Espiritu, Danica L.

April 30, 2020

2ED01C SNED_107

1. Explain the kind of students Mr. Clark has?

The Ron Clark Story film tells about the inspiring story of Ron Clark, an idealistic
young teacher who is passionate to help his students by establishing teaching techniques
that did not just improved them academically but have also helped them to develop
courage and hope in their lives.
On the first time that Ron Clark has visited Harlem Public School, he just knew
right away that this is where he wanted to be, Clark wanted to teach the hardest class of
6th graders who has gone through over ten teachers that year already. This class was
composed of students who are described to be as “down-and-out”. Ron Clark taught
students who has extremely heavy issues at home, abandonment issues, and behavioral
issues where some were engaged with vandalism, bullying and those with deep-rooted
pain as well as failing standardized test scores. One of his students were not able to study
at home and finish her homework because of having to take care of siblings. One is
engaged with theft while the other one is engaged with gambling. Some lived in single-
parent homes and are exposed to crime in the neighborhood that indirectly affects their
academic performance. In the film, I also observed that the students did not trust Mr. Ron
Clark because they assume that he’s the same with the teachers who quit on them, from
this we can tell that at some point these students have abandonment issues; so instead of
waiting for the teacher to give up on them, they made the teacher give up on them.
I think Ron Clark knew how hard it was for his students to live with this issues
at an early age, so even though he reached the point where he lost it and that he wanted to
give up, he never did, he kept on going trying to win the trust of his students, continuing
to help them be better not just in school but in life.
2. If you were Mr. Ron Clark, what educational assessment will you apply/use to address
the educational needs of the students? Explain comprehensively.
In the context of Mr. Ron Clark where the main goal is to help his students
achieve high grades on the standardized test does not just mean making the child to
perform better academically, it includes instilling to them values and morals that could
help them to do better in school. Since I already know that the class I’m about to teach
are composed of difficult students who failed standardized tests (wherein it is noted that
the problem has nothing to do with diagnosed learning disabilities or intellectual
problems), I need to know the possible factors that caused them behave and perform
poorly in class. Since assessment is defined as a process of collecting as well as using of
information of students from various resources with a purpose of determining the
learner’s current state of learning, I might as well start on reviewing or collecting
information about my students.
In the film, Mr. Clark knew about the issues that his students are facing because
he visited their home before they start their class, his only purpose was to seek help from
the parents, but then of course he also had the chance to perform observation. Aside from
home visiting, it might also help if we seek records of the students in the guidance, might
as well ask if they had performed Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) on these
students. An FBA is an approach to figuring out why a student acts a certain way. It uses
different methods to understand what’s behind behavior challenges. The basic idea is that
a student’s behavior serves a purpose. Whether they know it or not, children act in certain
ways for a reason. If schools and families can understand what’s causing a behavior, they
can find ways to change it. From the data collected in performing observation assessment
and/or FBA, I would be able to understand my students and adapt my instructional
strategies from their needs.
Another assessment would be the Pre-assessment or Diagnostic assessment
wherein the goal is to get to know the student’s strengths, weaknesses and the skills and
knowledge they possess before taking the instruction. As a teacher, I need to know what
approach in teaching will be effective to my students, where or what subject are they
having a hard time on, from performing diagnostic assessment I might be able to pattern
my instruction or strategies on the needs of the children. Example, in the film the students
tend to enjoy and are interested in rap music, so in turn Mr. Clark engaged rap music in
class to be able for the students to somehow memorize the presidents of United States of
America and also when Mr. Clark exerts extra time for his students by tutoring them after
class.
And lastly, during instruction, I can also apply Formative assessment in a daily
basis. Formative assessment is used in the first attempt of developing instruction. The
goal is to monitor student learning to provide feedback. It helps identifying the first gaps
in the instruction. For example, during instruction I would like to know if they understand
what I just taught by oral recitation. In our Assessment in Learning II subject, our
professor told us that it is important to perform assessment everyday to know if the
strategy that we are using is effective for them or if they have any clarifications.
Formative assessment in short, assesses students and mastery of skills in a daily basis as
well as it modifies the instruction of teachers.
Just a few days ago I’ve been homeschooling six of my cousins, and I can say that
these assessments really work, specifically diagnostic and formative assessment. They are
not the same with Mr. Clark’s students but some of them are having a hard time on
studying. As an example, before we conducted this homeschooling I asked their parents
first what tasks (or topics) they are having a hard time on, what captures their interest and
what do they like the most as reinforcement. And I also make sure that every after our
lesson there’s always a formative assessment, just like two days ago we watched a video
entitled, “And Batang Tamad”, and I asked them to draw their favorite toy and also ask
them what they learn from the video (it is about obeying parents). I hope that I will also
be able to apply these in the future and also gain more knowledge and especially skills
about utilizing these assessments.