Meg MacNeille

Differentiation and Diversity in Education

Professor VanLone
Spring 2020

Special Education Case Study

Part One

To gain a better understanding of the special education program at M. Elementary, I

chose to look into and observe J, a third-grade student with Down Syndrome. Before sitting

down with my mentor teacher to look over J’s IEP, I wanted to see what he was like in the

moments he was integrated into the general education classroom.

J is typically in my mentor’s classroom after lunch for read aloud, during specials that are

outside of the classroom, and at the end of the day for science. J and another student, R are

always together throughout the day. They both have a paraprofessional that monitors them

wherever they go, but it is a very hands-off approach. The paraprofessional really only steps in if

particular behaviors arise.

I realized that my interview with my mentor about J was really more of a conversation

because there is not much time my mentor gets with J during the day. When J is here, his

paraprofessional is usually redirecting and keeping him on task. It seemed like there was a lack

of detailed information to give me regarding J because she does not have many strong

experiences with him. This is clearly just an observation of mine, but I am curious if this is a

genuine factor in their relationship.

J is such a captivating student because he is always smiling and giggling. Of course, this

is only based on the short time I have seen him. I was very excited to interview my mentor and

walk through J’s IEP to learn a bit more about his educational experience and who he is!
 In J’s IEP, I was able to look at his Goals, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI), and

Additional Services. Before we began to look through it, I asked my mentor about any of her

experiences with J. She had just met with her team to review his IEP, so I was curious about how

it went. J’s mother is/was a teacher and shared that J is starting to say that he does not want to go

to school. This was sad for the entire team involved because J is always exuding such positive

energy at school. The team believes that this is more related to it being the time of school year

(February) where most students feel this way, and since J’s behavior does not match what he is

saying. They are keeping an eye on this to try and encourage more fun for J’s day to day

experience.

My mentor teacher had a binder that contained any IEPs or 504 plans for students in her

class. It looked like J’s IEP only contained the portions that were necessary to my mentor. I

wonder if this is somehow restrictive for her. As I was able to read through it, I felt confident that

my mentor had the information she needed. The IEP began with goals. J’s goals included naming

sight words, single-digit addition, describing pictures in a grammatically correct fashion, and

working with target sounds such as /r and a voiced and voiceless /th. I was surprised to see only

four goals. I understand that there is a section for SDI, but I was surprised that there was not

more in the goals section. When I flipped to the SDI section, I understood that there are a lot of

things J will gain from that as well.

There were many modifications in the SDI section. There were twenty-seven different

items in this section. A lot of these items included modifications that encourage good behavior. I

saw a lot of redirection, reminders for directions, checking for comprehension, reminders of

expected behaviors, giving behavioral choices, using a positive reward system, etc. This showed
me that J behaves greatly with proper assistance. There is also a need for a structured

environment, slower pace, reminders to repeat words if people cannot understand him, and

strong communication between school and home. It was apparent that J’s SDI was kind of like a

guardian angel, checking in on him and pointing him in the right direction when things went

askew. While this is a brief overview of J’s SDI, each individual item on his IEP really opened

my eyes in terms of what J needs every day.

Finally, I learned that J’s additional services included speech/language therapy, social

work services, occupational therapy, and transportation to get to and from school. I really hope I

can see these services on the day that I am shadowing, but I can only hope! I cannot help but

wonder if J could be more integrated into my mentor’s classroom, but part of me believes that

there are not enough paraprofessionals to go around at this school to make that possible. I feel

that J’s day to day really works for him, but I wonder if being with more of his peers each day

would increase his feeling of happiness.

I have only seen J interact with the students in my mentor’s classroom, so I am very

excited to see what the special education classroom is like and how J fits into the mix. I have

never been in a special education classroom before, so I know there will be so much for me to

learn as a pre-service teacher during my shadowing experience!

Part Two

The first thing I noticed when entering the special education classroom was that it is

ginormous! There were so many distinct areas in the room. I have always dreamt of having that

kind of space in my own classroom. I am so glad that this room was designated for special
education. It really is a comfortable space with lots of room for learning. There is a kitchen type

area in the back of the room with a large table that the paraprofessionals sit at whenever they are

not needed. To the left are little four-person tables where students can work in groups or play.

These tables lined the left side of the room up until meeting the teacher’s desk in the upper left

corner. Along the left wall were shelves and compartments with all sorts of teaching and learning

manipulatives. In the front of the room, there was a whiteboard and a smartboard. Facing the

board were individual desks all put evenly in rows and columns with none of them touching. On

the right wall were cubbies, and near the right, back corner was a bathroom area, sink, and

cabinets with snacks.

The day started with free time. There were roughly 15 students in the classroom and 5

paraprofessionals that rotate around the class. The special education teacher, Ms. A was working

her way around the room, checking in with students and making sure they were all doing

something meaningful or productive. This was also a time for students to figure out what their

job was for the day. There is a job rotation that each student takes part in, so they all have a

responsibility. This went on from 8:30 to 9:00 am. J was very excited about his book about

mythical creatures, so he sat in his seat reading this most of the time. He had to be asked by his

most frequent paraprofessional, Mr. M to move his name to his proper jobs. He had to be asked

multiple times in order for it to happen. I noticed that J really did not want to get up from reading

his book. Also, J decided to use the restroom and stay in there a bit longer than he needed to. Mr.

M informed me that J likes to hang out and goof off in bathrooms.

After free time, students were all instructed back to their seats to do their morning

routine. It was J’s turn to run the morning routine, which was great to see. He held a pointer and
pointed to various points of the calendar as the class chorally explained the date, weather, and

day of the week. They also practiced counting to 25 (because it was February 25th) as a class and

decided if 25 is odd or even. They also went through the days of the week and the months in a

year. J was standing in front of the class as this happened, but the process was more so led by the

teacher. I love that each student gets a chance to “lead” because I saw a lot of excitement spark in

J when he got to feel in charge of the process. Finally, each student got to share how they were

feeling today. J said he was happy.

Afterward, Ms. A led the class in word cards to practice reading sight words. There were

words such as we, she, play, like, yellow, etc. She also held up coin pictures and asked her

students to identify what coin it was and how much it was worth. Finally, with a Judy-Clock, Ms.

A gave each student a chance to identify the time on the clock. It seemed like she was adjusting

the difficulty to each student and where they were. J was at the preliminary stages, really only

being able to identify the top of the hour and occasionally recognizing 30-minute marks.

Students then stood for the pledge of allegiance and moved on to doing the jobs they assigned

themselves at the beginning of the day. J’s job was morning leader, so he was already done with

his. There was guided reading going on once jobs were done. Anyone outside of the guided

reading group was working on their iPad. J, on the other hand, preferred to read his mythical

creatures book. He was very interested in having me help him read the difficult names and talk to

him about each creature.

J and R left the room with Mr. M after reading time to join my mentor’s class for music! I

have never been able to stay in the room with the students to watch music class, so I was very

excited to see it. The students just had a big performance in honor of war veterans, so the first
half of the class was focused on reflection. Neither J or R actually performed, so they were quite

bored with the conversation. The class ended with a boys v. girls competition where the music

teacher would do a series of claps to practice different note lengths, and the team would have to

mimic her perfectly. I noticed that J was constantly clapping “off-beat,” but his classmates kept

cheering him on and remaining positive. I was worried that would be an issue, so I was happy to

see the kind support from his peers.

Music was followed directly with recess. All of the third grade was outside for this along

with the students in special education. J spent a lot of recess running around and working on his

speed. He was like lightning if you ask me. He then went over to a bench to sit down, so I joined

him and sparked some conversation. We ended up playing rock paper scissors for the majority of

recess. After the 15 minute recess, J and his classmates went back to Ms. A’s room.

The activity following recess related to vocabulary words. There were around 8 words that

students were working on and they all had to do with geography. Students would cut out the

words and different pictures that represented each word. Great work for motor skills! They were

then instructed to glue them with correct sentences. For example, the sentence “My _____ is

Texas,” would be filled with the vocabulary word “state” and the picture pointing to a state on a

map. J was a very hard worker during this activity. Any time he noticed a lot of paper scraps on

his table, he would hand them to me to take care of them. J struggled with reading the words,

which paired well with his goal of naming sight words. Once he was able to determine the word,

he had no problem pairing it to the sentence. I did some individual practice with him where we

would flip through the words and practice decoding them. I realized that having that one on one

help was very beneficial for J.

 We then went off to lunch where I sat with J, R, Mr. M, and a couple of students from my

mentor’s classroom. I was happy to see students from my mentor’s class choosing to sit with J

and R. We all partook in conversation, and J needed a couple of reminders from Mr. M to eat

with a fork when he is supposed to. J really wanted to go to the bathroom, but Mr. M told me that

J lost his lunch bathroom privileges after spending 10 minutes in the bathroom last time and

being caught crawling underneath the stalls and invading the privacy of others. It was clear that

if bathroom time in the fancy, big bathroom was not taken seriously, J was not allowed to use it!

J and R went right back to Ms. A’s room while the rest of the students went to recess. This was

Ms. A’s planning period, so students were able to do independent work. J, of course, went

directly to his mythical creatures book. I told J that we could read this story again, but we would

need to stay focused and try to read the words rather than just looking at the pictures. It became

very clear here how redirection is very important for J. He likes to try and bend the rules in any

way he can, so he needs to be reminded of what is appropriate at all times. Lack of repetition of

expectations leads to J bending the rules more and more.

J, R, and a couple of other students were called to the back table with Ms. A to work on

guided reading. Ms. A would read a sentence in a book while pointing to each word, and the

students would repeat them back to her. She would listen for pronunciation and correct students

if necessary. I wondered if this process was actually helping J because Ms. A reading the

sentence before he did took a lot of the challenge away from him.

After guided reading, all students went back to their seats for independent sight word

practice. Each student has a baggy of sight words to flip through and practice. This was also a

time where J needed a lot of redirection to stay on task. I was “new” to him, so I could tell he
was trying to gauge how strict I would be with him. J’s words were all, ate, like, get, do, did,

came, brown, black, and be. His job was to right each of them multiple times and say them out

loud as he did so. I could see that his familiarity with each word improved to some extent.

After this activity, it was math time. Since every student is on a different level, everyone

had something individually to finish before getting to choose a math activity. J and I worked on

single-digit addition with a number line. He has gotten pretty great at this, but I noticed a

disconnect in his understanding of what he is actually doing when solving the problems. For 6+4,

he would start at 6, count to 4, and then the answer would be the number he lands on. Yes, this

works, but he is missing the “7,8,9,10” involved with getting there. I worked with him to

continue counting on from his starting number when solving these problems in hopes of forming

that understanding.

After this, we did smartboard activities! Each student went back to their seats. We started

with word practice, where Ms. A would scroll through words, saying them out loud and having

the class repeat them to her chorally. We then moved into a story where each student would read

a sentence out loud independently. Every time J made it through a sentence he would say, “Yes!

I’m crushin’ it.” I loved to see him celebrating his success. Next, we did an activity called “find

it on the map.” Students practiced labeling parts of the map based on what was there: lakes,

forests, deserts, etc. Finally, a story was read to them from the computer, and each word was

highlighted as it was read. The story was about Catherine Johnson and NASA; the students loved

it.

For the next 30-40 minutes, the students watched a science video while students enjoyed

a snack. It was about robots, but I struggled to find any educational benefit from it. This was the
only portion of the day I felt uneasy about. There was such a large chunk of time where the

students were inactively staring at the smartboard watching a cartoon. J and R stayed here until

3:00 pm when they went back to my mentor’s classroom for what is meant to be science time.

Most days it is, but other days this is not possible. For this day, we happened to be watching a

video. This video was much more educational and taught students about the concept of “google”

being the biggest number in the world. I was disappointed to see the final hour of J’s day being

spent watching videos when I know he is such a hands-on learner.

Part Three

As stated in Part One, J only had four goals that I knew of in his IEP. I saw the most work

being done for naming sight words, as there were around three different opportunities throughout

the day to work on this. There was also a specific time dedicated to working on single-digit

addition, which I know is another goal of his. The final two goals: describing pictures in a

grammatically correct fashion and working with target sounds such as /r and a voiced and

voiceless /th, were not as prominent throughout the day. Students did work on describing

pictures, but the grammar aspect was not present. Also, I saw no individualized practice with his

/r and /th sounds.

There are several paraprofessionals in the room, but I do not believe that they interact

with the students as much as they could. I loved being able to spend the entire day with J because

I think he got some one on one help that he would not have gotten otherwise. I realized that

special education is a very difficult environment to run. Ms. A is tasked with meeting the needs
of nearly 15 students who are all on completely different pages. It is incredibly hard for her to

meet the goals and needs of each and every student. I noticed specific work being individualized

to each student’s level of understanding, but the help needed for each student is impossible to

give. So many questions arise for me when I think about this. Should every student in special

education have a paraprofessional and remain in general education classrooms? Do student goals

take much longer to achieve in this environment? I cannot help but wonder if there is a stronger

way to approach special education that does not put so much pressure on one individual. Ms. A

is accountable for so many students, and I cannot imagine that it is a simple process for her.

I feel awfully cynical for my resulting opinions, but I think I feel this way because I was

able to see how much J could accomplish with someone by his side all day. He does not just need

help to stay focused but having someone walk through problems and model for him really helps

him! I fear that J and his peers do not get enough of that time in their day, but it is not Ms. A’s

fault. There is one of her and many students!

If there were more time in the day, I think Ms. A would be able to walk through each

sight word with J. As of right now, she reads them to him and he repeats them back to her. I do

not think he is getting anything lasting from this. On the other hand, I do not think there is

enough time in the day for Ms. A to give J the decoding time he needs. I wonder if the

paraprofessionals could help more with this. Overall, I think the paraprofessionals are there for

behavioral redirection rather than helping out with academics. I think to an extent they can

definitely be involved with both!

Overall, seeing how much J needed to be redirected throughout the day, I am less

confident in my earlier thought of him being able to be in the general education classroom more;
however, if there were enough paraprofessionals to allow him to have someone with him all day,

I do think J could do just fine. The issue is that he is now so behind for his age that I do not know

how likely this is for him. I want J to flourish, but I’m not entirely sure that the special education

classroom or my mentor’s classroom is fully doing that.

Going back to the video being played towards the end of the day, I feel that this would

have been a great time for Ms. A to pull students aside and work with them individually. I know

J would have benefitted from that, and his peers would too. I’m not entirely sure if this is time

that Ms. A spends planning, but I almost wish it could be used in a different way. I genuinely

believe it would help her students in the long run because it will give her more time to work with

their differing needs.

Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. As critical as I may sound, J was smiling all

day, and that is what matters to me the most. I was so concerned that he was not enjoying school

based on what his mother said, but after shadowing him I knew that was not the case. I hope that

I can do something similar during student teaching because I would love to see the special

education world from the perspective of another student with completely different needs. I

cannot wait to get back in the classroom and learn about the best methods for my students!