School Experience

Reflection Journal
EDUC 250-Educational Psychology
NAME: Summer Young

DATE: 12-3-5

SCHOOL:Carroll County Middle School

TEACHER: DEASON

GRADE LEVEL: 3rd, 4th, and 5th

SPECIAL EDUCATION

Chapter 6-Motivation and Affect

Review the characteristics of learners exhibiting mastery goals and students demonstrating
performance goals on p. 202. Be mindful that students who have mastery goals desire to acquire
additional knowledge or learn new skill for the sake of learning. Students who exhibit
performance goals wish to demonstrate high ability and make a good impression.
How would you categorize many of the students in terms of goals (mastery or performance) in
the tutoring or RTI setting that you regularly visit? What caused you to reach this conclusion?
How might you encourage students to engage in mastery goals?
Did you see any signs of anxiety or other forms of affect in students in the tutoring or RTI setting
of your school experience? Revisit p. 217 and explain your response.
Response: The students I encountered in the special education class were all classified as
FMD or Functional Mental Disability. None of the students in this class have mastery goals.
A lot of them have set performance goals that may, or may not be attainable. Most goals
that are set are based on common core standards. For instance, three of the children are
severely autistic so their goals may just be functional skills such as lining up, using the
bathroom, brushing teeth, and safety goals.
These children are extrinsically motivated to complete a performance goal. For instance,
one of the boys with autism who could speak, would just want to sit and sing the same song
repeatedly to himself and play with his toy figurines. In order to get him to match objects,
the teacher would have to put his toys up and tell him that if he read so many sentences
than he could have his toys back. In order to get his toys back he read the required
sentences.
Reflection: All of these students in the special education class showed some signs of anxiety
due to their autism. If there was something that one of the students did not want to do then
he would shout out and grunt. It is here, that I saw the need for reinforcement in order to
get these particular students to do what is asked of them. One girl used a book as her
security blanket. If there was something the teacher wanted the student to do, she would

have to threaten to take the book away in order for the demand to be met. I learned a lot
about reinforcement strategies in this special education class.

Chapter 7-Personal, Social, and Moral Development

Think about the concept sense of self and its implications for teaching and learning. Review
the developmental trends on p. 245 in your textbook. Did you see indications of sense of self
affecting learning of the student(s) with whom you worked? Explain.
What effect did perspective taking have on the teaching and learning environment? Reread p.
255 in your textbook to understand developmental trends.
If you observed aggressive behavior, explain the type of aggressive behavior that you witnessed.
See textbook p. 254-255 for an explanation.
Response:
These children were at an IQ level that ranged from 40-75. Their sense of self was at the
level that a 2-4 year old would typically be, which is very limited. Everything they do is
done with scaffolding in terms of learning.
The aggression I witnessed in the classroom was out of anxiety or frustration and would
end-up with either another students hair being pulled or something being thrown. These
students really have no proactive aggression.

Chapter 8-Instructional Strategies

Many instructional strategies are summarized on p. 312 of your textbook. Describe two of the
ones you used for tutoring or RTI in your school placement. Be sure that you give a rationale for
the instructional strategies that you selected to use.
Response:
One of the strategies used was self-regulation strategies with an augmented communication
device. One of the girls with Fragile X and Autism, is pretty much non-verbal. We were
trying to get her to communicate with the ITALK app. She would touch the picture of the
toilet if she needed to use the bathroom or touch the picture of a drink if she wanted a
drink. Otherwise, she had no way to communicate what she was trying to say.

Direct instruction and scaffolding was another strategy commonly used. These students are
mostly learning just basic life skills. For instance showing a student how to brush her teeth
and put on deodorant was one skill that we tried to teach. We then would provide pictures
of a step by step sequence to try and get them to do it themselves next time.

Reflection: Seeing the students succeed was the best part of the day. What may seem like a
minor step was actually big progress for some of these students.

Chapter 9-Strategies for Creating an Effective Classroom Environment

Chapter 9 discusses many ways to enhance the classroom environment. What were some of the
ways that you helped to create an environment that was conducive to learning?
Explain which of the suggestions on p. 347 in your textbook for addressing undesirable
classroom behaviors you utilized in the tutoring or RTI setting of your school experience.
Response: The behavior in this FMD classroom was typically modified by ignoring
behavior. For instance, one of the students who has Down Syndrome and autism would just
randomly throw things on the ground. The teacher informed me to just ignore the
behavior. After a short time of not getting a response the student occupied herself by doing
something else such as looking a picture book. Systematic intervention that is planned is
probably the only other strategy used because none of the other methods would really fit
this classroom environment.
Reflection: This classroom environment was a difficult one to maintain. When you have
children diagnosed with Autism, Downs, and Fragile X, each undesirable behavior is
different and has to be modified uniquely. One of the children pulls the other students hair
and her hands have to physically be taken off the other students hair.
Chapter 10-Assessment Strategies
What types of assessments did you employ with the student(s)? Did you choose to use different
types of assessments? If you did use a variety of assessment tools, explain why different
assessments were necessary?
Response: The FMD classroom was a lot different than a general education classroom. The
assessments used were not typical. For instance, one of the assessments used was a constant
time delay assessment. It involved holding up a pair of pants and then placing a picture of a

pair of pants and a picture of a rock on the table. The student had so many seconds to
match the actual object with the picture. In this instance 4/5 answers were not correct.
Reflection: It saddens me that the students in this class are even required to do some of
these assessments. Because each of these students have to have exposure to Common Core,
their assessments often times include the teacher reading a passage and the student having
to point out an answer. The problem is that these students have no comprehension of what
has just been read to them so they will just point to anything as a response. This is not
acceptable!

Final Reflection
Take some time to think about your responses and reflections in this journal. Respond to the
following questions.
1) In terms of the major concepts presented in this class, how do you think your school
experience and reflections on it has helped prepare you for classroom responsibilities as a
teacher?
I believe that the some of the major concepts in this class such as teaching strategies
and learning how learners modify their environment really has prepared me for the
classroom environment. I am better prepared to engage learners with strategies
that stimulate their interest and realize when I am not doing so. My school
experience allowed me to apply knowledge learned in this Educational Psychology
class with the students I was interacting with.
2) Briefly sum the impact that this school experience has had on your professional
aspirations. You will not be penalized for constructive criticism.
Before this school experience, I had never really been around or worked with
students who were considered to be special education. I went in to that classroom
with an expectation that I was not going to enjoy working with kids with special
needs. I could never have been more wrong. My time with them was very interesting
and I feel like I learned more than they probably did. In the past, I never would
have even considered special education, but this experience has peaked interest in
the special education field.