Classroom Timothy example essay topic

. Background Information Timothy is the student that I have chosen to develop this portfolio on. Timothy is seven-year-old child in first grade at the elementary school that I do my fieldwork at. Timothy has not yet been selected for special education, as it is his first year in school. In the classroom Timothy struggles with most of what he is asked to do. He has very poor concentration, and has great difficulty in following directions. Timothy is very fidgety and extremely disorganized.

The socioeconomic status of this student is much the same as the other students in the class. Most are children from middle to upper middle class families in the West Islip neighborhood. When I spoke with the classroom teacher Mrs. Dragelin, I obtained some information related to Timothy's family. Both of his parents do live at home and there was mention of drug use during pregnancy. As far as Timothy's attendance in school, so far this year the student has missed 1 day out of 36 days.

Timothy has not been retained in any grades, due to being in 1st grade. Timothy on average is usually prepared for school. He has forgotten books at home that were needed the next day for class, and left books in his book bag when they were needed at his desk. II.

Types of Interventions Provided at this Time. At this time Timothy is involved with a pullout program for remedial reading. Timothy attends the remedial reading program five days a week for thirty minutes. At this time Timothy is not assigned to the Resource room, speech, counseling, or any health related programs.

The classroom teacher has suggested that an auditory trainer could be helpful to capture Tim's attention. That device consists of a radio-microphone worn by the teacher and four speakers are setup in the classroom to broadcast the teachers voice. This device has not yet been implemented in the classroom by the school.. Testing Data At this time there is no official testing data on record for this student. Many of the evaluation testing is done in the first grade.

This year's test are scheduled for May 1st 2001. At that time standardized IQ test will be taken and specific areas in need of direct instruction will be identified. At this time with out testing I would suggest direct instruction in language arts. Timothy has no recognition of letter sounds; he displays little to no comprehension of sentences. Often when I am in the classroom and I notice Timothy dazing off, or not focusing on his work I will try to assist him. I have worked with Timothy sounding out words.

Timothy responded to my guided questions as if he was guessing, or had no idea that I was talking about the class work he was working on. I have attached a few samples of Timothy's writings samples. When I was first given this assignment to study a diverse learner, I took some time thinking of whom I would select. It was a toss up between Timothy and another student, who at this time has been removed from the class.

I started my research, and a few weeks later I spoke with Mrs. Dragelin about my assignment, she was not surprised that I had selected Timothy. She also told me that if she were given this assignment she would have made the same selection. Mrs. Dragelin and I have made a lot of the same observations regarding Timothy and his lack of attention. Mrs. Dragelin noted that Timothy is capable at times, but he is needs someone to work one on one to direct him and keep him focused. She is presently in the process of completing the school districts Instructional Support Team Referral form, to get the student enrolled in these intervention programs. IV.

Journal From the class after I received this assignment, I have been keeping notes about my observations of Timmy while in the classroom. 9-21-00 Timothy was constantly daydreaming. He was told twice to sit up and to stop playing and tapping his pencil. 9-28-00 The assignment was to complete the sentence, Sun on the. Timothy wrote red car, and was to draw what he wrote. Timothy drew a blue car.

10-4-00 Timothy brought a note into school from his mother looking for the whereabouts of a blue denim jacket that was lost. Mrs. Dragelin had informed me that she has been holding the jacket up for a week straight asking, "who does the jacket belongs to". Timothy finally brought home his jacket. 10-12-00 Timothy completed 3 out of 24 math problems correctly.

Mrs. Dragelin told me later that Timothy had sat with her yesterday and completed the entire page correctly with counters. 10-12-00 Timothy again is having trouble recognizing the initial consonant sounds when reading. Timothy was unable to begin sounding out word encountered in story because he could not correctly determine the letter he saw. Tim had confused the "p" sound with the letter "b"10-25-00 Timothy was able to write his h / w assignment into his book and finish on time. The students do this as soon as they get into the classroom before the calendar. Usually Timothy is one of the last students to the carpet.

When he finished earlier then the other students, I asked Timothy if he was done writing his h / w down and he said yes. I told him he did a good job and he smiled. One of the other students was quick to tell me, "Timmy has been finishing fast all week". That was nice to hear, not only for me but I am sure that when Timmy heard the other student, it made him feel good too. V. Reading Assessment Timothy and I sat together after the class read the story "I Went Walking". Tim has problems with reading fluency. As I said earlier, Timothy does not know his initial consonant sounds.

This is becoming a problem when trying to read sentences. Tim will get stuck on a word and when asked what sound the first letter makes he will respond with a completely wrong answer, as if he was guessing. There are some words and sounds that he is familiar with and he is doing fine with those. The class had the story, I Went Walking, sequenced correctly on chart paper and in the pocket chart hanging on the blackboard. When Timothy was to sequence the story himself, with the book in front of him along with the chart paper and pocket chart available, he was unable to do it correctly. Timothy doesn't have a bad attitude about reading, I think he is eager but he just doesn't stay focused.

VI. Other Activity Timothy and I sat together and worked on math addition problems. The assignment was adding three numbers together to get answers of 6, 7 and 9. Tim and I started out by working on the addition of two numbers with the help of counters. Tim understood the method of taking the first number and "placing it in his head" and counting the second amount on his fingers.

When he was introduced to the addition of three numbers, Tim had trouble using the counters. We were able to work our way through that and Tim was eventually able to use the counters to add problems with three numbers. Tim had questions in his workbook that he was to work on individually, I stayed near his desk in case he needed help. I explained the first question to him again and although we had reviewed most of the same problems prior to him working alone, by question two he was playing in his desk. When I asked him if he was ok with his work? He told me he didn't understand it and that he couldn't do it.

We worked together on it, until he had had remedial reading. My purpose here was to get Timmy working individually on his assignment. I thought that after he was adding the two numbers together without the use of the counters, things were going well. As we worked with the three numbers, Timmy caught on and was doing ok when he was guided through the problems.

Timmy made progress using the counters and he did good work when he was coached, but he is unable to set to a task and complete it. I get the impression that he can understand the work when it is broken down for him, but the application of his knowledge is not happening individually. VII. Analysis and Summary. Timothy's approach to learning is different then most of the children in the classroom. Timothy understands that he is in school to learn, but he needs to be worked with one on one.

Timothy grasps ideas that are presented to him, but it seems like anything presented to him needs to be done individually and not in a group setting. The group setting maybe to distracting to him right now or the pace of the class maybe to quick for him to understand exactly what is going on.