Confidential

Classroom Observation

Name: James Smith School: Westside Elementary School

Date of Birth: 7/5/2013 Classification: Unclassified
Age: 8 Evaluator: Ashley Maynard
Grade: 3rd Date of Report: 11/22/2021
Parents: Richard & Sue Smith Date of Observations: 11/22/2021

Confidentiality:
All participant’s identifying information has been altered for confidentiality purposes.

Current Observation Results & Discussion:

James was observed on Monday 11/22/2021 from 12:50 to 1:15 pm in Mrs. Phillips’s 3rd grade
classroom. The observation began with the students transitioning into the classroom from lunch.
Mrs. Phillips directed the students to take off their coats, wash their hands and take a seat on the
carpet. James entered the classroom shortly after his classmates. At this point, the class was
already seated on the carpet watching a mindfulness/meditation video. Mrs. French, a CSE-
assigned paraprofessional, informed James of the directions as he quietly entered the room.
James then washed his hands and put his coat away and sat at his desk. With additional
prompting by Mrs. French, James joined the group on the carpet. For this portion of the
observation, James sat in the back of the group. After the mindfulness/meditation video was
completed, Mrs. Phillips informed the students that the focus for today was editing their writing.
She then pulled up a document on the projector that listed three bullet points: “Reread your
writing, think about checklists and mentor texts, and ask ‘What is working already? What do I
still want to do to make this as strong as possible?’” Mrs. Phillips read the bullet points aloud,
further explaining how to edit. During this time, James was seated on the carpet and facing
forward looking at the board.
After reviewing the bullet points, Mrs. Phillips pulled up two versions of a writing sample (i.e.,
rough draft and final copy) on the projector to show the class. The writing sample was a few
sentences long and about why you must clean up food to avoid attracting bugs (i.e.,
cockroaches). Mrs. Phillips read the writing samples aloud. During this time, James was looking
down at his hands in his lap. Mrs. Phillips then asked the students what was different between
the two writing samples. James quietly raised his hand and when called on stated, “I’ve seen a
cockroach before”. Mrs. Phillips then explained how although both writing samples were about
cockroaches, the first version had some mistakes in it (i.e., capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling errors) and in the second version, the mistakes had been corrected. For the next portion
of the observation, Mrs. Phillips invited a student to bring up their writing piece and edit it along
with the class. The student came up and projected their writing piece on the board for the class to
see. During this time, Mrs. Phillips prompted the student to edit things like capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling. Throughout this process, Mrs. Phillips referenced the editing checklist.
During this time, James remained seated on the carpet with his hands in his lap and appeared to
be looking forward at the board. After finishing up the student writing piece, Mrs. Phillips pulled

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up another document on the projector with two bullet points explaining the directions. The bullet
points stated, “Look at the writing checklist to see how our draft is coming along and look at the
goal you set for this unit.” Mrs. Phillips asked for student volunteers to read the bullet points.
James quietly raised his hand and when called on read them aloud. Mrs. Phillips then
transitioned the students to independent/small group work by saying, “If you remember your
goal for this unit stand up.” James, along with most of his classmates, stood up. Mrs. Phillips
then held up a notebook, folder, and pencil to show the students the necessary materials needed
for independent/small group work. She then directed the students to where they were going to be
working for the remainder of the lesson. At this time, James and four students were at the back
table with Mrs. Phillips, one student was working individually with a CSE-assigned
paraprofessional, and the rest of the class was working independently at their desks.
Once the students were dismissed, James went back to his desk to get his materials. After sitting
at his desk for a few minutes and looking around the room, Mrs. Phillips prompted him to get his
materials and join the small group at the back table. He then gathered all the necessary materials
and went to the back table Mrs. Phillips began leading the small group by asking James, “What
does the first bullet say?”, and James responded, “Look at your writing checklist.” He then took
his writing checklist out from his folder. Mrs. Phillips then directed the group to begin reading
their writing to themselves as she walked over to assist another student working independently.
James then began to read his writing aloud to edit it. As he was reading, he was fidgeting with
his pen and pen cap. After a few seconds, James turned to another student in his group and
asked, “In the major league baseball league do they wear the same hat that you have on?” James
and the other student then had a conversation about baseball. As Mrs. Phillips walked back over
to the group, she redirected him with a visual prompt. As James returned to reading his writing
piece, he used his finger to track where he was in the text. He then asked Mrs. Phillips, “Do you
think these two periods are too close to each other?” To which she responded, “Is there a rule
about how long a sentence can be? Do you want to investigate?” She then gave him a book and
asked him to find a long sentence and a short sentence. Once James found a sentence, Mrs.
Phillips asked, “Can you count how many words are in this sentence?” James began to count the
words in the sentence aloud but lost his place. Mrs. Phillips responded by covering up the bottom
of the text. James then went on to identify four different sentences and count the number of
words in them (i.e., 6, 4, 2, and 1). Mrs. Phillips then stated, “Let me ask you again, can
sentences be any length? Can some be long, and some be short?” James responded by nodding
his head yes. Mrs. Phillips then read James’s writing piece and asked him to identify where there
should be a period. After going through his writing Mrs. Phillips asked, “Did the pauses sound
right? Like they were in the right place? Yes, then you are all set.”
At this point, Mrs. Phillips left the small group again to circulate the classroom and help students
who were working independently. Once she left, James then stopped working and began to
engage in off-task motor movements (i.e., moving his mask around and playing with his pen and
pen cap). James also appeared to be fidgeting in his seat. For the remainder of the observation,
lasting approximately five minutes, James did not appear to be actively engaged in the activity as
he continued to play with his pen and look around the room. At the end of the observation, Mrs.
Phillips stated, “Give me five” to get the students’ attention. The class responded by pausing and

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looking at the teacher. Mrs. Phillips noticed that James and another student did not respond right
away so she prompted them by saying, “eyes”. James then stopped what he was doing and
focused his attention on Mrs. Phillips. She then directed the class to put their papers in folders
and to sit on the carpet.
Summary:
Overall, James demonstrated the ability to follow classroom expectations (i.e., raise his hand and
sit quietly on the carpet during instruction). However, he appeared to be inconsistently engaged
during large group instruction. At times, he was passively engaged (i.e., looking at the board and
teacher), and at times, he was passively off-task (i.e., looking down at his hands in his lap).
James was able to successfully complete the activity when working in a small group with the
teacher present. When in a small group setting without the teacher present, James engaged in off-
task motor and verbal behavior interfering with his ability to complete the activity. Lastly, James
often required additional prompting from the adults in the room to follow and complete multistep
directions.
Respectfully submitted,

________________________ Date: 11/26/2021

Ashley Maynard
School Psychology Intern
Pittsford Central School District
ashley_maynard@pittsford.monroe.edu

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