class. For

example Matts civics class was modified for him. When he takes the

tests he is not expected to know as much as the other students in his

class and is tested on very specific things based off memory and he

gets a study guide to work from. For Matt it is a little of both

accommodation and modifications. On that note too, how Matt is

graded in this class varies a little bit from everyone else too. He still

makes As and Bs in this class and his grades are based on his

assignments but they also take into consideration his life skills

successes and how he is performing with the things he is taught in his

life skills classes and how he utilizes those skills in everyday life and in

the classroom, like socializing

. I asked one of the life skills teachers how students were graded

in her class because it is more reading specific. She stated that the

students are graded on their assignments A-F basically. Their

assignments are designed to fulfill more than just reading tasks. The

assignments have a focus in critical reading in reference to materials,

like being able to read and comprehend things like medicine bottles

and nutrition labels, making the assignment connective towards

everyday life. I liked this idea a lot because it connects things. It

connects the skills the students are learning to things they will actually

face in real life, providing reason.

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Towards the end of my observation I realized there had been no

mention of parent communication so I asked Ms. Blank what parent

communication looked like within her department. As expected, she

responded with the thought that most communication occurs through

parent to teacher email. For Ms. Blank specifically she works on a bit

more personal level with the families because she helps situate

students after they graduate, like finding the right job for them. If I

were part of this school I would probably try to make family

communication more of a priority. Not that it is not at Penn Trafford, I

would just personally like to see more, like a weekly report on each

student so the parents have a visual of how and what their children are

doing in class. On top of wanting to see more communication, more

work with technology would be cool too. In Ms. Sutmires inclusion

class the students used laptops and in the coffee shop, students

operate the register and machines. But other than that I did not see

much and living in todays world, understanding and utilizing

technology is vital. It also couldve just been the day I observed that I

didnt see much interaction with technology, because I know in the

reading life skills class they use Read 180 which utilizes online software

and quizzes, that was a wondrous factor to learn about. The school also

allows students to have their phones on them and use them when

appropriate.
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This observation was a lot of fun and I learned more than I

thought would. Through out this paper I have mentioned a few

questions I asked Ms. Blank and associates but I have a few more to

add to the list. I was curious as to how growth was measured other

than through the grades, so I asked if in any of the classes, like a life

skills class, whether a diagnostic type test was given at the beginning

of the year to see what students know, and then if the same test was

given at the end of the year. The response I got was yes, and it was

from the life skills teacher who has a focus in reading skills. She said

they do take the same test at the beginning of the year and end to see

if the students have learned anything. Ms. Blank said that there is

almost always a clear increase in positive test scores. I was glad to

hear this and glad I asked because I knew my high school did test like

this, I did not know if it was everywhere or even if it was included in

special education. The next question I had was how is praise given or

motivation to do well when applied to a special education class? Ms.

Sutmire answered this question for me while I observed her, she stated

to me that it was important to give oral praise but being specific was

crucial, she would say things like you matched those carbohydrates

perfectly letting the student know exactly what they did right. I liked

that idea because it reinforced the task at hand. In another of the

classes I visited with Ms. Blank I asked her why the volume of students

was so high (33 students) and same with the adults (4 adults) in one of
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the inclusion classes. I learned that it was a large class because it had

a higher ratio of students with disabilities, which is also why there were

more adults in the class because a few students had Para-educators

with them almost always. One of the more personal questions I asked

Ms. Blank was, what is the hardest part about being the head of the

special education department here? Her response to me was that,

creating bonds with the students and parents is hard because they

have no reason to trust her intentions at first, she said it is like having

to prove yourself but coming out with the biggest reward. The next

question was one of the last ones I asked. I posed Ms. Blank with the

question of what success for her students looked like after graduation

knowing she was involved with finding them paths after high school.

She informed me that the success of her students is usually great. The

program and her efforts allow for different opportunities and helps in

setting up different jobs, whether its at a nursing home, or a grocery

store. Even through high school the students are exposed to things like

work and are often bused or driven to different sites to see what it

looks like to work. I thought this was super cool because the school is

really setting up the students for life after high school rather than just

graduating.

All in all I enjoyed my experience, I would like to go back and

observe a full day. Not only did I enjoy learning about the special

education department, but also I loved observing in a high school.

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Being there reinforced my want to be a secondary education teacher.

Observing teaches a person a lot about the task at hand, why you are

there in the first place, but it also teaches one a lot about themselves

and what they plan to strive for in life. I had a great time and I am so

appreciative of Ms. Blank and staff for the opportunity.