Connections: Week 7 at the Learning Academy

​Lexia (8 AM)

• Students sit in their seats once they enter the room and begin their Lexia/PBS Kids/Other Apps on their iPads. Skills worked on include:

• Syllable division and categorization (CVC, CVCC, etc.)

• Completing words and sentences from context (Case study worked on this skill)

• Listening to stories

• Spell words

Observations of Class

Handwriting (8:25 AM)

• Students call out answers without being called upon

• They answer chorally when asked questions

• Students must say the letter names of the letters as they write

• Students are encouraged to self-correct their writing if the letters are sloppy. They do.

• After they finish with writing their letter of the day, they bring the finished work to check over and get a stamp

• Ms. Jameson allows the student with the best handwriting to check over the rest of the class' work.

Orton-Gillingham Instruction

• Every student except for Johnny raises their hand to test memory of a complicated spelling rule. Ms. Jameson calls on him to recall it after all the others have volunteered.

• When given a consonant and vowel suffix, students have trouble answering questions about one or the other in sequence right after learning about them.

• Students start to fidget by 9:00 AM

Snack (~9:05 AM)

• The boys in the class play with lego cars and vehicles they have built

• The girls chat together

• Ms. Jameson has to remind them to keep their voices down so they don't disturb the class next to them.

• Johnny is the only one who reads during snack.

Observations of Teacher

Handwriting (8:25 AM)

• Ms. Jameson easily gains attention when it's lost.

• She models what students need to do for handwriting on the whiteboard

• How to transfer from one letter that ends at the top in cursive

• Ex: from "w" to "o"

• Gives praise for confident and correct responses frequently

• Prompts students to speak louder or quiet down when they are writing and saying letter names

• Once modeling is finished, Ms. Jameson allows students to work on their own

Orton-Gillingham Instruction

• Ms. Jameson often stops students to correct their speech and "sharpness" of words during the visual drills.

• She asks students to repeat a drill until they reach a good standard

• Gives students options of where to sit during visual and auditory drills (either in desks or on the rug in front of the SMARTboard)

• When Johnny misbehaves, Ms. Jameson doesn't stop instructing or make a big deal of moving a warning card in his "How's My Day Going?" chart.

Observations of Student​

Handwriting (8:25 AM)

• During instruction, Johnny rests his head in his hand, which Ms. Jameson highly discourages her students from doing.

• Johnny began to follow directions (to speak the letters out when writing) after the class began.

• When he's focused, he has good handwriting (can stay within lines and make recognizable letters), but once he starts slacking, his writing becomes sloppy.

• Johnny is excellent at tracing the letters, but he struggles to make the same motions when freehanding.

Snack (9:00 AM)

• Johnny is reading a comic book spin-off of Star Wars. It's made for young boys, as the main character is a young "Padawan" going through training at the Jedi Academy.

• Ms. Jameson asked me not to have him read aloud so "his brain can have a break" and he could eat his snack.

• I read along quietly with him and asked questions about the text.

• "Who is this?"

• "Why did the character do that?"

• "What does this word mean?" (This question usually pertained to the Star Wars domain, like the word Padawan.)

• Johnny readily and easily told me about the text and the main character's many tribulations.

• He didn't know the name to some of the context oriented words.

Orton Gillingham Instruction

• Right away, Johnny began fiddling with his hands during instruction.

• He doesn't volunteer to do memory drills (recite a spelling rule from memory) even after every other student has done so.

• When he is told to do it, he thinks through it slowly, and self-corrects his errors.

• "s, z, z...wait, s, x, z

• He raises his hand to do visual drills

• He answers a nonsense open syllable "ca" as /k/-/ă/ then self-corrects to /k/-/ā/.

• His focus isn't on the lesson as his gaze is constantly wandering.

• Ms. Jameson reminds him he can move to the front of the class room (on the rug) if he is having trouble focusing.

• Johnny waits five minutes before moving to the front silently.

• He continues to fidget and Ms. Jameson gives him a warning card (as mentioned above in Observations of Teacher).

• When writing a word, Johnny doesn't erase the full word, just the letter that was messed up.

• When writing in cursive, Johnny writes "n" rather than the double bump n in cursive.

Interesting fact noted: There are three students (out of nine) who write with their left hand in the classroom, and they all sit in the same grouping. Ms. Jameson was unaware of this, but found it curious.

Interpretation of Notes

Today was a learning experience for me in this class. I really paid attention to the habits and mannerisms of the class and how the class functioned. Ms. Jameson holds her students in high expectations, as I've mentioned before, and the students know it. However, especially today, I see that the students know how to get away with things in the classroom, and I often feel like they push their limits and rely on Ms. Jameson to let them know when they've reached it. For instance, during snack they were getting too loud, but they didn't correct themselves; they waited until Ms. Jameson told them to quiet down. The students know to correct themselves on their schoolwork, but their attitude and volumes can be out of control at times. Ms. Jameson wasn't feeling well today, so my partner and I monitored the classroom constantly during instruction and individual work to answer questions and provide assistance.

My case study, Johnny, is improving immensely under the Learning Academy and Ms. Jameson. He doesn't have to look at the cursive writing alphabet anymore to write his words, but his handwriting still requires him to focus. For reading, I've done two Running Records on Johnny and both have shown that he reads above a second grade level. However, the comic book he was reading suggested he's at a 3rd grade level, maybe closer to 4th grade. I will be doing another Running Record with him on October 28th to determine this. He can follow along during OG instruction now, which was a struggle for him at the beginning of the year.

I was also told a week ago that Johnny may have a processing disorder, but it's unclear what kind. My observations don't prove to me what kind either. However, I do believe that it's leaning towards an auditory processing issue. Just during this observation, Johnny had two instances that lead me to think this. The first major one is that Johnny didn't begin doing his work until after he had seen the rest of the class doing so. (He could have possibly not been paying attention as well.) The second one is Johnny was the last to go when reciting the spelling rule from memory. All of the other students had said it, but Johnny still had trouble saying the rule out loud. These are only my predictions and observations of Johnny, but I cannot give any sort of diagnosis as I am not qualified to do so.

#observation #week7