1

Alyssa Braud
3/15/16
EDCI 2700
Characteristics of Children with Exceptionalities
Spring 2016
abrau22@lsu.edu
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EDCI 2700
Field Experience Log of Hours

Name Alyssa Braud

PLEASE INCLUDE ALL HOURS OF FIELD EXPERIENCE. This includes
orientation, observations, and tutoring time. Please add lines as
necessary. This is your log of time spent. Signatures should appear
on the verification form.

Date Time Activity/School Total Time Cumulative

In/Out This Activity Time
1/19/1 7:50/8:50 Orientation/PAE 1 hour 1 hour
6
1/21/1 7:50/8:50 Observation/PAE 1 hour 2 hours
6
1/26/1 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 3 hours
6
1/28/1 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 4 hours
6
2/2/16 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 5 hours
2/4/16 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 6 hours
2/11/1 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 7 hours
6
2/18/1 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 8 hours
6
2/18/1 9:00/10:00 Observation/PAE 1 hour 9 hours
6
2/25/1 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 10 hours
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3/1/16 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 11 hours
3/3/16 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 12 hours
3/8/16 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 13 hours
3/10/1 7:50/8:50 Tutoring/PAE 1 hour 14 hours
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Observation A: Inclusive Classroom

Teacher Kristina McCrossen Type of Inclusive

Name Classroo
m
Date 1/21/16 School Port Allen Elementary
Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End

When I walked into the Mrs. McCrossens kindergarten classroom, I

noticed a word wall with different letters and basic words on it, as well as

numbers, months of the year, and a list of birthdays. There were also many

diagrams of how to do simple tasks, such as washing their hands and being

respectable students. To the back of the room there was a little reading area

with bins of books and puppets. There was also an activity area to the left of

the room with different toys for the children to interact with. There were

three different tables for groups of students to do their work at. Their chairs

had a cloth backing with a big pocket where they stored all of their books.

Both boys and girls sat in groups together. Out of the fourteen students

present, there were only three white students. When instruction started, the

students knew to be quiet, pay attention, and do their work.

Mrs. McCrossens kindergarten class came to attention when she

exclaimed, chicka chicka and the class replied, boom boom. She gets

their attention so that they may clean up and put away the current project

they are working on before instruction begins. Before and during

announcements, they were working on coloring a picture that had the words

of the colors written where they had to color different areas a specific color.

Some of the students came up to me asking what color the words were
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spelling and I tried to help them without telling them the direct answer. For

example, one student asked me what r-e-d spelled so I pointed to something

on her paper that was already red and asked her what that color was. She

said, red! and that helped her understand the relationship between the

word and the color. After announcements were over, all the children were

gathered by the teacher when she called them my friends to sit down

where their spot was on the ABC carpet. They are told to have a bubble,

which is where they blow up their cheeks, and sit crisscross applesauce so

that the teacher will have their full attention. At the start of instruction, to

keep the students motivated and engaged, Mrs. McCrossen put up a

slideshow of different letters and they had to say the letters out loud until

they saw one slide that showed fireworks, which meant the kids got to clap.

This happened periodically throughout the slide show to keep the students

on task in an excited state while they anticipated when the fireworks would

appear. I loved watching them get so happy about such a small enjoyment.

After they finished the slide show, the teacher used the projector to play a

reading card game. Two students stood up and the teacher pulled out one of

the cards with three letters on it. Some created words and some were just

meant to be sounds. Whichever student said the word or sound first, and

said it correctly, stayed standing up and walked to the next student on the

rug to repeat the process. One of the students was very excelled in reading

and accurate with his responses. He kept winning over the kids he went up

against. It was entertaining to see them get so anxious trying to beat the
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student that would never lose. If they were not fast enough, then they would

not get to say the word before the other student. When one student finally

did beat him, he was so proud of himself. Some of the students did not even

want to try to sound out the word. When this happened, the teacher worked

with them until they understood how to sound it out so that they will actually

learn how to read instead of just sitting there watching everyone else win. If

they would not cooperate at all, she would not force them. Some students

shouted out whatever they thought the word was, even if it was wrong,

because they wanted to say it first and win. When they did this, Mrs.

McCrossen would look at them and ask them what the word really was until

they got it correct. She would then tell them to slow down. Once they went

through all of the reading cards, she went through all the cards again by

making all of the students say the words or sounds chorally. They also got to

play a matching board game on the computer that was projected onto the

white board. This helped them to pay attention to what they were learning. I

could tell that they had a routine when they all took turns going up to the

board to play the matching game. They also had certain students put up the

super students name after they got the matching questions correct. This

was the extent of their reading activities on the rug.

Before moving on, they all stood up and did a polka dot dance to

a music video. This gave them a little bit of a break, while simultaneously

keeping their brains active and engaged for the next activity. For the next

activity, they went back to their groups. Mrs. McCrossen said, Hocus Pocus,

everybody focus to gain their attention. She then showed them how to
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make cat ears for their next activity. The additional instructor in the class had

been getting the activity ready for the students while they were in reading

intervention. The students had to color a strip of paper and two ear pieces

blue and write their name on the back of it. The teacher and additional

instructor walked around the room to help each student individually. They

would sometimes take the students hand and show them the correct way to

color to make sure the whole strip was all blue. They also had to help some

students write their name neat instead of scribbly. As they worked on this

activity, the students frequently talked to their peers and helped each other

when they needed it. Some examples of peer help were when some of the

students needed to find a blue marker or did not remember where to write

their name. Their peers would help them find a marker and remind them

where to write their name as they also continued to color. After they were

done coloring, they went up to one of the two teachers and got the ears

stapled onto the strip of paper, and the paper stapled into a circle so that

they could wear their ears. For fun, they also got whiskers and a nose drawn

on their face with eyeliner.

Throughout the class period, different students would leave the room

with special reading teachers and come back later. Some students that left

missed the majority of the reading intervention. The environment of the class

was very positive. The students were all very excited and engaged

throughout the class. Some students did not really want to participate in the

game, but no one was overly disruptive. The room had a very home-like

feeling to it for the Kindergarteners.

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Observation B: Self-Contained Classroom

Teacher Kari Stentiford Type of Self-Contained

Name Classroo
m
Date 2/18/16 School Port Allen Elementary
Time 9:00 Time 10:00
Begin End

In the self-contained classroom there were only five second grade

students sitting around a table with the teacher on the other side to direct

instruction. The classroom had another table to the left of the room, which

had another set of students working on reading. At one point during the

class, there were two classes going on in the same room. The room had

posters all over the walls. There were many posters breaking down different

concepts for math problems. Other posters had lists of different words they

were learning. There was also a lot of student work displayed. It was a small

room that had a table in the back with a few computers on it and different

bookshelves all around the room. The class was very strict and chaotic. Mrs.

Stentiford was very structured in how she taught her students and went at a

fast pace, so that they would be engaged the whole time instead of falling

asleep or not caring. Her tone of voice was loud to keep them awake and on

task. She accentuated everything she said to keep her students engaged.

The class was based on reading. It started with the basics and went all the

way into reading some of a story. The class built topics on top of each other

to get to the ultimate task of reading. These students are expected to work

hard for reading comprehension and word understanding.

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They started class by getting out their homework from the night before

so that Mrs. Stentiford could check it on the spot, tell them what they did

wrong, and give them the next nights homework to put in their folder. Some

students did not bring their homework with them and she told them that that

was not acceptable. After checking homework very quickly, they got right

down to work. To get the classes attention, she clicked her clicker a few

times. First, she went over the sounds that different vowels make when they

are paired together and made the students say them with her. She also went

over how different vowels sound in different words when they are rearranged

differently. After they went over those sounds, she pulled out a stack of cards

with real and nonsense words on them. She went around to each one of the

five students and showed them a word and asked them to tell her what it

was. If they got it correct, she gave them a piece of cereal as their praise and

motivation to keep with them until she told them they could eat it. This

distracted some of the students and she had to tell them not to play with

their cereal until they were done with the flashcards. Some students had a

lot of trouble with sounding out the words and would either get them wrong

or would not want to say it. When this happened, the teacher broke down the

word into sounds with the student until they got it correct. She then praised

them immediately after. To further help this problem she gave them crazy

visuals. For example, for one word she said to shake and they all started

shaking so that they would remember the word they learned. If one student

could not say the word, then he would give that word to the next student to
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see if they could say it. If they could, she gave them cereal. As she went

through these words, she played a game with them where she would pick a

word at random and ask them to make a sentence with it. This helped

transition them to the next activity. After she went through all of the

flashcards with them, she told them they could eat their cereal. They then

went on to reading out sentences she had written down on cards. She

pointed to each word and they had to say what the word was all together.

When she wanted them to say the word, she would click her clicker to

prompt them. If she heard that one student did not say the word correctly,

she would stop and ask that student what the word was until they got it

correct. When they said it correctly, she gave them more cereal. She showed

them how they need to use description words in their sentences along with

the words they are learning. Once they finished the sentences, she asked

one student to get the story they were reading. They each had one book and

a reading helper that underlined the sentence they were reading to help

them follow along in the book. When she clicked her clicker, they all started

reading together. If they were stuck on a word, she would break it down with

them until they understood it. They went back over the sentence and kept

re-reading it until they knew all the words fluently. She used repetition

throughout the class to make sure they really understood what they were

reading. When they came across a new word, she would stop and take out a

flash card with the word on it so that they could see what it looked like and

what they were talking about in the book. While they were reading, one
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student almost fell asleep, so she made him stand up behind his chair and

participate. While they were focusing on being able to read the story, the

teacher would also ask them questions as they read about things that were

happening in the book. This allowed them to practice reading and

comprehension of the story. She also asked them questions about certain

words that came up in the story and if they remembered going over them in

class. They also made predictions about what might happen in the book

based on the title, cover, and what they had already read. Mrs. Stentiford

wrote down those predictions on a piece of construction paper. Once they

really understood what the story was about, she taught them about using

voice inflections and they started to read with them.

In the classroom, there was one other teacher that took a different set

of students in the library with her. At the end of the hour, she came back in

the room to read a different story to the students. The atmosphere of this

class was very interactive and organized. They all worked very closely

together and no one was left behind. They all have to respond together most

of the time and this helps each student out if they are unsure about

themselves. There are evident classroom routines, as in getting out their

homework at the beginning of class and having one student get the books

they were reading. The environment is very positive with all of the treats and

praise they get when they do well. Since the teacher gave the students who

were working hard cereal, this set an example of how all the students should

be acting and the rewards for doing so. She also told them how wonderful

they were doing when they read beautifully. This also caused them to pay
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attention more and stay on the same pace. Overall, the class was very

intense for one subject area.

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C: Compare & Contrast Observations

Both the inclusive classroom and the self-contained classroom had

similarities and differences. The classes I observed were both working on

basic reading skills. The inclusive classroom taught some students that had

more difficulty with reading. These students were taken out of class for a few

minutes at different times. The self-contained classroom taught students that

all had more difficulty with reading. In both of these classrooms, how the

class started, the creativity of the class, the organization of the class, and

the environment of the class were all alike and different in many ways.
The start of the class in both classes was very similar, but there were

some distinct differences. The inclusive class had students grouped at three

tables with both boys and girls. The self-contained class had one table of five

students grouped together where the teacher sat with them for instruction.

In the inclusion classroom, Mrs. McCrossen got her classes attention by

saying, chicka chicka and they replied, boom boom. The self-contained

class was brought to attention when Mrs. Stentiford clicked her clicker. Since

the self-contained class was much smaller than the inclusive classroom, less

effort was needed to gain the students attention. The initial routines in both

classes began straight away. The students in the inclusive classroom sat in

their seats and started the before class activity, while the students in the

self-contained classroom pulled out their homework from the night before

and put away their new homework sheet. The motivational techniques used

in the classes were very different. The inclusion class used motivation in

visual ways. An example is when the fireworks came up on the power point,
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they clapped and when they were done with their reading lesson, they got to

do the polka dot dance. These visuals kept them engaged and served as a

reward for paying attention and doing their work. The self-contained class

had cereal and praise as their motivation. When they read a word correctly,

they were immediately given cereal and told that they were doing a good

job. The inclusion class did not give rewards as immediate as the self-

contained class did.

The creativity in both classes was very unique. There were many

different activities used in each class. Mrs. McCrossens class was able to

color a picture at the beginning of class, play a matching game during

instruction, play a phonation game against other students, and make cat

ears. The self-contained classroom worked with flashcards and read a story

together. This class did not do a variety of activities like the inclusive class

did. Both class lessons were very clear and considered the needs of the

students. Both classes were teaching the basics of reading and the second

graders started reading a book together. The self-contained class worked

more directly with the students to make sure they each understood what

they were learning. The inclusive class taught all of the students together. If

the inclusive teacher noticed one student did not understand, then she would

work with them one-on-one. Both classes actively engaged their students in

learning. Mrs. McCrossen had fun activities in her class that kept the

students attention during class. Mrs. Stentiford asked each student

questions as they were learning to make sure they were involved in the

lesson. Since each student has various abilities, provisions were made in
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each class when the teacher independently helped the students that were

having trouble by explaining the concept in a different way. Feedback is

given to students immediately in both types of classrooms. The

kindergarteners in the inclusive class were given feedback if they said a word

wrong during their phonation game. The second graders were given

feedback when they were asked to read a word or sentence and they said it

correctly or wrong. If they were correct, they got cereal and if they were

wrong they were given immediate help on how to say it.

The organization of each class was very different from each other. Each

class had an additional teacher. The additional teacher in the inclusive class

was there to help create the activities and guide the students while they

worked on them. The additional teacher in the self-contained class had a

class of her own that she taught in the library. Towards the end of the hour,

she came back in the room to read a story with the Mrs. Stentifords class.

Expectations are clear to students in each class. Both classes not only have

posters about how to behave, but the teachers also make the students stay

on task or there are consequences. These consequences were different

discipline techniques. Mrs. McCrossen disciplined her students when they

were having too much fun in the game instead of learning. One student just

started blurting out random words, so she looked at him and told him that he

needed to really concentrate instead of just blurting out. It was a small

discipline technique, but it worked for him. Mrs Stentiford disciplined her

students when they were not paying attention. One student started to fall

asleep instead of reading, so she made him stand up and read to keep him
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awake. On the other hand, they both gave their students positive

reinforcement with praise, while Mrs. Stentiford also gave her students

cereal. Transitions from one activity to another went very smoothly in both

classrooms. Before going onto the next activity, the inclusive classroom had

some fun time by dancing to a music video and then went straight to their

desks for the next activity. The self-contained classroom built each activity on

one-another. They started with basics, then went to sentences, and ended

with reading a book. They never paused; they just kept on going to the next

activity. Both teachers are very involved in their students learning process.

Mrs. McCrossen makes everything they do fun and exciting to keep them

learning, while Mrs. Stentiford works really hard with each student and

makes sure they understand what they are learning before going on to the

next topic.
The environment had a different feel for both inclusion and self-

contained classes. The atmosphere of the inclusive classroom was energized

and excitable. The environment of this room was very organized, large, and

creative. This added to the positive learning experience of each student. The

atmosphere of the self-contained classroom was strict and chaotic. The

environment of this room was very disorganized, small, and cramped. This

detracted from the positive learning experience, especially when a second

class was in the same room learning something different. In the inclusive

classroom, there was a rug for the students to sit on, a reading center, and a

play center. The self-contained classroom had only one little area that looked

like a reading center for the students. Both rooms had student work
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displayed, but it was harder to see the work displayed in the self-contained

room because there was so much going on. The environment affected the

students learning greatly even if both teachers were getting through to their

students.
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Tutoring Log 1

Date 1/26/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Go over basics
s) Objectiv
e

With Student 1, I started by asking him to count to 100. At first, he did

not want to do it because he was shy. I asked him if he would count to 100 if I

counted with him and he shook his head yes. After we completed this, I went

through addition and subtraction flashcards to see where he was with his

facts. He got stuck quite a few times, so I let him draw pictures on the white

board to figure out the problems. He liked drawing pictures and he figured

out the answers quicker by doing this. I showed him how to break down

numbers to create a 10 to make it easier to solve. He had a lot of trouble

with that concept and needs work on being familiar with numbers that add

up to 10. I did not have enough time to get to problems with re-bundling.
With Student 2, I started by showing her all the numbers that add up to

make 10. She recognized the numbers and seemed to understand. Then, I

played a tens game with her where she had to match up the cards on either

side of one card that had a missing number on it, which added with the

number already there to equal 10. After this, I created re-bundling problems

for her to complete on the white board. She kept forgetting to add the ones

place first and I had to constantly remind her on every problem she did. She

got distracted after a while and wanted to play with the flashcards that were

on the table. While we went through the flashcards, I noticed that she was
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very quick with the answers, but still had to think longer about the bigger

numbers. She wrote out the problems on the board when they were too

difficult.

Tutoring Log 2

Date 1/28/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session One digit addition and
s) Objectiv decomposing
e

I started the day with Student 1 by playing an addition/subtraction

game where he had to shake this dome that had two dice with one-digit

numbers and one plus/minus die. Whatever the dice landed on, he had to

solve. He absolutely loved shaking this dome. He did really well with this

game, but he still had to draw out each problem to figure it out. I noticed

that he was getting stuck on the problems with doubles, so I wrote all the
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doubles up to 10 on the white board and asked him to solve the problems.

He told me thats easy, but he still did not get most of them correct. I had

to go over them with the student a few times to make sure he understood.

Next, I gave him some bigger subtraction problems to work out with

decomposing. He understood how to use the chart to figure out the problems

and was excited because it was what he was doing in class. I gave him a

sticker for working hard.

With Student 2, I started with the shaking dice game and she figured

out all of the problems in her head really quickly. I then gave her

decomposing problems on the white board. She had difficulty when it came

down to breaking apart a 100 or 10 before subtracting. She tried to do

subtraction in the form of an algorithm, but she did not realize that she had

to decompose the numbers at the top of the problem, so she usually got the

wrong answer. She started to get fatigued, so we switched to going over

flashcards and she only got stuck on a few double-digit ones. I gave her a

sticker for working so hard.

Tutoring Log 3

Date 2/2/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 3 Session Understanding Place Value
s) Objectiv
e

For Student 1, I drew a place value chart on a big sheet of paper and

gave him round tokens to use for each problem. I wrote down subtraction

problems on the white board and asked him questions that prompted him to

what steps he needed to do to figure out the problem. An example of this

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would be when I said, Okay, we put the first number in the place value

chart. What do we need to do next? He had a lot of trouble with

decomposing using the tokens even though it was the same type of process

he is normally efficient at on paper. He did not understand that to

decompose from the 100s or 10s place that he needed to take one of those

tokens away and add ten tokens to the place value on the right. I kept

showing him examples over and over, but he just kept guessing instead of

thinking about it. I think I need to stick with simple processes that he is used

to doing.
I gave Student 3 her tokens to put in the place value chart that I made

on a big sheet of paper and she did the problems perfectly in which

decomposing was not needed. When she did have to decompose, she knew

she needed to because there were not enough tokens in the tens place.

Instead of decomposing a 100 token into 10 ten tokens, she wanted to put

how ever many tokens she needed to solve the problem into the tens place.

I tried drawing numbers on the tokens to show that 10 equals 10 ones

and 100 equals 10 tens. I counted by ten with her to show on my fingers that

100 is 10 tens, but she still did not understand the process. I just stuck with

the simple problems for the rest of the tutoring session.

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Tutoring Log 4

Date 2/4/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Addition Algorithms
s) Objectiv
e

Today I worked on just algorithms with Student 1. I let him pick two

two-digit numbers, which were on white square cards, from a bag and those

are the numbers I asked him to add up on the white board. He seemed to
 23

catch on pretty quickly with having to carry over the number in the problem.

For example, he knew that if the ones place added up to ten that he needed

to write down the zero under the ones place and bring over the one to the

tens place. He still guesses what the answer is to some of the problems

instead of taking the time to think about it. I have to tell him to draw it out

on the white board or go slower instead of guessing. He understands the

process of adding larger numbers, but he goes too quickly without making

sure he is adding correctly. As we started doing algorithms with numbers in

the hundreds, he got really excited. I gave him simple problems in the

hundreds and he got all of them correct!

 24

With Student 2, I worked on addition algorithms with her as well. She

did not understand the concept of carrying over, but she still got some of the

answers correct because she figured out the problems in her head. I

explained to her that she needs to know how to bring the numbers over, so

she adds the correct numbers in the correct place values when we start

adding bigger numbers. I showed her examples on the white board and then

let her do some more problems. I let her pick two big numbers from the

number tiles I had in a bag and those were the numbers she added on the

white board. When she would forget to carryover, I would remind her by

saying, what do we need to do? She then would erase her work and redo

the problem. After doing a few problems like this, I let her do all of the

flashcards and she only got stuck on two of them.Tutoring Log 5

Date 2/11/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Addition and Subtraction
s) Objectiv
e

Student 1 started by shaking the dice in the dome to see what

numbers he would add and subtract. He worked out all of the problems in his

head, but he kept guessing most of the answers instead of taking his time to

figure them out. I had to tell him to slow down and use his fingers if he

needed to. Once he figured out the answers he said, Oh, thats easy. After

we did a few more problems for a little while, he picked two numbers out of a

bag to add and subtract on the white board. He likes to draw out every

problem to figure it out, but he needs to learn to be able to use the algorithm
 25

way as well. I told him that the algorithm would help him when he adds and

subtracts numbers in the hundreds. He is better at carrying over today, but

he still guesses on the basic facts within the problem.

I started with Student 2 by letting her shake the dome with the dice in

it. She added and subtracted them in her head really quickly without getting

any wrong, so we moved on to algorithms. She picked two numbers out of

the bag to subtract and add on the white board. She can add and subtract

these bigger numbers in her head really well, but when she has to show what

she carries and borrows over she gets stuck. I showed her how the algorithm

relates to the place value chart by drawing out the problems in the chart and

solving the same problem as an algorithm along with it. She understood how

to do the problem after the demonstration, but when I changed the numbers

in the problem she got really confused again. We will have to work on these

problems more frequently.

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Tutoring Log 6

Date 2/18/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Part-whole numbers and
s) Objectiv subtraction with 3-digit
e numbers

I started with part-whole cards with Student 1. The part-whole cards

had two numbers at the bottom of the card that equaled the big number at

the top of the card. One number on each card was blank and he had to figure

out the answer. He did really well with this and did not guess as much.

Sometimes when he tried to draw it on the white board to get the answer he

would draw it incorrectly. He did better just thinking about it in his head.

Other times when he would get the wrong answer he would try to persuade

me that he was correct until I showed him why he was wrong. I would show

him by using my fingers or drawing on the board for him. We spent the whole
 27

30 minutes doing all of these cards. I showed him how different cards relate

to each other. For example, the numbers 2, 8, and 10 were shown on one

card as 8 and 2 make what, and the other card as 8 and what make 10.

Towards the end, he finally started seeing some patterns. I gave him a sticker

for doing so well.

I did part-whole cards with Student 2 and she did them in ten minutes

and only got stuck on one problem. I was really happy about this. Since she

finished so quickly, we went on to 3-digit subtraction problems. I made her

do two problems that were similar before changing up the problem so she

could see a pattern of how to figure out the problems. For example, one

problem was 210- 100 and the other was 220- 100, then I changed it up to

210-101. She got tired after awhile so I let her do the harder addition cards

until she had to go back to class. I gave her a sticker for doing so well.

Tutoring Log 7
 28

Date 2/25/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Master part-whole cards
s) Objectiv
e

Today I played a game with Student 1 to help him stop guessing with

the part-whole cards. If he correctly figured out 10 cards in a row, I made him

put a tally on the white board and however many tallies he had at the end of

tutoring was how many stickers I gave him. He ended up with four stickers.

Some cards he started to guess at, but when he realized if he got one wrong

that he had to start over with getting 10 cards correct to get a sticker, he

stopped guessing. He really wanted a bunch of stickers. When he got one

wrong, he was really upset because he knew he had to start over. He drew

some of the problems he was stuck on to get the answer, which really helped

him on the more difficult problems. He worked really hard today to get his

reward. He came into tutoring looking sad, but left happy and even waved to

me in the hall later.

I played the same game with Student 2, but with double addition fact

cards. She ended up with eight stickers. She went through the cards front

and back in the time we had. She only made a few mistakes. The mistakes

she made were usually on the problems she was unsure about. Once I told

her it was incorrect she would correct herself very quickly. At the end, she

was answering quicker than I could pick up the card. I was very proud of her

for doing such a great job. When she was going back to class, she showed

her friends her hands full of stickers.

 29

Tutoring Log 8

Date 3/1/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Subtraction from 200
s) Objectiv
e

Today we subtracted from 200 on the white board the whole tutoring

session. Student 1 remembered how to decompose and I was happy about

that. When it came to subtracting simple numbers, he was still guessing.

Even with the numbers 8-8=0 or 10-10=0 he was spitting out random

numbers instead of thinking about what 8 take away 8 meant. I went through

with him what one minus one was all the way to ten minus ten so that he

could see that they all equaled zero. Then I decided to ask him what ten

minus nine was since I had just gone through with him what numbers would

equal zero, but he still told me the answer was zero instead of one. He

understands the process of subtraction, yet he is always guessing and wants

the easy way.

I showed Student 2 an example of subtracting from 200 before I gave

her some problems to do by herself. She figured out most of the problems

correctly. She only got stuck on them when I gave her problems that were

different. For example, after asking her to subtract 200-101, I would ask her

to subtract 200-100. I had to point out what was different to her, like how she

did not have to decompose the tens place when the ones place was zero

minus zero. The only other thing she needed help with was that she needs to

subtract the hundreds place correctly. Since she had to decompose the two
 30

in the number 200 to make it a one, she would forget and still subtract from

two for her final answer.

Tutoring Log 9

Date 3/3/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Part-whole cards and
s) Objectiv Subtracting from 200
e

Today I went through all the part-whole cards with Student 1. I told him

not to guess on any of them and I would give him an extra sticker. He did not

guess on any of them, but he did get a few of them wrong from not counting

correctly. For example, he would draw the problem on the board and

sometimes draw one-too many, which would cause him to subtract

incorrectly. I still gave him a sticker because he did not guess, even though

he got some wrong. He went through these flash cards much faster than he

did when we first started, so I am proud of his progress. When we were

finished with the part-whole cards, we subtracted from 200 again. He

understands how to subtract from 200, but he keeps subtracting incorrectly. I

will have to keep working with him on the basic facts to help him with his

bigger subtraction process.

I started with subtracting from 200 with Student 2. She actually

remembered how to do these problems, so I decided to go on to subtracting

from 210. She had more difficulty with this. I showed her what she was doing

wrong when she would decompose, since the tens place was a one instead of

the zero she was used to. We practiced some similar problems until she knew

how to do it. The one thing she really got stuck on was when it was
 31

subtracting 210-50 where the numbers in the ones place were both zero. She

wanted to decompose the tens place when she did not need to. She also

keeps forgetting that she decomposed the two to a one and to subtract the

hundreds place. We will have to keep practicing this.

Tutoring Log 10

Date 3/8/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Part-whole cards and
s) Objectiv Subtraction from 200
e

I told Student 1 that we were going to try and do part-whole cards

under ten minutes. He ended up doing them in twelve minutes. The

problems he got wrong, or had trouble with, I put to the side and I made him

go through that stack until he got every single problem correct. I made sure

he knew we were doing this because he needs to know it for big addition and
 32

subtraction problems. After we finished the part-whole cards, we went on to

more subtraction from 200 and then from 210 so that he can see the

differences between them when he has to decompose. I really just wanted

him to practice more subtraction since he seems to understand the process

of decomposing.
I told Student 2 we were going to try and do part-whole cards under six

minutes. She did the whole stack in five minutes. I put the cards she had

some trouble with to the side and we went back through those when we were

done with the stack. I made her go through them until she got them all

correct. I gave her an extra sticker for doing it so quickly. We went through

subtraction from 200, 210, and 220 today. I showed her how to decompose

from 200, 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250, so that she understood the

differences of decomposing with different numbers. She noticed a pattern

that when she decomposed, whatever number was in the tens place was the

number paired with the decomposition. She finally got the hang of it and I

was able to work on different variations of problems with her

Tutoring Log 11

Date 3/10/16 School Port Allen Elementary

Time 7:50 Time 8:50
Begin End
Student( Student 1 and Student 2 Session Part-whole cards and 3-
s) Objectiv digit subtraction
e

Student 1 started with part-whole cards and I timed him to see if he

could beat his previous time. He did them three minutes slower than last

time, but I was more worried about him getting them correct than beating his

time. I told him it was okay that he did them slower, as long as he was
 33

working hard to not guess, and get the problems correct. We went through

the cards he got wrong then went on to 3-digit subtraction. I picked more

complicated problems with three different numbers where he had to

decompose more often. He ended up doing very well with this and I let him

pick any sticker he wanted. I was sad that this was the last tutoring session.
I only worked with 3-digit subtraction with Student 2. First I went

through subtraction from 200, 210, and 230 to make sure she remembered

how to do it. I was so happy that she did remember. I then changed up the

numbers and she had a little more difficulty with it. I talked her through it

step by step until she could do it on her own. I would prompt her by asking

her questions like, since the bottom number is bigger than the top number

in the ones place, what do we have to do? At the end, I did a different

problem where she only had to borrow for the ones place and she was

confused, so I had to help her by showing her an example and letting her

repeat the example on her own. The last thing I did was show her how she

can check to see if she got the correct answer by adding the answer and the

number subtracting from 200 to see if it equals 200. I am going to miss

tutoring!
 34

Reaction
A: Classroom Observations
My classroom observations had both positives and negatives that

relate back to how I decided to tutor. I preferred the environment of the

inclusive classroom because it felt a lot more open rather than stuffy. I also

liked how they did many different activities to keep the students engaged. I

did not really like how the self-contained teacher talked to the kids, but I did

like how she gave them cereal and praised them a lot when they were

correct. I was happy to see the teachers in the inclusive classroom go around
 35

to each group and help the students with their activities when they were

having trouble. I loved how Mrs. McCrossen called her students my friends.

I feel like that makes the students feel accepted and causes them to respect

their teacher more and do what she asks of them. She also had them sit on a

rug together for their reading intervention, which makes the atmosphere of

he room feel more like home to the students. In the self-contained classroom,

I thought it was nice to see the teacher go over the words with the students

until they fully understood what they were reading. She used a lot of

repetition to ensure fluency and I think it helped the students a lot. During

both classes, the teachers would ask the students what a certain word or

sound was and this is how they informally assessed the learning of their

students. I liked that they did this to ensure they were getting through to

them and help them if they were not. Certain students in each class had

tasks to do, like writing down the super students name or gathering the

class books. This was effective in making sure the allocated time was used

wisely and not wasted by having to figure out who will do these tasks. My

observations of classrooms with kids with disabilities are similar to my

tutoring experience with only two students. I realized that praising the

student a significant amount makes them motivated to keep trying. I did this

by saying how they did so well when they would get a problem correct. I also

gave them stickers when they did really well and played games with them

where they would get stickers for getting so many problems correct. If they

seemed like they did not want to do anything that day, I would give them a
 36

high five when they would get a problem correct. Doing this really helped

them stay on task.

B: Instructional Experiences
We learned in class that students who are in special education

sometimes have attention problems, are not interested in what they are

learning, and lack motivation. I used this knowledge to try and get them

more excited about learning. This is one reason why I used stickers so much

throughout tutoring them. I tried to use some visuals that they really enjoyed

as well. For example, Student one really loved the dice that he got to shake,

so I tried to bring that into tutoring for him to make him excited and more

engaged in that lesson. One other thing I did was to bring in round chips for

them to use instead of always drawing circles as the chips. I allowed them to

use the white board to draw pictures, which is more exciting than just writing

on paper. I also tried to come up with games for them to play. One game was

that if they got so many flashcards correct in a row, they got a sticker. This

made them excited and made them work really hard since they wanted a

bunch of stickers. One other instructional strategy I tried to use was aspects

of explicit instruction. I broke down steps for them and helped them when

they first started practicing a new concept. Then, I gave them immediate

feedback. For example, when I started teaching them subtraction from three

digit numbers, I first showed them how to do a problem from 200. Then I

gave them a similar problem and watched them do it. If they did something

wrong I showed them where they went wrong and worked with them on how

to fix it. Once they understood how to do a simple problem, I gradually

 37

changed the problem and helped them through it. I also used the aspect of

distributed practice by reviewing previous concepts with them every tutoring

session. The experience of working with children who have disabilities was a

little different from working with non-disabled children. They needed a lot

more motivation to get the work done. I also had to re-explain many

concepts to them so they would fully understand what to do. All in all, I think

teaching a student with disabilities helped me to know how to teach my class

that will have many different students.

C: Student Behavior
The children I tutored did not need much behavior management. For

the most part, they did what I asked them to do and were happy about doing

it. Sometimes the students would sigh and complain because they did not

feel like doing their work that particular day. When this happened I tried to

use positive reinforcement by telling him that if he did his very best and we

got through everything without complaining, then I would give him a sticker.

This always worked and he did what he needed to do. Other times, he liked

to blurt out answers without really trying to figure it out. I would ask him to

not guess because I knew that he could figure out what the answer was if he

just thought about it really hard. Once he was told to think about the

problem he almost always gave me the correct answer. I started reinforcing

this by telling him if he did not guess he would receive a sticker. If he

guesses a significant amount, I would tell him to draw it out on the white

board so that he could actually see it. He usually got all of the answers

correct when he did this and stopped guessing. Sometimes he would start
 38

getting loud and I would have to tell him to lower his voice a little and he

would. My second student would periodically grab other cards I had lying on

the desk and look at them, but she was still doing her work as she did this,

so I did not say anything. I do not think the students I tutored were under a

different behavior management plan from other children.

D: Effect on Teaching
My experience in these classrooms has given me other ideas to add

into the way I plan to teach. I want to teach a very engaged class with many

different games or activities to keep them interested. I want them to have

fun with learning and be curious about the things they do in school. I want to

try and use positive reinforcement as much as I can for students that need a

lot of help with motivation. Instead of punishing students, I want to

acknowledge the good that other students are doing to keep the not so good

students on task. I like the idea of having tasks for certain students because I

think it will help the class run smoothly. The most important thing I have

learned in my observation and tutoring time is that students respond best to

positivity. I noticed that telling the student how great they are doing and

giving them rewards makes them get excited about what they are learning

and they ultimately do better in class. This was a very positive experience for

me and I think I learned so much in just this one semester of how to best

help any student. It has also really shown me how much I am going to love

teaching and how much more I can learn about teaching in the next two

years. I would say that one negative part of the observations was being in

the very cramped self-contained room when two classes were learning at the
 39

same time. Something else that was negative was that I never got to see

how the students I was tutoring were doing in their math class. I was never

able to see their tests or any assignments they were working on. All I had

was the packet we got saying what the students were learning each week

and whatever the student told me that they were working on. The one thing I

think the instructors should change is to somehow make sure that the

teacher at the elementary school is giving the college students their tutees

tests scores and what they need the most help on every week. Overall, I

loved being able to get more experience with kids and know for sure that this

is the profession for me.

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