Abby Newkirk

April 2014
Dear Colleagues,

This consultation project was important in many ways. Practicing identifying a
specific problem through collegial discourse, evaluating an intervention plan and its
effectiveness, and making connections between the problem and the content of classes
were all valuable experiences. I have been part of these types of processes at my school
this year by taking part in Student Support Team meetings, but this was unique in that it
much more focused and individual. Working through this process with a School Psychology
partner was especially valuable because it allowed me to think about the problem I was
working with in a different, and often clearer, way.
For this project, I initially selected a student who I thought would be applicable to this
project and brought her IEP to my School Psychologist partner, Jenn. I chose NC for a
number of reasons. Reading and writing are clearly very hard for her and teachers have
connected this to social/ behavioral difficulties in our classroom. Also, she is on an IEP so I
could gain experience working with that specific type of document. Moreover, I have built a
fairly strong relationship with her and felt like this could be a positive attribute to an
intervention.
After going through the IEP and discussing my major concerns, Jenn suggested that
before we met next, I try to determine a more narrow focus for how we want to problem
solve with NC. I came to our next discussion with a more specific description of what ELA
class is like for her and Jenn helped me clarify and select a specific behavior to base my
intervention off of. NC has a very low processing speed and trouble with short term
memory. Essentially, for these reasons determined that she, most likely, forgets or becomes
lost in the flow of class. When we switch from one activity or discussion to another, she is
unsure of what to do and therefore acts out in ways that she can feel confident. We decided
that because NC has trouble remembering how to handle transitions in class, I would
consistently give her individual, concrete reminders of what she should be doing in order to
give her a chance to follow through before getting distracted and becoming disruptive to the
flow of class.
It became clear over the next several weeks that this type of intervention was
successful for NC. The majority of the time, when given a one on one reminder, she
responded well. Unfortunately, I found it especially difficult to keep track of tangible data for
this intervention. It felt like taking notes, even in the smallest way, on an individual student
detracts from the lesson for all of the other students. Additionally, my co-teacher and I have
set up a lot of class time in which we pull small groups of students. This is an example of
the type of thing that is beneficial to the class as a whole, but makes collecting data
complicated.
For the most part, this project brought aspects of teaching to the forefront that I had
not previously thought about or experienced explicitly. The skill of describing what is going
on with a student to a colleague who has never met or observed the student in any way is
challenging. That challenge was useful, however, because I was able to practice speaking
about students the way that is needed in Student Support Team meetings. Though
frustrating, the fact that I was unable to keep track of sufficient data led to me to reflect on
the importance of all the different jobs and roles in a school. At my school, we have a
School Psychologist, but we also have a staff member who holds the responsibility of
observing specific students over selected amounts of time to collect this kind of data. I
realized that so much of my role needs to be about gaining a general awareness of things
with specific students and paying close enough attention to the small details that I can
determine an accurate sense. However, this intervention also allowed me give this one
student very specific and succinct attention that worked the majority of the time. Even
though I wasnt able to collect tangible data, the practice of this taught me valuable
practices like these in teaching.

Sincerely,
Abby Newkirk