Special Education Field Experience
Fall Semester 2018
Course: EDUC 424.3
William Penn Elementary School
ES K-2: Miss Amanda Nagy
During the fall of my senior year at Moravian College, it was required that those majoring in Special Education be placed in a special education field experience. This experience required a minimum of 40 hours spent in a special education setting. I had the opportunity to work with Miss Amanda Nagy in her Emotional Support (ES) K-2 classroom at William Penn Elementary School in Bethlehem, PA. My corresponding coursework at Moravian during this semester included various special education classes. Some of the major requirements for these classes included interviewing a special education professional, collaborating to develop an IEP, conducting an FBA on a student based on a target behavior, and co-teaching a lesson, and other various research assignments. Below you can find final evaluation that my cooperating teacher completed based upon the time I spent in her room, the timesheet documenting my hours spent in the classroom, and the various other projects I completed for my special education coursework.
Interview with Mrs. Katie Wechtler
5th Grade Learning Support Teacher
Joseph P. Liberati Intermediate School (Southern Lehigh School District)
FBA on Target Student
Collaborative IEP Construction
Other Research & Assignments
Co-taught lesson
This assignment was for the course Educating Students with Disability and Exceptionality. We were asked to plan a full lesson, from part of a larger content area unit, that were adapted to support target learners, using approaches that were learned in the course. This assignment was completed with a partner to plan and co-teach the lesson. Each set of partners contained one content expert & one special education expert. The central purpose of this assignment was to demonstrate how to plan and implement approaches to co-teaching that we learned throughout this course for supporting the behavioral and learning needs of students, including target learners. Each group received descriptions of two students who have been identified as having disabilities, and our lesson supported these target learners.
Author Snapshot
This assignment was for the course Literacy and Resistance in Secondary Schools. Based upon review of multiple YA authors and titles during a Book Pass we were required to select and research a YA author and present a book talk one of his or her works. This involved prepare an author fact sheet that included an annotated bibliography of the author’s key works and links to any salient web sites. We also had to be sure to make connections to course topics of readicide and supporting authentic literacy “with an attitude.”
African American
Vernacular English
This assignment was for the course Literacy and Resistance in Secondary Schools. The task required us to select and research a desired topic research approved by the instructor. After researching the topic, we were to prepare a brief summary of the topic into a handout. We had to be sure to connect what you have discovered in the professional literature with the concepts and strategies presented by Beers, Finn, and Gallagher from our textbooks. I choose to research African American Vernacular English in order to diversify my knowledge since it was a topic in which I was previously unfamiliar.
Assessment Portfolio
This assignment was for the course Literacy and Resistance in Secondary Schools. Since the special education certification is K-12, this course was designed to allow us to explore that option, and this assignment provided us with the opportunity to interview an intermediate or secondary special education teacher to discuss the career possibilities and to engage in professional conversation with an in-service teacher about the ideas you are explored in the course. I used my connections to find a teacher to interview and scheduled time to conduct a face-to-face interview. Then I had to determine how best to synthesize what I have learned to present to the rest of the class. Ultimately, I choose to use Animoto, a video presentation site, and incorporate voice overs to effectively share the important information attained during the interview.
This assignment was for the course Special Education Processes & Procedures. It involved conducting an ecological assessment that included a careful examination of environments where activities typically occur in order to gather information on student performance. Systematic observation was used to note the effects of setting variables on student behavior and/or performance. Through an analysis of the data obtained through observation of a student in a particular environment, a student’s strengths, current needs, participation levels, and the barriers to participation in a particular setting can be identified. For this assignment, a setting was examined in-depth in order to understand the environmental barriers to student participation and from the data derived, a plan/strategies were suggested to modify the environment in order to support the student and increase the student’s participation in natural contexts.
The project had three parts: 1) an ecological inventory/assessment; 2) behavioral observation; and 3) a Functional Behavioral Assessment and Behavior Intervention Plan.
This assignment was for the course Special Education Processes & Procedures. In pairs, we completed a full IEP using the provided IEP template. A description for a particular student was provided. We were required to read the description of the student and then complete all sections of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) template. It was important that we determined what sections of the document pertain to this student.
This assignment was for the course Literacy Assessment and Evaluation. It involved creating a portfolio of assessment results in the area of reading and writing. For each assessment report, we either conducted assessments ourselves or were provided with student data to evaluate. For each report, we described the assessments, explained the results, and interpreted those results in terms of what interventions and supports would be necessary for each particular student.
Click below to view each of the stated assessment reports: