The chosen school that I went to for this project was Haderlein Elementray School in

Girard KS. This is also known as Girard USD 248. The teacher that I worked with of the course of

this semester was Mrs. Oplotnik who teaches first graders. This school is pretty well rounded

when it comes to the building demographics. There is about the same amount of boys as there

is girls enrolled. The Socioeconomic Status of the building is similar in numbers with 51.12%

being non-economically disadvantaged and 48.88% being economically disadvantaged. This

matches up pretty closely with the district with them having 53.60% being non-economically

disadvantaged and 46.40% being Economically disadvantaged. While the building is primarily a

white population with 87.42% of this building being white children they are not completely

white. 6.69% is Hispanic, 1.22% is African American and 4.67% is other in this building.

Comparing these numbers to the district the white population represents 88.52% while

Hispanic is 5.16% an African Americans represent 2.04% and other is 4.28%. With this school

being on the smaller side I didnt think that they would have a high rate of students with

disabilities but there is 12.11% of this building who have a disability. Which actually this has

been declining since 2011 when the percentage was 16.07. The district all together has only

12.03% of students with disabilities. The students that I worked with in Mrs. Oplotniks class

are lower level students who either have an IEP or is close to getting one. Student A, a white

male who is about 6 years old is a student who has and IEP and has extra help in and out of the

classroom. A para comes in during the times that I am there to work with him on some of his

reading rotations. I was able to work with this student and see his abilities on 09/25/15 from

8:30-10:00. Student B is also a white male who is about 6 years old and does not have an IEP.

Mrs. Oplotnik informed me that he does not have and IEP yet but that he is struggling but she
thinks it has to do with his home life not being so great and he cant really focus when he is at

school. So her plan was to give him some extra love and attention and help him feel safe so that

maybe he can work without thinking about all the bad. I worked with this student on 11/06/15

from 8:30-10:00 and on 11/20/15 from 8:30-10:00. Student C is a white male but he is about 5

years old and in Kindergarten. He comes up to our classroom during reading rotations for extra

stimulation in this area. He is very excelled in reading and writing. I was able to work with this

student on 10/09/15 from 8:30-3:30. Student D is also a white male who is about 6 years old.

This little guy participates in several pull out activities throughout the day. He does have an IEP

and gets extra help in some of the areas that he struggles in. I worked with this student on

11/20/15 from 8:30-10:00

09/25/15 8:30-10:00- Today I didnt really work with just one child. Since this was my first day

in the classroom I sat back and watched as the children worked in their reading groups. I would

take note of the children I saw struggling in the different stations. When they went to Music I

had the opportunity to set down with the teacher and talk to her about what students had IEPs

and she told me that there was one that doesnt have one yet but that they are possibly going

to be working towards one. He has a bad home life and she is hoping that with a little extra love

and attention she can help him get caught up before having to go to an IEP. There was one

student that I noticed right away that I figured needed some extra help. Right after I met

student A, a para came in to help him. I also noticed that there are four kids that get pulled out

for extra help during reading rotations. I didnt have time to ask the teacher what they are

specifically getting pulled out for but I assumed it was for additional MTSS. The teacher has

done a great job of breaking up all the students into different groups based on their levels of
reading. They get to work in their small groups of 3-4 and go around to the different centers.

One of the centers they get to work with the teacher at a small group table. They work together

to read a book that is on that groups reading level. She will ask the students questions about

the book or work on some of their vocab words from the book. If they are not working on

spelling words, sentence structure, reading, phonics games on the iPads or computers, then

they are working on counting and math games.

10/09/15 8:30-3:30- Today we went to the pumpkin patch over by Greenbush. We started by

doing our normal reading rotations and I was able to work with student C. This student is an

upper level reader. I followed them into the reading center and they read 4 books to me. This

student also did amazing on their first spelling test. I was so surprised by how well this student

did. After working with him in the reading center I then went to one of the other groups that

was working in the math center. There were three students working on putting numbers into a

pocket chart from 0 to 100. Two of them knew their numbers pretty good but one of the

students struggled with placement. If the number was 78 she knew that is was two spots to

the left of the whole numbers that was on the right hand side but she would put it in the spot

above where it belonged. So she would put 78 in the 68 spot. So after observing them for a few

minutes when this student began to put a number up and she was thinking of where it goes I

would ask her what number it was and what are some numbers that are close to it. She could

verbally tell me where this number went but when she went to use the pocket chart she would

begin to put in close to the right spot and then it was like she second guessed herself and put it

higher or lower. When I would give her verbal ques that she was actually very close she

automatically put it in the right spot. But at each station I would go and watch the students
and listen to what they were doing if one or more students were struggling in that area I would

try to help them without flat out giving them the answers. I worked with someone at all of the

rotations. They then went to specials and when they got back we loaded up the busses and we

went to the Pumpkin Patch. When we got there the owner split up all the different classes into

different group rotations and our first one was to go look at the animals. The owner stayed with

us and explained to the children what each one was and what their name was. She would ask

them to say what sounds they made and it was so cute to watch how excited they got. Next we

got to actually go and pick our pumpkins out of the patch. We picked a special place to set all of

our pumpkins down while we finished doing the rest of the rotations. Next on our list was the

corn maze the children took turns leading us through the maze. They all had a blast with this.

Next we moved on to the fun area where we got to play in a corn pit and do rubber ducky

races. After we finished all of our rotations our class still had a lot of time left so we then went

to an open section of land where I assume people park when it is busy and our class decided to

do relays. We split everyone up into like 6 teams and Mrs. Oplotnik and one of the students

parents that came decided to join one of the teams to make it all even. We skipped, hopped,

jumped, ran, walked backwards, played leap frog, all kinds of things. We really wore the

kiddos out. But it was a lot of fun to see all the children participating and encouraging each

other when their other teammates were going. We then all got back on the bus and came back

to school. I then was able to watch how they end their day. Who goes where and what Mrs.

Oplotnik does.

11/06/15 8:30-10:00- Today I got to work with student B on his reading fluency. He read the

book that his reading level group was working on. He would read it to me and if there was a
page he missed or added words to it I would have him read it again. He did very well with this

and he would remember what he had missed and fix it the second time through. After we

worked on that, Mrs. Oplotnik had me start pulling kids one by one to work on things that they

would soon be tested on. She has created a binder with different sections such as vocabulary

that all first graders should know. It had pages of numbers and they had to read them off or

there were some pages where there were two numbers and they had to say which one was the

bigger number or which was the smaller one different things like that. So I would call each child

out one by one form their reading rotations to come over and work with me one-on-one with

one of these pages. She had a list of where each child was on what page so that you could see

their improvement. For each child you could see where they were and I kept track and added

to her list if they improved any. Which every single student had improved. Today was good.

11/20/15- 8:30-10:00- Today as soon as I got into the classroom the children were heading to

their reading rotations. Mrs. Oplotnik Asked me to help Student D take his spelling test since we

was out for a pull out group when the class took the test. So Student D and I went out into the

hallway and he wrote out all of his words. He even told me that he knows these words because

he has been studying. When we were done and went back into the classroom. Mrs. Oplotnik

asked me if I could help Student B with the first three words from his spelling test because he

came back from pull out and had missed the first three words. So we went out into the hall

and I helped him with the first three words afterwards I gave him back one of the pennies

that he gave to me the last time I was there. I told him that I had held onto them and I think

he did a wonderful job and I thought he deserved one for doing so well on his spelling test.

After we finished his test we went back into the classroom and he went to his next reading
rotation. When I got back into the classroom Mrs. Oplotnik asked me to work with the children

again with the binder of things they will be tested on. This time we worked on just Math skills.

So one by one I called each student over and we first worked on telling me what the numbers

were. Then we did which number is bigger out of the pair. After we timed them I would record

what line they got too after a minute. After we did which number is bigger we moved on to

which number was smaller. I did this for each one of the students and we finished just in time

for them to clean up and go to specials.

Reflection: After being in this classroom I was able to see how Mrs. Oplotnik accommodated

each child even the ones who have IEPs so that everyone could learn. I love how she does the

reading rotations so that she could work with the students on their own reading levels. It gives

them the chance to not only read books on their reading level with others who are on the same

reading level as them but it also gives the teacher the opportunity to work on vocabulary,

reading fluency, and comprehension. One thing that I also really, really loved that she had the

binder that we could work from on each childs level of each section. I love that she is tracking

each childs ability in each section so she knows what subject they might need some extra time

in. This allows her to focus what she is teaching so that the students are getting the most out of

it and they are improving. This also helps her to know which students might be struggling so

when teaching that specific lesson, she can focus on helping those who struggle. Mrs. Oplotnik

was very good about explaining to me why she does the things she does and what the children

are getting or benefit from it. I loved this because she gave me so many ideas of how to

incorporate several ideas and concepts into your daily activities. I learned how to accommodate

children on all levels of learning in a classroom. Every classroom will be diverse with reading

abilities, language skills, and even math skills, but learning how to accommodate each child in

your classroom so that they get the most out of what they are learning that is what matters the

most.