FINAL PAPER 1

Final Written Observation Reflections

Rachael Artig

December 8, 2016

Sonoma State University

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One of the pros I really saw in these classrooms was the sense of community. In the

Spanish speaking classroom all of the parents and teachers interacted and spoke about different

issues they were having or little successes with their children. There was a lot of laughter and

support in the classroom. In one of the classrooms I observed, there was a little girl with Down

Syndrome who was playing with a girl who was typically developing. While they were playing

during free time I watched as the student with down syndrome copied the other student while she

was looking under the blinds out the window. This is what the textbook, The Exceptional Child:

Inclusion in Early Childhood Education, calls modeling. Modeling is when the child is learning

by watching and imitating anothers actions (Allen, Cowdery, 2015, p. 403). Whatever she did

the other student would do too. I think this could be really positive when it comes to every aspect

of the childs learning. There is a lot of modeling that can be done through peer interaction in

terms of social, cognitive, and physical development. One of the challenges I saw was just the

extra work load it adds to the teacher. The teacher has to make accommodations for the student

and then make sure that all of the other students feel they are given the same attention. An

example of this was when I was observing one of the students with special needs was having a

meltdown and it caused the teacher to have to take her attention away from the rest of the class

and focus on that one student. Although this is definitely a challenge of finding the right balance

of being able to accommodate that student properly as well as the rest of the class, I really feel

like the benefits for the child with special needs outweigh the cons if inclusion is the right fit for

them.

For my project, I got to observe four different inclusive classroom settings. There was

one teacher I had for two of the classes and two different teachers for the second two. I had very
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positive examples of an inclusive classroom in the second two classrooms, whereas in the first

two with the same teacher, I did not like how she managed the classrooms. I observed two

classes first, both taught by the same teacher at the Early Learning Institute in Rohnert Park. I

found these two classes to not be as successful inclusive classrooms compared to the second two

I observed. The physical environment for these classes in this classroom seemed to be fairly

successful. The classroom did not have much room or what I would consider educational toys,

but they had a lot of sensory options for the children which they all seemed to enjoy. Everything

in the classroom was available to the children and there was not anything that the children could

not get to. One thing that I really noticed from this teacher was there was not a lot of interaction

between her and the students and her and the parents in the room. She would sit in the middle of

the classroom and if a student came up to her she would interact with them but she would not go

out of her way to interact with a student. The teacher in the classroom also did transitions very

abruptly. In one of the classes, where there were two little girls with Down Syndrome, during

free play she softly walked around and told the class that they had two minutes until clean up.

There was no visual timer, this class was far too young to read time, and if I had not been

looking at the teacher I am not sure I would have even heard her telling the class time was up.

When it came time to transition, one of the little girls with Down Syndrome threw a fit and did

not want to get out of the ball pit. I just remembered how we spoke a lot in class about having

visual timers and schedules for the child with special needs, its actually beneficial for all of the

students, and there was nothing like this in that classroom. I felt like the projects the students did

were also very rushed and parent directed. I was disappointed with these two classes and did not

see much work towards making it a successful inclusive environment.

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The next two classes I observed were taught by two separate teachers. One of the classes

was a Spanish speaking classroom and then next one was a music and movement classroom.

Physically the classroom was very spacious and had a lot of well decorated and comfortable

sections for the children. One thing I noticed from both of these teachers that I found so

important, was there was a lot of parental support coming from the teachers. The teacher took

time to engage with each child but to also sit down with each parent and discuss how they were

doing. One of my favorite examples of this was in the music and movement class. There was a

mother who had just had a baby recently and was dealing with a transition into a higher grade for

her autistic son. She was speaking to the teacher about how she was having a hard time getting

resources and figuring out what program would be best for him. The teacher listened intently and

then tried to go find someone in the office who she thought would be able to help. She gave the

parent her undivided attention and said things like I bet you must feel frustrated about that, let

me see what I can do to help. I really would want to model this kind of relationship in my own

inclusive classroom. Even though the child was moving out of her classroom she was still willing

to help the parent as much as she could. As for dealing with the students, I noticed that both of

the teachers were very flexible to how the children were responding to the different activities.

One of the children had a hard time sitting because she has low muscle tone and they are trying

to use a compression vest to help her sit for longer periods of time. The child does not like the

vest so she will only sit for about ten minutes with it. The teacher worked circle time around

whenever the little girl was done wearing the vest but praised her the whole time for sitting well.

I thought it was interesting to see both of these classrooms because I got to see what I thought
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was a very successful and accommodating classroom and one that I thought was not very

successful.

An interesting new strategy I got to observe was watching the music and movement class.

One of the teachers in the classroom was a music therapist which I have never gotten to observe

before. During the entire class she was playing soft music in the background and I noticed that

out of all the classes I observed this one was the most calm. The children did their projects and

played kind of quietly. I would assume that this was because of the music she was playing in the

background. During the sensory circuit in the class, the music therapist took out a small harp that

she held on her shoulder and she played it really softly in the background and all of the children

were practically silent during it. I am not quite sure what exactly the purpose of her position is

but I assume it is to keep everyone calm and focused. I would be interested to find out how often

music therapists are used in the classroom and what exactly they are trying to accomplish.

Besides playing music while they are doing projects, she was in charge of the music for circle

time. The music therapist incorporated a lot of drums and and instruments for the children to use

during circle time.

I think that there are a lot of benefits for the child with special needs if the class is the

right fit. I do not think full inclusion is right for all students. During my interview with a parent,

we talked a lot about how his son was not ready for full inclusion and would have suffered in

that environment. He did part time inclusion and went to the classroom for small portions of the

day but whenever he did not want to do it he had his special day class to go back to where he felt

comfortable. The parent explained to me that the more he did this, the longer widths of time he

could spend in the inclusive classroom and around other students. He believed that inclusion
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helped his son become more social but that doing full inclusion was not right for him. I think

there are also teachers that are not comfortable to be inclusive classroom teachers and although I

do not agree with that, I think it is something you should know about yourself so you do not

make the child suffer in a classroom they are not accepted in. One of the things that really stuck

with me throughout this semester was the documentary, Educating Peter. I reference it a lot

because I thought it was so interesting to see his educational experience from start to finish.

There were a lot of challenges that they faced in the beginning, but Peter had a teacher who was

willing to make it work which I think it was so successful. She really put in a lot of her own

work to make it successful for her students and Peter. One of the benefits I saw in this class was

that the typically developing students learning empathy for their fellow classmate and Peter felt

like he was accepted. I think students in a solely special education classroom might not feel

accepted by their peers and like kids do not want to play with him. What I loved about this class

was that all the children took it as their responsibility to help Peter and to encourage him to play

with them. In my opinion, especially after taking this class, I see a lot of benefits for the typically

developing, special needs child, and teacher from inclusion.

In the music and movement class there was an example of the teacher facilitating

communication between students that I really valued and took a lot away from. There was a child

with autism in the classroom who had limited verbal skills. He was sitting on the carpet with the

teacher and a little girl came in and brought him a present for his birthday. The child with autism,

Nathan, took the present from the little girl, Shay, but did not say anything. The teacher

facilitated the conversation between them and thanked Shay for bringing him something and told

her how kind she was for remembering his birthday and that she was such a good friend. Nathan
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then took out the little green rubber dinosaur and held onto it the rest of class. A little bit into

class Shay went over to where Nathan and the teacher was and the teacher said to Shay, You

know he really likes that dinosaur you gave him for his birthday. Do you see how he hasnt put it

down since you gave it to him? That means he really likes it. This made Shay smile and sit

down next to Nathan. I thought this was so great because instead of just saying thank you for the

present for him, the teacher took Nathans cues and turned them into words for Shay to

understand that he did like it even if he did not say that out loud. I saw this example as the

teacher facilitating social reinforcement for positive relationships between the two students.

Social reinforcement is when the teacher offers, positive or negative feedback that children

receive from adults and peers that leads to further learning, either appropriate or

inappropriate (Allen, Cowdery, 2015, p. 389). I think one of the most important things I have

learned from this class and the observation is how imperative it is to create those relationships

between the child with special needs and the child that is typically developing.

There are so many benefits I have learned about inclusion after taking this class. Moving

further into my education I am very interested in exploring how I can support families in getting

the resources they need to be successful in an inclusive classroom. I hope to see more teachers

working towards being successful inclusive classroom teachers that facilitate healthy

relationships and positive learning environments for these exceptional students. As a future

professional I hope to be able to contribute to these teachers and families to best support the

children in getting all the help they need to be as successful as any other student.
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Resources

Allen, K. E., & Cowdery, G. E. (2015). The exceptional child: inclusion in early childhood

education. Stamford, CT: Engage Learning.