What Courtney Thinks...

Lupita- in Lupita’s case, I believe one of the main issues in her learning is the issues surrounding her learning environment. Because Lupita is an ELL student, she is already working outside her comfort zone in the elementary classroom. This is clear through her shyness in class, and is promoted by Mrs. Potter’s lack of inclusion of Lupita. It is clear when Lupita is seen helping her classmates put together the puzzle that Lupita is capable of social interaction and explanations of her individual reasoning. When Mrs. Potter does not call on her in class, it seems to only promote Lupita’s lack of sense of community and comfortable learning environment. I believe the first step in encouraging Lupita to become a more active member of the class is to make her feel welcome and included. It is common with ELL students to struggle in their understandings when given merely word explanations. If Mrs. Potter were to incorporate multiple methods of instruction, such as discussions, small group work, manipulatives, and visual/sensory instruction, more students than just Lupita would undoubtedly benefit.

Jonathan- Jonathan poses a seemingly common, yet very challenging student teachers experience in classrooms. It sounds like one of the main reasons behind Jonathan’s lack of interest in reading at school is a lack of motivation. He is clearly successful in areas of personal interest to him, so Mrs. Potter’s challenge will be motivating Jonathan to read. One thing I have learned in my field placements is that motivating a student whom is already reading at a lower level than expected is extremely difficult. Mrs. Potter should encourage Jonathan to read books of interest to him before forcing him to read books he may not be interested in. Many schools and libraries offer reading programs throughout the school year and summer with incentives to reading a certain number of books or hours. Encouraging Jonathan to participate in such programs would allow him the freedom to read books of choice while he practices his reading skills.

Eddie- While Eddie may possess social skills within the classroom; it appears he lacks the attention and/or motivation to complete his coursework. The article Quick and Easy Adaptations and Accommodations for Early Childhood Students offers quite a few ways in which students with various special needs may benefit from. Some ways in which to involve students whom have a hard time focusing their attention for an amount of time is to provide plenty of visual support throughout the classroom. This clearly worked in Eddie’s case with the tadpoles, yet then he struggled to focus on Mrs. Potter’s questions. Allowing students to work with manipulatives, or smaller versions of the teacher’s resources used during carpet time, may allow for the students to explore their learning for themselves. If Mrs. Potter allowed Eddie enough time to explore the tadpoles behavior in the jar before beginning her explanations, Eddie may have been more actively engaged in learning more about the tadpoles.