Thank You, Mr. Falker By Patricia Polacco

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There are thirteen categories of special education. Of the thirteen categories, the most common category students are to be identified with is learning disability. A learning disability is “a neurological condition that interferes with a person’s ability to store, process, or produce information, affecting the person’s ability to read, write, speak, spell, or compute mathematics” (Lerner & Johns, 2012, p. 8). There are many different types of learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and dysgraphia. People born with a learning disability are just the same as everyone else, they just learn a bit different.
Academic and Social Behavior I observed a special education classroom that consisted of twelve children in the 3rd, …show more content…

The book the class was reading was Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. I found it very interesting this was the book the class was reading. This book is about a little girl who has trouble reading for many years. It is later discovered the little girl in the story was actually Patricia Polacco, who has dyslexia. I found this book to be relevant to the children. Thank you, Mr. Falker was projected onto the SMART Board for all the children to see. During the shared reading, Mrs. Kelly asked the children questions. Some questions were for the children to think about independently, but other questions were for the children to turn and talk to each other. Amongst other children in the class, of the five boys, Nicholas and Brian had their hand raised plenty of times for the independent questions. This let me know, as well as their teacher know, those two children were attentive during shared reading. Both Nicholas and Brian had good answers anytime they were called on. Turn and talk went smoothly between the boys as well. Brian, Matthew and Nicholas were partners with each other during turn and talk and Ryan turned and talked with his partner. At one point during the turn and talk, Nicholas noticed I was sitting behind them. Even though Nicholas did not know who I was he smiled and waved to me, but never stopped listening to his group. Mrs. Kelly called on Brian’s …show more content…

There is enough room in the classroom that each child has a locker for themselves plus a few extra lockers for materials that might need to be stored. For example, one of the lockers had extra reading books that I assume were not being used at the moment. There were four tables with four desks at each table; however one table had an extra desk. I believe desks being grouped like this are good for the children. This gives children the opportunity to socialize with each other. Socialization is a factor in children’s development. Children need to learn how socialize. Learning disabled students usually have a low self-esteem due to the fact others will consider them “dumb” or “lazy,” but that is not the case. Their brain functions differently from a nondisabled child’s brain. Being called “dumb” and “lazy” can affect their social behavior. That is not to say all learning disabled children do not know how to socialize. Through “peer tutoring with all students, but particularly LD students, facilitates increases in self-esteem” (Byrd, 1990, p. 116). This lets the student know a peer is willing to help them when in need, which will boost their self-esteem. Not only can children socialize with each other by their desks being grouped by tables, but they can also help each other academically. As mentioned before, peer tutoring is a great way to teach other children. Many children learn best through their peers.

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