About
the School Where You Are Observing or doing Field Experience
School Name and City: Oak Forest High School, Oak Forest IL
Type of
School: Elementary school, Middle School, High School, or Other: High School
Setting:
Urban, Suburban, or Rural: Suburban
Write
your responses to the three questions below in paragraph form.
1. List any
special features of the school or classroom setting (e.g., themed magnet,
classroom aide, bilingual, co-taught
with a
special education teacher,
pull-out program).
a. These P.E.
classes have a classroom aid, that are typically juniors or seniors who
typically gather the resources required for the class that day and lead warm-up
activities. I have also have experienced inclusive PE with special-education
(with a special education teacher or aid) and a mix of regular students.
2. Describe any
district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that affects
the planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing
plan, use of specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.
a. I find it interesting
the Oak Forest elects to have co-ed PE classes, while I was in high school the
PE classes were segregated by sex, and I personally believe that having co-ed
classes provides more opportunities for distraction of students as well as
fostering the “I don’t want to try” or “I’m too cool for PE” thought processes
with the opposite sex present to impress. While I have yet to plan a lesson
myself, the sub lesson plans I have been given always include a warm-up plan in
addition to the main lesson plan of the day. I have also been exposed to ELL
and inclusive special education PE classes and those classes would have
significantly more needs to plan accordingly for as opposed to a standard PE
class. I believe PE is still a requirement due to Illinois standards, but this
school does offer a variety of PE classes such as lifting, or other focuses
giving an alternative to the “standard” PE class.
3. For special education only: List
any educators with specialized expertise in the school/district (e.g., specific
disabilities, subject-specific pedagogy, English language development, speech
therapists).
1. Estimated percentage of
students eligible for free/reduced lunch: 25%
2. Grade level(s): 9-12
3. Number of
a. students in the class: 20-30
b. males: 10-15
females: 10-15
c. English language learners: 0
d. students identified as gifted and talented: 0
e. students with Individualized Education
Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans: 0
4. Complete the chart below to summarize
required accommodations or modifications for students receiving special
education services and/or students who are gifted and talented as they will affect instruction. As needed,
consult with your cooperating teacher to complete the chart. The first row has
been completed in italics as an example. Use as many rows as you need.
|
Special
Education
Category |
Number of
Students
|
Accommodations,
Modifications, and/or Pertinent IEP Goals
|
|
Example:
Learning Disability
|
Example: 4
|
Example:
Close monitoring, follow up, and Resource Room
|
|
|
|
|
|
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About
the Class You Observed
1. How much time
is devoted each day to instruction in the classroom? Describe the class periods
(if applicable)? Choose a content area of your specialty or major. How much
time is devoted to teaching that subject?
a. For a typical
PE class, actual instruction usually lasts 5-10 minutes. These 5-10 minutes
typically include telling the students what warm-up to do, watching them
complete the warm-up, and then explaining the game or plan for the day and then
once that is established you must take a step back and just monitor the class
as a whole.
2. Is there any
ability grouping or tracking? If so, please describe how it affects your class.
a. While there
is no specific ability grouping or tracking in this specific class, I have
experienced grouping in other PE settings. One example of this would be my
experience with inclusive PE featuring a mix of special-education students and
general population students. And I found that the students help the teacher but
making sure the special education students not only understand what’s going on,
but they also did a great job of motivating and keeping those students involved
in the activities.
3. Identify any
textbook or instructional program you primarily use for instruction. If a
textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication.
a. I did not use
any textbooks or other materials; all of my instruction came from a typed up “sub
plan” provided to me from the regular instructor.
4. List other
resources (e.g., SMARTBoard, manipulatives, online resources) used for instruction
in this class.
a. None.
5. What do you
know about what
your students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do? What do
you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and
practices, and interests?
a. While it is
impossible to know the individual strengths and weaknesses of each students
while observing, I believe it is possible to gauge effort in the PE setting and
that is typically what I tend to focus on. I believe that as long as you
actually try in PE, you could be the worst soccer player of all time, but if
you give the proper effort day in and day out you are accomplishing the goal
set forth by PE teachers. I also think it is important as a PE teacher to
understand your students’ cultures and what they value in an attempt to make
class more interesting for them. For example, I spent all day subbing for PE
and every class elected to play scatter ball (a form of dodgeball), expect my
final class of the day which happened to be a ELL class, they were adamant
about playing soccer instead. And while this might seem like a small
difference, those students in the ELL class who were passionate about playing
soccer gave the most effort I had seen all day out of any of my class, and that’s
because they were doing something they enjoyed.
6. Describe one
teaching event. What best practices in teaching were used?
a. While subbing
for the ELL class, I instructed the students to do a short warm up and listed
the specifics exercises I desired, and they not only completed the warm-up
flawlessly, but when I told them that could play soccer they immediately ran
and set up the goals themselves and spit up into even teams without any direct
instruction from myself. And while I would like to say that my directions were
so clear that why they did it flawlessly, but in reality I think by tapping
into an activity the class as a whole was passionate about, I achieved results
that far exceeded my expectations and I think that is a key skill I wish to
hone in my coming experience is creating an environment in which students WANT
to do things and actually enjoy them instead of tolerating.
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