Jeanna Carlton 7/25/11 EEX 4070

Introduction to the Host Setting East Lake Elementary Mission: To lead our students to success with the support and involvement of families and the community. Demographics: Total Enrollment: 743 Ethnicity: American Indian - 2 (0%) Asian - 36 (5%) Black - 69 (9%) Hispanic (22%) White (57%) Gender: Male (47%) Female (46%) Free or Reduced Lunch: 255 (34%)

How I Got Started I went to a Kindergarten class at East Lake Elementary for some assignments that I had to do for my previous classes. I asked the teacher if there was a special education teacher that she recommended to me so I could work with students with special needs. I went to Mrs. Williams, who is the special needs teacher for Kindergarten through 2 nd grade students at East Lake Elementary. I went to her classroom six times at various times and days from May 19th to May 27th. Mrs. Williams has three students that are her students and other students who come into her classroom during the day. I focused my attention on the three students that were in her class. I worked one on one with three students with learning disabilities named Daniel, Charlie, and Jeff.

Engagement Activities The types of activities that I did with these students were: Social skills- Students had to play with others while reading and playing games. The teacher taught lessons on the subject of change and students had to talk with others about change. Writing- Students had to do different activities such as, writing sight words, writing stories and sentences, and writing letters. Math skills- Students completed math worksheets, counted to 100, and had to say different numbers. I played different math games with students such as UNO, a Hershey game called “Fractions In Action”, and a game called “Name the Number”. Reading skills- Students had to do different activities such as, reading sight words, singing a song about letter sounds, rhyming words, reading worksheets, reading books aloud, and saying letters and letter sounds. I was around the students as they watched a fun video on letter sounds. Fun activities such as “Brain Gym” and “Walking Wednesday”.

Participant Demographics I focused on Daniel, Charlie, and Jeff for my project; however, there were students that came into Mrs. Williams class throughout the day. She had between 10 and 15 students. Daniel, Charlie, and Jeff were all in First grade. Daniel and Charlie were both White and Jeff was Hispanic. Daniel, Charlie, and Jeff have learning disabilities. Daniel has an auditory processing disorder, Charlie has a visual processing disorder, and Jeff has a language processing disorder. Auditory processing disorder: difficulty hearing differences between sounds (Kemp, Segal, & Cutter, 2011). Visual processing disorder: difficulty interpreting visual information (Kemp, Segal, & Cutter, 2011). Language processing disorder: difficulty with speech sound discrimination (Tenorio, 2008) IDEIA “provides for special programs and services for all students with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21”(Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2007, p.7). These three students were between the ages of 3 and 21 and have learning disabilities.

Service in Action

Perceptions of Differences When I learned that I had to do this service learning project I was excited that I was going to be able to work with students with disabilities. I know people are sometimes nervous when they hear they have to work with persons with disabilities, but I feel like I want as much experience with all students before I become a teacher. I am happy that I was able to work with students with disabilities. I loved the experience and I want to continue to be around students with disabilities. The students had that most impact on me during my service learning hours. Charlie, David, and Jeff were in 1 st grade and were below grade level, but they appeared to be motivated and seemed to enjoy learning. They also appeared to get frustrated when they did not understand what was being taught or when they were being helped one-on-one. I think that sometimes people lose sight of individuals and their uniqueness when what they are concentrating on is a learning disability. I think that people should slow down, understand individuals better, and make personal connections with them. They should look at everything that makes the person who they are and what the student is good at.

Connections to Your Course I was completing the Teachers in Action project for EEX The three topics I better understand include: Children with specific learning disabilities: those children who have a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2007). The three students were children with specific learning disabilities. Person-first language: language that does not define a child by his or her disability (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2007). Mrs. Williams spoke in person- first language and I had to make sure that I was speaking in person-first language during my experience. Individualized Education Program (IEP): a written plan, developed to meet the special learning needs of each student with disabilities (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2007). When I worked one on one with the students with reading and math, I was helping with some of their IEP’s. Being in a special needs classroom has helped me understand course content and students with disabilities. This experience will help me once I am a teacher because I will most likely have students with disabilities in my classroom.

Civic Engagement I think civic engagement and volunteerism are very important. The purpose is to bring people together. It means working together with others, doing something fun, and learning all at the same time. Civic engagement and participation in service learning helps to address community needs. Service learning helps bring learning to life by having children do an educational activity that helps other people or helps their community. Students can learn and help others in need while they do a project or participate in something with their school. I think that educational activities within a classroom that help students learn about people in the community or what goes on in the world is service learning. This experience has shown me that students can be motivated about learning even when they are far behind or have a learning disability. Seeing children motivated to learn about something makes me motivated to be engaged in service learning in the future. I would encourage teachers and students to do service learning in the future because students should learn that helping their community is important.

Final Thoughts & Reflections I hope to gain more understanding for students with disabilities in my teaching. I think we can gain more understanding and become more involved by being around the students, helping them, learning about what they think is difficult, learning why they act the way they do, and treating them like they are no different than anybody else. I think teachers play a big role in educating students, parents, and communities about students with learning disabilities. Society has many stereotypes about persons with disabilities. I think some teachers think students with disabilities are hard to teach. There are ways to teach children with disabilities that work for that particular child. I think teachers should be patient with students with disabilities and positive that they will understand something that is being taught. Teachers should try and understand what it's like for a student with disabilities. I hope when I become a teacher that I will do everything I can to understand students with disabilities and help every student learn to their full potential.

References Vaughn, S., Bos, C. S., & Schumm, J. S. (2007). Teaching students who are exceptional, diverse, and at risk in the general education classroom (4th Edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon East lake elementary school. (n.d.). Retrieved from org/schools/16386/east-lake-elementary-school.html Kemp, G., Segal, J., & Cutter, D. (2011, June). Learning disabilities in children. Retrieved from Tenorio, A. (2008, November 13). What is a language processing disorder. Retrieved from helpingyourchild.blogspot.com/search/label/What%20is%20Language%20Pro cessing%20Disorder%3F East lake elementary school. (n.d.). Retrieved from