Arie Kazmierczak

ECUI 521
Prof. Reilly
11/4/2015
Written Reflection #1
At Valley View Middle School one of my favorite and most interesting classes to observe
was Prof. Oaks period 2, 8th grade physical science class. The class itself consisted of a wide
range of students, from ELL to emotional support and even some gifted students. The classroom
was set up with a variety of lab table set up in two rows. The row closest to the door was 1x5, the
other 2x5, with the professors long table and desk in the front of the class. In terms of creating
the environment I feel Prof. Oak, who had been teaching for 15+ years, put very little effort into
the environment because she had mastered the environment to fit her needs a long time ago. The
room was decorated with periodic tables, a promethean board, and cleaning stations in case of
lab accidents.
In the time that I worked with this class I got to observe the lesson on graphing from
begin to end. My role in the classroom was to assist students who had questions or help explain
what Prof. Oak meant. Due to the inclusion setting of the classroom, there were two instructors
assigned to the classroom in addition to Prof. Oak. Although at first this seemed unnecessary, I
soon learned why. One of the support teachers was assigned to the students who were emotional
support whereas the other was there for the whole classroom and those in the special education
program. The ELL student in the class used an IPad to assist her in some of the translations she
struggled with. All three instructors interacted with the students in a friendly manor but carried

little weight when it came to making sure they were completing their assignments when it came
to the students with special needs. In many cases the emotional support students would refuse to
complete their work and the instructors after several attempts would just give up.
Although the motivational techniques used in the classroom did not always work on
students with special needs, they did however have an effect on the rest of the class. Students
who completed their assignments were allowed to get up and go talk quietly with their friends,
work on their other assignments and use the rest room. This reward system of free time was a
great motivator for students because it allowed them to do the things they were interested in but
only after completing their assignments. One flaw of this however was that it would distract the
students who had not yet finished their work. The overall progress of the class to be stunted
when the exam on the section was due. In when using incentives in the classroom it is important
to make sure that it is valuable to the students. I feel this free time reward is affective, however
it was not in this type of setting where some students could complete assignments in ten minutes
where as it took others the entire class period to complete. A more effective reward might have
been to give all assignments in class and then what ever was not completed have assigned for
homework.