Summative Classroom Evaluation

In the summative course assessment, the anonymity of John will take place for my student. He is currently a sophomore with a learning disability at Roosevelt High School, given an anonymity, and taking World History. John has had four to eleven missing assignments over the past fourteen weeks in his second semester and currently has a 68% overall grade in the class (AERIES). Over this past semester, John regularly brings his chromebook to class, but never brings his laptop fully charged, therefore being unprepared for class. Consequently, this has led to causing class disruptions and allowing for himself to become his teacher’s primary focus to make sure he is on task. John has had trouble participating in class activities and completing in-class

assignments. However, John has shown specific interest in time periods of World History such as: the Byzantine Empire, World War I, World War II, and specifically the attack on Pearl Harbor. John has been able to use his personal experiences to help him gain interest in the subject matter being taught in class. Over the past fourteen weeks, my observations have allowed me to make connections with my student’s actions to material that I have learned in Human Differences.
Periodically, John puts his head down in class whenever the teacher is lecturing in the classroom. John’s teacher takes this as a sign of him not being prepared for class, although anytime John is asked to participate and share his answer John proves to the teacher that he was listening when his head is down. My student rarely chats in the classroom unlike his peers, he always puts his earphones on any down time occurs in the classroom. However, according to the teacher’s lesson plans, the teacher does not allow for the students to hang out and not be engaged in an activity. The teacher does allow for majority of the class period to be dedicated towards individual classwork, but tries to limit the group discussions that are not apart of the lesson. John’s teacher rarely provides time throughout his lesson that allows for students to collaborate, which adds to the foundation of skills (Carini, p. 27).
Throughout the semester John does not socialize amongst his peers, through observations he shows that he is more reserved. At times when occasional group activities take place and students have to form their own group, John spends most of his time dragging his body throughout the classroom not wanting to join a group. Often times, he asks his teacher if he can work alone after spending no more than ten seconds asking to join groups. His teacher throughout lessons likes to teach with the class door open, so when students are mobilizing, John likes to walk outside the classroom trying to avoid interacting with his peers. Due to his lack of desire to socially mobilize in the classroom, it has caused him to be forced into groups for group projects, allowed for his participation grade to drop for not collaborating with his group, and classwork grade to lower for not contributing his own ideas to in-class assignments.
Over the past fourteen weeks, the teacher’s style of teaching is most similar to direct instruction.

The teacher starts lessons with a warm up that consists of two to three essential questions that covers previously learned material. He then discusses upcoming assignments students will be working on and their schedule for that period. At this moment, the teacher derives from the direct instruction model of teaching and starts to lecture about upcoming events the school has, then randomly goes back to discussing their schedule for the day. Generally, students at this moment are no longer tuned into what their teacher is saying and not listening for what they have to do for their next assignment. John’s teacher at times does not allow for the students to use their funds of knowledge to participate in class discussion. Classroom context is essential to providing a well-rounded and positive learning environment for John’s academic needs to be

met.
After careful observations, I have observed that John’s teacher does not include differentiation into his lesson plans. Over an informal interview, we were discussing John’s needs and how the usage of images will benefit his learning style. John’s teacher had agreed that incorporating visuals more into his lesson plans would best benefit John’s learning needs, but he also added that the rest of the class learns better when they are completing classwork individually. I then asked John’s teacher, “Do you do differentiation?” John’s teacher had responded saying, “No, I don’t really think it works. In my fifteen years of teaching I have done differentiation twice because it was stated in an IEP to do so, and it didn’t work” (John’s Teacher, 2018). Excluding differentiation in all has limited the ability for John to learn in the classroom and has academically restricted him in meeting his goals on his 504 plan (CUM).
Concluding my observations over this past semester, my feelings towards this student have changed drastically and as an outcome of witnessing my student’s experience in a World History classroom I feel empathetic for him. Having a learning disability, John has tried to learn as much as he can with the little help he has had from his teacher. I have empathy for John because he is not receiving the academic and behavioral services that would sufficiently meet his needs. When John was interested in the battles that took place in World War II and asked the teacher for an additional primary document he can read on his free time, it made me appreciate how he would put effort into his work. John’s teacher needs to realize that he has a strong impact on John’s educational experience; therefore he should have used this as an opportunity to create a project where John would have been motivated to complete. According to Lisa Tsui, “Challenging assignments often provide a chance for students to make a new unique contribution” (Tsui, p.14). John has shown specific body language that exemplifies he is not interested in certain time periods throughout World History, but he is still listening to what the teacher has to say. John’s Zone of Proximal Development may differ from other students, but that is also due to his learning disability, and for that I am empathetic for what John can complete in the classroom.
Over the semester, my initial personal responses towards this student were concerning. I felt my student would often times take advantage of my teacher because he knew he would escape having consequences for not coming to class with his laptop charged completely. Everyday John would have to find an outlet in class in order to charge his laptop or put his head down when the teacher was lecturing; I felt he was being disrespectful towards his teacher and his peers. I felt as if he did not appreciate the time the teacher was dedicating to the class and the different electronic apps and programs the teacher provided. Professionally, my initial thoughts toward my student was that he was given the tools to become academically successful. Fifty percent of the time John did not complete his classwork and had many missing assignments (AERIES). I initially thought he was choosing not to do his work, but after continuous observations I realized that the material was not differentiated towards his needs.
Dialogue with peers during my Socratic Dialogue Group has caused me to see my student differently.

My initial thoughts on my student were completely different than my concluding thoughts. When meeting with my Socratic Dialogue Group, I would often state my observations and experiences my students would do in class and after receiving feedback from peers, it has allowed me to understand different perspectives that I did not consider before. According to Carini, “The more students practice and get feedback on their writing, analyzing, or problem solving, the more adept they should become” (p. 3). Another aspect that was essential to helping me see my student differently was the prompted questions that we needed to answer throughout our meetings. This is allowed for me to reorganize my thoughts and consider qualities and judgements I made previously. My Socratic Dialogue Group helped me clarify any thoughts I had on my student throughout the weeks and provide collaboration and innovative ideas on how else John’s needs could be met, even if at my times John’s teacher would

not.
After reviewing my observational data for my student John, based off of his learning style I was able to construct three goals that will help guide John’s progress in his World History class. After observing John during week 4 of class on January 30th at two o’clock in the evening, students did a warm up at the beginning of class. John’s teacher had notified the students that the questions on the warm up would be on an upcoming quiz and test. After students had three and a half minutes to complete their warm up, the teacher did not call on students to share their answer nor did he walk around the classroom to check how students were doing. John was second-guessing his answer and raised his hand at the end of the three and a half minutes to ask for help and see if his answer was right. The teacher then told him to look in his book to check his answer, but John did not know how to use research skills to complete this task. This would have been an opportunity to strengthen John’s academic skills by having allowing students to check for understanding. The first goal for John’s guide to progress is giving him the opportunity to check for understanding through pair sharing, a Kagan strategy, and then have the teacher create equity sticks so that he can chose students randomly to share what they wrote and guide them to their best answer. In Student Engagement and Student Learning: Testing the Linkages, “student engagement is generally considered to be among the better predictors of learning and personal development” (Carini, p. 2). Through this activity, John will be able to strengthen his academic skills through cultivating new ideas with his peers.