Vanguard University

EDUG 558

For this assignment, you will shadow a student with a disability for about 1
hour. You will take anecdotal notes on the student and complete a summary
of your observations.

Date: 3-1-17 Setting: Ms. Palmers classroom

Time: 10:30-11:30 Background Information:
Child: Joe Joe has an IEP for autism. He is rebellious and is used to getting his
Age: 5 way through being obstinate and throwing temper-tantrums. He is not
Observer: Cassie liked by the majority of his peers because of his rough behavior and
lack of social awareness.
Others involved: Ms. Palmer, as mixed-class group of kindergartners
for a small reading group, and the rest of Ms. Palmers class

10:31am Notes: Joe started out the observation period in a small SIPS reading
group with six other kinder students from two classes. Ms. Palmer was
teaching the group, so she kept Joe tightly in line with glances and
reprimands.

10:34am Notes: Joe would not participate in whole group readings, but
attempted to answer a question when pushed by Ms. Palmer. He failed
to answer the same question correctly three times but was in a good
mood and did not get upset.

10:35am Notes: The group was told to whisper an answer to a partner, and every
other student paired up immediately with someone else by the time he
processed the directions. He said his answer to the air next to him.

10:37am Notes: He was told to clip up by Ms. Palmer because he began to

participate in group readings. He was very happy.

10:39am Notes: Went back to happily observing the group, sitting on his hands
and rocking back and forth. I got the impression that he was watching
his peers more than he was listening to the lesson.

10:41am Notes: Began to participate in reading aloud with the group, but was a
couple seconds behind the others. This caused a stir in the group of
kids giggling, and Palmer had to stop the lesson for a minute to regain
control of the group.

10:44am Notes: Began to make loud choking noises and rock back and forth.
The other students ignored him, but Palmer stopped the lesson and
 stared him down until he stopped making inappropriate noises.

10:46am Notes: He started yawning and clapping his hands, wiggling and
looking around. His attention span seems to have been all used up, and
Palmer is giving him stern looks several times a minute.

10:50am Notes: Palmer begins to read the group a story and Joe settles in. He
seems calmed and engaged when he is being read to. He began to smile
as he listened, and vocalized more when questions were addressed to
the whole group, even if his answers werent actually discernable.

10:54am Notes: The group was asked to whisper their answers to a partner
again, but this time Joe was rough and began leaning on the girls that
werent including him. They protested and Palmer intervened, putting
Joe in a different seat.

10:55am Notes: The group was assigned words to write on their individual
whiteboards, and Joe did very well on the first two words. However,
once he got stumped, he began to copy off his neighbor.

10:59am Notes: Palmer noticed his copying after a little while and made him
erase all his words and start over. He began to pout and refused to work
anymore. Palmer ignored him, as they were coming to the end of their
SIPS lesson and the other students started to filter in.

11:03am Notes: He stood in the doorway for two minutes, blocking a lot of the
other students from entering the room. He simply stood motionless in
the threshold and looked into the room. The other students seemed
unfazed and simply pushed past him to get to their seats.

11:05am Notes: Palmer started carpet time, and began to read a book to the
whole class. Joe was seated in the back opposite corner from the
teacher, and was entirely unfocused while she was reading to the class.

11:10am Notes: He began to rise from the proper seated position, swinging his
legs and faced away from Palmer. She ignored his unfocused behavior,
as did the other students.

11:16am Notes: He scooted across the carpet to start hitting one of his friends.
This created a big stir in the room because his friend began to yell for
Ms. Palmer. Palmer spoke to him sternly and he very slowly moved
back to his spot.

11:25am Notes: He was not focused on the rest of the lesson. He didnt raise his
hand or repeat words with the rest of the class.
 11:33am Notes: When the lesson was over, he sprang to his feet like he had been
counting the minutes. He was one of the first lined up at the door to go
to recess, and did not create any distractions the rest of the time in line.

Summary:

I observed a boy in Ms. Palmers kindergarten class named Joe. He is on an IEP for

autism. He has been on an IEP for over a year now, and he was in a special day preschool class.

He is very quiet, and hardly ever speaks to anyone. He is always intently observing everything,

however, and does not display the aversion to eye contact that often accompanies autism. Joe is

highly intelligent, with writing skills that are at grade level, and reading skills that are on the

high-end when compared with his classmates scores.

Its interesting to watch him try to interact with other students because since he lacks the

verbal and social skills necessary to make and maintain friendships at this stage. As a result, he

resorts to pushing, hitting, and kicking to bond with the other students. Understandably, that

doesnt get him very far when it comes to making connections with other kindergarteners. Many

of them spend a lot of time coming to Ms. Palmer or I during recess or lunch to tell us something

that Joe did that either hurt or upset them.

He is very averse to reprimanding of any kind, even though he engages in many

behaviors that Ms. Palmer has made clear to him are not allowed. I was with him at recess one

day when he knocked some trash off the table in frustration. When a lady on yard duty came to

correct him, he spent the next ten minutes running away from anyone in power who tried to

approach him. He would watch them with wary eyes, and found no joy in the chase whatsoever.

He just seemed scared. When he settled, he sat next to me and even though he didnt want to

talk about it, I could tell he felt bad and did not know how to express it.