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Mandy Jayne Stanley Rocky Ridge Elementary School Observation and Adaptation Plan Students Information Name: Student

AH Grade: 3rd Age: 8 Teacher: Mrs. Willis

Observation Notations While observing Student AH in Mrs. Willis third grade classroom, I noticed how accommodating Mrs. Willis is and how well Student AH blends in with her typical classmates. While observing this student in the general education classroom, it can be concluded that she relies heavily on the approval and advice of one very patient peer. Whenever this peer tells her to stay on task, Student AH obeys and works diligently. The relationship between these two children is quite remarkable and impactful. Along with noticing how well this student interacts with this peer, I also noticed how frequently this student asks non-related questions during class. She constantly asks those around her, Where is your house? or, What are you doing this afternoon? Her innocent curiosity frequently causes distraction, and makes it hard for both her and her surrounding peers to stay on task. However, whenever the student is working one-on-one with a teacher, or myself, who is constantly directing her attention to specific aspects of an assignment, she is very accurate and retains the information well. Although she can be a very diligent worker, her poor fine motor skills make it difficult to read her work. During Morning Meeting, a time during the morning when Mrs. Willis class gathers on the reading carpet to greet each other and share exciting stories, Student AH was very engaged and participated well. She did, however, share an imaginary, inaccurate story involving her and the peer that she has a very close relationship with. After sharing exciting stories, Mrs. Willis asked the students to close their eyes and visualize the scene that she described. I have noticed on

Mandy Jayne Stanley Rocky Ridge Elementary School Observation and Adaptation Plan more than one occasion that Student AH has issues with conceptualizing abstract ideas and thoughts. The visualizing reading strategy confuses her, and she fails to be able to put the characteristics together in her mind and create a mental picture. It can be concluded that this strategy should be re-taught to her in a different way so that she will be able to utilize this essential reading strategy across the curriculum. During the last few minutes of my observation, I noticed that Student AH picks up on other students attitudes and mimics them. At the beginning of the lesson, Student AH was very engaged, but once she heard another student say that he was tired and ready to move on to the next thing, she continued to say, When are we leaving? This student must be constantly surrounded by peers who will not distract her, will stay positive, and who will help her complete her assignments by prompting her with purposeful questions about the assignment.

Students Strengths and Needs Student AH is a very exciting eight-year-old girl whose bright personality matches the brightly colored ribbons that she wears every day. This student is very friendly and social, and when prompted with specific questions, she is very capable of supplying an accurate answer. Student AH is very good at making friends, and has a very close relationship with a peer who sits beside her. Because Student AH has great social skills, she is very comfortable with having aids and works well with others. Although Student AH has not been diagnosed with a specific intellectual disability, she displays issues with attention, speech and language, fine motor skills, and has accommodations and modifications for every subject. This student is rather impulsive and struggles with staying on task. She is constantly asking questions that are not related to the assignment, and she has

Mandy Jayne Stanley Rocky Ridge Elementary School Observation and Adaptation Plan issues with answering open-ended questions and pronouncing some words. In order for the student to complete any task, the teacher must prompt her by asking very specific questions. Fortunately, whenever the student is asked these very specific questions, she usually answers them correctly. Along with failing to stay on task and fluently answering open-ended questions with accuracy in content and articulation, this student struggles with writing legibly and gripping a standard pencil. Her poor fine motor skills causes her to write all of her letters very big and sloppily. Her teacher strives to help her with her penmanship as well as modify her lessons by shortening the definitions of her spelling words, which are the same words as her typical peers, and she allows Student AH to trace the definitions instead of write them out. This student is very successful at this task and retains the information about the definitions very quickly.

Recommendations and Adaptations In order to help Student AH be more successful within the inclusive general education classroom, it is essential that the following accommodations should be made. It is recommended that this student continue to have a peer role model who is patient enough to sit with her throughout the day. As I observed during my time in her general education classroom, this positive influence will provide her with a model of positive behavior and constant reminders to stay on task. It is important that this student is willing to have this role in the classroom, and that he or she is not the only student in the classroom to have this position. Every student in the classroom should be encouraged to help Student AH by not answering her off-topic questions, keeping a positive attitude towards learning, and prompting her with attention grabbing questions about her assignment.

Mandy Jayne Stanley Rocky Ridge Elementary School Observation and Adaptation Plan In order to help Student AH with her poor fine motor skills, along with continuing to visit the Occupational Therapist the teacher should supply her with bigger pencils or pencils that are made for students with poor motor skills, which can easily be found at Office Depot. These pencils will allow her to have a better grip, which will help her to write more legibly and reduce the size of her letters. Along with providing Student AH with this accommodation, the teacher should ensure that she makes the effort to specifically ask this student questions in order to keep her on task. I noticed that whenever I would direct this students attention back to her assignment by asking her to trace a certain letter or count a certain number of objects, she would get back on task and complete the assignment with accuracy. The following adaptations are to be made for each subject area for Student AH: Math: The student will have modified math assignments that will help her accomplish the goals that have been set by her IEP. The student is to use the larger pencils described above in order to help her write more legibly and prevent any unnecessary miscalculations from occurring. The teacher should frequently check on this student to ensure that she is staying on task and does not have any questions. These accommodations will help with Student AHs penmanship, understanding, and attention issues. Reading: The student will have modified reading assignments that will help her grasp more abstract concepts, like the visualization strategy, which will help her improve her reading comprehension skills. The teacher should continue to give Student AH reading passages that are on her reading level, but should strive to ensure that the texts cover the same material that the other students are learning. This will allow Student AH to

Mandy Jayne Stanley Rocky Ridge Elementary School Observation and Adaptation Plan participate in the reading lessons on her individual level. The teacher should frequently check on this student to ensure that she is staying on task and does not have any questions, which will help this student with her attention issues. Writing/Spelling: In order to help Student AH adapt during writing and spelling lessons and activities, the teacher should continue to allow the student to trace the definitions and spelling words. The teacher should also buy Student AH some larger pencils or pencils that are made for students who struggle with gripping to help her improve her penmanship. Social Studies/Science: In order to help Student AH during Social Studies and Science class, the teacher should make sure that Student AH is sitting by her peer role model so that this student can answer some of her simple questions and encourage her to stay on task. The teacher should also make sure that she uses simple vocabulary during these lessons and explicitly explains the content to prevent confusion or off-topic discussions. Based on my personal interactions with Student AH and my observations of her in her general education class, I believe that these simple yet purposeful accommodations will help her to be more successful in the classroom.

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