Classroom Observation Paper

Samuel S. Yellin, located in Stratford, New Jersey, embodies grades four through eight. Stratford is a community that consists of a variety of family dynamics. Many of the students in Stratford are adopted and live with parents, grandparents, or in foster homes. Stratford families are also moving around a lot, because residents are more prone to rent than to buy their homes. This effects the way students act in school, their relationships with their peers, and their ability to complete homework and classwork. Wednesday’s are my field observation days, wherein I observe and engage in my cooperating teacher’s, Mrs. Fusco’s, 8th grade English Language Arts classroom. I am only there to observe from 8 am till about 1 pm, in which I get to see Homeroom,

The assignments done for that class are not graded, but are simply given in order to help improve reading and writing skills and encourage students to seek assistance for those skills. The English 8 class is an inclusion classroom that consists of a total of 19 students, 11 of which have classified IEPs; a special education teacher, Mr. L, comes in to help Mrs. Fusco co-teach and assist in the learning process. Mrs. Fusco always encourages Mr. L to chime in or take over the lesson because she says that he is a young teacher and may have ideas that she has not even though of, which could be what the students need. The students are seated in rows; Mrs. Fusco is keen on this seating assignment because she is able to easily walk up and down the rows in order to keep students on task. English 8 is expected to come right into class and start working on their “Do Now” that is stated on the board. After the class is given time to adequately answer the “Do Now,” they are encouraged to share their ideas, and Mrs. Fusco asks questions in order to stimulate their thinking and transition into the day’s

Fusco and Mr. L, my own discussion with the students, and the invisible research I gathered by having all the students fill out an “All About Me” worksheet. It was very helpful and interesting to hear input about the students from Mrs. Fusco and Mr. L. Mr. L only spends periods 3 and 4 with these students and only sees two of the three outside of the English 8 classroom. However, Mr. L knows a lot about the non-special education students as well. By the way they talk about all of the students and the ways in which they interact with them show me that they are sincere and passionate about teaching, their students, and the success of their students. Working on the Learning Profiles also enabled me to see and learn about the students as individuals in and outside of the classroom, which is important. Mrs. Fusco, especially with Aiden and Alex, would love to have access to their IEP plans to be able to visually see their needs in order to meet them at their level. She thinks that getting to know every aspect of your students is important to reaching them all and getting them all to succeed, because every child is different. I was able to catch certain students walking in and out of the classroom, and during a break in the block period, and sat down with them to get to know them. I think the most effective strategy was sitting down and talking with the cooperating teachers and