Jessica Worger

3/29/2015
Modifications
The learners that I have in my Spanish II pre-AP class and
Spanish II class are a very diverse group of students. The majority of
the students are sophomores but there are a few students in each
class that are freshmen, juniors, or seniors. One student is 19 and
wasnt able to graduate the year before from high school. There are
about 35 students in the Spanish II pre-AP class and about 25 students
in the Spanish II class. Every Friday that I have my practicum, there
are at least 5 or 6 students absent each week from each of the classes
for various reasons, which range from having an excused absence for
sports to ditching class. The majority of the class is Caucasian but
there are a few Hispanic students and students of a mixed race.
The learners in the class are on a very wide spectrum based on
motivation and knowledge level. There is especially a big difference of
class atmosphere between the two classes. In the pre-AP class, there
are some students that exceed the expectations, a few that dont meet
expectations, and the rest meet expectations. Most of the students in
the Pre-ap are highly self motivated, complete their homework, and are
engaged in class. Whenever I plan lesson, I can create activities and
lessons that are higher level because I know that they like to be
challenged.
The Spanish II class is completely different from the pre-AP class.
The students are not as motivated but they are a very expressive and
fun group. When I plan lessons for this class I have to plan behavior
management and classroom management much more carefully than
with the AP class. I always have to be prepared to ask students to get
off their phones and explain directions in more details. Unfortunately,
when Ms. Parkhusrt assigns homework to that class, the students
rarely complete the homework.
There is one student in the pre-AP class that has a medical
condition. He misses school often because he has to go to the doctor
or the emergency room. He is very motivated, but sometimes he falls
behind because he misses school and cant keep up with homework.
Ms Parkhurst is very understanding of his circumstance though and she
sets aside a folder especially for him when he is absent. This student
just needs for teachers to give him very detailed notes of the days he
has missed and extra assistance when needed and I feel that Ms.
Parkhurst does this very successfully.
Another student in the pre-AP class excels in everything she
does. I feel like she is almost at my level of speaking Spanish and she
has only been taking Spanish for 3 years. She completes every
assignment, participates in class, and gets an A on many of the tests.
When I or Ms. Parkhusrt teach a lesson, we make sure to ask this girl
higher level questions or give her opportunities to be challenged.

In the Spanish II class, there are two boys that dont want to be
engaged in class at all. Both boys, right as they enter the room, put in
their earphones, slump in their seats, and look at their phone. When
Ms. Parkhurst asks the class a question the two of them usually slump
down in their seats and avoid eye contact. These two boys are very
difficult to teach because they dont seem interested in learning at
all. I have been trying a technique with one of the boys where I ask
him to tell me how to say a certain sentence in Spanish and we work
through the problem together. They will never volunteer themselves to
work on a problem with me but when I cold call on one of the boys, I
can tell that he is very intelligent and enjoys working through the
sentence. Unfortunately, he wont volunteer or be engaged unless he
is forced to. The other boy is very defiant. When Ms. Parkhurst asks
him to put his phone away so that he can make the most of his
education, he ignores her and continues playing on the phone.
There are a few techniques that I have used, and that Ive seen
Ms. Parkhurst use to make sure that all of the students special needs
have been met. First of all, this past week I observed Ms. Parkhusrt
teach a vocabulary lesson. For the AP class, they played vocabulary
games because the students had studied and looked up the words at
home. For the other class though, she had to spoon feed them the
definitions of the words because in the past they do not so the work.
Even though the two classes have the same content, Ms. Parkhurst
makes sure that each lesson is specific to the skills and abilities of
each class. She places more responsibility on the AP class and does
the spoon feeding with her Spanish II class.
One way that I tried to differentiate during my classes was by
asking many questions to the students. Instead of giving them 3
seconds to think about the answer, I allowed them to tell a partner
what they thought the answer was. I think that this technique, thinkpair-share, allows students to solidify their answers and gives them
more confidence. Also, if a student doesnt know that answer ti a
question that I ask them, I work through the process with them.
I use many different activities that use different intelligences
during my lessons and Ms. Parkhurst does too. When I plan a lesson I
try to include a communicative partner activity, and independent
writing activity, a fun games, a traditional lecture, and maybe some
kind of multimedia presentation. Ms. Parkhurts taught me how to do
this and that it is very beneficial to change activities and types of
activities every ten minutes. I definitely see some students flourish in
some activities while they may be more challenged in others. I need to
start adding more kinesthetic and musical activities into my lesson.
Another technique that I see Ms. Parkhurst use is assigned
seating and pre-made notes or worksheets. Every student knows
exactly where they should be sitting when class starts and if there is an

area where students are too chatty during lessons, she will rearrange
the seating order. At the beginning of the class, she sets out pre-made
notes or special handouts for students to pick up. The notes are
already written out so the students only need to fill in the blanks. This
helps students that struggle with taking and organizing notes succeed.
Through all the techniques that I have learned from my EDUC
classes and mentor teachers, I feel like I am able to meet the needs of
many students and help them succeed in school.